1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Cool People. Did Cool Stuff your 3 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:12,080 Speaker 2: weekly reminder that people can do cool stuff when they're 4 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 2: cool people. I'm Margaret Kiljoy. I'm your host sort of. 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 2: Usually this time it's a reverse episode that I like 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 2: to call Ren explains things to me, eh eh, instead 7 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 2: of the book men explain things to me. 8 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I'll take it. Yeah, I mean I 9 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 3: do like explaining things on occasion when I know about them. 10 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:37,560 Speaker 2: Excellent. That's Reren ren or I who is the author 11 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,160 Speaker 2: of Nourishing Resistance, which is a book available from PM Press, 12 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 2: And basically, Ren is the person that whenever I have 13 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 2: like food history related questions, is a very strange life 14 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 2: that I lead that this comes up regularly, that I 15 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,559 Speaker 2: have food history related questions and I ask Gren. So 16 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 2: Ren has agreed to do a whole reverse episode for us. 17 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 3: Hi Ren, Yes, And I should just mention I'm the 18 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 3: editor of Nourishing Resistance, not the author. Okay, just because 19 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 3: there's so many different contributors, I want to make sure 20 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,399 Speaker 3: to highlight that. But yes, thank you. 21 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 2: Yeah cool? So wait, I want to I have to 22 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 2: introduce everyone else first too, Yeah yeah cool? Okay, because 23 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,279 Speaker 2: Sophie Sophie Lichterman, Hey is our uh producer? I forgot 24 00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 2: your title for a moment, I don't have a title. 25 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 2: God King and our audio engineers Ian, everyone say Hi, Ian, Hi, 26 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 2: Ian Hienne, Hi, everybody, We're here in a surprise twist. 27 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 2: I really love this. Yeah, but bye bye bye. I 28 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 2: have a good recording. 29 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 3: I'm honored to be here on the day that that 30 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 3: Ian makes a. 31 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 2: And our theme music was written for us by an 32 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 2: woman and now Wren, I have no idea what this episode. 33 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 2: I have a vague idea because you you tell me 34 00:01:57,160 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 2: things that I'm not allowed to research, because I tell 35 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 2: other people when they come on what they're not allowed 36 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 2: to research, but I try not to give it away. Totally. Yeah, 37 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:06,919 Speaker 2: I don't quite know what's going to happen. 38 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 3: Great love that so I was wondering Margaret and Sophie. 39 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 3: First off, a question when you think of revolutionary movements 40 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,080 Speaker 3: and countercultures in like the nineteen sixties and seventies, what 41 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 3: comes to mind? 42 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:21,399 Speaker 2: Hippies? 43 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, hippies, Yeah, great answer. 44 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 2: Free love, black panthers. 45 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, you're like naming a lot of things that 46 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 3: are going to be in this episode. Community community, yeah, totally. 47 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 3: So I'm glad I asked you all this question. Great start, 48 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 3: But when you think of these things, do you think 49 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 3: of food? 50 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 4: I mean, I'm always thinking about food, but that's just me. 51 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 4: But to this specific question, I don't think the first 52 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 4: thing I thought of was food totally. 53 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 3: But when you do think about food, like food of 54 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 3: the sixties and seventies, what comes to mind? 55 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I I briefly covered because of a thing 56 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 2: you sent me on an episode. I briefly covered whole 57 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,200 Speaker 2: wheat bread as relates to this, And I also think 58 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 2: of soup and those are it? And then like pretending 59 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 2: that drugs are food. 60 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 4: Hmmmm, totally, yeah, I think I think fondu. 61 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 3: You know what fondu is not everything else is in 62 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 3: this episode, which I think actually probably has more to 63 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 3: do with the fact that Margaret and I talk about 64 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 3: history too much, so that like, even though you don't 65 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 3: know what this is about, you've kind of gotten a 66 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 3: little bit of a head start. But everything that you 67 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 3: said is going to make an appearance except for fondue. 68 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 3: So I'm gonna have to like really go back to 69 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 3: the drying board on. 70 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 2: That well, reconvenience. 71 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 3: I also don't know if I've ever had fondue, So 72 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 3: maybe I need to go like try it or something. Anyway, 73 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 3: this episode is going to be about what I would 74 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 3: like loosely call counter cuisine. Counter cuisine is what Warren Blasco, 75 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 3: who wrote a book on the subject called Appetite for Change, 76 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 3: calls the food of the hippie movement and counterculture of 77 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 3: the nineteen sixties and seventies. And we're going to focus 78 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 3: on food and the leftist and anarchistrans of the broader counterculture. 79 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:21,560 Speaker 3: But it's still kind of going to be about hippies, 80 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 3: and it's a the two parter actually has a different 81 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 3: focus on each each side of the part. But we're 82 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 3: going to start by talking about the Diggers. Oh so, 83 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 3: I'm your response, Sophie made me think you had no. 84 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: No, I just got excited. 85 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,919 Speaker 2: I want to make over the topic. 86 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 3: I yeah, So I want to start with the San 87 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 3: Francisco the English. I'm pretty sure they no, I do. Yeah. 88 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:54,719 Speaker 3: I did mention that you have done an episode on 89 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:58,279 Speaker 3: the English Jiggers before and that people can go back 90 00:04:58,320 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 3: and listen to it. And then it's with John dar 91 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 3: Now from the Mountain Goats. But no, we're going to 92 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 3: talk about the San Francisco Diggers and the San Francisco Diggers, 93 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 3: they actually were inspired by the original Diggers, And just 94 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:13,599 Speaker 3: in case listeners haven't heard that episode, the original Diggers 95 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 3: were seventeenth century English communalists. They occupied a hill outside 96 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 3: London and planted it with beans, carrots, and other veggies, 97 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,599 Speaker 3: and they wrote these really radical pamphlets about how quote 98 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 3: unquote the earth should be a common treasury for all. 99 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 3: And the San Francisco Diggers named themselves after these original Diggers, 100 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,000 Speaker 3: and they drew a lot of influence from them. I 101 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 3: should say that you could do like an entire episode 102 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 3: on the San Francisco Diggers. They did so much in 103 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,040 Speaker 3: the three short years they existed. But as a food 104 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 3: history nerd, I mostly interested in their outsized impact on 105 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:49,279 Speaker 3: food based mutual aid. So this segment is going to 106 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:51,720 Speaker 3: focus on that. But I do want to start with 107 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 3: a little bit of background so we know, like who 108 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 3: the Diggers are and how they showed up on this scene. 109 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 3: So the Diggers were first and foremost a theater and 110 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 3: they were formed by members of the San Francisco Meme Troop, 111 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,479 Speaker 3: which apparently is spelled like mime but pronounced like meme 112 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:09,239 Speaker 3: and I don't. 113 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 2: Know, well, like mimetic right, No, I don't know how 114 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 2: use no eight memetic is spelled like meme, the internet thing. 115 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, I have no idea, but I've heard it pronounces 116 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 3: the San Francisco Meme Troop, which is interesting to me. Okay, 117 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 3: but they were but they were like mimean they Yeah, 118 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 3: they did other street theater as well. 119 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 2: Okay, they weren't just like putting like captions under photos 120 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 2: and then posting them up around places. 121 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 3: I mean no, but they kind of were doing like 122 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 3: the nineteen sixties version of those sick Okay, cool, you know, 123 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 3: and the Diggers will too, Like they're all about like 124 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 3: thinking about how the message gets across. I admittedly don't 125 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:48,919 Speaker 3: know as much about the Meme Troop as I do 126 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 3: about the Diggers, but from what I can tell, they 127 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 3: that is a through line in both of these projects. Okay, 128 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,000 Speaker 3: So they were formed by members of the Meme Troop 129 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,719 Speaker 3: in fall nineteen sixty six. The Troops started nineteen fifty nine. 130 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 3: It performed free political satire and it still exists actually 131 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 3: and continues to perform around California. Peter Coyote, one of 132 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 3: the founders of the Diggers, credits the troupe with introducing 133 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 3: him to a way of looking at the world and 134 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 3: analyzing it according to inherently Marxist principles. And he said 135 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 3: that this education was it wasn't necessarily doctor naire but 136 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:27,360 Speaker 3: analysis class capital. Who owned what, who did what, who 137 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 3: worked for what? Okay? So, in the summer of nineteen 138 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 3: sixty six, members of the Meme Troop established an organization 139 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:39,080 Speaker 3: working with others called the Artists Liberation Front. The ALF, 140 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:44,760 Speaker 3: not to be confused with the ALF, opposed the established 141 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 3: art worlds and big art foundations, and they were planning 142 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 3: a street art fair and some future Diggers were involved 143 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 3: in these planning efforts, and while called the Digger contingent, 144 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 3: got really upset when other members of the ALF wanted 145 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 3: to let vendors sell things like food at these fairs. 