WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 You know, if you were to walk into an average 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:07.339 American teenager's bedroom in, like, 1970 and 00:00:07.339 --> 00:00:09.820 then walk into that exact same room in 1989, 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.320 you might genuinely think you had stepped onto 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:14.359 a different planet. Oh, absolutely. The contrast 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:17.199 is just staggering. Right. Because in 1970, you've 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.699 got, you know, a radio playing Casey Chasm's 00:00:19.699 --> 00:00:21.780 brand new American Top 40 Countdown. Maybe you 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:24.160 have some posters on the wall. Yeah, very analog, 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:28.879 very physical. Exactly. But by 1989, that same 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:31.820 room... has a Nintendo entertainment system hooked 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.299 up to the television. The Simpsons is playing 00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:36.820 on the newly launched Fox network. And there's 00:00:36.820 --> 00:00:38.539 probably a personal computer sitting right on 00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:41.219 the desk. Yes, the transformation is just absolutely 00:00:41.219 --> 00:00:44.539 wild. But, you know, how did we get from the 00:00:44.539 --> 00:00:47.280 analog age of Casey Cassum to the digital dawn 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:49.640 of the 90s in just 20 years? Well, I'll tell 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:51.979 you, it wasn't a smooth ride. I mean, it took 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:55.179 a complete, fundamental collapse of institutional 00:00:55.179 --> 00:00:58.079 trust to get us there. It really did. And today, 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:00.179 our mission for this deep dive is to look at 00:01:00.179 --> 00:01:03.100 a timeline covering U .S. history from 1970 to 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:05.200 1989. And we're not just going to recite dates 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:08.560 here. No, definitely not. We want to uncover 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.120 the underlying narrative of how America transformed. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.739 Right. Going from the post 60s era into the dawn 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:17.859 of the hyper connected modern 90s. And I am so 00:01:17.859 --> 00:01:19.780 glad to have you here today to help us connect 00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:22.159 all these historical dots. Thanks for having 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:24.819 me. I mean. We often look back at the 70s and 00:01:24.819 --> 00:01:28.480 80s and caricature them, right, with disco balls 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.700 or neon windbreakers. Oh, for sure. Big hair 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:32.959 and shoulder pads. Exactly. But when you look 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.959 at the source material, you see a profound crucible. 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:39.739 This was an era of unprecedented technological 00:01:39.739 --> 00:01:42.980 birth. It was an absolute reckoning for massive 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:45.319 government systems. And a complete rewiring of 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:47.500 global power, too. Right. It's not just history. 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:50.359 It is the literal blueprint of the modern world 00:01:50.359 --> 00:01:52.620 you are navigating right now. OK, let's unpack 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:54.599 this, because we really have to start with the 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:57.379 early 1970s. The narrative through line that 00:01:57.379 --> 00:01:59.819 jumps out immediately is this jarring reality 00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:02.719 check regarding American leadership and the economy. 00:02:03.099 --> 00:02:05.439 Yeah, there is this really intense juxtaposition 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:07.719 happening. Right. On one hand, there is a massive 00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:10.699 surge in social and environmental idealism. You've 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:13.379 got the first Earth Day in 1970. And the creation 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:17.080 of the EPA and OSHA too. Exactly. Plus the 26th 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:19.319 Amendment finally lowering the voting age to 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:22.300 18. There's this tangible push for a better society. 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:25.400 But slamming right up against that idealism is 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.659 just deep systemic tragedy. It's true. You have 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:30.719 the horrific events at Kent State and Jackson 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:33.419 State in 1970. Where National Guard troops and 00:02:33.419 --> 00:02:36.599 police fired into crowds of student protesters. