The Long Seventies Podcast

We talk Christopher Lasch's 1979 book The Culture of Narcissism and assess how well it characterizes the period, what it means for today's society, and how technology and advertising have effected personality.

Summary: We close out our Decade of Rage mini-series with a discussion about the end of the Weather Underground and some of the late 70s revolutionary groups that had a proclivity for robbing banks and armored cars.

We discuss the cultural significance of movies Death Wish (1974) and Hardcore (1979), starring Charles Bronson and George C. Scott, specifically how they illustrate (dramatically) mainstream America's responses to the counter-culture's effects on society.

We continue our series on revolutionary groups of the period with a look into the Symbionese Liberation Army. Murder. Kidnapping. Bank Robbery -- a violent shootout ending in fiery ruin. Join us and learn about one of the strangest, most dramatic groups of the time period and their weird, short-lived odyssey.

This episode we start a three part mini-series covering radical revolutionary groups of the time period. We begin with the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. 

This episode explores the outrageous explosion of intentionally offensive underground comics in the early 1970s, including an emphasis on one of the period's primary figures Robert Crumb.

Summary: We talk about culturally subversive parody religion The Church of the SubGenius and also have an unexpectedly long lecture on 20th century art activism history. 80% art activism history 20% CotSG! Don't miss it!

We discuss Melvin van Peebles 1971 groundbreaking film about revolution and sticking it to The Man.

We explore Julian Jaynes' ideas about the origin of consciousness contained in his influential 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind .

We each pick five albums we think are important from 1969 and five from 1983, compare lists and discuss the historical ramifications.

We close out the story of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and talk about some of the event's long term effects.

The chaos at the 1968 Democratic National Convention spelled the end of the optimistic Sixties for many, causing massive social and political movements to splinter and break apart into smaller but much more varied movements we see grow during the Long Seventies.

For almost forty years the Motion Picture Production Code censored mainstream American films and limited their artistic vision. It's dissolution in the late 1960s due to changing economic and cultural pressures followed by the the institution of the voluntary Motion Picture Association of America Ratings System created a unique environment within which mainstream films were produced by artists tha...

The story of Steve Allen's son Brian joining a new religious group called The Love Family in Seattle, Wa. We talk deprogramming and the difficulties the American public had in the early seventies when dealing with family members that joined "cults" and religious groups.  Book List: Allen, Steve Beloved Son. 1982 Wilson, Robert Anton Cosmic Trigger I . 1977   Reference Material: Eric Johannson's do...

This is a quick intro to the podcast, explaining the focus, time period, and the concept of The Long Seventies. We also give a preview of future episode topics.