American Utopia

Sep 15 2022 62
American Utopia Podcast artwork

American Utopia tells the story of the Oneida Community, a radical 19th century free-love experiment in communal living. Building on his own research as well as interviews with top historians, host Dan Greenstone illuminates the fascinating lives of the liberated women and men who overturned society’s conventions about marriage, love, sex, work and childrearing. Subscribe now.
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: Madness on Trial: Dan's New Podcast Series

Sep 15 2022 3 mins  
Introducing Dan's new podcast series, Madness on Trial. Have you seen that John Hinckley Jr. is starting a music career? For real. He's planning a "Redemption Tour." When I first saw this, it kinda broke my brain and sent me down a research rabbit hole. Well, I've come out the other side with a new podcast called Madness on Trial. It's a deep dive into

Communes USA! New Podcast Series

Mar 31 2022 1 mins  
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Check Out Dan's New Documentary Film--Far Out West

Aug 25 2021 1 mins  
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Episode 8: Remember Oneida?

Apr 03 2018 33 mins  
How should we remember Oneida? Was John Humphrey Noyes a cult leader, akin to David Koresh? Did the communards of Oneida achieve their goals? Were the people who lived there happy? What can we, today, learn from the experience of Oneida? In this, the final episode of American Utopia, we answer these questions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Episode 7: Breaking Up

Mar 27 2018 49 mins  
On a summer night In 1879, wearing socks but no shoes, John Humphrey Noyes crept out of the Oneida Community Mansion House, and fled to Canada. He never returned to community he'd created. And soon after his escape the remaining residents of Oneida voted to end Communal living. This is the story of why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 6: Sticky Love

Mar 20 2018 37 mins  
At the Oneida Community, everything was meant to be shared, including sex and love. And becoming too attached (or sticky) to another person, especially a lover, was regarded as sinful. But it turns out that sharing love is really, really hard. Even if, like John Humphrey Noyes, you're perfect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 5: The Assassin and the Prophet

Mar 13 2018 35 mins  
In 1881, an Oneida Community alumnus named Charles J. Guiteau, shot and killed president James A. Garfield. And in many ways, Guiteau’s trial centered on the six year period that Guiteau had spent at Oneida. Guiteau’s lawyers, who mounted one of the first uses of the insanity defense, argued that the tyrannical policies and leadership style of John Humphrey Noyes had sent their

Episode 4: Building Utopia

Mar 06 2018 39 mins  
In 1848, when word of his free-love practices spread in his hometown of Putney, Vermont, John Humphrey Noyes and a few followers fled to Oneida Creek, in central New York state. There, bucking terrible odds, a harsh climate, and the nostalgic pull of the agrarian past, Noyes, and his followers managed to build a flourishing, vibrant community of 300 people who lived and loved toget

Episode 1: Harriet Worden's Whiplash

Feb 27 2018 43 mins  
In the first episode of American Utopia, we meet Harriet Worden. After Harriet's mother died, Harriet's father, in a decision that would profoundly shape her life, brought his 9 year old daughter to live in the brand new Oneida Community. Through Harriet's eyes, we learn about the excruciating process of Mutual Criticism, what it was like to grow up in the Children&a

Episode 2: A Perfect Man

Feb 27 2018 36 mins  
In this episode we meet Oneida's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a painfully shy boy whose life and character are transformed after he attends a wild, four day religious revival. We watch as Noyes becomes a religious and sexual revolutionary so extreme that Yale College expels him. Still, Noyes manages to convince himself, and others, that he's actually perfect. And with th