Released today, “America’s Dead,” a new 10-episode podcast about the lasting legacy of the Grateful Dead and the band’s profound impact on the American consciousness.
Produced by Sonos Radio, the limited series is hosted by Grammy Award-winning director and producer Emmett Malloy and takes listeners on an improvisational journey through a variety of conversations, with the goal of understanding why The Dead is more popular than ever. .
This podcast takes any preconception that The Dead is just a hippie band and totally smashes it. The remains are carefully picked up by Malloy, who acts as a spiritual guide through various conversations that highlight the intricacies of The Dead’s fan base.
In the series’ first episode, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig professes his love for the Grateful Dead and challenges critics by discussing how anyone who listens to “Eyes of the World” from the 1970s could eventually be transformed. “There’s something about[Jerry Garcia]on those strings, and I don’t know how to describe it,” Koenig says. “It’s fun. Every note is pure to him.”
The podcast features interviews with other musicians like jazz bassist Brandford Marsalis (who played Grateful Dead in the early ’90s), Mac DeMarco, members of Animal Collective and Lila Downs, though the series doesn’t just focus on contemporary musicians and how they drew inspiration from the repertoire. the dead. Malloy has also interviewed mycologist, sober fan, former Grateful Dead tour director, religion expert, designers, and artists, all trying to discover what makes The Dead so influential and relevant across species.
“For me, the grateful dead have given the things that traditional religion has given to others,” says Dr. Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California. In the second episode of the podcast, Malloy interviews Sony who credits The Grateful Dead for saving it by giving it a place in the world. “It provided me with a sense of belonging to a community, a tribe, and a ritual, and it helped open my mind to a reality greater than myself.”
Malloy, a Deadhead for more than 40 years, helped create “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell” on Netflix, co-founded Brushfire Records and helped create music videos for War on Drugs, Blink-182, Metallica, and Avril Lavigne. He’s a father, artist, and cultural observer interested in understanding why the dead are more alive now than ever.
“This is a podcast about the Grateful Dead — but more than that, it’s about the community that made the dead themselves…a truly American experience,” Malloy says.
He once admits to deifying the grateful dead and worshiping Jerry Garcia in a prophetic way when he was younger. He’s come full circle, realizing that while Garcia didn’t want to be a god, there’s just something about the set that continues to draw people toward a spiritual experience that makes music deeply moving.
The series is quite digestible, with episodes ranging from 15 to 30 minutes in length, similar to a curated Grateful Dead playlist where listeners can tune in for a bit or, if they so choose, tune in to the entire jam — or the show — in one sitting.
In another episode, Malloy interviewed Paul Stamets, a mycologist with a large following in the psychedelic community. He fell in love with the music of The Grateful Dead when he lived in a remote cottage in the Cascades in Washington state, and says The Dead was adept at small doses of psychedelic mushrooms before it was a popular subject. During this time in the mountains, Stamets would zip on LSD and psilocybin and listen to The Dead a lot. “My best friend was dead,” he says. “And the message I got was that we are all connected with nature and we need to protect the Earth.”
Another episode features a conversation between country singer Margo Price and rhythm guitarist at The Met, founding member Bob Ware. “I was turned into The Dead by an ex-boyfriend who was also my weed dealer,” Price says. People are surprised to learn that she is dead. “What I loved about The Dead was that they were never restricted by genre or music industry and didn’t let anyone tell them how to make their music and live their lives,” she says. Bryce asked Weir for his thoughts on this, and whether he considers musical genres to be restricted.
“Literary genres are useful to me,” Ware says. “The more I can push the boundaries of the literary genre, the more success I feel.” In the spirit of going deeper, Weir also promised that he would one day release a country album. The conversation was prefaced by Price saying she was “stumbling a little on mushrooms” when speaking with Weir, which gave the conversation a cheerful, cheerful glow.
Malloy also interviewed artist Steve Powers, better known as ESPO, about The Dead’s creation of a visual language through icons and icons such as the “Steal Your Face” slogan. The creators of the clothing brand Online Ceramics also talk about their iconic graphics based on iconic emblems of the dead that have taken a toll on American fashion and culture. Even LeBron James and the Old Navy are walking dead bears.
“America’s Dead” asks listeners the question: What can the dead tell us about us? The podcast reveals the answer through a compelling audio story outlining the power of The Dead in building identity and community around music and the shared experience.
In other news related to Dead, the annual “Meetup At The Movies” will take place on November 1 and will broadcast the band’s show from April 17, 1972 at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark. This fully restored concert was a milestone 50 years ago, as it was the first live Dead concert to be broadcast anywhere, and the first in Danish television history. Tickets will go on sale September 23. Additional shows will take place on November 5 in the United States, Canada and select regions.
You can listen to “America’s Dead” on Sonos Radio on the Sonos app, the Sonos Radio website, and on all major audio streaming platforms.
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