Tonya Harding Part 1

Sarah tells Mike the story of a world-class figure skater who worked at a mall potato restaurant. Digressions include “Sleepless in Seattle,” mall walkers, synchronized diving and the difficulty of skating a perfect pentagram. This episode unfortunately contains descriptions of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Tonya deserved better.

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Links!

• Sarah’s 2014 article about Tonya
• The Oregonian’s retrospective slideshow
• Clips from Sandra Luckow’s “Sharp Edges”
• Nancy Kerrigan’s first international competition, the 1987 NHK Trophy
• Tonya Harding at the 1987 NHK Trophy
• Network profile of Tonya Harding at the 1990 Nationals
• Tonya Harding becomes the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition in her free skate at the 1991 Nationals
• Tonya Harding becomes the first woman to land a triple axel jump combination in competition in her short program at 1991 Skate America
• “Not Your Average Ice Queen,” Sports Illustrated, January 1992
• Network Profile of Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan at the 1992 Nationals
• Tonya Harding falls on her triple axel attempt at the 1992 Olympics
• Nancy Kerrigan at the 1992 Olympics
• Nancy Kerrigan’s Campbell’s Soup ad
• Nancy Kerrigan’s Northwest Airlines commercial
• Tonya Harding’s Texaco commercial
• Local news profile of Tonya Harding, 1993
• Nancy Kerrigan’s free skate,1993 World Championships
• Farewell to Compulsory Figures (“It’s the sort of thing one tells one’s grandchildren about”)
• Brian Orser’s tribute to compulsory figures

 

 

The Stonewall Uprising

“Humans aren’t good at remembering what got us where we are.” Mike tells Sarah how a turning point in the gay rights movement became an immediate controversy, a lasting inspiration and a never-ending debate. Digressions include “Newsies” (of course), “True Romance” and “Norma Rae.” Mike’s creaking chair and Sarah’s rustling blanket-fort are heard throughout.

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Links!

• Historian Eric Gonzaba’s wonderful LGBTQ T-Shirt Archive
• Historian Hugh Ryan’s delightful book and fascinating article on the misconceptions surrounding Stonewall
• Mark Segal’s dayjob and important book
• The Making of the Stonewall Myth
• Funny NYT video about the ongoing disagreement about who threw the first brick
• “The Night They Raided Stonewall,” a terrific 1993 article about the raids by Martin Duberman
• “Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson”

Kitty Genovese and “Bystander Apathy”

“Once you tell a story incorrectly once, you can’t control where it goes.” Sarah tells Mike how The New York Times turned a suburban murder into an urban legend. Digressions include Billy Joel, the World’s Fair and “Ferngully.” This episode marks a triumphant return to Long Island and an unexpected celebration of Pride Month.

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Links!

• The original New York Times article, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police; Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector”
• “4 Kew Gardens Residents Testify To Seeing Woman Slain on Street”
• “A Call for Help,” Nicholas Lehman, The New Yorker
• “Don’t Look Now,” Angus Johnston, The New Inquiry
• Anna Lvovsky’s “Queer Expertise: Urban Policing and the Construction of Public Knowledge about Homosexuality, 1920–1970”

 

Sexting

“We’re uncomfortable with the evidence that teen girls have sexual agency.” Special guest Amy Hasinoff tells Mike and Sarah how a moral panic became a legal nightmare. Digressions include Cosmo advice columns, Grindr etiquette and the revolutionary hugging of the “Avengers” movies. Due to the ongoing hex placed on this podcast, the sound quality is worse than usual.

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Links!

• Amy’s website and book and Twitter
• 2015 article on Amy’s book and the “well intentioned mess” of sexting laws
• PC Mag: It’s Time We All Grew Up About Sexting
• The Atlantic: Why Kids Sext

 

The American Taliban

“He’s been punished even more than the American prison system can aspire to punish anyone”: Mike tells Sarah how John Walker Lindh became a terrorist in the media, a freedom fighter in his own mind and something between the two in reality. Digressions include “Newsies,” Bruce Willis and “Candide.” Sarah sneakily reveals her lifelong affection for Howard Stern.

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Links! 

• Moving Guardian article by Lindh’s father
• New Yorker article describing how the evidence against Lindh fell apart
• Lindh’s TV interview from the hospital
• Lindh’s indictment
• Time’s 2003 article “The Making Of John Walker Lindh”
• 2006 profile of Lindh in prison

 

Exorcism

“It just seems like capitalism masquerading as religion”: Sarah tells Mike how a horror movie resurrected a ritual and established an industry. Digressions include “Avatar,” the NFL and the ethics of book publishing. The final five minutes are an unintentionally concise description of the core moral principle of this show.

