29 episodes
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College Audacy Studios
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- Society & Culture
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3.8 • 1.7K 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
Looking forward towards a third season!
LA porn’s worth it.
Bennington ‘86 great.
LOVE this podcast!
It's wild to be this podcast only has 3.8 stars, I can only imagine it was some professional jealousy campaign by other less-good journalists/podcasters - it is head and shoulders more interesting, better reported and better voiced than 90% of the investigative/deep dive podcasts out there. Found it for the Bennington season (AWESOME by any measure but especially so for fans of the 80s, Bennington, Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem or Donna Tartt) and stayed for the porn in the 80s story which I thought I wasn't interested in but by the end of the first episode, I was hooked. Can't wait for more seasons!
Women Beware
I’m 5 episodes into the Tracy Lords story and I’m ready to puke. I’m so sick of the sound bites from every single person involved in making porn with a child go on to describe that child as “sexually charged”… SHE WAS SEXUALLY ABUSED NOT “CHARGED”.
I get that no one knew it at the time but I do expect the narrator to maybe interject (at least once!) a reminder to us all that this was a CHILD and even the choices sexual abuse victims make after they become adults are usually dictated by their abusive past. Felt like one victim blame after another.
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