Undone

One summer night in 1979, 50,000 people got together at a baseball stadium to kill disco. And it worked. Kind of. In this first episode of "Undone" we meet someone who worked as an usher at Disco Demolition Night and played a vital role in keeping the spirit of disco alive today.

Disco Demolition Night

In 1996, two teenagers stumbled across some very old human remains. The struggle to identify them and determine who owns them kicked off a fight that has lasted 20 years -- and is finally about to be resolved.

Go to GimletMedia.com/FallSeason to subscribe to Undone and Gimlet’s other new podcasts.

Credits

Undone is hosted by Pat Walters.

This episode was produced by Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry. Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson.
Editing by Alan Burdick and Catlin Kenney.

Fact checking by Michelle Harris. This episode of Undone was mixed and scored by Bobby Lord. With additional scoring by Nate Sandberg of Plied Sound, and Kevin Sparks

Special thanks to … Jack Hitt, Rosita Worl, Michael Coffey, and Carl Zimmer.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past ... to today. You can find them here.

The Ancient One

This is a story about a forgotten part of civil-rights history that is still very much alive. In 1965, a group of black men in Louisiana called the Deacons for Defense and Justice took up arms against the Klan. Now a daughter of the Deacons wants to start a museum in their honor, but not everyone in town wants their story told.

Go to GimletMedia.com/FallSeason to subscribe to Undone and Gimlet’s other new podcasts.

Credits

Undone is hosted by Pat Walters.

This episode was reported and produced by Eric Eddings, along with Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry. Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson. We are edited by Alan Burdick and Caitlin Kenney. Isabella Kulkarni is our intern.

The show is mixed and scored by Bobby Lord. Additional music by Nate Sandberg of Plied Sound. Our fact-checker is Michelle Harris.

Special thanks to Maude Eddings and Ward Colin.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past to today. You can find them here.

Selected References

http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15932coll2/id/53842/rec/12

https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4085340

https://roberthicksfoundation.squarespace.com/

The Deacons

Before Tinder, before eHarmony, before the internet, there was Operation Match. This is the story of the roots of online dating, when, in 1965, a computer the size of a van helped people find their perfect dates.

Go to GimletMedia.com/FallSeason to subscribe to Undone and Gimlet’s other new podcasts.

Credits

Undone is hosted by Pat Walters.

This episode was produced by Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry. Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson.Editing by Alan Burdick and Catlin Kenney. Our intern is Isabella Kulkarni.

Undone is mixed and scored by Bobby Lord. Our fact-checker is Michelle Harris.

Special thanks to Marden and Joan Paru, Robert and Beth Smith, Paul Eastwick, Eve Peters, Vaughan Morrill and David Crump.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past ... to today. You can find them at retroreport.org.

Operation Match

Ibrahim Parlak came to the U.S. in 1991 as Kurdish refugee; his friends and neighbors see him as the ideal American immigrant. But the U.S. government considers him "the complete terrorist package" and has been trying to deport him for over a decade. We try to figure out why they see him so differently.

Credits

Undone is hosted by Pat Walters. This episode was reported by Alex Kotlowitz, and produced by Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry. Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson.

Editing by Alan Burdick and Catlin Kenney. Production assistance by Isabella Kulkarni.

Undone is mixed and scored by Bobby Lord. Our fact-checker is Michelle Harris.

Special thanks to Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions, who provided editorial guidance, production assistance, and excerpts from some of the interviews you heard in this episode. Dan and Elizabeth continue to follow Ibrahim’s story … you can hear more from their ongoing project at longhaulpro.org. Thanks also to Robert Carpenter.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past to today. You can find them here.

Ibrahim

In 1975 a group of activists set off into the Pacific Ocean to confront a fleet Soviet whalers. This episode is about that moment, when this tight-knit group of activists came together to set off a movement … and how today, 40 years later, some of them can’t even talk to one another.

Undone is hosted by Pat Walters.

This episode was produced by Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry. Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson. Editing by Alan Burdick and Caitlin Kenney. Production assistance by Isabella Kulkarni.

Undone is mixed and scored by Bobby Lord, with additional music by Nate Sandberg of Plied Sound and Sean Jacobi. Our fact-checker is Michelle Harris.

Special thanks to Jerry Rothwell, Ron Precious, Emily Hunter, Carlie Trueman and Bunny McDiarmid.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past to today. You can find them here.

Mindbomb

This episode features an excerpt from Twice Removed, a new Gimlet show that proves we’re all just one big family. The guest for this episode is the writer Dan Savage. We think you’ll really like it. We’ll return with a brand new episode of Undone for you in a couple of weeks.

Introducing Twice Removed

In 2003 the space shuttle Columbia was returning from two weeks in orbit. It was a routine mission. So routine that most of America barely paid attention. Until something went terribly wrong. Many of us watched shuttle break apart over Texas on television. All seven of the crew members were lost. Jon Clark’s wife, Laurel, was one of them, and her death that day inspired his life’s work: helping get more people to space.

Undone is hosted and produced by Pat Walters, with Julia DeWitt and Emanuele Berry.

Our senior producer is Larissa Anderson. We are edited by Alan Burdick and Caitlin Kenney. Production assistance by Isabella Kulkarni. Undone is mixed and scored by Bobby Lord. Our fact-checker is Michelle Harris.

Special thanks to Janna Levin.

Undone was conceived in collaboration with our friends at Retro Report, the documentary film series that connects iconic news events of the past to today. You can find them here.

If you want to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter @undoneshow or e-mail us at undone at gimletmedia dot com.

Undone

Hussein Adam