Pessimists Archive Podcast

Episodes

1. 12

   Artists Against the Eiffel Tower (1887)

   The Eiffel Tower is as iconic of France as croissants and baguettes, and equally emblematic of Paris as Notre-Dame or the Arc de Triomphe. Yet, before completion for the 1889 World’s Fair - the project was treated by some as an industrialist “Tower of Babel” that was anti-ethical to French taste...

   Sep 15, 2025

   4m
2. 11

   😷 'S.F. Feels Good Without Mask' - 1918, The San Francisco Examiner

   In the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic San Francisco quickly instituted a mask mandate, when it was repealed there was a countdown in the streets and jubilation as reported on the front page of The San Francisco Examiner. To the right of the report was a piece by Annie Laurie celebrating the moment and...

   Dec 9, 2021

   6m
3. 10

   📻 Weird, Ghostly and “Supernatural” Antics of the Radio (1931)

   Did the rise of 19th century technologies - such as radio - lead to an increase in ghostly sightings? That’s the question Atlantic writer Derek Thompson asked on Twitter this week and it brought to mind a 1930s piece from the archive titled: Weird, Ghostly and “Supernatural” Antics of the Radio...

   Oct 31, 2021

   29m
4. 9

   ✈️ “A Skeptical Nation Visits Upon the Airplane the Doubts it Once Felt for the Automobile" - The New York Times, 1928

   At the end of the 1920s aeroplanes were becoming a more common sight in the skies, in 1928 The New York Times reported on growing public disdain, comparing it to past reactions to transport innovations like the automobile and bicycle. The piece was subtitled “A Skeptical Nation Visits Upon the...

   Sep 27, 2021

   17m
5. 8

   💉 'An Absurd Prejudice' - The New York Times, 1875

   146 years ago The New York Times published an article lamenting anti-vaxxers, the piece began: "One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination might have died out by this time, considering it has been practice for nearly a century." Today this statement is as amusing as it is...

   Aug 27, 2021

   6m
6. 7

   📺 'The Lazy Half-Wit Comes Into His Own - A British Writer Reveals His Views on The Drawbacks of Mass Communication' (1953)

   This screed against mass-media appeared in a 1953 issue of The New York Times, it was an excerpt from an article written by British novelist J.B. Priestly for The Newstatesman. Today people yearn for the days of unsocial mass-media, but we forget that once mass-media was a strange new cultural...

   Aug 2, 2021

   8m
7. 6

   ✈️ 'The Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly' - The New York Times, October 9th, 1903

   69 days before the Wright Brothers achieved manned flight The New York Times posited it could take between 1 and 10 million years to achieve. The piece chides those experimenting in the field and posits that human ingenuity will never achieve what evolution had done over millions of years. The...

   Jul 19, 2021

   5m
8. 5

   📷 “Photographs are made to lie” (1897) + 🚲 “Bicycle Insanity” (1896)

   These two pieces from the last decade of the 1900s cover two big consumer trends at the time: personal photographs and bicycle riding. Photographs of oneself were popular, as they are now and so was retouching! Photoshop used to mean a literal photography shop where edits were made to photos to...

   Jul 15, 2021

   4m
9. 4

   🪞 'Those Deadly Little Mirrors' - Chicago Tribune, 1912

   In 1912 hand mirror use evoked similar reactions to smartphones today, the Chicago Tribune reported: "WOMEN CONSTANTLY WALK INTO DANGER. Accidents which are due to women’s passion for looking in mirrors in stores are slight compared with ones which result from the use of the fascinating little…

   more
   Jul 3, 2021

   8m
10. 3

    ♟️'Chess Playing Excitement' - Scientific American, 1859

    ♟️ The year is 1859, American Paul Morphy had just defeated Europe's top chess masters leading to a surge of interest among the American public. Scientific American tried to quell the hype, suggesting chess playing was a waste of time that would be better spent outside, the piece stated: "A game…

    more
    Jun 26, 2021

    4m
11. 2

    📖 ‘Reading in Bed’ (1909) + ✈️ ‘Aeroplane Face’ (1908)

    It was the first decade of the 1900s, the bicycle was now mainstream and manned flight was still a curious novelty, oh and reading in bed a dysfunctional sin. Sources: Aeroplane Face: http://digital.chipublib.org/digital/collection/examiner/id/12588/ • 🤳📰 View in AR:...

    Jun 18, 2021

    8m
12. 1

    🎙 "Mr. Edison Has Invented Too Many Things" - The New York Times, 1878

    'THE AEROPHONE' - The New York Times, March 25, 1878, Page 4 • 🤳🗞 VIEW IN AR: https://bit.ly/3uMHcGZ In 1878 The New York Times wrote a scathing article on Thomas Edison and his little known invention the 'Aerophone' (a giant megaphone.) The piece began "Something ought to be done to Mr.…

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    Jun 2, 2021

    7m