logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2015
1h 5m

Ep 132 - 1984, by George Orwell (Bonus E...

HeadGum
About this episode

There's a reason why words like "Orwellian" and "thoughtcrime" have stuck in the public consciousness for more than 65 years, and that reason is George Orwell's 1984.

A denser, more complex read than Orwell's also-famous Animal Farm, 1984 is a story about systemic government oppression and the dark side of humanity. We lighten up the proceedings a bit with talk about not one but TWO Hank Williams Jr. songs, the wonders of modern technology, and criticism of criticism of criticism.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Oct 6
Ep 723 - Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove
A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of ... Show More
1h 16m
Sep 29
Ep 722 - The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy o ... Show More
1h 9m
Sep 27
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 03 - The Truth About Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club #3)
The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitte ... Show More
47m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2020
1984 Explained | George Orwell
George Orwell depicts what a world could possibly look like under an authoritarian regime in his dystopian novel 1984, coining neologisms such as Big Brother, Thoughtcrime and Doublethink.     Published in 1949, it remains highly influential in popular culture, and you have proba ... Show More
11m 12s
Aug 2019
Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell's dystopian classic
The vision of the future evoked in George Orwell’s last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was so terrifying to its first readers that some claimed to be unable to sleep at night. When the book was adapted by the BBC for the new medium of television after Orwell’s death, millions became ... Show More
39m 46s
Oct 2021
Folge 1/4 von "1984"
Winston Smith arbeitet im 'Ministerium für Wahrheit‘ und ist damit beschäftigt, alte Zeitungsberichte und somit das vergangene Geschichtsbild fortlaufend an die gerade herrschende Parteilinie anzupassen. Doch Winston hegt Zweifel an dem totalitären System und notiert seine verbot ... Show More
1h 2m
Aug 2016
03 – How To Run An Efficient Dystopia – Taylorism and Science Fiction Cities
George & Luke survey three dystopian cities; the glass perfection of Yvegny Zamyatin’s ‘We’, the consumer World State of Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, and the shattered ruin of George Orwell’s ‘1984’. Competing visions of technological progress gone awry, and the real-world ... Show More
1h 34m
Aug 2023
History of Ideas: George Orwell
This week David discusses George Orwell’s ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ (1941), his great wartime essay about what it does – and doesn’t – mean to be English. How did the English manage to resist fascism? How are the English going to defeat fascism? These were two different question ... Show More
55m 46s
Mar 2023
Michael and Us: My Orwell Left or Right
George Orwell's popularity is at a new high in the post-Trump era, and he's been claimed by both the left and right. We discuss NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984), Michael Radford's feature-film adaptation of Orwell's most famous novel, and try to rescue a self-described socialist from ... Show More
48m 31s
Aug 2017
George Orwell and Animal Farm
The novel Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of the communist leader Joseph Stalin. It was first published shortly after the end of World War Two, as the Cold War was just beginning. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Orwell's adopted son, Rich ... Show More
9m 3s
Mar 2024
Sandra Newman on her Retelling of 1984
Sandra Newman was given one assignment by the Orwell Estate: Re-write 1984 from the point of view of the character Julia.Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell’s 1984 
26m 8s