The Long Seventies Podcast

We talk about journalist, provocateur, political analyst, wildman & drug aficionado Hunter S. Thompson and discuss why he is the perfect avatar for The Long Seventies. Part one works its way from his earliest years to right before the publication of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

We talk about Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and discuss what the film says about The Long Seventies and how the film differs from the underlying context: the murder of Sharon Tate and her three friends on the night of August 8th, 1969.

We have another educational film on 16mm for you today. Today's film was released in 1984 by the USDA and US Forest Service,   and is about the massive eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. It's a dramatic story. Enjoy that special Federal Government film flair. We hope to be back to regular episodes soon.

We apologize, but one of us is sick so it's time for the substitute teacher to show the class an educational film on 16mm. Today's film was released in 1978 by the US Government Defense Civil Preparedness Agency and US,   and is about the Super Outbreak of tornadoes on April 3, 1974 that spawned over 140 tornadoes in a 24 hour time period and took the lives of over 300 people. In a future episode...

1982's Death Wish 2 lacks a lot of what made the first movie interesting and engaging and basically retells the same story, but it allows us a peek into the world of 1982 and to see some differences between that world and the early 70s that spawned the original Death Wish.

The P-Funk Collective…. Decades of musical genius influential in multiple genres of music. Dozens of musicians and singers. At least five different names and sub-groups. Afrofuturism. Riches. UFOs. Guitar players wearing diapers on stage. Financial ruin. LSD and cocaine. Drug addictions. The band that birthed a thousand sample based hip hop tracks. This is part one of their story.

The P-Funk Collective…. Decades of musical genius influential in multiple genres of music. Dozens of musicians and singers. At least five different names and sub-groups. Afrofuturism. Riches. UFOs. Guitar players wearing diapers on stage. Financial ruin. LSD and cocaine. Drug addictions. The band that birthed a thousand sample based hip hop tracks. This is part one of their story. Part two coming...

In the early 70s the FCC mandated that all cable companies with a certain number of subscribers had to offer channels for public use and broadcast. This led to the generally wacky programming known as "Public Access Television." Little did the FCC know, but in 1978 a small group of intellectuals in Austin, Tx would attempt to use Public Access TV to take down the establishment media by telling the...

In 1968 a Soviet submarine sunk in 16,500 of water 1500 miles NW of Hawaii with nuclear missiles and cryptographic material onboard. This is the amazing story of how the CIA recovered part of that sub and pulled off one of the most incredible engineering feats in history, without the Soviets or the American public knowing what was going on until journalist Seymour Hersch published the story a year...

In 1971 hundreds of hippies left Berkeley, California to establish a commune in rural Tennessee. This is the story of why they did it, how they learned to survive and grow their own food, the problems they faced, and why 12 years late the commune eventually chose to re-embrace the the American economy.

We talk about quirky cartoonist B. Kliban's eclectic body of work, including but not limited to Playboy Magazine and millions of coffee mugs and office calendars.

We discuss a fascinating Los Angeles based new religious group called The Source Family, led by a charismatic WWII vet, hand to hand combat expert, mystic, guru, and possible bank robber. It's sex, drugs and rock n roll, literally. The Source Family was a short lived group, but during its short life it found its way into the favor of the Hollywood elite, the vegetarian movement, and psychedelic ro...

We review our first year of shows and see if any of our ideas and assumptions have changed along the way.

We dig into chapters 5-8 (of 8) of Changing Images of Man, a unique study carried out in 1974 at Stanford Research Institute. These chapters offer the Image the study authors consider to be the best remedy for the global crisis, contrast it with the current image, project what might happen if society doesn't adopt their new evolutionary image, and explain how they think their new image can be impl...

We dig into chapters 1-4 (of 8) of Changing Images of Man, a unique study carried out in 1974 at Stanford Research Institute. These chapters look at what role images play in society, some historic images from different time periods and cultures, the current image "economic man," and the impact science and empiricism have made on our images of man. 

We continue our four part series on the book Changing Images of Man, which is a wild 70s brainstorming session on how to shape the future of humanity by shaping how humans see themselves. In this episode we carry on our investigation into the fascinating long term trends the study synthesizes into the Image of Man, and take a look at the authors of the study and what makes them uniquely accurate i...

In this episode we start a four part series on the book Changing Images of Man, which is a wild 70s brainstorming session on how to shape the future of humanity by shaping how humans see themselves. In this episode we delve into the earliest roots of the ideas at play and look at how a number of seemingly unrelated movements and trends intersect during the Long Seventies and are synthesized in thi...

During this period talented songwriters and musicians were handed the reins to entire soundtracks and produced a number of very successful albums that not only contributed to the success of their partner films, but helped define the musical landscape of the Seventies.

Summary: We talk movies that illustrate a shift in direction for Hollywood's portrayal of Americans, precocious teenagers, working class stiffs, and a new optimistic image of a society where hustle, ambition and entrepreneurial spirit are the keys to success.

We continue a two part story about famed explorer, anthropologist, and ethnobotanist Wade Davis' 1982 expedition to Haiti to figure out what was in the mythical zombi powder. As the story progresses we realize that the real treasure is Davis' insight into Haitian culture and the Haitian Vodoun worldview.

We start a two part story about famed explorer, anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis' 1982 expedition to Haiti to figure out what was in the mythical zombi powder. As the story progresses we realize that the real treasure is Davis' insight into Haitian culture and the Haitian Vodou worldview.

We enter the humorous, twisted and paranoid world of Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It's an 800 page tome filled with revolutionaries, conspiracies, counter-conspiracies, drugs, sex, rock n' roll, yellow submarines, talking dolphins, Old Gods, eldritch five-sided sea monsters, Atlantis, John Dillinger, and more sex and drugs.

We examine tv shows like The Brady Bunch, All In the Family, Taxi, Sanford and Son, Good Times, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Magnum PI, Dallas and more in this episode, and try to figure out what they tell us about American society during the Long Seventies.

Why was the Long Seventies seemingly such a fertile time for serial killers? We try to answer this question and speculate on what serial killers are up to today. We discuss how serial killers are classified, how they are potentially created or born, and how media attention drives the cultural awareness and fear of these rare individuals.

The horror punk band The Misfits was born in Lodi, NJ in 1977 and became one of the most enduring and influential punk bands of the Long Seventies. Their unique blend of violence, angst, b-movie horror lyrics, stage costumes, and one of a kind songwriting and instrumentation made them relevant and attractive to fans long after they originally broke up in 1983.