146 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, everything's free. 147 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 3: Yeah. They were like everything should be free. Yeah. They 148 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 3: believed in a gift economy where everything should be given 149 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:14,040 Speaker 3: away for free. And that was like the line in 150 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 3: the sand that they drew. So they split off. And 151 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,520 Speaker 3: one of the first things they did, is Diggers, was 152 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 3: to circulate these mimeograph broadsides. And no one is entirely 153 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 3: sure what the first broadside was, but the Digger Archives 154 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 3: website argues that it was one called time to Forget, 155 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,720 Speaker 3: and Time to Forget, Like many of their broadsides, is 156 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,280 Speaker 3: pretty snarky and sarcastic. It starts with a list of 157 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:39,720 Speaker 3: things that the reader should quote unquote forget, such as 158 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 3: forget the war and Vietnam flowers are lovely, and forget 159 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 3: police brutality. The cops are your friends. All sarcastic, of course. 160 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 3: Then in all caps it reads You're free to forget, 161 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 3: so forget follow the calm business tactics of the Psychedelic Shop, 162 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:58,119 Speaker 3: the I Am Thou and all other marketeers of expanded 163 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 3: consciousness and dig yourself tech reality only for sex, only 164 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 3: to eat, and only to join the Artists Liberation Front 165 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 3: for your own. 166 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:09,080 Speaker 2: Okay, so it was all basically like fuck sellout hippies 167 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 2: is where it comes from. 168 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, So it starts with that as sort 169 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 3: of the root. Yeah, and I should mention here that 170 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 3: some of the Digger broadsides use what we might cultated language. 171 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,480 Speaker 3: I'm not going to share any of it in this episode, 172 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 3: but it feels important to acknowledge, and it's also like 173 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 3: a broader thing you see within contraculture movements of the 174 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,199 Speaker 3: sixties and seventies, where largely though not exclusively white, groups 175 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 3: like the Diggers would reclaim words in the service of 176 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,800 Speaker 3: what they saw solidarity, but they weren't really like their 177 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 3: words to reclaim right. And there was plenty of misogyny 178 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 3: within these movements too. This is kind of my disclaimer section. 179 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:46,600 Speaker 3: We'll talk more about misogyny later. It's something that'll come 180 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:48,680 Speaker 3: up more in Part two when we're talking about food 181 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 3: co ops. Just a few things to be aware of. 182 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,440 Speaker 3: And while this doesn't come up directly, there's also just 183 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,720 Speaker 3: in general, a lot of cultural appropriation happening in the counterculture, 184 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 3: especially appropriation of religious practices from South and East Asia, 185 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:04,600 Speaker 3: So that feels important to acknowledge too. 186 00:10:04,679 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 2: Well. Like the guy's name that you started with was 187 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:11,080 Speaker 2: like something coyote, and was he a white guy or 188 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:11,880 Speaker 2: was he indigenous? 189 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 3: Like he was not? No, And yeah, and you see 190 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:17,920 Speaker 3: that a lot of the people who started the Diggers 191 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 3: actually were like working class kids from New York City. 192 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,079 Speaker 3: And I don't go into that too much because one 193 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 3: thing I really wanted to do is sort of destabilize 194 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 3: this idea of like figureheads around the Diggers because that 195 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,160 Speaker 3: happens a lot, and it's just like the small handful 196 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:32,600 Speaker 3: of men. So I mention a few of them, but 197 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 3: I don't talk about them. But that is where a 198 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 3: lot of them, yeah from ok so, yeah, and I 199 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:39,680 Speaker 3: believe that was true of Peter Coyote as well, but 200 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,200 Speaker 3: I would fact check me on that. So. So, around 201 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 3: the same time the Diggers started distributing these broadsides, a 202 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 3: police officer murdered Matthew Johnson, a black teenager in the 203 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 3: San Francisco neighborhood of Hunter's Point. This led to what's 204 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,320 Speaker 3: now called the Hunter's Point Uprising, which included six days 205 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:00,440 Speaker 3: of revolts, and Hunter's Point is often just decribed as 206 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 3: a forgotten uprising, but it did inspire two young radicals 207 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,640 Speaker 3: to form what would become a very well known organization. 208 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 3: Any idea what that might be? 209 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:14,760 Speaker 2: This is the Black Panthers. Yep, yeah, the community college kids, right, totally. 210 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 3: Yeah. So Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seal formed the 211 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:21,280 Speaker 3: Black Panthers in October nineteen sixty six, partly in response 212 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 3: to the Hunter's Point Uprising pretty much immediately after it, 213 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 3: and the Panthers will come up again in this episode. 214 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 3: It's basically impossible to talk about nineteen sixties radical politics, 215 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 3: especially in the Bay Area, without mentioning them. But I 216 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 3: also know that you've done a whole episode on them before, 217 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 3: so listeners can go find that as well. And during 218 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,360 Speaker 3: the Hunter's Point uprising, the Diggers performed puppet shows on 219 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 3: the street making fun of the National Guard, and they 220 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,560 Speaker 3: also gave way free food. 221 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:50,280 Speaker 2: And they're making fun of the National Guard. I can't 222 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 2: remember if this is before or after the Kent stayed upright, 223 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 2: it must be before Kent still, yeah, but it's like, yeah, 224 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:58,720 Speaker 2: they're making fun of armed people who are going to 225 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 2: shoot some people and their move in pretty soon, so 226 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 2: it's like, not a it's not nothing when you talk 227 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,559 Speaker 2: about making fun of like the National Guard in the street. 228 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 3: No, yeah, And I don't know more about this because 229 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,080 Speaker 3: I found it as like one one thrower wayline in 230 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,120 Speaker 3: one source. But they yeah, it wasn't nothing, for sure. 231 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:18,360 Speaker 3: And while they technically began before Hunter's Point, a lot 232 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:20,959 Speaker 3: of people cite this uprising is when the Diggers really 233 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 3: started to gain traction and really started to do the 234 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,240 Speaker 3: work that they would become known for. So soon after 235 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 3: two Diggers, Billy Murcott and Emmitt Grogan started daily free 236 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 3: meals that they called feeds in the panhandle of Golden 237 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 3: Gate Park. They had both lost their sources of income 238 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 3: and they wanted access to food and figured other people 239 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,400 Speaker 3: might too. It's always nice to have food. They went 240 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:46,280 Speaker 3: to the produce market and got donations of chicken, turkey, 241 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 3: and leftover vegetables, but didn't have access to a kitchen 242 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 3: and they needed to find a place to cook the food, 243 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 3: so they went and stole two twenty gallon milk cans 244 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 3: from an industrial dairy and cooked a stew right there 245 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 3: in the panhandle. Hell yeah. They also created a flyer 246 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 3: to advertise this first feed, which included what's now perhaps 247 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 3: the most famous Digger slogan, which is it's free because 248 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:10,559 Speaker 3: it's yours. 249 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, Yes, I really like the idea of like, man, 250 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:19,160 Speaker 2: we're hungry. I've got an idea, let's feed everyone by 251 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 2: getting donations. Like I love that, like can do attitude, 252 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 2: and I also love the like instead of it being 253 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 2: like other people are hungry, it was like, what are 254 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 2: we going to eat today? I know, let's start a movement. 255 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 3: Totally And yeah, it really came from them, you know, 256 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,439 Speaker 3: not having a source of income and really wanting to 257 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:39,760 Speaker 3: eat as well. Right, So it starts in this very 258 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:42,840 Speaker 3: true mutual aid based moment, not like a yeah, not 259 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 3: this charity kind of model. So at one early feed, 260 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,480 Speaker 3: some diggers jumped out of a fan and as they 261 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:53,480 Speaker 3: distributed meat, produce, and bread, they yelled, food is the medium? 262 00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:57,960 Speaker 3: Does this phrase or mind you of anything? Uh? 263 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 2: The medium is the mess? No, I don't know. 264 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:05,760 Speaker 3: Oh okay, yes it actually is that. Yeah, okay. So 265 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,839 Speaker 3: it's an echo of Marshall mclewin's the medium is the message. 266 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 3: He was a Canadian media theorist who became really popular 267 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 3: within the counterculture, which is funny because he was also 268 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 3: this stodgy Catholic dude who is like much older than 269 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 3: everyone else. But he argued that, to quote www dot 270 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 3: Marshall mcluwin dot com, the message of any medium or 271 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:28,640 Speaker 3: technology is the chain of scale or pace of pattern 272 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 3: it introduces into human affairs. So Free Digger Meals used 273 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 3: the excess of waste of capitalism to nourish and modeled 274 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:38,119 Speaker 3: a slower pace of life and a coming together of community. 275 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 3: They also reclaimed anti capitalist patterns of space use by 276 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 3: feeding people in a public park outside of the framework 277 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 3: of for profit restaurants and grocery stores. So they're really 278 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 3: taking these media theory ideas from mc lwin and from 279 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 3: other people and trying to put them into Yeah. Yeah, 280 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 3: they're very like they're sort of like relationship between theory 281 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:06,040 Speaker 3: and on the groundwork is really it's like firing. 282 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 2: To me, the most cliche word is practice, but this 283 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,400 Speaker 2: is just like literally it. It is where theory and 284 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 2: practice meet. They're not like, oh, we should just do 285 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:16,160 Speaker 2: things or we should just think about things. They're like, 286 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 2: we should think about things and then do things. 287 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,440 Speaker 3: Yeah good, exactly, yeah, yeah yeah, and constantly be thinking 288 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 3: and rethinking about them. 289 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 2: Yeah coo. 290 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 3: The Diggers incorporate it, so they incorporate other aspects of 291 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 3: their cultural work into the feeds. These included theater. They 292 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:34,840 Speaker 3: would screw on stupids really tightly to force diners out 293 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 3: of passivity. They'd have to like grapple with them to 294 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 3: open the stupids. 