Five decades after sparking the counterculture movement, the Grateful Dead are more alive than ever, and filmmaker Emmett Malloy wants to find out how. In this limited-run series from Sonos, join Emmett as he unpacks how a band of misfits changed American music, culture and consciousness forever, as told through the eyes of Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Animal Collective, mycologist Paul Stamets, Lila Downs, Margo Price and many more. What can the Grateful Dead tell us... about us?
Produced by work x work for Sonos
Finding Sobriety Through the Dead, with Grateful Don
We arrive at the last episode of our show, and a new understanding of the power of the Dead community. For this one, we’re turning our episode over to Grateful Don, founder of the sobriety group the Wharf Rats, to tell his story.
15 Sept 2022
Branford Marsalis Believes in Deadheads
Branford Marsalis is a world famous jazz saxophonist and three time GRAMMY Award winner. Then, in the early 90s, Marsalis joined the Dead onstage for a series of shows now widely considered to be the best of that era. For Branford, it wasn’t the music that stuck with him from that experience, it was how the audience was listening to it. In this episode, Branford Marsalis on why Deadheads are different from all other music fans.
15 Sept 2022
The Creation of a Visual Language, with ESPO and Online Ceramics
“The dancing bears, the steal your face logo, they're probably known on Mars at this point,” says artist ESPO. In this episode, we’re asking why these images have such staying power, and Emmett talks to LA streetwear label Online Ceramics, who’s Dead-inspired tee shirts have introduced a whole new generation to the psychedelic era. Once you speak the Dead’s visual language, you’ll see it everywhere.
15 Sept 2022
How the Dead Changed Lila Downs’ Life
Lila Downs is a six time GRAMMY winner who has recorded duets with artists from Santana to Nora Jones and even sang for Barack Obama at the white house. But before all that, Lila was living on the road, traveling with the Dead and selling jewelry on Shakedown Street.
15 Sept 2022
Mac DeMarco and Animal Collective are Channeling the Dead
Emmett sits down with Mac DeMarco and members of the band Animal Collective, artists who are keeping the spirit of the Dead alive today – not just in the music they make, but in the community they cultivate. In this episode, we look at how bands today draw inspiration from the Dead, from live recordings to prolific touring.
15 Sept 2022
Paul Stamets Says Eat Your Mushrooms
It all began with a bag of mushrooms… and a bolt of lightning. Today, Paul Stamets is the world’s most famous mycologist (mushroom scientist) but we begin by going back to the fateful day when young Paul, loaded up on psilocybin, climbed a tree in the middle of a thunderstorm. In this episode, Paul’s story is our gateway to learning about the long strange history of psychedelics in America, and how the Dead brought mushrooms mainstream.
15 Sept 2022
Margo Price and Bob Weir in Conversation
Margo Price is a true force in country music. Political, opinionated, an incredible creative talent. Her latest project is a new podcast from Sonos called Runaway Horses. Margo just released an amazing interview with the Dead’s Bob Weir, and in this special feed drop, we’re passing the reins to Margo to hear her interview in full.
15 Sept 2022
The Strange Hippie Default Mechanism, with Sam Cutler
“The Grateful Dead viewed the very idea of planning as being some kind of fascist concept” says Sam Culter, the Dead’s tour manager from 1969 to 1974. Cutler is the guy who finally turned the Dead into a business, but it was an uphill battle the whole way. “The business model was made essentially by a kind of strange hippie default mechanism that worked in mysterious ways.” In this episode, stories from inside the strange hippie default mechanism. Emmett sits down with Sam Cutler and the stories get… pretty unbelievable.
15 Sept 2022
The Dead are Channeling God, with Dr. Varun Soni and Sage
“The Grateful Dead saved me,” says Dr. Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. And he’s not alone. In this episode, Dr. Soni argues that the Dead are actually a religion, and we meet Sage, a student of Dr. Soni, whose encounter with the Dead’s music at age 21 has helped guide both her gender transition and spiritual growth.
15 Sept 2022
Ezra Koenig, in Defense of the Dead
Ezra Koenig is an unlikely evangelist for the Grateful Dead, and that’s exactly why we brought him on the show. In this first episode of America’s Dead, hear the Vampire Weekend frontman defend the wisdom of “hippie psychedelic nonsense” and reveal what has inspired him most as a songwriter. Plus in this episode, Koenig imagines that if Kurt Cobain were alive today, he too would be a Deadhead.
8 Sept 2022
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Five decades after sparking the counterculture movement, the Grateful Dead are more alive than ever, and filmmaker Emmett Malloy wants to find out how. In this limited-run series from Sonos, join Emmett as he unpacks how a band of misfits changed American music, culture and consciousness forever, as told through the eyes of Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Animal Collective, mycologist Paul Stamets, Lila Downs, Margo Price and many more. What can the Grateful Dead tell us... about us?
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.7 / 5
72 ratings
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