Silent Generation

What is Chautauqua? Chautauqua began in 1874 in Chautauqua, New York as a Summer camp that trained laymen to be Sunday school teachers. President Ulyses S Grant visited the assembly shortly after its founding in 1875, which gave Chautauqua widespread attention and engendered a national movement; the original Chautauqua (now known in the modern day as the Chautauqua Institution) gave rise to hundreds of “daughter” Chautauquas. They offered week long or month long retreats to religiously minded vacationers who wanted to enjoy nature but also wanted to stay productive by watching edifying sermons, lectures, historical impersonations, and concerts.    On this week’s episode the boys discuss how the popular Chautauqua speech Acres of Diamonds resembles the 21st century self help book The Secret, how Chautauqua acts differed from vaudeville acts, and how a specific type of historical impersonation popular in circuit Chautauquas became synonymous with Chautauqua in the modern day. This is the third and final installment of a three part series that explores interconnected topics that deal with American culture and the outdoors.    Links: The Chautauqua Institution Chautauqua: An American Narrative (2011) The History of the Chautauqua Movement Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell Bohumir Kryl The height of assassins versus that of their targets Reddit post   Artwork: Participants of a Circuit Chautauqua at Gurdon (Clark County); circa 1919. Recorded on 9/22/2024

In a more anecdotal direction, this week’s episode is on American Summer camps. The boys detail how camping was first developed in 1861 by Frederick Gunn before discussing their own experiences as campers and counselors at American Summer camps. Amongst other things they discuss how modern Summer camps have felt the need to hyperspecialize and give parents an ROI, how Summer camp aesthetics are 1970’s by default, how Summer camps were depicted as WASPy in Addams Family Values, and how Summer camps were depicted as somewhat utopian in the 1964 Soviet film Welcome, or No Trespassing. This is the second installment of a three part series that explores interconnected topics that deal with American culture and the outdoors.    Links: The Not So Happy Campers by Mimi Swartz About our Founder - The Frederick Gunn School Summer Camp Capitalism The History of American Jewish Summer Camps I can tell from her tweets that she had to go live with grandma for a lil bit meme Wednesday’s revolt from The Addams Family Values Long accused of Indigenous misappropriation, Boy Scouts ask if it’s time to change Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964)     Artwork: Photograph by Andy Sweet   Recorded on 9/15/2023

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration  Scouting is a grassroots, child-led movement that began in the early 1900’s after children discovered Robert Baden-Powell’s written accounts of his time working as a scout for the British Army. After learning of children’s interest in his work, Baden-Powell conducted an experimental scout camp at Brownsea Island in 1907 and subsequently published his seminal work Scouting for Boys in 1908. Dozens and hundreds of official scouting organizations followed, most of which still exist today.    On this week’s episode the boys detail the history of various figures and organizations in the scouting movement. Amongst other things they discuss how arbitrary it was that the scouting movement was inspired by scouting, how scout badges and scouting uniforms create an archive of people’s childhoods, how Cub Scouts truthfully don’t create their own pinewood derby cars, and how the TTI industry and wilderness therapy are “dark scouting.” This is the first installment of a three part series that explores interconnected topics that deal with American culture and the outdoors.    Links: Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell The Zoomer Question by Isaac Wilkes  Remembering the Wandervogel by John Savage & Johnny Ryan David Hahn, The ‘Radioactive Boy Scout’ Who Tried To Build A Nuclear Reactor In His Backyard Joseph as a Cub Scout Nanook of the North (1922) Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of The Boy Scouts of America (2023)   Artwork: Scouts with canoe - National Parks Gallery Creative Commons CC0 License   Recorded on 9/9/2024

Why was Nathan in Rio de Janeiro last week? Why was he there in 2018? What did he do there? What new fruits did he try? These are some of the important questions Joseph asked Nathan on this week’s episode.    Links: Brazil with a Z vs Brasil with an S - example 1 Brazil with a Z vs Brasil with an S - example 2   Artwork: Picture of Rio de Janeiro taken by Nathan from Pão de Açúcar   Recorded on 9/2/2024

