The Constant Pursuit of the American Dream

This message comes from Data ICQ. AI is everywhere, but companies struggle to prove results. For that, they need people, orchestration, and governance working as one. Data IQ is the platform for AI success buuilt to bring it all together. Visit dataku d. com slash npR You may have heard a little something about America's two hundred fiftieth birthday, or to put it in a way that rolls off the tongue, it's semi quinentennial. So we thought it was a good time to discuss depictions of America in movies, TV, and music. I'm Stephen Thompson, and today we are sharing our picks for what pieces of pop culture best depict The American Dream. Joining me today are my fellow Americans and NPR pop culture Happy Hour hosts. Linda Holmes,y Holesy. Oh, hello, Stehven. Aisha Harris. Hey Aisha. Hey Stehven. And Glenn Weldon, Hey buddy. I am that Yankee doodle boy. Hey, Stephven. You really, really are. All right, we kept this prompt somewhat open ended, so I'm fascinated to see where we go and how on brand we stay. Linda Holmes, I'm going to start with you. G me your pick for a pop cultural depiction of the American Dream Sure. so I am aware that the meaning of the American dream that gets used the most often is an idea of universally achievable economic security and upward mobility, which is something that has never been real There are films that have pretended it's real and recognize that it isn't real. My own heart is so settled in its rejection of that particular myth that I did not feel moved by trying to pursue that. So I went looking for something that feels American dream like, but that I feel more kind of conflicted about and uncertain about. and that led me to the nineteen ninety five film, Apollo thirteen. Apollo thirteen was directed by Ron Howard. It tells the story of the space flight in April of nineteen seventy when an explosion in an oxygen tank disabled some of the systems that operated the spacecraft took a tremendous amount of ingenuity and nerd problem solving to get those astronauts home, even now if I watch it, even though I know it happens, very suspenseful Why is it an American Dream movie? I think The space program is one of the things that genuinely still makes my heart swell with optimism. I don't know if any of you are like that. but Despite the fact that American space exploration was deeply intertwined with the military and inexorably connected to the Cold War, there is something like neat about space tra travel that is hard to duplicate with anything else. Even now, I think with the recent Artemis mission, you see that that a lot of your hardened cynics found something moving about it So I think where I came down was that space travel is what I want. to be the American dream, knowledge science international cooperation, curiosity about the world. and in the case of the Apollo thirirteen mission peopleeople dedicating themselves fully to solving a problem that seems impossible to solve simply because you cannot let anybody go. You cannot leave anybody on their own. It's competence porn in a way, right? It is certainly a workplace piece and a competence piece I have a couple of other thoughts, but I am curious to hear how this strikes the rest of you as my effort at the American Dream. I think this is a great pick. I mean, because this is where the American dream confronts reality this movie.. I mean, the dream of going to the mooon is a dream that meets in this film the very harsh realities and the costs, the human costs, among other kind of costs of space travel. I mean When this film is set, we'd already had three astronauts die, but we kept going anyway. and that's that's a very American thing. Good pick. Yeah. I think this general idea for this episode was my idea. and I realized as soon as I actually started thinking about it, this is really hard to pin down. What a task I've given us. Not unlike the astronomical task at hand in Apollo thirteen. I think this is a very good pick as well because like you said, Linda, I mean A lot of our picks here are going to have a mixture of both like That dream the dreaminess of the dream and then also the like the cold hard reality of like when that dream is confronted and when that dream is intended to be achieved. And chographically, it also just feels very, very American in a you know, in a way. yeah. Yeah. that's the other thing that I wanted to say is that like cinematically, I also think it's so interesting to me. the movie was directed by Ron Howard who both As Opi on the Andy Griffiths Show and as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days became a sort of an avatar for an idealized notion of what the United States is or was. the kid and the music manan. Right, sure. also. And the music man. And it's so interesting to me that as a director, he's often kind of been playing in some of those same spaces right up to the fact that he directed the adaptation of Hill Billy Elllegy Which is JD Vance's book that I think over time has been pretty vigorously interrogated for its vision of the American Dream. And on top