One type of archival content I find particularly difficult to listen to, but at the same time think is way more important than people give it credit for is vox pops/talkback. Listening to talkback from the 80s and 90s is like the pre-social-media version of 'reading the comments'...
...Even callers to talkback programs from our national broadcaster (which tends not to deal so heavily in provocation/outrage-bait to get callers riled up) will say the most incredible things. Sentiments where you'd be accused of exaggeration if you put them in historical fiction about the era...
...That's important though, to know what people were really willing to say out loud on the air 30-40yrs ago. On the flipside you'll also often hear people expressing surprisingly progressive & nuanced opinions, giving the lie to the bromide that "[Bigoted idea] was just how everyone thought then"...
...And sometimes you'll just hear things that are neither particularly good nor bad, just...weird. strange rationalisations by which everyday people tried to make sense of their world. It's a shame that, where it's preserved, a lot of this stuff is really poorly documented/described & hard to find
Jan 27, 2026 22:22