How did the spy-fi literary and cinematic genre come to be? This week Joseph and Nathan chronicle how detective fiction authors took inspiration from sensational espionage cases such as The Dreyfus Affair and The Rosenberg Trial to imagine what the front lines of The Cold War might look like. The boys cover “realistic” spy movies such as James Bond’s Dr. No, Three Days of the Condor, and The Bourne Trilogy before going into fantastical depictions of spies in Children’s media like The Spy Kids, Kim Possible, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Amongst other things they discuss the difference between state and industrial espionage, Austria’s constitutionally mandated status of neutrality, and Edward Snowden’s modeling portfolio.  Links: Nathan’s Instagram Was the Rosenberg trial America’s Dreyfus Affair The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy The Thirty-Nine Steps by Charles Buchan Ep. 53: Bond Girl Summer by Nymphet Alumni Photos from young Edward Snowden’s brief modeling career Trying to Make Sense of Hannah Diamond and Post-Ringtone Music by VICE The Real Life Spy Behind Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Children of undercover Russian spy couple only learned their nationality on flight to Moscow Exclusive: Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians Artwork: Sean Connery playing James Bond in From Russia With Love Recorded on 8/16/2024

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration    This week the boys are joined by local filmmaker Charles Livingston to discuss male desire. They begin by first discussing straight male desire (the derision of the male gaze, male jealousy and possessiveness, and gender performance) before going into a deep exploration of Nathan’s thesis that yearning is the most universal and inexorable difficulty experienced by gay men. Amongst other things they discuss how the Ancient Romans conflated sexual conquest with imperial conquest, how Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra weaponized mens’ desire, and how straight men and gay men seem to equally match each other in terms of desire.     Links: Charles Livingston’s Instagram Wings by Charles Livingston Oscars 2018: Facts and figures about the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - Orange County Register  The VICE Guide to Being Gay Armond and Mark scene from the White Lotus   Artwork: Germanic Warrior with Helmet, Osmar Schindler, 1902   Recorded on 8/11/2024

On this week’s (sans Joseph) episode of Silent Generation, Nathan is joined by his friend Kamara to discuss antiques. They talk about how they first got into antiques, the best antiques that they own, and the defining characteristics of several antique furniture styles (Victorian, Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-century Modern). Amongst other things they discuss how Victorian antiques and houses are construed as being haunted, how antiques seem to be most popular in rural areas, and how the antiques industry acts as a point of intergenerational exchange between different generations of gay men.    Links: Antiques Pinterest Board (Nathan’s antiques are at the bottom) A Lamp & Fixture Corp  Tighlman Chicago  Justanswer Antiques The Blue Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang  Campbell House Museum The Slav Epic by Alphonse Mucha THREATENED: Hector Guimard’s Art Nouveau Metra Entrance Restor-A-Finish Youtube demo The Roger Brown Study Collection   Artwork: Art Deco Cubist Armchair in Vermilion Mohair Velvet and Maple, Belgium, 1920s Recorded on 8/4/2024

This week the boys cover a listener suggested topic that is closely associated with their lines of work: unions. Nathan is currently a librarian represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Joseph works in the heavily unionized construction industry. Amongst other things they discuss how violent strikes were prior to the formation of the NLRB in 1935, how the Haymarket Affair lead to creation of the 8 hour work day, how YIMBYs feel ambivalent toward unions, and how unions mitigate but don’t eliminate the deleterious effects of monopolization.    Links: How Chicago’s Past Resulted in Disproportionate Lead Poisoning of Minority Children of the Present: A Narrative Review The Redneck Army Refuses to Stay Buried by Cassady Rosenblum  Ep. 164: Labor Union Depictions in Hollywood by Citations Needed Ten cities facing the worst of the pension crisis CTA has only netted 4 rail operators this year Reddit post Noisy and Unsafe: Stop Fetishizing Old Homes by M. Nolan Gray A ton of variation in construction labor cost M. Nolan Gray tweet Artwork: Der Streik by Robert Koehler   Recorded on 7/28/2024

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration    Christopher Lasch identified narcissism as the dominant pathology of the Baby Boomer generation in his seminal work The Culture of Narcissism and suggested that prior and future generations of Americans would also exhibit collective pathologies. What is the dominant pathology or ideology of the Millennial generation? On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan are joined by their friend Bobby to present evidence that said ideology is nihilism. They examine the causes of Millennial nihilism (The Great Recession, 9/11, New Atheism) and the effects that nihilism has had on Millennials (“cutting off your family” discourse, distrust of authority, the proliferation of sexwork, and the increasing number of deaths of despair). Amongst other things they discuss what generation they personally identify with, how nihilism has been slowly accumulating from generation to generation, and how both Rick and Morty and Everything Everywhere All at Once use the idea of multiverses to create worlds in which nihilism is justified.    Links: The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch The Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch “Optimistic Nihilism” Tiktok Video The Nihilism of Generation X is an Artifact of Privilege by Shane Burley The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama “I’m tired of living through historic events” meme The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ in the Age of #StopAsianHate and Millennial Nihilism   Recorded on 7/21/2024