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Homelessness

“We want stories that don’t exist in systems”: Mike tells Sarah what happened when Utah set out to solve one of America’s most intractable problems. Digressions include the Paleo diet, the planet Mars and the inadequacy of the term “up the river.” Jimmy Carter makes an extended cameo appearance.

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Dan Quayle v. Murphy Brown

“Why did we make fun of Dan Quayle for misspelling the word ‘potato’ when we should have made fun of him for arguments like this?” Mike tells Sarah how a real vice president blamed a fictional single mom for causing one of the most divisive events of the 1990s. Digressions include “Designing Women,” “Alien” and “The Brady Bunch.” Listeners finally learn that Sarah has a lovely singing voice.

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Links!

• Dan Quayle’s speech to the Commonwealth Club of America, which set off the whole controversy
• A clip of his (only!) mention of Murphy Brown
• A scene from the “Murphy Brown” episode where she gives birth
• An interesting overview of the political issues involved
• A review of Judith Stacey’s “Brave New Families”
• The infamous front page of the New York Times on May 21, 1992
• “Blending politics and entertainment: Dan Quayle versus Murphy Brown”
• 1994 American Prospect article, “The New Crusade for the Old Family”

 

Elián González

Mike tells Sarah how a 5-year-old kid transformed a city, divided a political party and (maybe) determined a presidential election. Digressions include World War II, Clarence Darrow and something called “Like, News with Skeeter.” Both co-hosts conclude that this episode is somehow an equal-parts mixture of Satanic Panic and Terri Schiavo.

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Links!

• The court’s ruling rejecting Elián’s case
• “The Elian Gonzalez Case: The World’s Most Watched And Politically-Charged Custody Battle That Reached The U.S. Supreme Court And Determined A Presidential Election”
• Congressional hearing: “Cuba’s Oppressive Government And The Struggle For Justice”
• A compendium of “Like, News with Skeeter” segments

 

The Preppy Murder

Sarah tells Mike how an aspiring rich kid became an emblem of a world he didn’t belong to. Digressions include drill teams, prep schools and eating disorders. The p-pops are worse than usual.

Plus, an announcement! You can now support us on Patreon!

Links!

•  “A Current Affair” clip from 1988
• “East Side Story,” New York Magazine
• “Preppy Killer’s Girlfriend Gets to Serve Probation, Still Loves Her Man”
• Lisa Birnbaum’s legendary and essential Preppy Handbook from 1980.

 

The “Ebonics” Controversy

Mike tells Sarah how a simple idea in a single school district became a nationwide racial panic. Digressions include slasher movies, Space Invaders and homeschooling. The taglines are becoming more esoteric.

Thanks to our special guests Dionna Latimer-Hearn and Daniel Russell!

• Mike’s video!
• The abstract of Dionna’s Ph.D. dissertation, which won the the AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship Award!
• The full text of the “Ebonics” resolution
• Transcript of the Congressional hearing
• James Baldwin’s 1979 op-ed, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”
• William Labov’s 1972 Atlantic article, “Academic Ignorance and Black Intelligence”
• A history of “cultural deficit theory”

 

Terri Schiavo

Mike tells Sarah how the media, the president and the Pope turned a simple medical story into a complicated legal one. Digressions include canine loyalty, unionized space-workers and polyamory logistics. Both co-hosts recorded in tiny rooms, but with very different acoustics.

Links!

• The Joan Didion essay in the New York Review of Books (we love her but this gets a lot of things wrong!)
• “Suppose the Schindlers Had Won the Schiavo Case”
• The first independent investigator’s report, from 1998
• The second independent investigator’s report, from 2003
• “Schiavo And Its (In)Significance”
• “Terri Schiavo — A Tragedy Compounded”
• Nice Newsweek tick-tock written just before Schiavo’s death

Anna Nicole Smith

Sarah tells Mike how a poor Texas girl made herself into an icon and America made her into a punchline. Digressions include massage technique, “Death Becomes Her” and (obviously) “The Godfather.” Mike sounds even sicker than he did last week.

Plus, special thanks to Ian at Marfa Public Radio, who helped Sarah record this episode!

Links!

