Godzilla Minus One
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to postwar Tokyo with Godzilla Minus One! Join us as we learn about the rebuilding of Ginza, war orphans, sea mine removal, how Godzilla stands upright in the water, and more! Sources: "Ginza," Tokyo Official Website: https://www.ginza.jp/en/history/2#:~:text=As%20early%20as%20April%2C%201946,Ginza%20%2Ddori%20during%20this%20festival.&text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20regular,goods%20to%20the%20US%20troops. "Post-war Ginza," Old Tokyo, available at https://www.oldtokyo.com/post-war-ginza-1945/ "The Lost Metropolis: 1930s Tokyo Street Life in Pictures," The...
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The Siege of Jadotville
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1960s Congo with The Siege of Jadotville! Join us as we learn about General Tshombe, Dag Hammarsjkold, UN forces in Jadotville, uranium mining, and more! Sources: Frank Swain, "The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb," BBC (2020). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb Moore, W. Robert. "White Magic in the Belgian Congo: Tribesmen Mine Uranium, Run Machines, Study Modern Medicine as Booming Trade Opens Up the Vast Colony's Resources." National Geographic Magazine, March 1952, [321]+. National...
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A Haunting in Venice
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1940s Venice with A Haunting in Venice! Join us as we learn about mad honey, When the Lights Go On Again, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Meet Me In St. Louis, and more! Sources: Gunduz, Abdülkadir;Şimşek, Perihan;Ayaz, Faik Ahmet, "Worldwide Distribution and Clinical Characteristics of Mad Honey Poisoning Cases," Central European Journal of Public Health (March 2023) Niko Vorobyov, "What It's Like Tripping on Mad Honey, the Hallucinogen That is (Maybe) an Aphrodisiac," Salon, 2022, available at...
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The Endless Trench
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 1930s-1950s Spain with The Endless Trench! Join us as we learn about Franco on the radio, attacks on hermitages during the Spanish Civil War, Eisenhower's visits to Spain, and more! Sources: Christy Lemire review, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/saltburn-movie-review-2023 Julius Ruiz, The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War: Revolutionary Violence in Madrid (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Julian Casanova, The Spanish Republic and Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Raymond Carr, Spain: A History (Oxford University Press,...
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Saltburn
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the long-ago days of 2006 with Saltburn! Join us as we reminisce about Juicy tracksuits, Jagerbombs, Livestrong wristbands, and other artifacts of our misspent youth. Sources: Christy Lemire review, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/saltburn-movie-review-2023 Nicholas Barber, "Saltburn film review: 'Lurid' comedy skewers Britain's super-rich," BBC 5 October 2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20231005-saltburn-film-review-lurid-comedy-skewers-britains-super-rich David Rooney, "‘Saltburn’ Review: Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi in...
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The Holdovers
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 1970 with a patron-requested episode on The Holdovers! Join us as we learn about The Newlywed Game, helicopters, Librium, race and class in the Vietnam War, the surprisingly heated controversies over men with long hair, and more! Sources: IMDB trivia page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/goofs/ US Centennial Flight Commission, History of Private Helicopters: https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Rotary/Private_heli/HE15.htm Civil and Commercial Helicopter Use: https://www.century-of-flight.net/civil-and-commercial-helicopter-use/ Leigh H. Edwards,...
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Devil in a Blue Dress
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 1940s LA with Devil in a Blue Dress! Join us as we learn about Black homeownership in midcentury Los Angeles, Charlotta Bass and The Eagle, postwar jobs, and more! Sources: Kelly Simpson, "The Great Migration: Creating a New Black Identity in Los Angeles," PBS, available at https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/the-great-migration-creating-a-new-black-identity-in-los-angeles Marques Augusta Vestal, "Black Housing Politics in 1940s South Los Angeles," MA Thesis, 2014, UCLA. Available at...
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The Northman
Did That Really Happen?
This week we become Robert Eggers completists with an episode on The Northman! Join us as we learn about berserkers, slavery in the Viking era, textiles, and more! Sources: Ben Cartwright, "Making the cloth that binds us. The role of textile production in producing Viking-Age identities," in Viking Worlds: Things, Spaces, and Movement eds. Marianne Hem Eriksen, Unn Pedersen, Bernt Rundberget, Irmelin Axelsen, and Heidi Lund Berg (Oxbow Books), https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dgwk.15 Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, "Gender, Material Culture, and Identity in the Viking Diaspora," Viking...
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Charlie Wilson's War
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to the 1980s with Charlie Wilson's War! Join us as we learn about the horrific things people used to do with safety pins, Soviet ambitions in the Persian Gulf, Gust Avrokotos, refugees from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and more! Sources: "Advertisement: Maybelline." Seventeen, 07, 1982, 18-19 "Mascara Magic." Seventeen, 05, 1981 "Advertisement: Maybelline." Cosmopolitan, 11, 1978, 117 "Dear Beauty Editor." Seventeen, 02, 1978, 10 The Wilson Center Digital Archive, Sources available at https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topics/soviet-invasion-afghanistan ...
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If Beale Street Could Talk
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to the 1970s with If Beale Street Could Talk! Join us as we learn about the Rockefeller Drug Laws, New York jails, the term "Holy Roller", and more! Source Brian Mann, "The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punished," NPR, available at https://www.npr.org/2013/02/14/171822608/the-drug-laws-that-changed-how-we-punish Fodei Batty, "How to Understand the Complicated History of 'Go Back to Africa'" Washington Post, available at...
info_outlineFor our final episode of the year, we're changing things up with Escape from New York! Join us as we explore how well this 1981 film predicted the year 1997, with discussions of island prisons, crime rates, Telex technology, and more!
Sources:
Tim Wadsworth, "Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment on the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000," Social Science Quarterly 91, 2 (2010)
Dara Lind and German Lopez, "16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US," Vox, available at https://www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop
John Gramlich, "Voters Perceptions of Crime Continue to Conflict with Reality," Pew, available at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/11/16/voters-perceptions-of-crime-continue-to-conflict-with-reality/
John Gramlich, "What We Know About the Increase in Murder in 2020," Pew, available at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/10/27/what-we-know-about-the-increase-in-u-s-murders-in-2020/
Dennis Thompson, U.S. Violent Crime Rate Drops Significantly Since 1980s; Reduction may be due to programs that try to break cycle of violence, experts say. Available at Gale OneFile.
German Lopez, "Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts," Vox 11 October 2016, https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts
Associated Press, "In 90's, Prison Building by States and U.S. Government Surged," The New York Times 8 August 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/us/in-90-s-prison-building-by-states-and-us-government-surged.html
NY Demographics https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/nyc-population/historical-population/nyc_total_pop_1900-2010.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary
Rosie Blunt, "Rikers Island: Tales from inside New York's notorious jail," BBC News 20 October 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50114468
Caroline Delbert, "Forced Exile: The World's Dubious History of Prison Islands," Popular Mechanics 15 February 2023, https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a42665100/history-of-prison-islands/
Jake Malooley, "John Carpenter is Scared," Esquire, available at https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a34518538/john-carpenter-2020-interview-coronavirus-trump-they-live-the-thing/
Rotten Tomatoes, Escape from New York: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006717-escape_from_new_york
WIkipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York
Siskel and Ebert Review, available at https://youtu.be/xW-JL58fQQk?si=jadAn9OME4P604ks
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/technology/telex