Ivy Style, otherwise known as Ivy League, is a style of men’s dress that became mainstream at Ivy League schools during the 1950’s. Students started wearing casual versions of the traditional menswear staples worn by their fathers and started wearing clothing originally designed for recreational activities outside of sports fields. On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan delineate various Ivy Style staples and talk about several groups that adopted the look:  Jews who dressed Ivy in order to blend in in professional environments, female students at the Seven Sisters schools who dressed Ivy in a strikingly masculine way, and Black civil rights activists who dressed Ivy in order to persuade White Americans that they were equals. The boys then round off the episode by critiquing the Ivy League as an institution.    Links: Ivy League Pinterest Board The Ivy Style Primer American Ivy: Chapter 1 - Articles of Interest Take Ivy by Hayashida, Teruyoshi The Weird and Glorious Culture Shock of “Take Ivy” Kiel James Patrick’s Instagram Man fired for being ‘too American,’ old, wearing khakis: EEOC complaint Visual snow syndrome grid pattern post What is Black Ivy, and why you've never heard of it The Zoomer Question by Isaac Wilks Air rage triggered by walking past first-class seating, study says Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street by Karen Ho Pete Buttigieg McKinsey tweet   Artwork: Sunday in the Ivy League from Take Ivy   Recorded on 7/15/2024

This week Joseph and Nathan are joined by Marissa Macias, a local artist and fashion designer who owns the insect-inspired clothing brand Petrichor, to discuss insect aesthetics. They begin by examining 7 of the ~30 extant insect orders: hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), odonata (dragonflies), coleoptera (beetles), orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets), mantodea (mantids), lepidoptera (butterflies, moths), and heteroptera (true bugs). Amongst other things they discuss Chicago’s recent dual cicada brood emergence, how insects appeared in pre-modern still lives because of their association with death, and how decline in insect biomass could result in systems collapse and a sixth extinction.   Links: https://www.petrich0r.com/ (online shop) Petrichor (Instagram) Marissa’s Neurobasis Kaupi Are.na Channel Maria Sibylla Merian The Insect Asylum Cicada Parade-a Carravagio’s Basket of Fruit Durer’s Stag Beetle Eating Bugs to Save the Planet by Dana Goodyear The Collapse of Insects By Julia Janicki, Gloria Dickie, Simon Scarr and Jitesh Chowdhury Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction by Peter Brannen Ocean Trash Is a Lifesaver for Insects by Daniel Strain   Artwork: Neurobasis Kaupi by Marissa Macias   Recorded on 7/10/2024

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration    Originally started as a Facebook page by three Portland natives, health goth was an online internet aesthetic that proliferated from 2013 to 2015. Health goth imagery and fashion incorporated monochrome color schemes, performance wear brands (particularly Nike, Adidas, and Y-3), chav culture, light weaponry, face masks, and fitness culture. Where did it go, and why has it been erased from public memory to a greater degree than other early Tumblr aesthetics? On this week's episode the boys explore how the aesthetic was later commandeered and mishandled by the controversial former Chicago club kid Johnny Love. Amongst other things they discuss how the aesthetic side of Tumblr often made them feel “Tumblr fatigue,” how local DIY scenes are a recipe for drama and GoFundMe disasters, how goth clean girl looks eerily reminiscent to health goth, and how phonk seems to be health goth music incarnate.    Links: Health Goth Pinterest Board Health Goth Facebook Page healthgoth.com Cottweiler: 2014 S/S Collection What Health Goth Actually Means  by Adam Harper Health Goth Fitness Manifesto #HealthGoth - Hashtags Season II by Red Bull Music Academy  execussion.tumblr.com 2012 by Celestial Youth Is the Health Goth Movement Selling Out to the Mainstream? meme about scene rants famous 2012 basement group photo w/ Johnny Love Johny Love’s recent health goth facebook post The DigiFairy’s goth clean girl Instagram reel Phonk Aesthetics   Artwork: Jazzelle Zaughnatti wearing a Dead Worldwide shirt   Recorded on 6/30/2024

