The Long Seventies Podcast

We discuss the 1988 movie The Beast depicting a lost Russian tank crew hunted by Mujihadeen during the Russian-Afghanistan War. Peak cold war cinema!

We discuss the vast network of tunnels the Vietnamese National Liberation Front dug underneath Cu Chi district 25 miles NW of Saigon, how they were used, how the US Army dealt with this unusual tactic, and how the tunnels origins were in the French Indochina Wars after WWII.

We discuss the 1985 film Turk 182 about a young graffiti artist fighting New York City Hall and finding love along the way.

We discuss 20th century mass communication technologies and how they facilitated the Pop Culture Empire that saw its zenith during the Long Seventies and has since crumbled.

We talk about E. Howard Hunt, CIA agent and Watergate break-in planner, and his work as an author of numerous pulp fiction novels like The Coven and Diabolus.

We talk about 1974's Foxy Brown and the ways Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown pays homage to the blaxploitation genre and provides a mature exploration of its themes.

We discuss the transitionary Masculinity and Masculine stuff of the 70s, sandwiched in between John Wayne and John Rambo.

Join us and special guest Sean to discuss Italian Giallo. Black leather gloves. Straight razors. Murder. Betrayal. Thrills. Horror. Sex. Booze. More sex. Great music. Literal backstabbing. Saturated colors. Crumbling country estates. Swank 70s hotel rooms and apartments. Everything good in life.  

We talk about the 1984 comedy Police Academy, a metaphysical yet socially grounded intermediary between Animal House and The Naked Gun. 

We discuss an early example of the Alternative Reality Game genre of multimedia participatory "fiction."

We discuss one of Philip K Dick's weirdest novels (genetically augmented variety show host timeline surfing on someone else's dope trip) and connect the dots between his timeline-jumping ideas and other similar philosophical concepts in the memesphere. 

We discuss the various forms the Occult takes in Long Seventies cinema and why this medium informs all other media for decades when it comes to depictions of the Occult. 

We talk about how the occult was used to promote rock and roll in the long seventies and Matt goes on massive digression about ancient magic and messianic mysticism. 

We discuss the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron following the epic and hilarious lives of the contestant of the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition in South Africa. Arnold Schwartzenegger vs. Lou Ferrigno. Conan vs. The Hulk. Nuff said. 

We discuss the 1976 Tayos Caves Expedition organized by Stanley Hall featuring special guest explorer astronaut Neil Armstrong, ancient metal libraries of occult knowledge, bad weather, South American bureaucracy, cave spiders, archaeological treasures and Montezuma's Revenge. 

We talk about journalist Joan Didion's second compilation of articles, published in 1979. Didion might be the harshest, most biting social commentator while at the same time managing to be perfectly nice about it. 

We talk about the 1972 film Trouble Man featuring one of the coolest private eyes in cinema history. 

We discuss David Talbot's love letter to San Francisco during  the latter half of the 20th century. 

We discuss a mysterious & little known Long Seventies aesthetic phenomenon we call The Smoothening. 

We discuss the Netflix documentary Fear City about the Feds' and NYC govt's takedown of the New York Mafia. 

We retroperspect on the last year's episodes and make some long shot predictions about 1970s history podcast episodes in the next year. 

In Feb 1981, Joey Coyle, a Philly longshoreman, found $1.2 million in cash in the middle of the road and decided to keep it. Too bad the money belonged to the Federal Reserve and they wanted it back. 

We discuss the broad course of 20th century scientific inquiry into the ability to control the Mind of Man, and how initial projects aimed at creating secret super assassins trickled down to manipulating people into buying running shoes and bad pop albums. 

We talk about the Chuck Norris classic Good Guys Wear Black and the best stretch jeans on the market. 

We discuss the Acali Experiment, an "only could have happened in the 70s" adventure/scientific experiment where a scientist sets sail on the high seas with a nubile crew of test subjects to determine how human nature will manifest in the worst of conditions.