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Pessimists Archive Podcast
About
New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues
Virtues we now aspire to were once habits people vowed to quit
Jan 1
•
Louis Anslow
66
2
15
Most Americans Opposed the Moon Landing
July 20th, 2025 marks the 56th anniversary of the moon landing.
Jul 20, 2025
•
Louis Anslow
36
2
5
The War on Artificial Ice
Before artificial meat was attacked as ‘unnatural’ by incumbents, artificial ice was also.
Jun 13, 2025
•
Louis Anslow
58
9
The War on Internet Phone Calls
When long distance telephone companies tried to thwart online telephony
Apr 1, 2025
•
Louis Anslow
34
2
5
The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too!
The Oxford Dictionary just added "brainrot" as its newest official word—a tongue in cheek term for consuming too much short-form social media content.
Dec 2, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
53
10
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The 1774 Novel Blamed for Youth Suicide
The Sorrows of Young Werther was blamed for a supposed youth suicide epidemic
Nov 18, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
24
2
The 'War of the Worlds' Panic was Anti-Radio Propaganda
Radio was a new competing medium, so newspapers invented a panic to blame it for
Nov 1, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
46
8
7
Einstein Blamed Automation for the Great Depression
Not even Einstein was immune from the lump of labor fallacy...
Oct 10, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
40
3
The 1912 War on Fake Photos
Concern about deceptively edited photos feels like a very modern anxiety, yet a century ago similar worries were being litigated...
Sep 24, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
49
14
The Eiffel Tower was Called Techno-Dystopian
The Eiffel Tower is just as iconic of France as croissants and baguettes, and equally emblematic of Paris, standing alongside landmarks like Notre-Dame…
Aug 18, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
29
3
Skateboarding: from Nuisance to Olympic Sport
Skateboarding was considered a silly and childish phenomenon for much of its existence, its emergence in the late 1950s would see opposition almost…
Jul 30, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
27
2
3
When the Surgeon General Warned About Pac-Man
This week U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a ‘Warning Label on Social Media Platforms’, this…
Jun 18, 2024
•
Louis Anslow
34
2
1
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