While many recent episodes of Silent Generation have focused on decline, this episode explores how movie theaters have had multiple golden eras. Vaudeville theaters, nickelodeons, movie theaters, drive-ins, and multiplexes have each offered unique ways for moviegoers to enjoy films. Joseph and Nathan begin by discussing the history of movie theaters before examining four iconic movie palaces in Chicago: The Garrick Theater, The Chicago Theater, The Music Box, and the Ramova Theater. Amongst other things they discuss how movie studios used to bundle blockbusters and B-movies together in a now illegal practice called “block booking,” how the stars in the ceiling of The Music Box theater remind them of Grand Central Station, how modern movie theaters have an Art Deco-esque aesthetic that is called Decoplex, and how Alamo Drafthouse Cinema workers are unionizing.    Links: Downtown Chicago’s Historic Movie Theaters by Schiecke, Konrad Avondale Time Machine posts about movie theaters in Avondale All Extant Louis Sullivan Buildings in Chicago The Last American Possession screening at the Music Box on July 24th  CTA Bus Hit, Damaged Ramova Theatre Days After Building Earned Initial Landmark Status Alamo Drafthouse Made Millions. Exhausted Workers Said Enough Artwork: The Music Box    Recorded on 6/23/2023

In response to the Berlin Crisis of 1961, President John F. Kennedy chose to encourage everyday Americans to construct homemade bunkers. Civilians could suddenly mitigate their fears of a nuclear holocaust through consumption, and thus prepper culture was born. This week the boys are joined by the writer and community builder Anna Savina to discuss preppers, survivalists, and other groups that have doomsday inspired “exit strategies.” They begin by examining the zine she created on bunkers, Bunker Mentality, to explain how bunkers fit into the story of how Americans shifted from being citizens to being consumers. Amongst other things they discuss how the towers that existed in medieval Italian cities were an early form of bunkers, how prepper culture seems to thrive in the interior of the United States rather than the coasts, and how the prepper aesthetics depicted in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding were beautiful but ultimately not representative of prepper culture.    Links: Prepper Aesthetics Pinterest Board Anya is Typing… Anna Savina's Zine on bunkers: Bunker Mentality Anna Savina’s Twitter Prepper Lingo: Terms, Slang, and Acronyms from A-Z Towers of Bologna, Italy in the 12th Century San Gimignano Preppers in Death Stranding New Survivalism by Parsons & Charlesworth, The Object Guardian Conservative guy afraid of cities meme Why We Love the Apocalypse - EP183 by The Casual Preppers Podcast Wikipedia Database download Graph of the Population of Rome Through History   Artwork: How to build a fallout shelter, 1957 Creative Commons CC0 License   Recorded on 6/19/2024

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration   Many themes thus far discussed on Silent Generation are present in fast food culture: car-centrism, postwar decline, Americanism, and uniforms. This week the boys are joined by Mathieu (who goes by Sleepy on Discord) to talk about McDonald’s, CosMc’s, Taco Bell, In-N-Out Burger, Wendy’s, and Culver’s in detail. Chicago has four (in)famous McDonald’s locations that they pay particular attention to: Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's, CrackDonald’s, Jungle McDonald’s, and the McDonald's Global Menu Restaurant. Amongst other things they discuss the decline of fast food architecture from its Googie architecture highs, chains that are holding on for dear life like KewPee Hamburgers and Quizno’s, and their favorite discontinued menu items.    Links: White Castle #16 Googie 101: A Space-Age Pop-Architecture Primer Tokyo Toni 80 Pieces of Chicken McDonald’s Broke My Heart from Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History Podcast Rock N Roll McDonalds by Wesley Willis Why McDonald’s looks sleek and boring now  Nonstandard McDonalds The site of the former “jungle Mcdonald’s” on Google Maps The rise and fall of Wendy’s sun rooms Breaking Points: We Were TRICKED By Red Lobster Endless Shrimp Excuse! What Happened To Chipotle?   Artwork: Art Deco McDonald’s from Nonstandard McDonald’s Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Australia   Recorded on 6/9/2024

On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan examine sportswear worn by both athletes and their fans. Episode 14 of Silent Generation already covered Olympic sports, so this week’s episode focuses on major league sports. They cover each of the following: baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, and soccer (plus rugby, road cycling, and tennis for good measure). Amongst other things they discuss how White Sox players briefly wore shorts in the 1970s, how rappers popularized hockey jerseys in the 1990s, how cyclists were depicted in The Triplets of Belleville, and how coaches (like Tom Landry and Pat Riley) dressed better prior to league-wide contracts.      Links: Sportswear Pinterest Board American Apparel’s Poly Mesh Football Jersey Gay baseball raglan meme 1, Gay baseball raglan meme 2 How Hockey Jerseys Became Standard Wear for Fans When a Sweater Defined One of the Best Rivalries The Rise Of Athleisure In The Fashion Industry And What It Means For Brands   Artwork: John Stockton   Recorded on 6/2/2024

