The PBS Unconscious: Childhood Wonder, Nostalgia, and the Collapse of Shared American Culture

What happens to a generation raised on the civic idealism of public broadcasting when the world it promised never arrives? In this episode, Craig is joined by Emma Stamm and Bob Langan to unpack his recent blog post Corduroy Psychedelia: Boards of Canada and the PBS Unconscious — an exploration of nostalgia, childhood wonder, and the shared cultural commons that neoliberalism quietly dismantled. Drawing on Mark Fisher's hauntology and acid communism, Spinoza's theory of affect, and the uncanny aesthetics of films like Picnic at Hanging Rock, the conversation asks whether the affects instilled in us by PBS, Napster, and late-night diners might still carry some political charge. From Boards of Canada dads to the death of the diner, this is a wide-ranging meditation on what it means to grieve a future that never came.

"Corduroy Psychedelia: On Boards of Canada, Hauntology, and the PBS Unconscious": https://splitinfinities.substack.com/p/corduroy-psychedelia-on-boards-of

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