of that, it's Tom Hanks, who has been representing this very particular stripe of American heroossity in movies through this Sully the Hero pilot, Forst Gump, saving Private Ryan, he played Fred Rogers. He's woody in Toy Story Yes, he is. There's a huge like part of mythology going on that I am very aware of and find difficult to resist. and of course It's like There's also this poignancy to the fact that the space travel now is bound up with billionaires and with a lust to sort of colonize space and cast off the planet we're on. So I think like I chose this because it captures so much of the love and optimism and also ambivalence that I feel when I hear the phrase American Dream. Yeah, I mean, my immediate response was,, Homesy went with optimism. And I feel like that's going to be a through line all of our picks right? L We all went with a vision of the American dream that was deeply wholesome to which everyone should aspire. Aisha give us your pick. From the great expanse of the planets and the stars and the moon and the sky, to Baltimore. Here we go. Cira two thousand two, two thousand three I went with the wire and why wouldn't I? Because I think this is truly one of the great American texts I think This is not a new thing to be said. I am not breaking any ground here. This is well trodght, well fertilized ground. You know, When I set us up for this very monumental task of trying to pin down something that represents the American dream, how we see it, or how we it could be. I did the you're in high school now and you have to go back to the source and how are you going to write this paper? And you're going to start it off with James Tussell Adams coined the phrase in nineteen thirty one in his book, The Epic of America. And I went back and I looked at the many ways that he kind of talks about it. And one of the ways he talks about it that stuck out to me was a dream of a better, richer and happier life for all of our citizens, all our citizens of every rank And I kept coming back to the wire and how there are so many examples of this both mostly failing or stumbling to get to that point, but also in ways getting to that point. And I chose two characters that I wanted to focus on. The first is the one of failure because let's start with the sadness and on a better note. And for me, I could have chosen a lot of people in the wire universe for so many sadness. Yes.ad that show was not wanting for that aspect. But I wanted to go with Frank abatka, who's played by Chris Bauower in season two. He is of course, the Polish American longshoreman, and he's also the treasurer for a dying labor union of Steveors. And so what I love about Frank Zbakka's character is that you know he is both sympathetic and not sympathetic. Like he's way too like his son Ziggy. He just lets him kind of do run rickhot and do whatever. But he also is trying to help his men. He's trying to do the best he can and he's out there lobbying the politicians trying to get these things to work And at the end of the day, it doesn't. You know, aboutbout a dozen dead women girls are found in one of the shipments. Frank didn't know about it, but that of course puts the police on him. All the work that he's done by the end of season two is to help like try and push the politicians to listen to what they need and what the union needs is basically undone because go stuff that's going on. And there's a scene in episode eleven of season two that just kind of sums it up very nicely. He's talking to the lobies he's working with The lobbyist is like, lookook, there's nothing we can do. Oh at this point, he's got a warrant for his arrest. Like it's over for Frank. He says this to the lobbyist. You you know what the trouble is, Bruccey We used to make it in this country built Now we's put our hand in the next guy's pocket. Man, we used to build Could you get any more like this is the decrepitness of the American Dream? Like, yes, it is. Do we feel like this is a solid choice for like the sad part of the Yire? There are a lot of choices that could have made Yeah home run. Most definitely. And I think if nothing else, you certainly know that this is the creator David Simon trying to make his thesis statement about the American Dream, right? So it's like whether you thought this was the American Dream or not it's certainly an interesting example of a creator trying to the idea of the American dream and what has been lost and things like that. So one thousand percent. Yeah. So many storytellers find ways to distill gantantic complicated ideas down to very linear narratives, and he does this incredible job of capturing complex systems and how complex systems can fail And I think that's such a huge part of the power of what he does is like instead of pedaling these kind of Aaron Sorken style, every problem can be solved with a speech he really captures the way like trying to run a society really, really, really messy and often results in failure You know, I think that's part of what makes any Simon show but particularly the Wire just a perfect pick for this. We look at this show and