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In the second part of our salute to Ezra Edelman’s 2016 documentary O.J.: Made in America, Karen Geier and I discuss the back half of the film; from the beginning of the criminal trial, to the ways the prosecution messed up their argument and allowed the “Dream Team” to successfully change the subject of the case to the racist conduct of the LAPD, to the shocking verdict and the aftermath.

The last chapter of the film is a breathtaking descent into hell, with O.J. eventually found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman in civil court and his desperate attempts to resuscitate his showbiz career (while hiding the money from the Goldman family), finding himself at the absolute bottom of the entertainment food chain, including the exploitative hidden camera prank show “Juiced” and finally his arrest for what amounted to petty larceny in the demimonde of sports memorabilia collectors, where the judge threw the book at him.

Karen and I discuss how the culture was forever changed by the O.J. Simpson media circus and how this film is a masterclass in the study of a narcissist who felt none of the rules of the world applied to him, and how understanding personality cults helps to explain why O.J got away with it for so long and yet still could not avoid the fate of most sociopaths, in a film that is ultimately about white privilege as much as it is about justice denied and toxic celebrities.

Happy New Year to all our listeners and patrons!

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TV commercial for “Juiced”, 2006