295 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 2: Fucking nerds, I know. 296 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,600 Speaker 3: And then Emmitt Grogan and Billy Murcott also built a 297 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 3: giant frame of reference. So it was this giant doorway 298 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 3: painted a golden orange that diners had to walk through 299 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,400 Speaker 3: before they were able to eat nerds, and the idea 300 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 3: is that the feeds, they'd have to leave quote unquote 301 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 3: consumer culture at the door and instead fully participate pat 302 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 3: in the ideals of the gift economy. Yeah, they were 303 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 3: total nervous. 304 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 2: I love it. 305 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 3: Yeah. And Digger papers were also distributed at the feed 306 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,560 Speaker 3: These Digger papers were made by secretly using the mimeograph 307 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,680 Speaker 3: machine in the Students for a Democratic Society offices in 308 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 3: a building that belonged to the San Francisco Meme troop, 309 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:22,640 Speaker 3: which is really funny to me. Did Yeah, It's like, 310 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:24,560 Speaker 3: fuck you, dad, we're using the minograph. 311 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:25,479 Speaker 2: Yeah. 312 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 3: So one of my favorite papers is called take a 313 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 3: Cop to Dinner, And I'm kind of cheating because it 314 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,320 Speaker 3: was printed in September nineteen sixty six before the feeds began, 315 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,440 Speaker 3: but it's food related, so I'm going to talk about it. 316 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,480 Speaker 3: So the background is the owner of a psychedelic shop 317 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 3: in the hate Ashbury posted a take a Cop to 318 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 3: Dinner sign in his store window in an attempt to 319 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 3: try and build bridges with the cops, which inspired other 320 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 3: neighborhood business owners to do the same. The diggers, Yeah, 321 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 3: who understandably hated the cops, and critiqued the local merchants 322 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 3: for their continued investment in consumer cap decided to respond, 323 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 3: and you can see a scan of this broadside on 324 00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 3: the Digger's Archive, which is a website that has a 325 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:09,159 Speaker 3: ton of Digger materials on it, and it starts with 326 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:12,400 Speaker 3: a very strange poem about genitals and hydrogen bombs, which 327 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 3: I'm not going to read because why. But then the 328 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:21,480 Speaker 3: broadside lists the boys various people and organizations from racketeers 329 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:24,520 Speaker 3: to unions to the Catholic Church and Department of Justice 330 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 3: bribe cops to encourage them to turn a blind eye 331 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,119 Speaker 3: to things that were technically illegal but in the service 332 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:34,120 Speaker 3: of upholding power. So the Broadside becomes more and more 333 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 3: specific and ultimately calling out Theelin Psychedelic Shop and then 334 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 3: nearby I Thou Coffee Shop, before ending the list with 335 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,199 Speaker 3: cops take themselves to dinner by inciting riots. And this 336 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:47,639 Speaker 3: is printed and distributed in the weeks before the Hunter's 337 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:50,280 Speaker 3: Point uprising, which seems to gesture the fact that there was, 338 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,000 Speaker 3: you know, this feeling in the city even before this 339 00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 3: uprising happened about what was going on with the police. 340 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,720 Speaker 3: They also distributed leaflets for other events at their feeds, 341 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,200 Speaker 3: such as is the one for the Intersection game, which 342 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 3: was held on Halloween nineteen sixty six. They invited pedestrians 343 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 3: to walk in geometric shapes at the intersection of Hate 344 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 3: Nashbury to disrupt the flow of automobile traffic. And this 345 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 3: is really successful. Around six hundred people showed up to play. 346 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 3: It caused a giant traffic jam, and five diggers were arrested. 347 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:25,200 Speaker 2: Okay, so this is like so they're like writing sigils 348 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 2: with their bodies in motion, like in the street. Is 349 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 2: that the I think so? 350 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's sort of yeah, walking in these funny shapes 351 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,920 Speaker 3: in order to, yeah, just to like tie up traffic. 352 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 2: He there's that like kind of meme of like the 353 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:46,199 Speaker 2: circle of protection from a self driving car where you 354 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,760 Speaker 2: like drive the like yellow line, you like paint the 355 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:51,920 Speaker 2: yellow line around the car and then the car can't 356 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:53,760 Speaker 2: leave because it can't cross the yellow line or whatever. 357 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:55,920 Speaker 3: You know. I haven't seen that, but that's brilliant. 358 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,000 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, and this just feels like that for 359 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 2: the six Yeah, totally. 360 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, they really do feel like even though we're 361 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,520 Speaker 3: talking about food and how their predecessor of you know, 362 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,520 Speaker 3: spoiler alert things like food, not bombs. They're also kind 363 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 3: of a predecessor of meme culture, so that's like an 364 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 3: interesting tie in. So I've read a bunch of times 365 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 3: that the Digger Feeds inspired the Black Panther breakfast program. 366 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:23,960 Speaker 3: It's always felt like a stretch to me, or like 367 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,679 Speaker 3: the story was more complicated. And then I found a 368 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,600 Speaker 3: video of Digger Kent Minnault where he talks about meeting UEP. 369 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,679 Speaker 3: Newton in fall nineteen sixty six. Newton did tell him 370 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:35,879 Speaker 3: he had heard of the Digger Feeds and implied that 371 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 3: he found them inspired, but followed that up by taking 372 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 3: Minault around Oakland and talking about the Black panthers plans 373 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 3: to serve kids a fortifying breakfast before school. Newton also 374 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,480 Speaker 3: pointed out the yards of certain houses and mentioned that 375 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:50,560 Speaker 3: he'd been talking to the women who own them about 376 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,439 Speaker 3: using them to grow fresh food. So it's possible that 377 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,760 Speaker 3: the Black Panthers took some inspiration from the Diggers, but 378 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,960 Speaker 3: as Minault says in the video, the Panthers' ideas were 379 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,879 Speaker 3: much more system than those of the Diggers, and the 380 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,280 Speaker 3: Panthers definitely inspired the Diggers in turn, so it's definitely 381 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:06,119 Speaker 3: a two way street. 382 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:10,120 Speaker 2: And you know what else is a two way street 383 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:19,400 Speaker 2: that's alts wrongcoming from you. I know, I loved it. 384 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:26,879 Speaker 2: Medium is the message as relates to advertising. Help me 385 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 2: out here. 386 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: It's time for ad breaks unless you have coolers on media. 387 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 2: So yeah, here's ads maybe, and we're back. 388 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 3: So the feats continued regularly until February nineteen sixty seven, 389 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 3: when they started to peter off. There are a lot 390 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,359 Speaker 3: of reasons why this happened. There were population pressures as 391 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:56,760 Speaker 3: young people from around the country flocked to the hate Ashbury, 392 00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:58,400 Speaker 3: which is what would result in the Summer of Love 393 00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:59,919 Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty seven. 394 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,359 Speaker 2: Which I totally knew was nineteen sixty seven. I totally 395 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 2: didn't have to completely change my brain to. 396 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 3: Be sixty nine, right, but apparently sixty seven. 397 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:10,720 Speaker 2: I'm a good history I'm not a historian. I'm a 398 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,240 Speaker 2: pop his history writer. Anyway. 399 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,439 Speaker 3: Well, the thing the thing too, is like the thing 400 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:18,199 Speaker 3: about doing a lot of food history is often I'll 401 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 3: know about the food stuff, but not about everything else. Yeah, 402 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:22,520 Speaker 3: so there's actually not too much more I could tell 403 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:24,960 Speaker 3: you about the Summer of Love besides the fact that 404 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 3: it was in nineteen sixty seven. So yeah, okay, no worried. 405 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:33,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we all knew. Everyone knew that it was 406 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:38,639 Speaker 2: sixty seven, not sixty nine. Absolutely, Okay, now that actually 407 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:40,919 Speaker 2: makes sense because then it was like, yeah, that's like 408 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 2: where it because it kind of, as I'm under the impression, 409 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 2: a lot of hipie stuff sort of like really started 410 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 2: in the Bay Area and spread out, so it was 411 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,360 Speaker 2: like probably more generalized by sixty nine or something. This 412 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,800 Speaker 2: is me talking out of my ass totally. 413 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,720 Speaker 3: That is Yeah, that is the impression I get, Yeah, 414 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,240 Speaker 3: that it spread out, and then you're getting to sixty nine, 415 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:03,919 Speaker 3: you're getting a lot of repression, You're getting a lot 416 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 3: of breakdown in the Bay Area. But then again, there 417 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 3: are like many people in this world who know way 418 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,800 Speaker 3: more about this than me, So I'm just making it, 419 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 3: you know, kind of making an educated guest based on 420 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,359 Speaker 3: what I know about the Diggers and related projects. 421 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 2: I'm like annoyed because I've done like probably yeah, probably 422 00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 2: like twenty episodes total, like including like multiple parts or 423 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:28,440 Speaker 2: whatever related to late sixties early seventies movements in the US, 424 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,600 Speaker 2: but I haven't covered this, like the Summer of Love stuff, 425 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,440 Speaker 2: So I'm like, I don't know, I haven't read those 426 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 2: books yet. 427 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:37,720 Speaker 3: Maybe it needs to happen. 428 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, ye yeah. 429 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:41,879 Speaker 3: I actually had a bunch of places in the script 430 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 3: where I was like, you could do a whole episode off, 431 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:45,880 Speaker 3: and then I like edited most of them out. 432 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,320 Speaker 2: No, because I thought you should pitch it to me. 433 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:53,360 Speaker 3: It's actually just me me pitching other episodes. Yeah. So anyway, 434 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:56,639 Speaker 3: another reason that there was a crackdown. City authorities were 435 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 3: cracking down on free food distributions and ordered produce suppliers 436 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 3: a stop donating to the diggers, whoa classic repression for 437 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:07,120 Speaker 3: the city government. But there is another reason that regular 438 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 3: feeds stopped. Can you think of what group of people 439 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,399 Speaker 3: might have done most of the cooking and had to 440 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 3: do a disproportionate amount of the labor. 