there's a criminal enterprise at the center of it. and if you don't know anything, really, you think, well, it's a criminal enterprise. It must be lawless. There must be no systems but it's still an enterprise and it is a ruthlessly capitalistic one and it easily adopts, eagerly adopts the model and even in My favorite scene in the show and may be the best, certainly the funniest scene in the show, they even adopt Robert's rules of order. and they conform to the laws of commerce and capitalism. and they still grind people up in the gears. They're just a lot more honest about it.. Well, and in a way It's so normal that they forget that it's a criminal enterprise, which is where you get that great line about are you taking notes on a criminal conspiracy? You know. I mean, that's the thing, right? And of course, as we know, and what the Wireres is very good at is showing how those criminal enterprises, the line between the criminal enterprises and the actual law and order, there's no line. It's completely blurred. they all work together. Which brings me to my other pick of like the focus I feel that should be put when we're talking about the American Dream. and that is on the law side, but this is the law side that I think fully understands that line can be blurred. And that is in the character of Howard Bunny Colvin, played by Robert Wisdom What I love about the Bunny character, he is the police chief in season two and season three, especially in season three he's the police chief of Baltimore's Western district, and he's nearing retirement You know, going back to Adams take on the dream and of this better richer and happier life. Like I feel like he Bunny fully embodies this, right? Like he is frustrated with how the rise of the drug trade and crime related to the drug trade has basically interfered with his quote unquote real police work, his ability to do it, and he feels as if he's failed his community. Early on in season three, he has this moment where he's talking to another person and he's just like tryrying to explain how he feels like he hasn't done all that he can The city 's worse than when I first came home. What doess this say about me So what does he decide to do? He decides to pursue the chance for himself to make a better, richer and happier life for himself and his community by creating Hmsterdam Which, you know is him setting up these abandoned rowhouses away from the neighborhoods and designating them as these sort of safe zones for all the drug dealers to sell without any police interference, while also minimizing violent turfs. And so later on in the season, and by the way, he's doing all of this without getting any permission, he's gone rogue This is what he does. and he, you, entails his subordinates to help carry this out. People are selling, but there's no turf for, there's no violence. I love that. I think that is working within the system of the American Dream and knowing that the odds are stacked against you, but doing what you can anyway. And then of course, in season four, he adopts Nayan Bryce, who's one of the at risk kids that season. I feel like Bunny, he is the idealized. He's the Apollo thirteen of the Wire. He is the idealized version of the American dream, that also feels rooted in reality. And that is why I think that the wire but also Howard Bunny Colbin, and Frank SZatka are the they are the perfect stand ins for this idea of the American dream. And that is my That is my tet job. All right, well we've got more show ahead, we've got Glen's pick, we've got my pick. But first, let's take a quick break Support for this in PR podcast and the following message come from Carvana. Selling yourour car Carvana has offers so good, they're almost inexplicable. Sell your car one hundred percent online in minutes. 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Are you stuck in a job you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place Are your reasons for staying really just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry. me help you get unstuck Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner and get fifty percent off your first coaching session at strawberry. m slash npr Welcome back. We are talking about the American dream in pop culture. We're each making a pick, Glenn Weldon. It's your turn Give us some uplift, buddy. I know you got some. I got some nuanced uplift. I chose the nineteen seventy five documentary Grey Gardens by the Mazel brothers, David and Albert, along with Ellen Hubdy and Muffy Meyer, who tend to get overlooked. We're talking about the American Dream and that definition we've kind of batted around is the belief that anyone with hard work and some determination can achieve. wealth and success and security. This is a film about the American dream in decay, how wealth and success can devolve into Squaler basically. and it also wrates on a lot of other facets of the American Dream. But before I get to that, I just want to know have y'all seen this film? Okay, so Ive finally watched this for the first time, like this year. So It is very fresh in my