Introducing: What We Spend
Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the f...
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Society & Culture
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College
It’s the groves of academe: Bennington College, the wildest and wickedest school in America. In the last great decade: the 1980s. Bennington class of ’86, class of Bret Easton Ellis, future...
Episodes
20 of 29 episodes
S2 | Ep 14: It Was Like I Went Where I Failed To Go
1994 to the present day. Jonathan Lethem comes from behind. And just whose world are we living in anyway—Bret’s, Donna’s or Jonathan’s?
S2 | Ep 13: The Farmer’s Granddaughter
Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York, New York. Spring of 1986 to Fall of 1994. The Secret History is published. Plus, “The Purge” comes to...
S2 | Ep 12: Sensational Sensationalism
New York City. Spring of 1987 to Spring of 1991. Patrick Bateman is born.
S2 | Ep 11: Disturbing Michiko Kakutani
Bennington and New York City. Autumn, 1985-spring, 1986. Less Than Zero is published and Bret becomes a cultural phenomenon. Bret also becom...
S2 | Ep 10: An Impossible Shade of Green
Bennington. Autumn, 1983-Spring, 1986. Donna begins The Secret History . Donna throws tea parties and frequents martini hours. Donna bides h...
S2 | Ep 9: Entering Into the Sublime
Bennington. Spring, 1983. Donna Tartt becomes “Donna Tartt.” Jonathan Lethem becomes an angry young man.
S2 | Ep 8: Murder By Numbers
Bennington. Spring, 1983-Spring, 1985. Bret lives The Rules of Attraction , then sells Less Than Zero . Bret befriends David Lipsky, then be...
S2 | Ep 7: Donna Lou
Mississippi, 1963-1982. Donna’s origin story. And Lord Jim... revealed?
S2 | Ep 6: Mississippi Chippy
Winter, 1982-1983. Over Non-Resident term, Donna gets closer to Jonathan, and becomes Paul McGloin's "Burning Boy."
S2 | Ep 5: Bennington Revisited
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Donna falls under the thrall of a magus-like professor, and the very small, very elite, very male band of students...
S2 | Ep 4: Disappear There
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Bret and Donna go on a date.
S2 | Ep 3: An Alley Along Melrose
Los Angeles, 1981-1982. “This rumor went around in 1981, 1982, that kids just were brought to see the body of another kid.” The origin story...
S2 | Ep 2: Bret Ellis, Valley Boy
Los Angeles, 1980-1981. “There was just this huge sense that the world was gay, gay, gay.” The origin story of Bret Easton Ellis (and Less T...
S2 | Ep 1: Dis-Orientation
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Donna, Jonathan and Bret arrive on the campus of the school nicknamed “The Little Red Whorehouse on the Hill.” One...
Welcome to "Once Upon A Time... at Bennington College"
It’s the groves of academe: Bennington College, the wildest and wickedest school in America. In the last great decade: the 1980s. Bennington...
Once Upon a Time... in the Valley S1 | Ep 12: After The Afterglow
A crucial new piece of information comes to light.
Once Upon a Time... in the Valley S1 | Ep 11: Afterglow
Traci Lords as the key to pop culture in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Once Upon a Time... in the Valley S1 | Ep 10: Who Ratted Out Traci?
The mystery is (maybe) solved. And we hear directly—and at length—from 1985 Traci, in a never-before-aired interview.
Once Upon a Time... in the Valley S1 | Ep 9: The Ghost of Shauna Grant
We return to the Valley, and it looks a whole lot different this time around.