441 00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,400 Speaker 2: It's probably some group that I wouldn't even be able 442 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 2: to think of, because no one ever thinks of, like yeah, 443 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,439 Speaker 2: like whatever the opposite of men is. 444 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:26,000 Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even know what that is. No or no, Sophie, do. 445 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,240 Speaker 2: You happen to know any of this? Never heard of it? 446 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:34,600 Speaker 3: Okay? Yeah, yeah, so yeah, yes, as we're jokingly gesturing 447 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,480 Speaker 3: at it was the women who were involved. 448 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:36,800 Speaker 4: Women. 449 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 3: You do say there were women? 450 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,639 Speaker 2: Oh wow, so cool? 451 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 3: I know right. Women were responsible for cooking as well 452 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,160 Speaker 3: as procuring food for the feeds, which at one point 453 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 3: were daily and regularly served up to two hundred people, 454 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:56,920 Speaker 3: which is a ton of work. 455 00:23:57,119 --> 00:23:57,439 Speaker 2: Yeah. 456 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,000 Speaker 3: As I was researching this, I was thinking about how 457 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 3: I'm part of Autonomous Community Center here in Tucson, the BCC, 458 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,000 Speaker 3: where we do weekly meals that feed up to forty 459 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 3: or fifty people, and every one's in a blue moon. 460 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:09,879 Speaker 3: I sign up to cook and it feels like a lot. 461 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:12,680 Speaker 3: So I can't imagine doing that every single day. 462 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 2: No, So for like your shitty boyfriend who's just on drugs, 463 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 2: who's like, come on, don't you care about the cause? 464 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:24,000 Speaker 3: Totally? Yeah, who's making all the broadsides? And you know, 465 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:24,800 Speaker 3: there definitely was this. 466 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:27,000 Speaker 2: Yeah. 467 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, the men got to be thinkers and the women 468 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:31,120 Speaker 3: had to do a lot of the grunt work. 469 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:32,120 Speaker 2: So yeah. 470 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 3: So a great example of this is that even though 471 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,399 Speaker 3: Emmett Grogan claimed that he got all the food for 472 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,639 Speaker 3: the feeds, Our Pale Peter Coyote wrote about how the 473 00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 3: digger women would actually collect the donations because the produce 474 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,159 Speaker 3: venders were more inclined to give food to them than 475 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,600 Speaker 3: to the men. Yeah, and yeah, It's also really funny 476 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,400 Speaker 3: because a lot of the things that I saw were 477 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,920 Speaker 3: like these burly Italian men at the produce market only 478 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,080 Speaker 3: want to give food to the women, which I thought 479 00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 3: was kind of hilarious in a vague like leaning into 480 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 3: ethnic stereotypes way, but it might have happened. I read 481 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 3: an oral history with a digger named Judy Goldhoff, who 482 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 3: is one of the women who would go down to 483 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 3: the produce market. She also talks about gleaning in nearby 484 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,119 Speaker 3: agricultural fields, so they would go out and gather produce, yeah, 485 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 3: like zucchini and onions that get left behind during the 486 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 3: mechanical harvesting process. And she also mentions a number of 487 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,000 Speaker 3: women who were involved in the feeds, including a group 488 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:29,720 Speaker 3: of students either like from Antioch College on break or 489 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,920 Speaker 3: dropouts that wasn't totally clear to me but had come 490 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,400 Speaker 3: from Antioch College, as well as someone named Nina Blasenheim. 491 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,959 Speaker 3: And Blasenheim comes up a bunch of times in these 492 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:41,840 Speaker 3: oral history interviews as bottom lining the feeds, but I 493 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 3: haven't been able to find out more about her, but 494 00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 3: I do want to name her again, Nina Blasenheim, because 495 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 3: according to these women, she did really important work making 496 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 3: these feeds happen. The poet Dianda Primo was also involved 497 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,119 Speaker 3: in the Diggers, and I will admit that I wrote 498 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,399 Speaker 3: more about this in an article for gastro Obscura, but 499 00:25:58,440 --> 00:25:59,919 Speaker 3: I'm not going to go a ton into it for 500 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:01,399 Speaker 3: contractual reasons. 501 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,199 Speaker 2: Ah fine, I needed you. You wrote one of my 502 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 2: favorite pieces of poetry ever. The it takes all of 503 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:09,160 Speaker 2: us pushing on this from every direction. 504 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, her revolutionary letters are amazing. You should read them. 505 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 3: She's one of my favorite poets. I have a tattoo 506 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,639 Speaker 3: of one of her lines of poetry. So I'm a 507 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,639 Speaker 3: huge dand a Prima fan. And her involvement with the 508 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 3: Diggers was pretty peripheral, but it is interesting and you 509 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,639 Speaker 3: can find stuff about that online. I was like working 510 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:31,520 Speaker 3: on that piece and this at the same time and 511 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,919 Speaker 3: got into kind of sticky like they need to be 512 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 3: different scopes kind of thing. 513 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,520 Speaker 2: Is that piece out yet that people can read it is? 514 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's on gastro Obscura, so you should be able 515 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,840 Speaker 3: to find it just googling like gastro Obscura Diggers. 516 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,240 Speaker 2: Or yeah or run awry, Yeah. 517 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 3: You know whatever you want to google. So even after 518 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 3: the feed started to wane in spring nineteen sixty seven. 519 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 3: The Diggers continue to do mutual aid. In addition to 520 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:00,400 Speaker 3: their spectacles, parades, and other theatrical events, they open free 521 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 3: stores that offered clothing and products that were procured both 522 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,720 Speaker 3: through donation and theft. Oh yeah, and when police would 523 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 3: inquire about who was in charge of these stores, the Diggers, 524 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,520 Speaker 3: in true anarchist fashion, would tell them that if they 525 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:14,679 Speaker 3: wanted to see someone in charge, they'd have to be 526 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,159 Speaker 3: the one in charge. They'd basically be like, there are 527 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,560 Speaker 3: no managers, you're the manager. They would also invite people 528 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,320 Speaker 3: to take turns being the manager of the store, which 529 00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:26,880 Speaker 3: from what I can tell, mostly meant helping customers find 530 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 3: what they were looking for, suggesting clothing, things like that. 531 00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,480 Speaker 3: They also operated at least one crash pad to house 532 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,159 Speaker 3: the young people pouring into the hate ashbery, so a 533 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:38,480 Speaker 3: housing space that people could stay at and living. 534 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,000 Speaker 2: So you mentioned because earlier the only specific political ideology 535 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,160 Speaker 2: you've named with them as like Marxism from the alf 536 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 2: the thing they came before. In my research, which was 537 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,919 Speaker 2: very minimal, but I read about the Diggers as an 538 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 2: explicitly anarchist organization. Do you know like when that shift happened, 539 00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 2: or if it was like a little bit more loose 540 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 2: than that, it was just like whatever, we clearly don't 541 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 2: want anyone in charge, and we just use marks for 542 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,399 Speaker 2: like a way of understanding the way that like economics works. 543 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,360 Speaker 3: Or Yeah. So from my reading, which I think once 544 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 3: again somebody else could go way more into this side 545 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,760 Speaker 3: of things. But they were a lot of what they 546 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 3: were doing was really rooted in everyday life, right, and 547 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 3: so they were very anarchist in their approach. But a 548 00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:25,280 Speaker 3: lot of the writing they were doing, a lot of 549 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 3: the theory and discussions they were having had more to 550 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 3: do with what was happening on the ground in San Francisco. Okay, 551 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:31,679 Speaker 3: So I would say that from what I can glean, 552 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,399 Speaker 3: they were definitely an anarchist project. They were also, like 553 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 3: so many radicals at the time, super Marxist influence. I 554 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 3: would say that they were they were mostly anarchists. I 555 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 3: would define them. That is the label that makes the 556 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 3: most sense. Okay, but it does feel a little bit 557 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,680 Speaker 3: loosey goosey, like I'm not sure if every digger would 558 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 3: identify that way, you know. 559 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that that makes sense to me, And yeah, 560 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,920 Speaker 2: that that tracks, And this is an interesting I like 561 00:28:57,960 --> 00:28:59,560 Speaker 2: that everyone's the manager, but I like how it like 562 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,800 Speaker 2: runs up against this hard wall when you're like you're 563 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:03,920 Speaker 2: the manager and like, no, don't make a cop the manager. 564 00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:06,680 Speaker 2: I have one rule, I know, totally. Yeah, but also 565 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 2: it probably like scares that no cop is going to 566 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,120 Speaker 2: be like, yeah, that's right, I am the manager here now, right, 567 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:11,560 Speaker 2: you know. 568 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 3: Yeah. I feel like they had this really like a 569 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 3: whole huge thing about disorientation, right, so they're disorienting this guy. Yeah, yeah, 570 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,480 Speaker 3: you know, just throwing him into confusion. 571 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:21,440 Speaker 2: No, I like it. 572 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, And they also continued food based projects. A lot 573 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,160 Speaker 3: of the work that Dan Daprima did was from this 574 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:33,280 Speaker 3: later era. She moved after the feeds had ended. Flyers 575 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 3: from this era show free distribution of lettuce and information 576 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,480 Speaker 3: about Digger sponsored spaghetti dinners held at local churches. A 577 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,600 Speaker 3: lot of the flyers were handwritten on one B yob 578 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 3: stands for bring your own bowl, which I thought was 579 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,440 Speaker 3: pretty funny. And also during their feeds they would often 580 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 3: ask people to bring their own bowl. And there's lots 581 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,600 Speaker 3: of ideas about why this was. Some people are just 582 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,239 Speaker 3: like they didn't have bowls, and other people are like 583 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,120 Speaker 3: they wanted to make sure people were like active participants 584 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:02,120 Speaker 3: and not passively eating. 