mind. I am so glad that I was able to have seen it because B God, this movie is bonkers and I love it. I've seen the documentary now parody. And I've seen like endless references to it. I have so many friends who are fascinated with it. I'm genuinely not one hundred percent sure I've ever actually sat down and watched the source material from start to finish. I'm gonna say something that is often a lie when I say it but it is a truth when I say this time, which is I've seen a lot of it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen it start to finish. Okay. Usually that means I've never seen it. you can all be my friends. I mean, Steven, you're getting in on a youre grandfathered in on the documentary now. You can all be my friends. All right, here it is. It's a documentary about these two women an elderly mother and her middle aged daughter, bothoth named Edith Bouvier Bealle, the mother is called Biggy, the daughter is called Little Ly As we meet them They live in this decaying mansion near the tip of Long Island, a house called Grey Gardens on the beach in East Hampton. It's falling apart, it's overgrown, there's no running water, there's garbage piled up in the rooms, raccoons have the run of the place. But both of these women are American aristocracy, if not American royalty. They both come from privilege. They were members of high society, both debutants and socialites in their youth. Big Edie was Jackie Kennedy's aunt and Little Edie was her cousin When Big Eie's husband left her, she moved out of Manhattan and moved to Greg Gardens. Little Edy joined her a little bit later And they became this pair of reclusive eccentrics Their trust fund dried up and they were living in this dilapided mansion in one of the most expensive zip codes in the US, which is the irony of it. I'll be honest, when this topic came up I initially saw this movie because I thought of its most famous scene, which is where Little Ey celebrates the fourth of July by putting on some marching band music and dancing around the house's foyer in her signature headscarf while she's waving an American flag. The more I became convinced that this film says everything there is to say about America, because Grey Gardens is one of those films. That changes every time you see it, as different aspects of you kind of chime with the movie resonate with the movie in different ways. I mean, the first time I saw it, it really seemed to me like the filmmakers were exploiting these women, you know, pointing the camera at them And painting them is grotesque, you know, mocking them Now, when I see it and I'm much closer to Little Edie's age in the film, I realize How much of that kind of need your compression. does these women a disservice because it robs them of their I don't want to say agency. I never want to say agency, but just say complicitness. Their complicitness is their volition. Well, their choices. Yes. Thankk you The thing that littleittle Eie is consumed by is self awareness. These are both very self aware women. they are not just willing participants. They are both performers. Big Edy was a singer. Little Edie was an actress and a model. Littleily Edie, especially throughout the film is acutely aware of how she's being perceived. She flirts with the camera, She flirts with the masals Watching it now, it's hard not to impute on her the feeling that she sees this as an opportunity, this film, as a way out. And sometimes watching it nowadays, I I get struck by what seems to me to be moments where the filmmakers, you just get this upwelling of empathy. Not pity basic human kindness, like seeing these people as they are changed with exploitation. Because why not both, right? Well, this is also the way in which it preages reality television, right? I think when you talk about that combination of fascinating and yet exploitative, and yet you don't want to rob people of their right to make choices about how they want to live their lives and that sometimes they are very aware of how they're being received and they don't really care, you could be talking about Bow deck, people get really shirdy sometimes when you make these comparisons But it is true that I think a high brow movie, a well regarded classic movie that's part of the canon and a show that is thought of as sort of trashy C call upon some of the same sources of curiosity and, you know It's interesting to see people living all different kinds of lives. like Those instincts are present, you know, in both. Yeah. I do think it's interesting how this film has kind of created this shorthand for describing a certain way of living and kind of a certain way of living in your home. And how much of my relationship with this film is through the prism of like my parents' house was really cluttered growing up It's been like a running family joke. in my family for decades of like, my mom is big eatie. If I don't, you know pick up this you know stack of books or whatever, I'm gonna be a little eaty. The word that I was always trying to avoid, you were trying to avoid agency. the word that I keep trying to avoid is