One Year 1955: Siberia, USA
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While the What Next team enjoys today's holiday, we are proud to present this episode on viral misinformation in 1955 from our colleagues at Slate's One Year. What Next will be back tomorrow.
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, what next listeners? I've got a special episode for you today. |
| 0:03.4 | It comes from fellow sleep podcast one year. Their newest season looks at the most captivating stories |
| 0:10.5 | from 1955, including a strange tale about the threat of communist brainwashing. |
| 0:17.2 | Decades before moms for Liberty took aim at the so-called indoctrination of children, |
| 0:22.4 | a group of far-right housewives spread the conspiracy theory that the government was building |
| 0:27.4 | a concentration camp for conservatives in Alaska. Get ready for a wild ride involving |
| 0:34.0 | psychiatry and Scientology. One that tells us a lot about how modern disinformation campaigns |
| 0:40.0 | take root and spread. Make sure to subscribe to One Year and hear the entire season of 1955. |
| 0:47.1 | Here is host Josh Lewin. I hope you're enjoying our season on 1955. This week we have another story |
| 0:55.0 | from senior producer Evan Chung. Growing up in Fairbanks in the 1950s, Karen |
| 1:01.5 | Produce says every Alaskan kid learned the same phrase. There's only three places for you to go. |
| 1:07.9 | Inside, outside, or morning side. Inside meant they'd keep living at home in Alaska. |
| 1:14.2 | Outside meant they'd move to the continental United States. And morning side meant morning |
| 1:20.2 | side hospital, a mental institution more than 2,000 miles away in Portland, Oregon. |
| 1:27.2 | If you were a child and your mother or father wanted you to do something, sometimes they would |
| 1:32.8 | say to you, you know, if you don't get your act together, you might be going to morning side. |
| 1:38.3 | So it was a scary place. Because if you ever needed mental health care, |
| 1:45.1 | morning side is where you would be shipped off to. There were no treatment centers in the entire |
| 1:50.8 | American territory of Alaska. None of those things existed. Alaska was still a very isolated |
| 1:57.9 | territory. There just was not any care. Morningside wasn't a government run facility. |
| 2:05.2 | It was a private, family-owned institution somehow charged with taking care of every mentally |
| 2:11.7 | ill patient from Alaska. The process to get care at morningside was grueling and bizarre. |
... |
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