585 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:03,400 Speaker 2: I can tell you why. I think it was. So 586 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,560 Speaker 2: there's all I used to eat at and cook for 587 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 2: a lot of different food up bombs, and the one 588 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 2: that I went to that eventually was like, now, whatever, 589 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:15,920 Speaker 2: you have to bring your own dish was so that 590 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:17,280 Speaker 2: they didn't have to wash all the dishes. 591 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 3: See that makes so much sense, And it's so funny 592 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,960 Speaker 3: to me because I also have done similar things throughout 593 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,120 Speaker 3: my life and I was so deep in the history 594 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 3: that that never. 595 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:32,240 Speaker 2: Occurred to me. No, No, I mean yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, 596 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,960 Speaker 2: I'm sure. Yeah. I was like, oh, it's participatory, yes, 597 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:40,680 Speaker 2: participatory doing the fucking dishes. Like yeah. I was like, however, 598 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:42,600 Speaker 2: I was like really angry about it. I was like 599 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:45,880 Speaker 2: I was probably twenty one, and I was like, this 600 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 2: creates a barrier, you know, and like yeah, because you know, 601 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 2: not everyone who's going without a house is like carrying 602 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 2: around a bowl or whatever. But honestly, most people are. 603 00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 3: And in a lot of photos, there's some amazing photos 604 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 3: in the Digger archives, the early feeds, and you see 605 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,600 Speaker 3: people eating out of like soup cans all sorts, of 606 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,400 Speaker 3: recycled material. I do think they did down the line 607 00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 3: start providing things for people to eat out of. But yeah, 608 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 3: people were very improvisational with what was a bowl. 609 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:17,720 Speaker 2: Cool. I've definitely eaten food ut bombs on a car 610 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:20,520 Speaker 2: on a piece of cardboard, oh totally. 611 00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, or the like empty bean can. 612 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 2: Yeah totally. 613 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:31,440 Speaker 3: So now we're going to get to bread, and we're 614 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,080 Speaker 3: going to touch a little bit on some whole wheat 615 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 3: bread stuff, although I think different from what you went 616 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,760 Speaker 3: into before. So we're going to talk about digger bread. 617 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of the digger bread recipe? 618 00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:45,600 Speaker 2: Is it involved dipping it in melted cheese. This is 619 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 2: my attempt to bring spot. 620 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: I mean, we're not having a font you were trying 621 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: to bring up doing to it all. 622 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 2: The only thing I know about digger bread is I 623 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:58,200 Speaker 2: have this I have this understanding that could be totally 624 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 2: wrong that the reason that like old grain and whole 625 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,880 Speaker 2: wheat bread is popular in like healthy food in the 626 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 2: United States period is because of some weird anarchists in 627 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,960 Speaker 2: the Bay and the sixties, along with Tide. Those are 628 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 2: like the things that I'm like aware of or have 629 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,959 Speaker 2: been told that they influenced. 630 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 3: I'm so glad you brought that up, because admittedly, when 631 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,400 Speaker 3: I was writing this script, there were definitely things that 632 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,160 Speaker 3: had to stay on the cutting room floor. And I 633 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,280 Speaker 3: have read about the influence of the Diggers and wholl 634 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 3: weat bread and then was struggling to like find it 635 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 3: again and didn't want to put something in. I couldn't 636 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:34,560 Speaker 3: one hundred percent cite. 637 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 2: Okay, well I'll claim it apocryphaly. 638 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,719 Speaker 3: But I'm pretty sure that that, Yeah, they had this 639 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 3: huge influence on whole wheat bread across the country. The 640 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,840 Speaker 3: Diggers also had a huge they like popularized tide in 641 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,360 Speaker 3: within the United States. It did draw on more traditional 642 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 3: forms of dying I believe from Southeast Asia, but I'm 643 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:58,760 Speaker 3: not totally sure. But yeah, that's also another thing that 644 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:00,920 Speaker 3: someone could look into excited about. 645 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 2: I can never be excited about that. 646 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 3: I don't know, well, I know, and. 647 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 2: I feel like so it's like all the like metal 648 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,360 Speaker 2: heads I know are really into tight I and I'm 649 00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,080 Speaker 2: I'm like just slightly too old because I was around 650 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 2: the worst era of hippies, which is the early nineties 651 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 2: and like mid nineties hippies, the like yeah, pale end 652 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:28,680 Speaker 2: of the Grateful Dead the most like consumerist, burned out, 653 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 2: like apolitical, misogynist hippies in the world. It from my 654 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 2: point of view, and so I have this like really 655 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:41,600 Speaker 2: deep like fuck that version of hippie. And so the 656 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,440 Speaker 2: version of hippie that I like is when you like, 657 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:45,400 Speaker 2: look and they all look like medieval peasants. I'm like 658 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 2: that shit rules. You could be in a cult, you know, 659 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,760 Speaker 2: I say, with my hood on, I'm wearing all black. 660 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 3: And yeah, I think that from what I can tell, 661 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 3: the Diggers look exactly like what we think of as 662 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,640 Speaker 3: the worst kind of hippie, which is interesting to think 663 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:04,960 Speaker 3: about because because they're awesome, that they're awesome. Yeah, and 664 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 3: a lot of people, a lot of hippies of that 665 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 3: era were awesome. 666 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 2: Yeah. 667 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:10,800 Speaker 3: And you know, like all things, it gets co opted 668 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,279 Speaker 3: and watered down, yea, all things within the you know, 669 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:17,120 Speaker 3: within our like super capitalist United States. Yeah, it gets 670 00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:18,920 Speaker 3: becomes this other thing totally. 671 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,719 Speaker 2: And the fact that I'm angry about what happened when 672 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 2: I was fourteen should have no influence on whether or 673 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:28,160 Speaker 2: not a doom metal band wants to make a tid 674 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:31,120 Speaker 2: eye version of their shirt. And I actually think, I 675 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,319 Speaker 2: actually think it's cool that it's coming back. I'm just like, 676 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:35,719 Speaker 2: it's like not quite for me, even though I love 677 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 2: natural dying and all that stuff. Like I have a 678 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,800 Speaker 2: whole bucket of black walnut rhinds that I'm going to 679 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 2: die some of my dresses with next. 680 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,280 Speaker 3: Week, but they're not going to be like black walnut 681 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 3: tied addresses. 682 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:48,920 Speaker 2: No, although I'm like, what if I just tried to 683 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,800 Speaker 2: get over it by like, No, I probably won't. I 684 00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,360 Speaker 2: don't think that's going to happen anyway. 685 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,360 Speaker 3: Then this is a great time waiting. This is a 686 00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:58,160 Speaker 3: great time to talk about my boots. I'd like to 687 00:34:58,160 --> 00:34:58,960 Speaker 3: talk about my boots. 688 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,120 Speaker 2: Is that okay, Le's talk about your So. 689 00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:03,920 Speaker 3: I have this pair of boots that I originally got 690 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 3: because a friend's kid was having her bot mitzvah and 691 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:14,839 Speaker 3: she asked everyone to wear like flowery things. And I 692 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,480 Speaker 3: really really love a clothing assignment from a child. It's 693 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 3: one of my favorite things. And so I went all 694 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 3: out and I found at a thrift store these Doc Martin's, 695 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,759 Speaker 3: except that they have like hippie paisley flower print all 696 00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 3: over them, and I don't wear them very much because 697 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 3: anyone who knows me knows that I mostly wear all black, 698 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,080 Speaker 3: but I put them on today because it felt appropriate. 699 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,040 Speaker 1: Don Are you going to at some point for us, 700 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: because because. 701 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:47,640 Speaker 3: Yeah I can, I can totally wait, I'm really clumsy, 702 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:48,680 Speaker 3: but I'm going to try to do this. 703 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:56,879 Speaker 2: I see the side they do. They look really fucking cool. 704 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,840 Speaker 2: Enough about it, now, you'll know that I've finally gotten 705 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 2: over self consciousness. When my hair is just in a 706 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:05,920 Speaker 2: crown braid with flowers in it. That's when you know 707 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,520 Speaker 2: I'm just like finally just like see, you would look 708 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 2: really fucking cool. 709 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:14,000 Speaker 3: I know totally you would. I highly recommend. Anyways, Yeah, 710 00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:21,840 Speaker 3: we'll support. So back to bread. In June nineteen sixty seven, 711 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,720 Speaker 3: a few months after the feed stopp happening regularly, some Diggers, 712 00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 3: who were baking alongside Ruth and Walt Reynolds, who were 713 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 3: volunteers at All Saints' Church, turned four hundred pounds of 714 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,200 Speaker 3: flour and a bunch of other ingredients into a whole 715 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 3: wheat bread, which they distributed to residents of they hate Ashbury. 716 00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:40,080 Speaker 3: The event was super successful, and the Diggers soon opened 717 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 3: a regular free bakery out of the church. It distributed 718 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,680 Speaker 3: about two hundred loaves each on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 719 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 2: That's amazing. 720 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:50,560 Speaker 3: I've been challenged to do an ad break by my 721 00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:55,520 Speaker 3: very charming and clever podcaster friends, but I feel like 722 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,760 Speaker 3: the diggers would just be like, it's free because it's yours. 