Smash Notes
Pessimists Archive Podcast
Why do people keep resisting new things? That’s the question Pessimists Archive tries to answer. In each episode, we travel back in time to the moment that a new technology or innovation was introduced—something that today we think of as totally commonplace!—and we explore why everyone was freaking out about it. Our hope is this: By seeing how repetitive and often silly yesterday's fears were, we can begin to…
Episodes
58 more episodes without notes
- Why “Nobody Wants to Work Anymore” is BS
- To Save Barbie, They Had to Change Her
- Teddy Bears Are History’s Most Subversive Toy (Classic)
- All the Fun Facts You Have Wrong!
- The Four-Day Workweek Is Here
- Real Ways to Predict the Future
- The Climate Problem We Can Solve Now
- Why People Can’t Write, and How to Fix That
- Why Politicians Say Dumb Things
- The Case for Sex Robots
- This Episode Will Change Your Brain
- Simple Pleasures Aren’t Simple (See: Knitting)
- The Not-Boring Truth About Boredom
- Yes, Talk to Strangers!
- Why Covid Nostalgia Is… Good?
- You Are Not “Addicted” To Technology
- How to Live Like Ancient Royalty
- Everyone Is Wrong About Participation Trophies
- The Surprising Importance of To-Go Cocktails
- When Exactly Were "the Good Old Days"?
- Did Pessimists Archive Change Its Name? Yes!
- Do We Lose Skills Because of Technology?
- How to Communicate With the Future
- The Most Important Podcast of Our Lifetime!
- 224 Years of Election Hacking
- Why We Eat With A Fork. (It's Not The Food)
- Introducing Wild Wild Tech
- What Will We Fear Next?
- What Will We Fear Next?
- The Mystery of the Shared Earbuds
- Why We Hate Being Told What to Do
- The Good That Comes From a Pandemic
- Refrigerators vs. Ice: a Cold, Cold War
- Birthday Parties
- Faces, Faces, Faces!
- Teddy Bears
- Mirrors
- Scooters (and Roller Skates)
- Comic Books
- Elevator
- Kids These Days
- The Waltz
- Telegraph
- Chain Stores
- The Novel
- The Subway
- Margarine
- Electricity
- Pinball
- Coffee
- Vaccinations
- Chess
- Bicycle
- Umbrella
- Horseless Carriage
- Recorded Music
- The Good Old Days
- The Walkman
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