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:39.340 Yeah. It completely shattered the illusion of 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:43.659 domestic stability. And That tension bleeds directly 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:47.099 into a cascading series of political crises. 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:49.960 Like the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Right. The 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:51.759 Supreme Court rules that those papers can be 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:53.939 published. Suddenly, the government's internal 00:02:53.939 --> 00:02:56.419 secret assessments of the Vietnam War are out 00:02:56.419 --> 00:02:58.819 in the open. And the public realizes, wow, we 00:02:58.819 --> 00:03:01.419 have been systematically lied to for years. Exactly. 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:04.340 Which brings us to the absolute collapse of executive 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:07.060 trust, which is Watergate. We all know the basic 00:03:07.060 --> 00:03:09.879 story of the 1972 break -in at the Democratic 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:12.280 National Committee headquarters. But it wasn't 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.319 just a burglary that broke the public's faith, 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:16.319 was it? No, not at all. It was the mechanism 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:19.379 of the cover -up. Right, that slow -motion realization 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:22.240 that corruption went all the way up to the Oval 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:24.979 Office. Especially when they discovered Nixon's 00:03:24.979 --> 00:03:28.280 secret tapes in 1973. And, you know, it wasn't 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:30.520 an isolated event. Right around the same time, 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:33.219 Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns in disgrace 00:03:33.219 --> 00:03:36.599 due to an entirely separate bribery and tax evasion 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:38.900 scandal. Oh, wow. I always forget that happened 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:40.639 at basically the same time. It's crazy, right? 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:42.259 And then you have the Saturday Night Massacre. 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.840 This is a crucial mechanical moment for American 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.830 trust. Nixon ordered his attorney general to 00:03:48.830 --> 00:03:51.490 fire the independent special prosecutor investigating 00:03:51.490 --> 00:03:53.789 Watergate, right? Yes. And the attorney general 00:03:53.789 --> 00:03:56.729 refused and resigned. Then the deputy attorney 00:03:56.729 --> 00:03:58.949 general refused and resigned. It was like a live 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:01.430 constitutional stress test just playing out on 00:04:01.430 --> 00:04:04.169 the evening news. It really was. And it all culminates 00:04:04.169 --> 00:04:07.330 in August 1974 when Richard Nixon becomes the 00:04:07.330 --> 00:04:10.110 first and only US president to resign. Follows 00:04:10.110 --> 00:04:13.259 shortly by Gerald Ford pardoning him. This era 00:04:13.259 --> 00:04:15.520 fundamentally alters the relationship between 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:17.920 the citizen and the state. It absolutely does. 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:21.319 And of course, alongside these massive political 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:25.360 shifts, we see monumental judicial shifts. Things 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:28.379 like the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Right. And 00:04:28.379 --> 00:04:31.480 we should pause here to note that we are neutrally 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:34.350 reporting these political and judicial shifts, 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:38.029 including Roe v. Wade, just as factual historical 00:04:38.029 --> 00:04:40.470 milestones. Exactly. We aren't taking any political 00:04:40.470 --> 00:04:43.009 stance here, just looking at the timeline. But 00:04:43.009 --> 00:04:45.629 that ruling fundamentally altered reproductive 00:04:45.629 --> 00:04:48.050 rights across the country. The landscape of what 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:50.209 the government could and couldn't do was just 00:04:50.209 --> 00:04:53.680 shifting beneath everyone's feet. Yeah. But it 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.740 wasn't just the political system that was failing 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:57.759 the stress test. The economy was falling apart, 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:00.120 too. Oh, right. Let's talk about the economic 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.839 shock. So in 1971, you have what became known 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:05.379 