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One Day in 1977: Elvis, the Pledge, and Extraterrestrials

Josh Levin, host of Slate's ‘One Year’ podcast, curates fascinating reads about three wildly different events on a single day in August 1977 and their impact on America.

Josh Levin

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What I love about hosting One Year is that the show is not about any one thing. Our first season, on 1977, is a mishmash of super-famous and little-known stories on all kinds of subjects. From Gay rights to drug policy, feminism to cancer treatment — all those narratives bounce off each other in weird and unexpected ways. Together, they give a sense of what it was like to live through that specific moment in time, when it seemed like the country’s rules were getting rewritten.

The fifth episode of One Year: 1977 was an experiment in form. It’s about three distinct events that took place on a single day in August 1977: The death of Elvis Presley, a New Jersey high schooler going to court to protect her right to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance, and astronomers in Ohio finding a mysterious signal from outer space. Three distinct events means three different research rabbit holes… and a whole lot more than three open tabs. I’m sharing some of the highlights here.

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Where Were You When Elvis Died?

Josh Levin: “Lester Bangs’ obituary for Elvis Presley captures the singer’s titanic importance while deflating the cult of the King. And Bangs is prescient in calling Elvis’ death the end of mass culture, writing that ‘we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis.’”

A Big Hunk O’ Love

JL: “Two minutes of pure Elvis in the ‘70s vibes. Elvis says ‘big hunk,’ and then the piano kicks in.”

Can 17,000,000 Readers Be Wrong?

JL: “Our episode focuses on the National Enquirer’s quest to get a photo of Elvis in his coffin. This is a tremendous portrait of the Enquirer at the height of its powers: ‘Money is almost paper clips... we can easily be spending $20,000 for something that's going to end up in the trashcan.’”

Court Will Rule on Girl’s Suit Against Standing for Pledge

JL: “The New York Times, as it has the power to do, turned a local dispute into a national scandal. Come for the story, stay for the photo of 16-year-old Pledge of Allegiance critic Deborah Lipp posed patriotically in front of an American flag.”

The Thirty-One Words

JL: “A great history of the pledge and where it came from. Spoiler, it was a marketing gimmick to sell American flags!”

Texas Supports School That Expelled Student Over Pledge of Allegiance

JL: “Our story is about a student getting threatened for a pledge-related infraction in 1977. Forty-four years later, that’s still happening.”

We Wait and Wonder

JL: “The Wow! signal is the biggest unexplained mystery in the world of SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence). A team of astronomers found the signal in 1977 but didn’t go public with it until 1979.”

The Father of SETI: Q&A With Astronomer Frank Drake

JL: “The guy behind SETI, Frank Drake, has lots of thoughts about the right and wrong way to look for alien life.”

“In Search Of…” Leonard Nimoy’s 1970s Reality Show

JL: “The team that uncovered the Wow! signal got featured on the Leonard Nimoy show In Search Of…, a series that also included episodes on the Bermuda Triangle and Bigfoot.”

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Elvis, the Pledge, and Extraterrestrials [LISTEN]

Listen to the full episode here.