723 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:00,560 Speaker 3: So maybe as you listen to these ads, if they're 724 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,120 Speaker 3: for anything that you have to pay for, I don't know, 725 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:04,520 Speaker 3: maybe you think about how you don't have to pay 726 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:04,839 Speaker 3: for them. 727 00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I couldn't. 728 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,960 Speaker 1: As somebody who recently can't eat gluten, and all gluten 729 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: things are more expensive than non gluten things, I think 730 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,080 Speaker 1: non gluten bread should be free too. 731 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:22,759 Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, this this podcast is brought to you by 732 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:28,719 Speaker 2: free bread of glutenous and non glutenous varieties. And if 733 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 2: any other ad creeps in and it's not for something free, 734 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:40,399 Speaker 2: that was a mistake and we're back. Oh okay, but wait, 735 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 2: so you're talking about all this. I think what's really 736 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 2: interesting you talk about how like there was like cross 737 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:48,520 Speaker 2: they didn't influence the Black Panther's free breakfast program, but 738 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,440 Speaker 2: both were aware of each other, right, yes, yeah, and 739 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 2: both of them well the feed wasn't, but the both 740 00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,560 Speaker 2: were out of churches. And this is the kind of 741 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:00,720 Speaker 2: thing that I feel like sometimes gets left out of history. 742 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 2: Is like when when radicals go over it, it's like, no, 743 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,320 Speaker 2: that's actually that, that's not nothing, that's not a meaningless detail, 744 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:10,680 Speaker 2: you know that. It was totally It was out of 745 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:13,080 Speaker 2: this church that was like, sure, you all can come 746 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,560 Speaker 2: bake four hundred loaves of bread a week here. 747 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,839 Speaker 3: Totally. Yeah, And I can't remember what kind of church 748 00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:23,200 Speaker 3: it was, but it was some kind of I grew 749 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,319 Speaker 3: up in New York, where there the Protestant population is 750 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,799 Speaker 3: not huge, and growing up, I used to call them 751 00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 3: love your neighbor Protestants. 752 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:36,120 Speaker 2: So like instead of the Evangelicals or whatever. 753 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,040 Speaker 3: No, but like the you know, social justice oriented like 754 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 3: really awesome sort of uh, you know, I don't know 755 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:47,400 Speaker 3: that much about it, but like theologies that are centered 756 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 3: around liberation of all people's versus like trying to take 757 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:54,719 Speaker 3: away everyone's right and that. I don't remember exactly what 758 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 3: the All Saints' Church was, but they were certainly of that. 759 00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,839 Speaker 2: That makes sense, yeah, at. 760 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,720 Speaker 3: Least said the time. Yeah. So, but but the kitchen 761 00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:06,480 Speaker 3: and the church didn't have baking trays. So Reynolds had 762 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 3: this idea that they could use coffee cans to bake 763 00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:13,319 Speaker 3: the bread. Oh and I find this part really interesting 764 00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:15,200 Speaker 3: because even though it seems like it was just a 765 00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:18,680 Speaker 3: practical solution to lack of baking trays, and it probably was, 766 00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:22,080 Speaker 3: it meant that the bread was literally made in packaging 767 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:24,680 Speaker 3: for a beverage that played an intrinsic part in the 768 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 3: rise of capitalism, the very capitalism that the Diggers so apused. 769 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 3: And so I kind of wanted to do a brief 770 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:33,759 Speaker 3: coffee and capitalism. 771 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:37,319 Speaker 2: Okay, let's do it as a non coffee drinker. I'm 772 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,239 Speaker 2: gonna feel so good at the end of this, or 773 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:41,759 Speaker 2: I'm gonna feel really bad. I don't know. 774 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:44,719 Speaker 3: I feel like neither. I feel like we're all the 775 00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:46,720 Speaker 3: products of history in such complex ways. 776 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:53,239 Speaker 2: No, I don't do anything literally, she said after introducing ads. 777 00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,520 Speaker 3: Anyway, Sorry, go ahead, this is like the one paragraph 778 00:39:57,600 --> 00:39:59,640 Speaker 3: version of like books have been written about this. So 779 00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:03,200 Speaker 3: coffee came to Europe from the Arab world, and it 780 00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,400 Speaker 3: caught on in the seventeenth century in like Western Europe, 781 00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,759 Speaker 3: it started to replace alcohol as the everyday drink, so 782 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,440 Speaker 3: instead of being slightly drunk all the time, people in 783 00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:15,160 Speaker 3: Europe were caffeinated and able to work longer hours and 784 00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,920 Speaker 3: also talk really fast. Coffee houses. 785 00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:20,399 Speaker 2: Yeah. 786 00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,000 Speaker 3: Do you like that? I wrote a joke into the 787 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,360 Speaker 3: script because I was like, Sophie and Margaret are so 788 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,759 Speaker 3: good at jokes, I'm gonna have to, like, you know, 789 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 3: keep up with the Joneses. No, No, it's good, my 790 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,120 Speaker 3: very very cheesy coffee joke. Yeah. Coffee houses became popular 791 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,759 Speaker 3: in London under Cromwell and the London Stock Exchange. 792 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:41,840 Speaker 2: No, he's a demon. He comes up as is evil 793 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:45,440 Speaker 2: every single time. I'm like, is there something I don't Yeah, 794 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,799 Speaker 2: just signed Ireland. Well, yeah, anyway, you already do that. 795 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:55,720 Speaker 3: Anyway I already knew that. Yeah, And he became coffee 796 00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 3: become He didn't become popular in London. Coffee becomes popular 797 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,799 Speaker 3: in London under Cromwell, the London Stock Exchange, and the 798 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,960 Speaker 3: contemporary insurance industry grows out of these coffee Do not 799 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,400 Speaker 3: ask me to tell you more, because I don't remember 800 00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 3: any of it, but fascinating. And Adam Smith literally wrote 801 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,839 Speaker 3: The Wealth of Nations in a coffee house. And then 802 00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,440 Speaker 3: during the Industrial Revolution, coffee allowed workers to grind harder 803 00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,000 Speaker 3: and for things like night shifts to exist because they 804 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,440 Speaker 3: could drink coffee and stay awake, and the coffee concept 805 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,200 Speaker 3: of The coffee break comes from a factory owner in 806 00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:30,960 Speaker 3: Denver in the nineteen fifties who gave his workers two 807 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:34,240 Speaker 3: mandatory coffee breaks a day to increase productivity. 808 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:38,160 Speaker 2: So what you're saying is to be anti capitalist, everyone 809 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,760 Speaker 2: should be drunk all of the time. 810 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,640 Speaker 3: I like how you came to this conclusion. I don't know. 811 00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:47,520 Speaker 3: I'm not going to answer that. This is too big 812 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 3: of a question. I wout two cuffs of coffee this morning. 813 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I'm not actually anti Yeah. 814 00:41:56,080 --> 00:42:00,520 Speaker 3: Do what makes you feel good and stand against oppression everyone. 815 00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:02,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you could be awake while you stand against 816 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 2: a You can be productive in a lot of ways, 817 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,839 Speaker 2: you know, there is good productivity. That is like one 818 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:11,040 Speaker 2: thing that people are like, Well, I understand all of 819 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,239 Speaker 2: the like, don't work so much. Capitalism wants you to 820 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:15,439 Speaker 2: work so much. I'm like, but we could also work 821 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:19,120 Speaker 2: to fight it too. That'll still work, you know. 822 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,200 Speaker 3: Yeah. Anyway, Yeah, and people have different levels of that. 823 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 2: Yeah. 824 00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:26,040 Speaker 3: I love getting shit done, So I'm I think we're 825 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,360 Speaker 3: on a similar wavelength that way. But yeah, So the 826 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,279 Speaker 3: Diggers baking holy bread and coffee cans really kind of 827 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:34,680 Speaker 3: in my mind, fits with their whole using the excess 828 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:39,120 Speaker 3: of capitalism for revolutionary means thing both practically and metaphorically. 829 00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:41,440 Speaker 3: And it also kind of fits with that food as 830 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,160 Speaker 3: the medium thing, right, because bakers and eaters are thinking 831 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:48,080 Speaker 3: about the relationship between capitalism and food by baking coffee cans. 832 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,000 Speaker 3: I know that this is a stretch, but like so 833 00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 3: much of what they did was a stretch too, like 834 00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:54,320 Speaker 3: trying to convince people of things that I feel okay 835 00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:55,360 Speaker 3: about making this connected. 836 00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:57,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they literally had people walk through a 837 00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:01,120 Speaker 2: frame of reference before they like, it's fine, it's good, 838 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:02,080 Speaker 2: even total. 839 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,799 Speaker 3: And then I should also say I have actually not 840 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,040 Speaker 3: tried baking the diggerbread recipe. And it's because now a 841 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:11,840 Speaker 3: lot of coffee cans are aligned with toxic material. Oh 842 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:14,160 Speaker 3: there are some that aren't, and you can do research 843 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,359 Speaker 3: into it, but I'm like a very anxious person, and 844 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:20,719 Speaker 3: I would just like somehow convince myself even if I 845 00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,239 Speaker 3: had like completely checked that it was fine with a 846 00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:25,759 Speaker 3: certain coffee can, that it somehow was it. So I 847 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 3: haven't actually had a chance to make this bread. You 848 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,359 Speaker 3: could also just make it not in a coffee can. 849 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,400 Speaker 3: That's another option. There are recipes out there online. 850 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,319 Speaker 2: Okay, see now, I'm like, but we could make like 851 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,600 Speaker 2: a you could we could make and sell a bespoke 852 00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,680 Speaker 2: coffee can that doesn't have anything bad in it. That's 853 00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:44,840 Speaker 2: for making your bread. 854 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,759 Speaker 3: You can buy that. Oh really is okay, But it 855 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:49,239 Speaker 3: just seemed too far. No. 856 00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:52,279 Speaker 2: Yeah, and also it yah goes against the concept to 857 00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:54,239 Speaker 2: some degree. I mean, I'm not opposed to it. I 858 00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:56,719 Speaker 2: wouldn't be mad at myself. I like kitchen gadgets, like 859 00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:01,560 Speaker 2: totally seen. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, Yeah. 860 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:04,040 Speaker 3: So these free bakries, but around the Bay. This was 861 00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:06,239 Speaker 3: helped by coverage in the Berkeley Barb, which was an 862 00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:09,680 Speaker 3: underground newspaper that had a circulation of eighty five thousand readers, 863 00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:11,200 Speaker 3: which is huge for an underground Yeah. 864 00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,360 Speaker 2: Yes, that's not so underground. That's amazing. Uh huh. 865 00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:17,960 Speaker 3: Yeah. And the Barb covered the free bakers extensively, including 866 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,440 Speaker 3: one that sprang up at the Olem Poly Ranch commune. 867 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:26,080 Speaker 3: I hope I'm saying that correctly. In one article, journalist 868 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,959 Speaker 3: for the bar Brightes, a bakery owner decided to drop 869 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,440 Speaker 3: out and lay the ovens, mixers, and other accessories on 870 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:34,040 Speaker 3: the ranch. In turn, the residents of the ranch are 871 00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:37,200 Speaker 3: baking bread and distributing it free throughout the Bay Area, 872 00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:39,560 Speaker 3: and the photo that ran with the article, there are 873 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,560 Speaker 3: topless young people, mostly women, needing bread on a table 874 00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:46,200 Speaker 3: covered with empty coffee cans. This seems like regular Hippi shit, 875 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,720 Speaker 3: but I do want to acknowledge there's this really complex 876 00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:53,080 Speaker 3: intertwining of sexual liberation and the patriarchal male gaze that 877 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,920 Speaker 3: women in the nineteen sixties and seventies communes faced in 878 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,759 Speaker 3: a pretty intense way. So I just want to say that. 879 00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,200 Speaker 3: Speaking of photos, there's a pretty amazing one of kids 880 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,360 Speaker 3: cutting into Digger bread at the Free Hueye rally in 881 00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,719 Speaker 3: February nineteen sixty eight. The photo was taken by Ruth, 882 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:11,040 Speaker 3: Mary and Baruch. It was in support of Huey Pan Newton, 883 00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 3: whom in Nault had toured Oakland with, as I mentioned earlier, 884 00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:17,560 Speaker 3: and who was accused of allegedly killing a police officer 885 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:20,520 Speaker 3: in the midst of defending himself from police violence. And 886 00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:23,720 Speaker 3: based on print materials I've seen, like flyers, it seems 887 00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:25,800 Speaker 3: like at least some of the Diggers were pretty active 888 00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:29,239 Speaker 3: in this free hue campaign, so this continued. Sometimes. I 889 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,560 Speaker 3: think that the relationship between the Diggers, from what I've seen, 890 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:33,319 Speaker 3: it seems like the relationship between the Diggers and the 891 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,359 Speaker 3: Black Panthers was overstated and a bit of wishful thinking 892 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,959 Speaker 3: on the Digger's part, But there was like actual, real 893 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:43,440 Speaker 3: tangible solidarity that was happening as well. And then in 894 00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,360 Speaker 3: May nineteen sixty eight, Ruth and Walter Reynolds start a 895 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,560 Speaker 3: free bakery at the Resurrection City encampment. Have you heard 896 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:51,319 Speaker 3: of Resurrection City? No? 897 00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:56,360 Speaker 2: This sounds amazing, So I. 898 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,720 Speaker 3: Hadn't heard about it until I started researching the Digger. 899 00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:04,960 Speaker 2: Chris Christian hippie homeless commune, not exactly, although I was 900 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,800 Speaker 2: just going on the names Resurrection makes me think Christian. 901 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:11,799 Speaker 3: It was Christian. Yeah, so Resurrection City. It was a 902 00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,400 Speaker 3: six week tense city on the National Mall in Washington, 903 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:16,880 Speaker 3: d C. That was part of the Poor People's Campaign, 904 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,799 Speaker 3: which is a multiracial movement for economic justice that in 905 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,600 Speaker 3: particular brought together to cano black and white Appalachian activists. 906 00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:27,920 Speaker 3: And there's way more to say about Resurrection City than 907 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:29,680 Speaker 3: I can in this episode. This is another one of 908 00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:33,520 Speaker 3: those you should do an episode about, but here's a 909 00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:36,680 Speaker 3: brief snapshot. The Poor People's Campaign was started by Martin 910 00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,600 Speaker 3: Luther King Junior, and other members of the Southern Christian 911 00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:44,399 Speaker 3: Leadership Conference. After King was assassinated in April nineteen sixty eight, 912 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:48,280 Speaker 3: organizers carried on the campaign and demanded a quote unquote 913 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,319 Speaker 3: economic bill of rights that included a living wage for 914 00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:54,720 Speaker 3: all workers and an adequate income for those unable to work. 915 00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,680 Speaker 3: The camp was ultimately evicted on June twenty fourth of 916 00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:00,960 Speaker 3: that year, the day after its permit expire, but it 917 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,600 Speaker 3: did lead to more money for social services, including an 918 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,560 Speaker 3: expansion of the food Stamps program and more funding for 919 00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,600 Speaker 3: head Start, as well as free and reduced lunch in 920 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:15,480 Speaker 3: Mississippi and Alabama, and it was also described by participants 921 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:19,080 Speaker 3: as practice for living together in a largely collectively run city. 922 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,840 Speaker 3: Residents described it as a city where you didn't have 923 00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,840 Speaker 3: to pay taxes and you didn't experience police brutality or 924 00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:30,600 Speaker 3: going to so pretty important stuff there. The free bakery 925 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,399 Speaker 3: at the encampment made fifteen loaves an hour. The brand 926 00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:35,719 Speaker 3: usually came right out of the oven and was immediately 927 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,919 Speaker 3: served to camp residents, As residents usually got only one 928 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,840 Speaker 3: hot meal a day because of funding. Stuff in the kitchen. 929 00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:46,240 Speaker 3: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference camp organizers were really impressed 930 00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:48,240 Speaker 3: by the bakery, and they even moved their own coffee 931 00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:52,800 Speaker 3: shop next door to it. Coffee again, I know, always coffee. 932 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,040 Speaker 3: Now live in a world where we have to stay awake, 933 00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:55,319 Speaker 3: you know. 934 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm awake right now. 935 00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,239 Speaker 3: I know I'm awake too, But I've also had two 936 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:04,960 Speaker 3: cups of coffee. And I actually took my ADHD medicine 937 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:06,680 Speaker 3: today because I was like, this is probably the one 938 00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:08,239 Speaker 3: day we're being really chatty. Is good? 939 00:48:09,120 --> 00:48:12,879 Speaker 2: So this is my socializing for the week. 940 00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:16,320 Speaker 4: Yeah. 941 00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:19,920 Speaker 3: So Digger bread also spread throughout the counterculture and recipe form. 942 00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:22,920 Speaker 3: The recipe was originally distributed as a Digger leaflet entitled 943 00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:25,560 Speaker 3: Free Bread. It included a list of where to buy 944 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:29,560 Speaker 3: wholesal flower cheaply in the Bay, and instructions for making 945 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,919 Speaker 3: twelve loaves at once. Since they assumed the people using 946 00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:35,920 Speaker 3: the recipe would be doing so to open other free bakeries, 947 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:40,040 Speaker 3: it also included the stipulation that although anyone was welcome 948 00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:41,960 Speaker 3: to use the recipe, you always had to give the 949 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,759 Speaker 3: bread away for free. Hell yeah, I know, awesome, right, 950 00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:50,000 Speaker 3: But later versions of the recipe don't even mention the 951 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,080 Speaker 3: free bakeries. So there's one that's printed in both the 952 00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,880 Speaker 3: underground newspaper Northwest Passage in nineteen sixty nine, and in 953 00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:59,880 Speaker 3: the first ever nineteen seventy issue of Mother Earth News 954 00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,600 Speaker 3: that makes no mention of the bakeries and it totally 955 00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:07,520 Speaker 3: relocates the bread just to like the domestic sphere. So 956 00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:10,080 Speaker 3: the head note. Do you know what a head note is? No? 957 00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,240 Speaker 2: Wait, is it the main thing that you taste in wine? 958 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:18,520 Speaker 3: No, it's that little paragraph before a recipe that people 959 00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:19,640 Speaker 3: love to complain about. 960 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:22,319 Speaker 2: You mean, the eighteen pages of. 961 00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:26,080 Speaker 3: Okay, well that happens on Google because it has to 962 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:27,920 Speaker 3: do with like Google algorithm. 963 00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:29,719 Speaker 2: It has to do like copyright stuff, right, because you 964 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,640 Speaker 2: can't copyright a recipe, but you can so in order 965 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:35,359 Speaker 2: to I'm not even mad about it. I just click 966 00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:36,600 Speaker 2: the skipt a recipe thing. 967 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:40,960 Speaker 3: But headnotes can be really cool in like a formerly, 968 00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,239 Speaker 3: you know, when people are thoughtful about them and are yeah, 969 00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:46,960 Speaker 3: fair enough information. Yeah, But this headnote just says, every 970 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:48,839 Speaker 3: time we make this bread, it's a big hit around 971 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,560 Speaker 3: the house. Have a big hit around your house. And 972 00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,440 Speaker 3: in a nineteen seventy one Berkeley Barber article that does 973 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:58,560 Speaker 3: mention free bakeries, the article says that a small town 974 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,160 Speaker 3: of weed California would be a great place to open one. 975 00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:05,240 Speaker 3: And then it says in fight the local sheriff's deputy 976 00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:07,960 Speaker 3: over for coffee and show him you have nothing to 977 00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:08,480 Speaker 3: Oh my. 978 00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,520 Speaker 2: God, it's gone full circle. Oh my god, that's so heartbreaking. 979 00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:15,560 Speaker 2: This is this is the encapsulation of what happened to 980 00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:20,319 Speaker 2: the hippies all in one moment, and it happens with 981 00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:24,480 Speaker 2: any Just you strip away all of the radicals, create 982 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,440 Speaker 2: something new, and then other people strip away the then 983 00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:32,400 Speaker 2: they only take the ephemera, right, because the bread is 984 00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:36,320 Speaker 2: the yeah, the product that is created by a revolutionary process. 985 00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:38,360 Speaker 2: And so then people are like, fuck the revolution, we 986 00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:39,160 Speaker 2: just want the bread. 987 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,520 Speaker 3: Yeah. And now, unless you're looking at the Digger Archive, 988 00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,520 Speaker 3: Sight or a few other places that are specifically focused 989 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:48,319 Speaker 3: on the Diggers, you can like google around for the 990 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,520 Speaker 3: Digger bread recipe and you literally just find it as 991 00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:54,400 Speaker 3: this like fun hippie recipe and it never mentions anything 992 00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:56,879 Speaker 3: more about the Diggers, which is really disappointing. 993 00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,760 Speaker 2: Can we put the good version in the show notes? 