as the Nixon shock. And the most consequential 00:05:05.379 --> 00:05:07.620 piece of this was the president completely ending 00:05:07.620 --> 00:05:09.829 the United States gold standard. Wait, let me 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:11.149 stop you there, because I think a lot of people 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.889 misunderstand this. Before 1971, every dollar 00:05:13.889 --> 00:05:16.250 in my pocket was theoretically tied to a physical 00:05:16.250 --> 00:05:19.069 piece of gold sitting in a vault somewhere. Yes, 00:05:19.269 --> 00:05:21.310 theoretically. So how did untethering that actually 00:05:21.310 --> 00:05:24.470 cause the economic chaos of the 70s? Well, under 00:05:24.470 --> 00:05:28.470 the post -WWII Bretton Woods system, global currencies 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:31.050 were pegged to the U .S. dollar, right? And the 00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:34.009 dollar was pegged to gold at $35 an ounce. OK, 00:05:34.089 --> 00:05:36.470 makes sense. But by the late 60s, the U .S. was 00:05:36.470 --> 00:05:39.759 spending massively. on the Vietnam War, on the 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.500 domestic Great Society programs. They were printing 00:05:42.500 --> 00:05:44.620 more money than they had gold to back it up. 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:47.660 Uh -oh. I can see where this is going. Exactly. 00:05:48.459 --> 00:05:50.680 Four nations started getting nervous and demanded 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.060 their gold instead of holding dollars. Nixon 00:05:53.060 --> 00:05:55.160 realized the U .S. gold reserves would be totally 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.459 depleted, so he just completely severed the tie. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:01.339 Wow. So the dollar became a fiat currency, backed 00:06:01.339 --> 00:06:03.660 only by trust in the U .S. government. Right. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:05.339 And as we just discussed, trust in the U .S. 00:06:05.339 --> 00:06:07.720 government was currently plummeting. Yeah, not 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:09.899 the best time to run on trust. No, not at all. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.439 So without the anchor of gold and combined with 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:15.660 other pressures, inflation absolutely skyrocketed. 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:17.259 The money in your wallet was suddenly losing 00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:20.060 value by the month. And then the ultimate physical 00:06:20.060 --> 00:06:23.759 shock hits, right? The 1973 Arab oil embargo. 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:27.800 Yes. Because the U .S. supported Israel in the 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:31.480 Yom Kippur War, OPEC retaliated by cutting off 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:34.339 oil exports to the United States. And this wasn't 00:06:34.339 --> 00:06:36.639 just some abstract line on an economic chart. 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:40.000 This was an immediate visceral disruption of 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.519 the American dream. Totally. Gas stations were 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.660 literally running out of fuel. They brought back 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:47.360 daylight saving time in January, which is months 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:50.220 early, just to save electricity. And they dropped 00:06:50.220 --> 00:06:53.720 the national speed limit to 55 miles per hour. 00:06:53.819 --> 00:06:57.180 It was a profound psychological blow. For decades, 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.079 the American identity was built on limitless 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.019 highways, big cars, endless expansion. Right. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.519 Suddenly, foreign nations had the power to turn 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:07.459 off the tap and grind the world's superpower 00:07:07.459 --> 00:07:09.449 to a halt. You were suddenly subject to limits 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:11.889 you couldn't control. Looking at this back -to 00:07:11.889 --> 00:07:14.370 -back sequence of political scandal and economic 00:07:14.370 --> 00:07:16.829 strain, it makes me think of an analogy. Oh, 00:07:17.129 --> 00:07:19.250 let's hear it. It's like relying on a massive 00:07:19.250 --> 00:07:21.529 city -wide public transit system your whole life. 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:24.170 You trust the trains will run on time, but then 00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:25.810 you find out the conductors are corrupt, the 00:07:25.810 --> 00:07:27.709 tracks are crumbling, and suddenly the city cuts 00:07:27.709 --> 00:07:30.319 the power grid. You are just left stranded. That 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:32.939 is a really great way to look at it. Like a teenager 00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:35.800 finding out their parents are deeply flawed while 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:38.079 simultaneously getting their allowance slashed. