ICYMI: Decoder Ring: What’s Really Going On Inside a Mosh Pit?

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The mosh pit has a reputation as a violent place where (mostly) white guys vent their aggression. There’s some truth to that, but it’s also a place bound by camaraderie and—believe it or not—etiquette. In this episode, we explore the unwritten rules of this 50-year-old live-music phenomenon with punks, concertgoers, and a heavy-metal physicist. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin with Katie Shepherd. This episode was written by Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Willa Paskin and Andrea Bruce, with help from Joel Meyer. Derek John is Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Vivien Goldman, Paolo Ragusa, and Philip Moriarty, whose insights and research on moshing were crucial to this episode. You can create your own mosh pit using this simulator developed by Jesse Silverberg and his colleagues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Rachel Hampton, and you listening to ICOIMI.
0:16.5	In case you missed it, Slates podcast about internet culture, and it has been a while since
0:21.3	you've heard me be that by myself.
0:23.8	Well, today I'm doing it by myself because we actually have a special treat.
0:27.8	We are bringing you a very fun episode from Slates award-winning Dakota Ring podcast.
0:34.1	In this episode, Dakota Ring explores the un-riding rules of a 50-year-old, live music phenomenon.
0:42.0	The Mosh Pit, Dakota Ring talks to concert goers, and a heavy metal physicist.
0:49.8	And without further ado, here's the show.
0:56.3	Before we begin, this episode contains adult language.
1:08.0	In 1991, when Joel Meyer, a senior editor and producer at Flate, was 14 years old, he went
1:13.5	to the very first La La Paloza concert tour when it stopped in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1:19.0	It might have even been my first concert without a parent involved.
1:23.0	There were so many bands he and his friends loved playing.
1:26.8	Jane's addiction, living color, and especially Henry Rollins from the hardcore band, Black
1:33.0	Flag.
1:34.0	We thought he was kind of the coolest guy that we had ever seen.
1:41.0	As Joel and his buddies watched Henry Rollins sweating and shirtless and caught up in the
1:45.5	moment, they got caught up in the moment, too, full of energy and fearlessness and adolescent
1:50.9	boy-oomph.
1:51.9	They decided they needed to go into the Mosh Pit.
1:57.6	Because I'm a very cautious and conservative person by nature, I think I was maybe the last
2:01.8	person to go in, but then I get it.
	...

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