• Sarah’s 2017 Buzzfeed essay
• Anna’s 1993 Playboy video centerfold
• Mimi Swartz’s wonderful Texas Monthly profile of Anna Nicole and J. Howard
• Dan P. Lee’s New York Magazine essay on Anna Nicole’s legal and personal woes
• Skip Hollandsworth’s 1993 article on early Anna
• Pamela Colloff’s 2002 profile of Rusty Hardin

 

 

 

 

Acid Rain

Mike tells Sarah how an environmental problem became a national rallying cry, a sticky diplomatic issue and, eventually, a conspiracy theory. Digressions include “Alien,” Field & Stream and NRA public service announcements. Both hosts are recovering from colds and at least one spends the episode under a blanket. 

Links!

• The EPA report on the costs and benefits of the Clean Air Act
• “Sour Showers: Acid Rain Returns–This Time It Is Caused by Nitrogen Emissions”
• “The Organisation of Denial: Conservative Think Tanks and Environmental Skepticism”
• “Is Acid Rain a Thing of the Past?”
• “How Cold War Politics Helped Solve a Climate Crisis”

 

Gary Hart

Sarah tells Mike how a dubious affair distracted from the real scandal of the 1988 election. Digressions include “Good Will Hunting,” People Magazine and Linda Ronstadt. Michael Dukakis is described, for the first time ever, as “the soulmate who was there all along.”

Links!

• “Was Gary Hart Set Up?”
• “The Road to Bimini,” Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, 1987
• “The Selling Out of Donna Rice” –Excerpt from Inside People
• “Why is Lee Atwater So Hungry?” David Remnick, Esquire, 1986
• The infamous tank ad
• “Talking Trash with Mike Dukakis,” Boston Magazine, Garrett Quinn 
• Excerpt from Bad Boy: The Life and Politics of Lee Atwater, by John Brady
• Bob Herbert on the Southern Strategy 

Corrections!

• Lynn Armandt sold the pictures to the National Enquirer, not People. Sorry!

Tammy Faye Bakker and Jessica Hahn

“She only said one thing her whole life”: Sarah tells Mike how two decent women became scapegoats for the actions of one terrible man. Digressions include Larry Flynt, NPR tote bags and Playboy back issues. The co-hosts discover they have wildly different relationships with “Saturday Night Live.”

 

Enron

Mike tells Sarah how a “bad apples” explanation kept us from seeing the real scandal at the heart of America’s largest corporate bankruptcy. Digressions include “Casino,” Thanksgiving economics and corruption catchphrases. Neither co-host truly understands how the stock market works.  

Links!

• The hilarious Houston Chronicle article full of red flags
• The 2001 article that started Enron’s downfall
• A detailed breakdown of Enron’s accounting shenanigans
• “Understanding Enron: It’s About the Gatekeepers, Stupid”

The Challenger Disaster

It wasn’t an accident. Mike tells Sarah how the infamous space shuttle disaster came to be seen as a white-collar crime. Digressions include the Donner Party, George Lucas and “Jurassic Park.” Both co-hosts are audibly recovering from colds. 

Links!

• The Rogers Commission Report
• The House of Representatives Report
• A wonderful Popular Mechanics oral history of the Rogers Commission
• Diane Vaughan’s 1997 article on “the normalization of deviance”
• Fascinating clips of Feynman talking about the accident and its organizational causes
• Feynman’s appendix

 

“A Dingo’s Got My Baby”

Sarah tells Mike how a tragic story became a hacky catchphrase. Digressions include raccoon anarchists, flu remedies and late-night Arby’s. Sarah’s Google alerts will surprise none of our listeners.

Links!

• The clip from “Seinfeld” 
• Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton’s website
• The Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton collection at the National Museum
• of Australia
• Trial and investigation resources
• “Dear Lindy”
• The Australian Supreme Court decision quashing the Chamberlains’ convictions
• The 2012 inquest that confirmed Lindy’s story

 

The 2000 Election

Mike tells Sarah how a close election and an even closer Supreme Court decision established the political template we’re still living with today. Digressions include quarks, Ouija Boards and (sorry) moral philosophy. The “lemonade theory” turns out to be less fun than it sounds.

Links!

• The Supreme Court decision
• Ronald Dworkin’s election wrap-up for the New York Review of Books
• A long and suspenseful Vanity Fair tick-tock
• Executive summary of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission Report
• A nice writeup of the lemonade theory and why we only got lemons