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.660 So I have to ask you, did this double whammy 00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:44.860 of disillusionment permanently alter the American 00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:47.759 psyche? What's fascinating here is that this 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:51.220 immense loss of faith in macro institutions, 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:53.620 you know, the presidency, the macro economy, 00:07:53.779 --> 00:07:56.899 the energy grid, it actually created a vacuum. 00:07:57.240 --> 00:07:59.920 A vacuum. Yeah, and that vacuum set the stage 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.939 for micro -level innovation. When the public 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:05.959 transit system fails, to use your analogy, you 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:07.819 don't just sit on the platform forever, you figure 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:09.680 out how to build your own car. Oh, I see. When 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.300 you stop trusting large centralized powers to 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:14.079 solve your problems, you start looking for tools 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:15.779 that you can control yourself. Here's where it 00:08:15.779 --> 00:08:17.399 gets really interesting, because that brings 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:20.879 us right into the mid -1970s and early 1980s. 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.529 As people lost faith in the establishment, They 00:08:23.529 --> 00:08:26.009 turn their focus inward. Exactly. To their own 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.329 homes, their own screens, and personal technology. 00:08:28.589 --> 00:08:30.990 We are talking about the era of basement hackers 00:08:30.990 --> 00:08:33.850 and blockbusters. The timeline of technological 00:08:33.850 --> 00:08:36.330 birth here is just staggering. And it's driven 00:08:36.330 --> 00:08:41.470 by that exact desire for autonomy. In 1975, Bill 00:08:41.470 --> 00:08:46.110 Gates founds Microsoft. Wow, 1975. Yeah. In 1976, 00:08:46.669 --> 00:08:49.850 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple. By 00:08:49.850 --> 00:08:52.750 1977, you had the release of the Commodore PET, 00:08:53.169 --> 00:08:55.690 one of the first retail personal computers. Which 00:08:55.690 --> 00:08:58.850 is a huge shift, because before this, computing 00:08:58.850 --> 00:09:01.169 meant massive mainframes locked in university 00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:03.049 basements or government facilities running on 00:09:03.049 --> 00:09:05.190 punch cards. It belonged to the establishment. 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:07.450 But now, it was sitting right there on your desk. 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:09.350 You controlled the inputs. And it wasn't just 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:11.070 computers, right? It was how we entertained ourselves. 00:09:11.210 --> 00:09:14.389 Right. In 1975, Sony introduces the Betamax. 00:09:14.590 --> 00:09:16.769 Think about the mechanical shift there. Oh, it's 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:19.070 huge. Before home video, you watched what the 00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:21.090 big three networks told you to watch. exactly 00:09:21.090 --> 00:09:22.990 when they told you to watch it. With Betamax, 00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:24.909 you seized control of the broadcast schedule. 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:28.269 And in 1977, the Atari 2600 hits the market, 00:09:28.789 --> 00:09:31.129 popularizing microprocessor -based hardware and 00:09:31.129 --> 00:09:33.490 game cartridges. So you're no longer just passively 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:35.970 consuming media. You are actively manipulating 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:39.470 pixels on a screen. Exactly. And at the exact 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:42.309 same time, pop culture is providing this massive 00:09:42.309 --> 00:09:45.309 collective escapism. Steven Spielberg releases 00:09:45.309 --> 00:09:48.789 Jaws in 1975, practically inventing the modern 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:51.769 summer blockbuster. And Star Wars debuts in 1977. 00:09:52.129 --> 00:09:53.750 Plus, you get the premieres of Saturday Night 00:09:53.750 --> 00:09:56.289 Live and Wheel of Fortune in 1975. Right. And 00:09:56.289 --> 00:09:59.169 I love thinking about why those movies and shows 00:09:59.169 --> 00:10:01.250 resonated so deeply. Look at what was happening 00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:04.590 outside the theater. It's true. You had the 1977 00:10:04.590 --> 00:10:07.269 New York City blackout that resulted in massive 00:10:07.269 --> 00:10:10.230 looting. You had the terrifying Three Mile Island 00:10:10.230 --> 00:10:13.759 nuclear accident in 1979. Again. This feeling 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.720 that massive complex systems were failing and 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.059 literally threatening our lives. And the Iranian 00:10:19.059 --> 00:10:21.299 hostage crisis that same year, which triggered 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:24.000 a second energy crisis and sent gas prices over 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:25.980 one dollar a gallon for the first time ever. 00:10:26.139 --> 00:10:28.720 The real world felt chaotic, completely out of 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.200 control and morally gray. So what do people do? 