One Year: 1955 - Siberia, USA

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Alaskans wanted their own mental-health facility, a rumor took hold all over America. This week, Evan Chung traces the origins of that far-right conspiracy theory: that the government was building a concentration camp where Americans would get imprisoned for their political beliefs. Get ready for a strange tale that involves a brainwashing manual, Scientology, and a vast network of Communist-hunting housewives. Josh Levin is One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung. This episode was produced by Kelly Jones and Evan Chung, with additional production by Sophie Summergrad. It was edited by Josh Levin, Joel Meyer, and Derek John, Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Join Slate Plus to get a bonus 1955 story at the end of the season. Slate Plus members also get to listen to all Slate podcasts without any ads. Sign up now to support One Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is surprising, is it going on holiday in Britain and it not raining every day?
0:09.6	Is it booking an Uber and being picked up by your grand?
0:15.5	Is it realising your cat has more friends than you?
0:21.3	Or is it finding the best of the NFL to stream free on ITVX?
0:25.2	You be the judge ITVX, the UK's freshest streaming service.
0:55.9	I like to meet people who can make me laugh.
0:59.6	Please subscribe.
1:02.1	Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of One Year. I hope you're enjoying our season on
1:06.8	1955. This week, we have another story from senior producer Evan Chung.
1:13.9	Growing up in Fairbanks in the 1950s, Karen Produce says every Alaskan kid learned the same phrase.
1:21.2	There's only three places for you to go. Inside, outside, or morningside.
1:26.3	Inside meant they'd keep living at home in Alaska.
1:29.7	Outside meant they'd move to the continental United States.
1:33.3	And morningside meant morningside hospital, a mental institution, more than 2,000 miles away
1:40.6	in Portland, Oregon.
1:42.8	If you were a child and your mother or father wanted you to do something,
1:47.6	sometimes they would say to you, you know, if you don't get your act together,
1:51.2	you might be going to morningside. So it was a scary place.
1:57.6	Because if you ever needed mental health care,
2:00.6	morningside is where you would be shipped off to.
2:03.6	There were no treatment centers in the entire American territory of Alaska.
2:09.2	None of those things existed. Alaska was still a very isolated territory.
	...

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