American Utopia artwork

American Utopia

14 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 24 ratings

American Utopia tells the story of the Oneida Community, a radical 19th century free-love experiment in communal living. Building on his own research as well as interviews with top historians, host Dan Greenstone illuminates the fascinating lives of the liberated women and men who overturned society’s conventions about marriage, love, sex, work and childrearing. Subscribe now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes

: Madness on Trial: Dan's New Podcast Series

September 16, 2022 06:00 - 3 minutes - 2.11 MB

Introducing Dan's new podcast series, Madness on Trial. Have you seen that John Hinckley Jr. is starting a music career? For real. He's planning a "Redemption Tour." When I first saw this, it kinda broke my brain and sent me down a research rabbit hole. Well, I've  come out the other side with a new podcast called Madness on Trial. It's a deep dive into  Hinckley's trial (the most important insanity defense case of the last century) and the history of the insanity defense. We've just release...

Communes USA! New Podcast Series

March 31, 2022 15:00 - 1 minute - 897 KB

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/communes-usa/id1616896543 Hey folks, I'm co-hosting a brand new limited podcast series that, if you like this one, is for you. It's called Communes USA! I co-host it with Christian Goodwillie of Hamilton college--he's a leading scholar of communal studies and was one of the experts on this show.  Together with a mix of guests that includes former commune members and several authors, we explore the past and present of communal living experiments, including...

Check Out Dan's New Documentary Film--Far Out West

August 26, 2021 00:00 - 1 minute - 1.2 MB

Hey folks, I just wanted to let you know about my new documentary film, Far Out West: Inside California's Kerista Commune. It's available now on Amazon, (or for iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu click here).    The Kerista Commune (1971-1991) is the closest thing we have to a modern day descendant of Oneida. Kerista was a group marriage, that had a charismatic leader, a form of Mutual Criticism (which they named Gestalt-o-Rama) a successful company.  And the parallels are even more erie--they ra...

Episode 8: Remember Oneida?

April 04, 2018 04:00 - 33 minutes - 15.4 MB

How should we remember Oneida? Was John Humphrey Noyes a cult leader, akin to David Koresh? Did the communards of Oneida achieve their goals? Were the people who lived there happy? What can we, today, learn from the experience of Oneida? In this, the final episode of American Utopia, we answer these questions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Episode 7: Breaking Up

March 28, 2018 04:00 - 49 minutes - 22.9 MB

On a summer night In 1879, wearing socks but no shoes, John Humphrey Noyes crept out of the Oneida Community Mansion House, and fled to Canada. He never returned to community he'd created. And soon after his escape the remaining residents of Oneida voted to end Communal living. This is the story of why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 6: Sticky Love

March 21, 2018 04:00 - 37 minutes - 17.6 MB

At the Oneida Community, everything was meant to be shared, including sex and love. And becoming too attached (or sticky) to another person, especially a lover, was regarded as sinful. But it turns out that sharing love is really, really hard. Even if, like John Humphrey Noyes, you're perfect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 6: Sticky Love

March 21, 2018 04:00 - 37 minutes - 17.6 MB

At the Oneida Community, everything was meant to be shared, including sex and love. And becoming too attached (or sticky) to another person, especially a lover, was regarded as sinful. But it turns out that sharing love is really, really hard. Even if, like John Humphrey Noyes, you're perfect.

Episode 5: The Assassin and the Prophet

March 14, 2018 04:00 - 35 minutes - 16.7 MB

In 1881, an Oneida Community alumnus named Charles J. Guiteau, shot and killed president James A. Garfield. And in many ways, Guiteau’s trial centered on the six year period that Guiteau had spent at Oneida. Guiteau’s lawyers, who mounted one of the first uses of the insanity defense, argued that the tyrannical policies and leadership style of John Humphrey Noyes had sent their client over the edge. And while Guiteau’s portrait of Noyes was hyperbolic and self serving, there was some truth to...

Episode 4: Building Utopia

March 07, 2018 05:00 - 39 minutes - 18.5 MB

In 1848, when word of his free-love practices spread in his hometown of Putney, Vermont, John Humphrey Noyes and a few followers fled to Oneida Creek, in central New York state. There, bucking terrible odds, a harsh climate, and the nostalgic pull of the agrarian past, Noyes, and his followers managed to build a flourishing, vibrant community of 300 people who lived and loved together under one giant roof. This is the story of how they did it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Episode 3: First Comes Marriage

February 28, 2018 05:00 - 44 minutes - 20.8 MB

Dan and historian Stephanie Coontz talk vibrators, graham crackers, and female orgasms, as they try to make sense of Oneida's Complex Marriage system, in which 300 adults were (heterosexually) married to each other. This (complicated!) arrangement grew directly out of the wide ranging, and sophisticated, critique of 19th century marriage and family structure put forth by John Humprhrey Noyes, Oneida's founder. Dan and Stephanie evaluate both Noyes' critique of 19th century sex, love and marri...

Episode 2: A Perfect Man

February 28, 2018 05:00 - 36 minutes - 16.9 MB

In this episode we meet Oneida's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a painfully shy boy whose life and character are transformed after he attends a wild, four day religious revival. We watch as Noyes becomes a religious and sexual revolutionary so extreme that Yale College expels him. Still, Noyes manages to convince himself, and others, that he's actually perfect. And with the help of historians Christian Goodwillie and Ellen Wayland Smith, we compare Noyes’ ideas to those of other fringe religi...

Episode 2: A Perfect Man

February 28, 2018 05:00 - 36 minutes - 16.9 MB

In this episode we meet Oneida's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a painfully shy boy whose life and character are transformed after he attends a wild, four day religious revival. We watch as Noyes becomes a religious and sexual revolutionary so extreme that Yale College expels him. Still, Noyes manages to convince himself, and others, that he's actually perfect. And with the help of historians Christian Goodwillie and Ellen Wayland Smith, we compare Noyes’ ideas to those of other fringe religi...

Episode 1: Harriet Worden's Whiplash

February 28, 2018 05:00 - 43 minutes - 20.3 MB

In the first episode of American Utopia, we meet Harriet Worden. After Harriet's mother died, Harriet's father, in a decision that would profoundly shape her life, brought his 9 year old daughter to live in the brand new Oneida Community. Through Harriet's eyes, we learn about the excruciating process of Mutual Criticism, what it was like to grow up in the Children's House, the vibrant cultural pursuits that made life joyous, and the complicated, and sometimes painful sexual practices of the ...

Preview: American Utopia

February 20, 2018 05:00 - 2 minutes - 1.46 MB

American Utopia tells the story of the Oneida Community, a radical 19th century free-love experiment in communal living. Building on his own research, as well as interviews with top historians, host Dan Greenstone illuminates the fascinating lives of the liberated women and men who overturned society’s conventions about gender, marriage, love, sex, work and childrearing. Subscribe now and be sure not to miss the first episode, which comes out on Wednesday, February 28th. Hosted on Acast. Se...