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.159 They line up to watch Star Wars. It gave them 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:35.779 absolute pure black and white morality. Good 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:38.759 versus evil, a hero who defeats the massive corrupt 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:42.330 empire. The psychology is spot on. The shift 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:45.610 from massive industrial hardware to these tiny 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:48.570 personal microprocessors, perfectly mirrored 00:10:48.570 --> 00:10:51.370 society's shift from trusting large government 00:10:51.370 --> 00:10:54.149 solutions to valuing individual empowerment. 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:56.289 Yeah, that makes so much sense. You couldn't 00:10:56.289 --> 00:10:58.190 control the nuclear power plant down the road, 00:10:58.549 --> 00:11:00.429 and you couldn't control the oil prices dictated 00:11:00.429 --> 00:11:04.210 by foreign cartels. You could control your Atari 00:11:04.210 --> 00:11:06.750 joystick. You could control your own digital 00:11:06.750 --> 00:11:09.769 universe. Exactly. And that inward retreat that 00:11:09.769 --> 00:11:12.470 focus on the screen in your living room seamlessly 00:11:12.470 --> 00:11:15.070 sets up the next major evolution. Really it does. 00:11:15.269 --> 00:11:17.690 As we move into the 1980s, the screen goes from 00:11:17.690 --> 00:11:20.610 being an escapist toy to being a relentless window 00:11:20.610 --> 00:11:22.970 into global culture and shared trauma. Right. 00:11:23.370 --> 00:11:26.139 And the structural shift happens in 1981. with 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.840 the launch of MPV. It becomes the first 24 -hour 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.679 cable network. Which is wild to think about now. 00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:34.679 I know. MTV proved to the broadcasting world 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.279 that audiences would eagerly consume a relentless 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.559 24 -hour feed of content. And once that was proven, 00:11:41.019 --> 00:11:42.659 news networks realized they could do the exact 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:44.789 same thing. But they had to fill airtime. And 00:11:44.789 --> 00:11:46.990 when you have to fill 24 hours of airtime, you 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:48.750 start turning the spotlight onto things that 00:11:48.750 --> 00:11:50.850 had previously been kept in the shadows. Yeah, 00:11:50.909 --> 00:11:53.929 the 1980s saw an explosion of national awareness 00:11:53.929 --> 00:11:57.830 campaigns driven entirely by this new media saturation. 00:11:58.049 --> 00:12:00.289 Right. The tragic cases of missing children like 00:12:00.289 --> 00:12:03.389 Adam Walsh and Johnny Gosh weren't just local 00:12:03.389 --> 00:12:06.490 news anymore. Their faces were everywhere, eventually 00:12:06.490 --> 00:12:09.429 ending up on milk cartons. You had national coverage 00:12:09.429 --> 00:12:11.789 of eating disorders following the death of singer 00:12:11.789 --> 00:12:14.879 Karen Carpenter in 1983. and 60 minutes doing 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:17.720 deep coverage on child abuse. You also had the 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:19.940 rise of mothers against drunk driving gaining 00:12:19.940 --> 00:12:22.799 massive traction after horrific events like the 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.720 1988 Carrollton bus crash. And, you know, it 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:28.419 wasn't just domestic issues. Media saturation 00:12:28.419 --> 00:12:31.740 created unprecedented global empathy. Think about 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:34.559 the 1985 Live Aid concert. Oh, absolutely. And 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:36.980 the We Are the World campaign. Right. Famine 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:39.059 in developing nations wasn't a new phenomenon 00:12:39.059 --> 00:12:41.899 in the 1980s. What was new was the logistical 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:44.700 capability to broadcast that suffering directly 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:47.019 into living rooms across the globe in real time. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:49.059 Paired with the biggest rock stars on the planet. 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:52.740 Exactly. It forged a shared global consciousness 00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:55.779 that just hadn't existed before. And we saw similar 00:12:55.779 --> 00:12:58.320 national awareness with the AIDS crisis, especially 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.679 after Rock Hudson's diagnosis became public in 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.340 1985. But that same shared consciousness meant 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:06.059 we were also experiencing collective shock together. 