994 00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:02,920 Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I can. Yeah, I can send it 995 00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:05,560 Speaker 3: to you for sure, with the caveat that This whole 996 00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:07,320 Speaker 3: coffee camp thing makes me really nervous. 997 00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:11,040 Speaker 2: That's a good point. You know what people have to get. Yeah, 998 00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:13,440 Speaker 2: people google yourself. We told you how to find it. 999 00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:17,160 Speaker 3: Do that well, very easy if you just google digger 1000 00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:20,560 Speaker 3: bread recipe. All the recipes themselves are good, they just 1001 00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:24,000 Speaker 3: don't always have information about, right, you know who the 1002 00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:24,760 Speaker 3: diggers were. 1003 00:51:24,760 --> 00:51:27,320 Speaker 2: Which you are providing right now. So consider that you're. 1004 00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:32,759 Speaker 3: Note, Yeah, giant head note to a recipe. Yeah, so 1005 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:33,839 Speaker 3: you know. 1006 00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:38,720 Speaker 2: This whole transcript. Let's just a head note on it anyway. 1007 00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:42,279 Speaker 3: Sorry, honestly, like there's a lot of writing projects I 1008 00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,719 Speaker 3: thought about that would just be something like that, And uh, 1009 00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,120 Speaker 3: it's hilarious and also I've spent more time thinking about 1010 00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:51,440 Speaker 3: it than i'd like to. Yeah, fair enough, so to 1011 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:55,680 Speaker 3: wrap to wrap up our diggers. While free bakries persisted 1012 00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:58,840 Speaker 3: into the seventies, including in other places across the country, 1013 00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:01,839 Speaker 3: and there were digger groups in other places across the country, 1014 00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:04,799 Speaker 3: even though San Francisco was the main place. The San 1015 00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:09,000 Speaker 3: Francisco Diggers disbanded as a recognizable group in nineteen sixty nine, 1016 00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,239 Speaker 3: So even though they only existed for three years, they 1017 00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:15,040 Speaker 3: had a really profound impact on food based mutual aid 1018 00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:18,640 Speaker 3: in the United States. The same year they disbanded. In 1019 00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:21,759 Speaker 3: nineteen sixty nine, a group occupied an empty lot that 1020 00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,399 Speaker 3: became Berkeley's People's Park, which I know more recently has 1021 00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:30,759 Speaker 3: had some challenges around it. Yeah, and I know that 1022 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:33,040 Speaker 3: people are like struggling to keep it being a people's park. 1023 00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:35,520 Speaker 3: I don't know what the latest is on that. But 1024 00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,160 Speaker 3: at the People's Park, occupants plated a garden and, influenced 1025 00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,800 Speaker 3: by the Diggers, shared free community meals, often making stews 1026 00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,279 Speaker 3: improvised from whatever people brought that day. The Diggers were 1027 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:49,560 Speaker 3: also a major inspiration for Food Not Bombs, which you've 1028 00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:52,520 Speaker 3: also done an episode on previously and people should check out. 1029 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:55,640 Speaker 3: But in case people didn't catch that one, Food Not 1030 00:52:55,760 --> 00:53:00,720 Speaker 3: Bombs is an international decentralized organization that serves free meals 1031 00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:05,160 Speaker 3: primarily from donated and dumpstered ingredients in public places. It 1032 00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:08,640 Speaker 3: started in nineteen eighty as part of the anti nuclear movement, 1033 00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:11,880 Speaker 3: and then in Hawaii there's a group called Eating in 1034 00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:15,600 Speaker 3: Public that holds dinners inspired by the Diggers and gay 1035 00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:18,880 Speaker 3: Channon Adiita Sharma, who founded it, wrote about the project 1036 00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:22,319 Speaker 3: sorry for a plug for an anthology I edited called 1037 00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:25,520 Speaker 3: Nurishing Resistance, but it was just like too perfect of 1038 00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:27,560 Speaker 3: a tie in. I wanted to make sure it made 1039 00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:31,480 Speaker 3: it into this episode, especially because there's this one paragraph that, 1040 00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:35,520 Speaker 3: throughout the entire multi year process of editing this book, 1041 00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:37,960 Speaker 3: would put such a huge smile on my face, Like 1042 00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:40,520 Speaker 3: sometimes when things would get tough with editing, I'd like 1043 00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:42,840 Speaker 3: go read this paragraph to remember why I was doing 1044 00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:45,279 Speaker 3: what I was doing. I want to share it with 1045 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:49,200 Speaker 3: you as a note to end on. So this is 1046 00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:53,840 Speaker 3: from the article by Chan and Sharma. Diggers dinners have 1047 00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:56,759 Speaker 3: taken place in small settings among friends, as well as 1048 00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,960 Speaker 3: in spaces open to all. The events are basically potlock, 1049 00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:03,040 Speaker 3: but with one rule designed to keep capitalist markets at bay. 1050 00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:07,239 Speaker 3: Each participant's contribution must be primarily made from ingredients that 1051 00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:12,200 Speaker 3: they have either grown, hunted, fished, foraged, gleaned, bartered, found, 1052 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:15,480 Speaker 3: been gifted or stolen. At the start of each dinner, 1053 00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:18,320 Speaker 3: participants are invited to explain the backstory of the ingredient 1054 00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:21,560 Speaker 3: and our largest Diggers dinner. Among the last of the 1055 00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:24,800 Speaker 3: participants to speak was a tiny eighty year old woman 1056 00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,000 Speaker 3: stepping up onto a stool to reach the microphone. She 1057 00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:30,640 Speaker 3: began by saying, I read about this in the newspaper 1058 00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:32,840 Speaker 3: and realized I've been waiting for this my whole life. 1059 00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:34,920 Speaker 3: So I went to the store and stole these bananas 1060 00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:35,680 Speaker 3: and these apples. 1061 00:54:36,719 --> 00:54:41,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's so interesting to me that diggers, because 1062 00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:45,600 Speaker 2: they're obviously the lesser known diggers, right, but there was 1063 00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:47,880 Speaker 2: more of them, and they lasted longer, and they also 1064 00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:52,080 Speaker 2: had more impact the original diggers. I don't think they 1065 00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:55,000 Speaker 2: ever saw a harvest. I don't think they ever actually 1066 00:54:55,960 --> 00:54:58,680 Speaker 2: got any food out of the land. And that's not 1067 00:54:58,719 --> 00:55:00,319 Speaker 2: to say what they didn't. What they did, I mean, 1068 00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:03,680 Speaker 2: what they did was revolutionary, right, the original seventeenth century 1069 00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:07,160 Speaker 2: diggers or whatever, but it but it didn't actually have 1070 00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,160 Speaker 2: as much of a material impact on as many people's lives. 1071 00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:11,960 Speaker 2: And so it's just interesting to me that these are 1072 00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:15,799 Speaker 2: the like, the like, lesser known diggers, right, even though 1073 00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:18,680 Speaker 2: they had this like massive impact on culture, but also 1074 00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:21,560 Speaker 2: just directly fed so many people for so long. 1075 00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:25,839 Speaker 3: Totally, that is interesting. And yeah, I'm not entirely sure 1076 00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,160 Speaker 3: why that is. I do not that the diggers, really, 1077 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,359 Speaker 3: that San Francisco Diggers really resisted this whole like I'll 1078 00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:36,720 Speaker 3: call it the famous man notion because it's almost always 1079 00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:40,600 Speaker 3: a man. But they were like very resistant to giving interviews, 1080 00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:44,759 Speaker 3: to you know, to identifying themselves as individuals, not in 1081 00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:46,880 Speaker 3: like a hiding their identity way, but they were just 1082 00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:49,919 Speaker 3: like really focused on the collective. And I wonder if 1083 00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,879 Speaker 3: not having you know, there's not like a famous digger. Yeah, 1084 00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:56,239 Speaker 3: he's like famous mostly for being a digger in the 1085 00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:58,279 Speaker 3: way that you have with some other movements, and I 1086 00:55:58,280 --> 00:55:59,879 Speaker 3: do wonder if that's part of why they're less. 1087 00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:03,240 Speaker 2: I also think that just like when you get in first, 1088 00:56:03,239 --> 00:56:06,680 Speaker 2: when you're the first the diggers, and also anything you 1089 00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:10,440 Speaker 2: do in like Renaissance era England is going to have 1090 00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:13,759 Speaker 2: more impact on history than like any other time or 1091 00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:19,359 Speaker 2: place to be a person, you know, to like because colonialism, but. 1092 00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,799 Speaker 3: Especially within like the anglosphere right where we're reading and 1093 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:23,520 Speaker 3: writing in English. 1094 00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:29,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, totally, Well, thank you so much. And what's 1095 00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:32,360 Speaker 2: gonna One what are we going to hear about on 1096 00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:37,040 Speaker 2: Wednesday so people can be excited? And two tell us 1097 00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:41,439 Speaker 2: more about you and plug things cool? 1098 00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:44,680 Speaker 3: So we're going to talk about food co ops, which 1099 00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,440 Speaker 3: doesn't sound very exciting and wouldn't have sounded very exciting 1100 00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:49,560 Speaker 3: to me before I did research, but I promise you 1101 00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:52,920 Speaker 3: it will be exciting. There are some very cool radical 1102 00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:57,480 Speaker 3: roots that have been pretty intensely covered up with food 1103 00:56:57,480 --> 00:57:01,360 Speaker 3: co ops in this country. And then as far as plugs, 1104 00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:05,560 Speaker 3: I did want to mention that anthology I edited, Nourishing Resistance, 1105 00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:10,319 Speaker 3: which is available from PM Press. It has incredible contributors. 1106 00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,120 Speaker 3: People should buy it if you can, or like see 1107 00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:16,240 Speaker 3: if your library has it. And yeah, I recommend reading it, 1108 00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:18,520 Speaker 3: not because I edited it, but because the contributors are 1109 00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:24,120 Speaker 3: so incredible, and specifically two pieces in that the gay 1110 00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:27,600 Speaker 3: Channon Nandida Sharma article that I quoted remaking the Commons 1111 00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:30,440 Speaker 3: a history of eating in Public and then another essay 1112 00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:33,400 Speaker 3: by Madeline Lane McKinley called notes on Utopian Failure and 1113 00:57:33,440 --> 00:57:37,200 Speaker 3: Commune Kitchens, which while it didn't like directly go into 1114 00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:39,880 Speaker 3: my research, it did influence a lot of the background 1115 00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:44,400 Speaker 3: thinking around gender in this era. So yeah, those are 1116 00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:48,120 Speaker 3: my plugs. I exist only on the Instagram at at 1117 00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,800 Speaker 3: ren Arai, which is my name. You can follow me there, yay. 1118 00:57:53,680 --> 00:57:56,600 Speaker 2: And that's been part one of Ren explains things to me. 1119 00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:03,840 Speaker 3: We'll be Backdesday Wednesday. Bye. 1120 00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:07,640 Speaker 1: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of 1121 00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:10,800 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, 1122 00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:14,200 Speaker 1: visit our website coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out 1123 00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,640 Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 1124 00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:18,520 Speaker 1: your podcasts.