29 episodes
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College Audacy
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- Society & Culture
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3.7 • 178 Ratings
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It’s the groves of academe: Bennington College, the wildest and wickedest school in America. In the last great decade: the 1980s. Bennington class of ’86, class of Bret Easton Ellis, future writer of American Psycho and co-leader of the literary Brat Pack; Jonathan Lethem, future writer of Motherless Brooklyn and MacArthur Fellow; and Donna Tartt, future writer of The Secret History and Pulitzer Prize winner. All three are, at various times, infatuated and disappointed with one another, their friendships stimulated and fueled by rivalry as much as affection. And all three will mythologize Bennington in their fiction—fiction that, as we’ll discover, isn’t always fiction, is often fact—and thereby become myths themselves. From Vanity Fair's Lili Anolik, comes the latest installment in the Once Upon a Time… franchise, Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College. This is a tale of money, murder, madness, and—of course—genius. This is, too, a multi-dimensional expose: the secret history of The Secret History revealed; the secret history of three of the greatest writers of Generation X revealed; and the secret history of Generation X itself revealed.
Once Upon a Time at...Bennington College is an Audacy original.
This follows Season One: Once Upon a Time...in the Valley, a real-life psychological thriller about underage adult star Traci Lords.
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Dis-Orientation
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Donna, Jonathan and Bret arrive on the campus of the school nicknamed “The Little Red Whorehouse on the Hill.” One of them comes with a steamer trunk. One of them comes with a Kangol cap. One of them comes with a “suitcase full of drugs.”
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Bret Ellis, Valley Boy
Los Angeles, 1980-1981. “There was just this huge sense that the world was gay, gay, gay.” The origin story of Bret Easton Ellis (and Less Than Zero), Part One.
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An Alley Along Melrose
Los Angeles, 1981-1982. “This rumor went around in 1981, 1982, that kids just were brought to see the body of another kid.” The origin story of Bret Easton Ellis (and Less Than Zero), Part Two.
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Disappear There
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Bret and Donna go on a date.
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Bennington Revisited
Bennington. Autumn, 1982. Donna falls under the thrall of a magus-like professor, and the very small, very elite, very male band of students to whom he teaches Ancient Greek. “I can absolutely distinctly remember the three of them, and then the four of them—the three guys but then the four. The guys with Donna.”
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Mississippi Chippy
Winter, 1982-1983. Over Non-Resident term, Donna gets closer to Jonathan, and becomes Paul McGloin's "Burning Boy."
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Customer Reviews
The host voice
The story is good but excruciating to listen to the host because she speaks so close to the microphone I can hear her saliva building up and for someone who has a high sensitivity to sounds - it’s physically painful to listen so I had to stop
Misguided
A very informative and well researched history, but problematic. I am convinced by the argument that Traci Lords was ambitious and manipulative, that she knew what she wanted and pursued it aggressively. But so what? She was a child, and deserved to be protected, if even against her own bad judgement. This series ignores that completely.
Vapid, shallow tripe
I thought this would be about the intersecting lives of rising literary powerhouses. But this podcast has no substance at all.
The syrupy, giggly host wastes time fawning over the tediously obnoxiously vain Bret Easton Ellison; she glosses over substance to focus on Ellison’s Wayfairers and indulge him his petty grievances.
What about Quintana, Joan Didion’s daughter at Bennington? What about Donna Tartt? We’re only given shreds and asides. Mostly this rag consists of a bunch of C-level students rehashing passé glories that hold no value to objective listeners whatsoever.
Who green lit this steaming tripe?
I demand a redo of worth!