00:13:06.539 --> 00:13:09.299 The 1980s were marked by tragedies that unfolded 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:11.519 practically in real time. It really were. Like 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:15.519 the 1981 Kansas City Hotel walkway collapse or, 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.419 you know, the most glaring example, the 1986 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:21.759 Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion. That wasn't 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:24.500 just a rocket failing because schoolteacher Krista 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:27.159 McAuliffe was on board. NASA had specifically 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:29.480 encouraged schools to tune in. Right. So you 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:31.899 had classrooms full of children all over the 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:34.580 country watching live as the shuttle exploded. 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:36.840 It completely shattered the aura of American 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.419 technological infallibility and it traumatized 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:42.360 a generation simultaneously. You also had weird 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:45.659 shared moments like the 1987 Max Headroom broadcast 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:48.840 interruption and then the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:51.679 Oh right. Caught live on television. because 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:53.100 it happened right in the middle of the World 00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:55.340 Series. The ground is literally shaking on live 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:57.500 television. It makes me want to push back a little 00:13:57.500 --> 00:13:59.730 on the era, though. Okay, go ahead. When you 00:13:59.730 --> 00:14:01.970 look at all this and you add in the violent realities 00:14:01.970 --> 00:14:05.190 of the time, like the 1984 arrival of crack cocaine 00:14:05.190 --> 00:14:08.370 or the Bernhard Goat subway shooting in New York, 00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:12.129 it feels incredibly violent and chaotic. It does. 00:14:12.409 --> 00:14:15.149 Was the 1980s genuinely a more dangerous era 00:14:15.149 --> 00:14:17.549 to live in or were the cameras just finally turned 00:14:17.549 --> 00:14:20.049 on and broadcasting it directly into our brains? 00:14:20.250 --> 00:14:22.629 This raises an important question about the mechanics 00:14:22.629 --> 00:14:26.750 of media psychology. This era truly marks the 00:14:26.750 --> 00:14:29.389 beginning of modern information overload. for 00:14:29.389 --> 00:14:31.870 the average citizen. Information overload, yeah. 00:14:32.190 --> 00:14:34.330 Before the 24 -hour news cycle, you got your 00:14:34.330 --> 00:14:37.049 news once a day in the paper or on a 30 -minute 00:14:37.049 --> 00:14:39.950 evening broadcast. It was curated and contained. 00:14:40.029 --> 00:14:42.509 Right. But when tragedies, warnings, and missing 00:14:42.509 --> 00:14:45.529 children are broadcast constantly, it fundamentally 00:14:45.529 --> 00:14:48.769 alters cultural empathy and fear. The world may 00:14:48.769 --> 00:14:51.009 not have been statistically more dangerous in 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:53.549 every metric, but it felt exponentially more 00:14:53.549 --> 00:14:55.350 dangerous. Because you're suddenly bearing witness 00:14:55.350 --> 00:14:58.779 to all of it, all the time. Exactly. Your brain 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:01.679 just wasn't evolved to process the tragedies 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:03.820 of an entire planet simultaneously. That makes 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:06.779 total sense. And while all this domestic culture 00:15:06.779 --> 00:15:09.159 and media saturation is altering the American 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:12.419 mind, the global order is shifting massively 00:15:12.419 --> 00:15:14.519 in the background. Oh, absolutely. If we zoom 00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:18.039 out to the late 1980s, the intense global tensions 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:21.740 of the Cold War finally reach a dramatic, highly 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:23.860 televised climax. Yeah, we can trace the arc 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.279 of the Cold War right through these two decades. 