Why has the general public been skeptical of nuclear energy, seemingly even before the technology existed? Joining the boys on this week’s episode of Silent Generation is Madison Hilly, founder and director of the Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal, to discuss how the discourse around nuclear energy has been heavily influenced by its depictions in popular culture. They examine The China Syndrome, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Chernobyl (2019) to examine how erroneous depictions of nuclear waste and nuclear meltdowns have fomented fear. Amongst other things they talk about when Madi went viral for taking a picture next to nuclear waste while pregnant, how the baby boomer strain of environmentalism leans more “conservationist,” why nuclear waste and slime in childrens’ media is always depicted as being green, and how left wing opposition to nuclear energy seems to come from subconscious fears that radioactive material isn’t “natural.”    Links: The Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal Madison Hilly’s Twitter Pregnant Woman Poses With 'Nuclear Waste' To Prove Point About Radiation (Newsweek) By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benét Cornelia Hesse-Honegger’s Mutations Science Behind Science Fiction: How do Teenage Turtles become Mutant Ninjas? Studies Show That, As We Age, Our Ability To See Vivid Colors Decline Holtec reports “remarkable progress” towards restart of Palisades   Artwork: Nuclear power plant LCCN, Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division digital ID highsm.13019, CC0   Recorded on 5/26/2024

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration    Many parents today tell their children to simply “be a good person” and do not offer them moral guidelines beyond that. “Being a good person” isn’t a robust enough moral framework to deal with the complexities of everyday life, so many people resort to creating their own moral codes (either completely independently, or through the help of internet gurus like Jordan Peterson). On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Nathan and Joseph reflect on their own moral codes and talk about the origins and justifications of the rules they’ve made for themselves. Amongst other things they discuss how gay culture doesn’t offer gay men a moral framework, how you should aim to be contrarian only 50% of the time, how the public has become tired of plotlines that deal with moral gray areas, and how modern Hollywood has only offered the public antiheroes in place of actual heroes.   Links: Jordan Peterson - Are You a Good Person? The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness   Artwork: The School of Athens by Raphael   Recorded on 5/19/2024

As previously noted, Nathan has a general aversion to bikes and bike infrastructure. But where does his “bike skepticism” come from, and why do many other Americans feel the same way? On this week’s episode of Silent Generation Joseph gets to the root of Nathan’s bias (the temperament of cyclists, tacky bike lane infrastructure, and the “aesthetics of control”) and makes the case for bike-oriented cities. Amongst other things they discuss how most Americans approach biking from a sports angle, the way streets were shared by multiple transit modes in the early 20th century, how biking becomes less viable in the Winter,  and how Los Angeles has the potential to become America’s foremost biking city.    Links: The new Silent Generation Patreon! San Francisco streetcar footage from a hundred years ago Years and Years by Russell T Davies On Adam Levine's tattoos Why Many Cities Suck (and Los Angeles Doesn't Have to) Strong Town’s idea of “complex vs. complicated”   Artwork:  AI generated   Recorded on 5/12/2024

In Western culture men often wear little to no jewelry, often opting to only wear a wedding ring and/ or a watch. What meaning can be discerned from the jewelry that Western men do wear and why don’t they wear more? On this week’s episode of Silent Generation the boys begin by discussing the form and function of the types of jewelry men most commonly wear: rings, cufflinks, tie pins, watches, necklaces, and belt buckles. Amongst other things they discuss the popularity of pearl jewelry amongst male queerbaiters, when men’s jewelry becomes a red flag, why wearable tech lost its potential to be considered jewelry, Nathan’s time working in the jewelry industry, and how millennial pink was a stepping stone into alternative fashion for preppy people in the late 2010s.    Links:  Rings & Their Meaning by Gentleman’s Gazette Fran Lebowitz wearing Calder cufflinks in Scorsese’s “Pretend It’s a City” how’d you know im uncut meme “I got court” starterpack meme   Artwork:  Screenshot from The Talented Mr. Ripley   Recorded on 5/5/2024