Kurdle. Yeah. I think so many portraits of the American Dream that feel really true to the idea and true to our relationship with the idea often contains this idea that it started out as this kind of idealistic enterprise and has devolved into you know, into something a little sadder. I mean you will find in my many notes about Apollo thirteen, if you read all of my notes about Apollo thirteen. you will find in there, you know, the idea that I think disisappointment was a part of how I received the idea of American Dream is that there's a constant cyclical hope and disappointment in the sense that like even when you look at this, it's like On the one hand, it's this beautiful, hopeful story. On the other hand, it is still a bunch of like exclusively pretty much a bunch of white guys doing stuff. which was the story of the space program for a long time in the popular imagination, although it was not in real life, as we know, fortunately from Hidden figures and the book that inspired it and all of those things. Hidden figures. But there are all of these, yes Be. things that are disappointing when you look at this idea of the American Dream. And I think one of the things that makes this a brilliant pick from Glenn is that you have These women who in the one sense are connected through blood to Camela, what would they actually called Hamilon, right? Yeah to JFK, Jackie Kennedy, which now we know so much about what that really was and what that world really was. And the fact that these women, this is part of what makes this so brilliant is that it captures that sort of mirror effect where over here you have the Beautiful, glamorous this and not that far away separated by circumstance and personality and fortune and all that You have a really, really different couple of people Yeah, And that's why I know this is not a competition, but I think my pick T exemplifies Every aspect of the American dream. It's not a contest, but you win, you feel. It's not a contest, but I'm going to win because I mean another thing this film touches on is something else about this country, which is that in American life There is this weird escape hatch, Z axis ejector seed rip cord. I don't know what to call it, but like a weird workaround to hard work and determination, which is fame, the kind of fame that was completely rare back in you know when this film came out, but that this film helped to create to Linda's point, which is celebrity. And it's celebrity not based in anything you make or that you do or you produce, not based in skill, not based in any craft or even expertise, just personality Not what you do but who you are. And that was rare back then. And now with the below decks of it all and the reality TV and the real Housewives and influener culture, it's kind of ubiquitous. And it's that kind of fame that Andy Warrell talked about, fifteen minutes of fame. It's that kind of fame, which is very apt because it's the kind of fame that Little Eie achieved. This film comes out She gets embraced by people like Andy Warhol and Truman Capote contontain your shop. Big Edie then dies and Little Edy sells Grey Gardens. She starts doing Hapareay at Reno Sweeney at a gay supppper club in the village, then she moves to Miami and she becomes a mainstay Pito, which was a gay bar in South Beach. So if you want to be cute about it And I do. She goes from being the subject of the male gaze of the Masil's camera to the male gaze of Miami Beach. Okay,. Thank you very much. and worth it. Thank you. The kind of fandom she found among gay men That's a distinction without a difference. We love women who are strong and individualistic and eccentric, but to truly be embraced by the gay community, to achieve gay icon status, We need to know that you went through some stuff. We admire strength, but we love Vulnerability even fragility, like Britteness. I mean, there's a reason that the gay rights movement started right after the death of Judy Garland. So the fuel mixture is kind of the same. It's veneration, but it's tinged with mockery. it's inseparable. You can't tear them apart. And again, to think that she didn't know that that's That's exactly what's going on is not to infantilize her to underestimate her. in a real way, she just loved attention. She wanted to be adored And she was. And I don't have an ending to this except to say in conclusion, Finland is a land of contrast. I don't how to end this, but in conclusion, I made the best pick. Thank you, Stehven, that's how I should end this. I w. But see, this is why I like this question. This is why I think this question is so interesting is that none of us chose. I mean, to me, when I sat down to think about this, it's like you can go for One of the pieces of brilliant art that is very specifically about, at least in part, the American dream, your death of a salesman. R An one of several August Wilson plays, right? If you look at something like Fences, that's what fences is about. If you look at a lot of theater, there's a ton of theater that's about that. play purpose, which is about this Chicago family of kind of politics and politics adjacent folks that I saw a couple years ago is about it, right? There's lots and lots and lots of art that is very specifically plugged into interrogating the idea of the American dream and all of that stuff I absolutely recommend, right? I absolutely recommend fences of purpose and death of salesmen and all those kinds of things. that are about families all kinds of different kinds of families trying to find economic security and position, right and status and things like that But we all didn't do that. We all kind of went to different like The idea of the American Dream makes me think about fame. poverty Policing. And that's why I love this question, Aisha, is that it is so incredibly like open ended that none of us kind of chose to highlight The art that has made that its very reason for existing, I would say. Exactly. And we haven't even gotten to my pick, which is actually the correct pick Bring us home, Stepven. I'm assuming it's gonna be great. Welllen Glenn went with Grey Gardens, which I think we can agree is fairly on brand. I also went fairly on brand. I went with a song Immediately, as soon as songs were part of this equation, I went to Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. It is also a perfect summation of a modest American dream that shifts over time and evolves as its protagonist evolves. talked about that song enough that I decided to go with something else because you know everybody knows that song. So I went with a different song about romised expectations in America. That's what I kind of came back to again and again when I was thinking about the American Dream. And I truly think that this song deserves to be a standard the way that FastCar is. It's from twenty twenty one. It's by Jasmine Sullivan. It's called The Other Side. And to set up the clip, it's from the perspective of an attractive young woman who dreams of wealth as a means of escape up every money in his bab bag. I deserve that life. Be a damn good housewife. Two kids from a surrogate. F my mom was stay f, get a face gl. Sucker mom did a waste there. herer best and his bracelery F off a vacation First of all, if you don't know this song, you have to hear this song. It is so good. I've listened to it dozens and dozens of times. It is an absolute masterclass in conveying an entire inner life in like three and a half minutes. The first line is, yeah, I got dreams to buy expensive things The pursuit of wealth is entirely secondhand. It's by marrying someone rich and essentially becoming a socialite, essentially kind of marrying into the kind of wealth and status and class that we were talking about even with like Gy Gardens. And the clip that we pulled is from the bridge. and that bridge just knocks me flat every time Two kids from a surrogate. Hi, mama, I'm gonna stay fit and get a face lift Now first of all, I think Jasmine Sullivan's delivery of that line, the way her voice drops with facelift. I gasp, like almost every time I hear it. Second of all, This is an American dream has conditions attached Even if her fantasy pans out She has to stay on her toes She can't let her body change. She is fantasizing about a future of fabulous wealth and yet even in that fantasy She has to get facelifts or risk losing the life she hasn't even attained yet There's something so ble in that, so realistic in that, so strangely relatable, even though this is not my particular fantasy. There's something so universal. The way this song embodies all these kind of insidious messages from shows like The Real Housewives about what we should be striving for feels just deeply American to me. Yes, yes. I mean, I don't know if this song could have existed without real housewives and the Kardashians preceding it The idea of the housewife and of the social life has existed within American society for hundreds of years like That is not I think the very as you said, St even like the specificity of this, like the surrogate, staying fit, all of that Oh my God, it resonates so well I also think like this is kind of the you and Glen's picks, as you had mentioned, like they kind of go hand in hand here because it's like what were big and little Eie before bigig Ey She lost that privilege that she had through marriage and just kind of descended and that's like that's the dark side. And this song is like the dark side, but in a different way and also before it can get even darker because she hasn't even achieved that dream yet. It's just so good. Yeah. She hasn't even accomplished this thing that can be yanked away from her at any time. Well, it's a dream. That's not to call it a dream. They were very specific This is the other reason why I like this pick and why I think it's so interesting is that one of the questions I always have about when people say American Dream, is it a place that you can ever actually arrive at O is the dream to be in a constant state of strive, right? That's why everything is maxing now. Wherever you are, you're supposed to be farther than that And the dream itself becomes living in that state of constantly trying to get to