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:29.980 Back in 1975, there was a brief moment of physical 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:32.460 cooperation with the Apollo Soyuz handshake in 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:34.720 space. Right, where an American and a Soviet 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:37.039 spacecraft actually docked in orbit. But by the 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.559 early 80s, the proxy tensions were back in full 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.460 force, playing out on the world stage. The U 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:44.960 .S. boycotts the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:47.419 To protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:50.539 Yes. And in retaliation, the Eastern Bloc boycotts 00:15:50.539 --> 00:15:53.139 the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. And 00:15:53.139 --> 00:15:55.259 this brings us to the presidency of Ronald Reagan, 00:15:55.460 --> 00:15:57.600 which was defined by massive aggressive shifts 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:59.759 in geopolitics and economics. Yes. And again, 00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:01.559 we are just looking at the historical mechanics 00:16:01.559 --> 00:16:05.070 impartially here. Of course. Domestically, you 00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:08.389 have sweeping moves like the 1981 Kemp -Roth 00:16:08.389 --> 00:16:11.889 tax cuts. And that same year, the incredible 00:16:11.889 --> 00:16:14.330 firing of the striking air traffic controllers. 00:16:14.669 --> 00:16:16.769 Right. Which was a clear signal that the era 00:16:16.769 --> 00:16:19.230 of powerful labor unions was facing a severe 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:21.570 headwind. But internationally, the administration 00:16:21.570 --> 00:16:24.610 creates the Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed 00:16:24.610 --> 00:16:27.950 Star Wars. And there's the Iran -Contra affair, 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:30.690 which was a massive geopolitical scandal. Right. 00:16:30.690 --> 00:16:33.090 And it's vital to understand the mechanism behind 00:16:33.090 --> 00:16:35.230 the Star Wars. War's initiative. The public perception 00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:37.110 was about shooting down nuclear missiles with 00:16:37.110 --> 00:16:39.649 lasers from space. Which sounds very sci -fi. 00:16:39.789 --> 00:16:42.549 It does. But the underlying geopolitical strategy 00:16:42.549 --> 00:16:45.750 was largely economic. The Reagan administration 00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:49.110 knew the Soviet economy was stagnating. By announcing 00:16:49.110 --> 00:16:52.990 a massive futuristic defense system, the US essentially 00:16:52.990 --> 00:16:55.269 forced the Soviets into a high -tech arms race 00:16:55.269 --> 00:16:58.159 they literally could not afford. It was an economic 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.159 strategy designed to bankrupt the Soviet system. 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:02.220 Wow, it's like a high stakes poker game where 00:17:02.220 --> 00:17:04.299 one player just keeps raising the bet with money 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:06.279 the other player doesn't have, forcing them to 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.940 eventually fold. That's a great analogy. But 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:11.500 all that spending and economic rewiring caused 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.859 massive volatility at home, too. Right. The decade 00:17:14.859 --> 00:17:17.859 saw wild financial swings, culminating in Black 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:21.329 Monday in 1987. when the stock market crashed. 00:17:21.509 --> 00:17:23.910 Yeah and what's wild is that the very personal 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:27.109 computers and digital systems born in the 70s 00:17:27.109 --> 00:17:30.130 contributed to the crash. Early computerized 00:17:30.130 --> 00:17:32.569 trading programs automatically sold off stocks, 00:17:32.869 --> 00:17:35.579 accelerating the panic. Speed of the new digital 00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:38.720 world was a double -edged sword. It was. But 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:41.119 the defining narrative of the late 80s, the event 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:43.380 that truly capped off the anxiety of these two 00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:46.460 decades, was a resolution of that Cold War poker 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:49.299 game. Right. In 1987, President Reagan goes to 00:17:49.299 --> 00:17:51.779 Berlin and challenges Soviet Premier Gorbachev 00:17:51.779 --> 00:17:54.460 with the famous line, tear down this wall. That 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:57.009 same year, they signed the INF Treaty. physically 00:17:57.009 --> 00:17:59.470 reducing their nuclear arsenals. And it all culminates 00:17:59.470 --> 00:18:02.710 in 1989. President George H .W. Bush and Gorbachev 00:18:02.710 --> 00:18:05.730 signal that the Cold War is ending. And symbolically, 00:18:05.970 --> 00:18:08.509 the Berlin Wall finally falls. People are literally 00:18:08.509 --> 00:18:11.069 taking sledgehammers to the physical manifestation 00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:14.049 of the Iron Curtain. It's an incredible, euphoric 00:18:14.049 --> 00:18:18.309 climax. But 1989 wasn't just a clean, happy movie 00:18:18.309 --> 00:18:21.349 ending where the credits roll, was it? No, not 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:23.799 at all. The geopolitical map was redrawn, yes, 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.380 but the year immediately pivoted into deeply 00:18:26.380 --> 00:18:29.279 modern challenges. Right. In 1989, we have the 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:32.059 Exxon Valdez oil spill, forcing a reckoning with 00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:34.339 the environmental cost of our energy demands. 