Pessimists Archive Podcast

Vanity was born when the mirror was discovered. That’s what the Chicago Record wrote in 1895, around the time when mirrors became a household item. People (and especially women) were condemned for looking in the mirror, and accused of being sinful. But then the mirror altered the way we think about vanity altogether — and forever changed the way we look at ourselves. In this episode, we explore the history of the mirror, the history of vanity, and what it can teach us about today’s obsession over selfies. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roads weren't always for cars. In fact, highways were originally built for bikes! And now, as modern cities freak out over e-scooters, it’s worth looking back at when the roads were full of all kinds of things on wheels. How did early scooters, roller skates, and other new devices shape what we think of as the road today? And is it time to rethink how we design our cities now? Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1950s, America declared war on the comic book. People feared that they’d turn children into hardened criminals, and so opponents burned them in large piles, states banned them, and the U.S. Senate investigated their dangers. The man leading the charge was a psychologist named Fredric Wertham, whose research fueled people’s fears. In this episode, we take a close look at Wertham to ask: How does someone come to yield so much cultural influence? And how should the rest of us react? Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The elevator has had a lot of ups and downs. (Sorry, sorry.) As the innovation gained popularity in the late 1800s, it had a profound effect on the way we organize our cities and ourselves. It was also blamed for a rise in crime, for causing something called brain fever, for destroying civil society, and more. On this episode of Pessimists Archive, we look at how the elevator shaped our world, why not everyone loved that, and what it has to teach us about the next big change. Because while the elevator may seem like old technology today, it has a big lesson for us about the future of transportation. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kids! They’re lazy, narcissistic, and disrespectful -- or so says the older generation. But when you look back through history, you’ll discover that older generations have been saying a version of the same thing for thousands of years. Our question is: Why? And we found an answer. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are new dances always so scandalous? Grinding, freak dancing, swing dancing, rock-n-roll -- each had their opponents. But at the beginning of it all was the waltz. We may think of the waltz as classy and performative today, but as it gained popularity in the early 1800s, the dance was called disgusting, dangerous, an “obscene display … confined to prostitutes and adulteresses”, and worse. Why? In this episode, we explore how the waltz got people so riled up, how everyone finally got over it, and what the whole sweaty tale can teach us about the future of scandalous dances. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's internet can be a noisy and complicated place, but humanity has seen it all before. In the 1800s, the telegraph triggered many of the same questions and concerns that social media does today — about privacy, information overload, moral corruption, and more. In this episode, travel back to see the origin of our internet-based fears... and whether those fears ever came true. Get in touch! Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Web: jasonfeifer.com Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When chain stores were new, the reaction against them was fierce. Chain stores were accused of destroying democracy, of limiting freedom, of corrupting young people, and of being evil, evil, evil. But in reality, chain stores were innovating the way we shop -- and replacing a very bad kind of local business. Even if you love shopping local, this episode might just change the way you think about business. Get in touch! Email: jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, novels are a wholesome alternative to modern vices. But long before television and video games, novels were the new and scary form of entertainment. They were accused of corrupting the youth, of planting dangerous ideas into the heads of housewives, and of distracting everyone from more serious, important books. In this episode, we explore the roots of anti-novel hysteria, and explore what impact it really did have on us. (And if you're looking for a good novel, check out my novel, Mr. Nice Guy!) Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“A big humbug” -- that’s how one critic described America’s first subway system. Other opponents were more extreme. It would release dangerous underground air, some said. It would disturb the dead, others said. A religious leader in Boston declared it a project of Lucifer himself. Why were people so opposed to this new form of transportation? To understand it, we have to rewind centuries -- to a time when people thought that Earth was hollow, and that hell was directly under their feet. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a story about when a big industry stops competing, and starts trying to pass laws to protect itself instead. Whatever you think you know of margarine, put that aside. When the spread was first invented in the mid-1800s, it was made very differently — and solved very real problems for the nutrient-starved people of the time. That sent the dairy industry into a full-blown panic, leading to margarine’s demonization (and then taxation and strange discoloration). In this episode, we explore how the dairy industry got politicians all riled up, what it says about industries’ ability to halt innovation, and why it took more than a century for butter and margarine to finally square off in the most fair fight of them all: a true food fight. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As electricity began to light our world, resistance came from curious corners. “God had decreed that darkness should follow light, and mortals had no right to turn night into day,” wrote one German newspaper. “A lamp for a nightmare,” declared a Scottish poet. And Thomas Edison, the inventor who gave us the first commercial light bulb, tried his hardest to make people fear a competitor’s form of electricity. But here’s the strangest thing of all: Edison and his ilk failed quickly; their fearmongering just never stuck, and electricity, unlike every other innovation we’ve explored on this show, easily expanded into our world. Why? To understand that, we have go way back -- to the very first spark. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pinball was banned from the 1940s to 1970s in many cities across America. New York City’s mayor made a show of bashing pinball machines with a hammer. Church ladies in suburban Chicago went on vigilante raids, ripping games out of stores. In this episode, we go through history to understand how a simple game became demonized. The answer, like pinball itself, requires us to bounce from one object to another, but ultimately falls into one big question: Is pinball a game of skill, or a game of chance? Get in touch! Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 500 years, a succession of kings, sultans, and businessmen have tried to ban or destroy the world’s favorite morning pick-me-up. Among their claims: Coffee makes you impotent! It destroys brain tissue! It attacks the nervous system! And most critically of all, it makes you want to take up arms against your government. In this episode, we explore exactly what coffee does to us,,, and how did it overcame the controversy to become the best part of waking up. Get in touch! Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time,” one writer complains. It sounds like a lament from today, but in fact, it’s from 1875. Anti-vaxxers may seem like a product of our fake-news, health-hysteria modern times, but the fear that propels these skeptics is as old as the vaccine itself. How has modern medicine not shaken generations’ worth of suspicion and fear? We go back to look at two pivotal moments -- the birth of the vaccine and a 1905 Supreme Court case -- to understand what still motivates the anti-vaxxers of today. Get in touch! Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For as long as chess has been around — and we’re talking 1,500-plus years — someone has tried to ban it. But why? The answer is complicated, but it begins here: For ages, global and moralistic leaders have viewed games as a threat worth quashing. Get in touch! Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the bicycle debuted in the 1800s, it was blamed for all sorts of problems--from turning people insane to devastating local economies to destroying women's morals. We explore why the bicycle scared so many people, and what happens when the opposite of our fears turn out to be true. Get in touch! Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Web: jasonfeifer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National pride can be good... but it can also make you foolish and wet. In the 1750s, a London man took to the streets holding an umbrella—and braved jeers, rock-throwing haters, and even a cab that tried to run him over. We explore why rainy England was once so anti-umbrella, and whether that fight was really ever settled. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the car began replacing the horse in the early 1900s, pessimists didn't celebrate. They called it "the devil wagon," and said its mission was to destroy the world. We explore why the horseless carriage was so scary, how it was eventually accepted, and what it can teach us about the future of self-driving cars. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 1900s, recorded music was accused of muddling our minds, destroying art, and even harming babies. What was everyone so afraid of? In this episode, we dig into the early days of music and see what the hysterics properly predicted—and the benefits they never saw coming. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices