Episode notes
Alex Schmidt is joined by bestselling author Jason Pargin (‘John Dies At The End’ series, ‘Zoey Ashe’ series) for a look at why Halloween stores are secretly incredibly fascinating.
Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.
LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:
- Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick by David Wong
- Jason’s website
- Jason Pargin on Twitter
- CNN story that Alex describes in the episode intro, from September 6th 2021: “Plans for $400-billion new city in the American desert unveiled”
RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
- native-land.ca
- U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
- The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
- Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)
RESEARCH SOURCES:
- Love It or Hate It, Halloween Is Going Global (National Geographic)
- Halloween spending: 25 U.S. cities that invest heavily in this haunted holiday (USA Today)
- How Halloween Has Traveled the Globe (Discover Magazine)
- Village Halloween Parade in NYC 2021 guide (TimeOut New York)
- How Halloween Became One of the Biggest Drinking Holidays of the Year (VinePair.com)
- Exclusive Interview: A History of Don Post Studios (Famous Monsters Of Filmland)
- Was Michael Myers’ Halloween Mask William Shatner’s Face? (StarTrek.com)
- The Halloween-Industrial Complex: After the 2008 recession, commercial real estate firms had a ton of empty buildings. Fortunately, Halloween stores were ready to fill the gap—for a month. (Tedium.co)
- 8 Spooky Facts About Spirit Halloween (Mental Floss)
- 12 Secrets of Spirit Halloween Employees (Mental Floss)
- How Halloween Stores Conquered America (Bloomberg)
- This is a Teepublic.com page selling the “Communist Party” t-shirt design that Alex describes in the episodes.
- the Spirit Halloween website page for “Store Opportunities: Real Estate Leasing”
- Why Stores Sell Halloween Stuff Before Labor Day (NPR)
- 7-Eleven: The Simpsons Kwik-E-Mart NYC (Freshness Mag)
- Drake opening OVO pop-up store in L.A. this weekend (FashionNetwork.com)
- See Two Decades of San Francisco’s Wildest Queer Halloween Parties (Atlas Obscura)
- The popularity of Halloween in America is due to gay culture (LGBTQNation.com)
- Why for some LGBT+ people, Halloween is the gay Christmas (The New Statesman UK)
- Halloween is ‘gay Christmas’ in the LGBTQ community. This year, it has been canceled. (The Washington Post)
In this episode...
Guests
- Jason Pargin
About the show
A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!
Get in touch with the show
@sifpod
@sifpod
SIF on Discord!People
How to listen
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