00:18:34.579 --> 00:18:36.920 And we see the official declaration of the war 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.819 on drugs shifting domestic law enforcement strategies 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:42.619 for decades to come. So what does this all mean? 00:18:43.150 --> 00:18:45.930 How are you, the listener, supposed to process 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:48.509 this massive historical shift? It's a lot to 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:50.990 take in. It is. We went from the Vietnam War 00:18:50.990 --> 00:18:54.329 and the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 through the 00:18:54.329 --> 00:18:56.509 disillusionment of Watergate, the birth of the 00:18:56.509 --> 00:18:58.990 personal computer, the rise of the 24 -hour news 00:18:58.990 --> 00:19:01.109 cycle, all the way to the fall of the Berlin 00:19:01.109 --> 00:19:04.049 Wall in 1989. If we connect this to the bigger 00:19:04.049 --> 00:19:06.970 picture, this timeline demonstrates the incredible 00:19:06.970 --> 00:19:10.009 resilience, but also the sheer mechanical adaptability 00:19:10.009 --> 00:19:12.279 of society. Adaptability, yeah. Think about it, 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:14.680 in just 20 short years, the world fundamentally 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:17.359 rewired its economy, it rewired its technology, 00:19:17.619 --> 00:19:20.259 and it rewired its geopolitical boundaries. The 00:19:20.259 --> 00:19:22.700 sheer velocity of change is breathtaking. It 00:19:22.700 --> 00:19:24.740 is a phenomenal amount of ground we've covered, 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:27.559 from the founding of Microsoft to the fall of 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.619 the Berlin Wall, from Watergate to the Simpsons 00:19:30.619 --> 00:19:33.519 debuting in 1989. Yeah, it's wild to see it all 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:36.009 laid out like that. We always say that understanding 00:19:36.009 --> 00:19:38.910 these timelines is the ultimate shortcut to understanding 00:19:38.910 --> 00:19:41.869 why our modern world functions the way it does. 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:43.890 Absolutely. Because the smartphone you might 00:19:43.890 --> 00:19:46.170 be using to listen to us right now, the 24 hour 00:19:46.170 --> 00:19:49.529 media feeds you scroll through and the geopolitical 00:19:49.529 --> 00:19:51.750 alliances you read about in the news, they didn't 00:19:51.750 --> 00:19:54.230 just appear out of nowhere. No, they were forged 00:19:54.230 --> 00:19:56.670 in the friction of these two specific decades. 00:19:56.890 --> 00:20:00.069 Exactly. The desire for personal technology was 00:20:00.069 --> 00:20:03.059 born from a loss of institutional trust. We'd 00:20:03.059 --> 00:20:04.759 like to leave you with a final thought to mull 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:07.299 over. Think about the speed of the shift we just 00:20:07.299 --> 00:20:11.079 mapped out. Okay. In 1970, humans had just walked 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:13.700 on the moon, but you couldn't even record a television 00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:17.039 show in your own home. Right. By 1989, we were 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.740 holding global live -streamed concerts and experiencing 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:23.599 the birth of the 24 -hour news cycle. As you 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:27.380 look around at the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:30.599 algorithms, and the massive technological shifts 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:33.500 happening today, ask yourself, Are we in the 00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:36.559 middle of our own 1970s style disruption right 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:39.680 now? Oh, that's a good question. Are our institutions 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:42.599 facing that same crucible? And if so, what will 00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:45.359 our 1989 look like when the dust finally settles? 00:20:45.619 --> 00:20:47.960 That is a brilliant question to leave on. Thank 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:50.319 you so much for joining us on this deep dive, 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:51.920 whether you're listening on a smart speaker, 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:54.559 a phone, or maybe even a vintage Commodore PE 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:56.940 if you somehow kept one running. We appreciate 00:20:56.940 --> 00:20:58.500 you spending your time with us. Keep learning, 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:00.799 keep questioning, and we will catch you on the 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:01.660 next deep dive.