Eerie, Indiana
Jul 21, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 10 segments
This episode is on the 1991 television series, *Eerie, Indiana.* To hear the B-side, subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelackpodcast/
- Speakers
- Benjamin StudebakerHost
Nina PowerHost
Jul 21, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 10 segments
This episode is on the 1991 television series, *Eerie, Indiana.* To hear the B-side, subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelackpodcast/
Nina PowerHostIt follows a boy from New Jersey who is forced to move with his parents to Indiana.
When you are from Indiana and you have never been anywhere else, you regard it as boring.
But once you leave Indiana and return to it, you discover that it is indeed weird.
In each episode, the boy has a strange encounter with something out of the ordinary.
Each unusual experience points, in some way, at something about life in Indiana that is genuinely strange.
For instance, in the first episode, the boy meets a neighbor lady who keeps her sons sealed in Tupperware that prevents them from aging.
This has allowed the neighbor lady to continue living as a 1960s housewife in 1991.
In reality, we do not have this technology, but there are many families who use the geography of Indiana to sustain slightly outmoded forms of life past their expiration date.
There are many people in Indiana who live as if it were 20 or 30 years ago.
Because there are many of these people around, slightly outmoded forms of life seem more realistic or more possible in Indiana than they really are.
For instance, if you drive past the steel mills in Gary, or the great ash maker, the coal power plant in Michigan City, you might very well think it could be possible to employ large numbers of people in manufacturing.
If you drive past the many churches of Valparaiso, you might think that it is possible for Western liberal democracies to return to their Christian roots.
If you head down to Coutts, past the cornfields and farmhouses, you might think that wealth inequality could be resolved by redistributing the farmland.
People in Indiana have the latest technology, but this technology is used to keep previous moments in modernity alive.
In the second episode, the boy meets a local who is wearing a retainer that allows him to communicate with dogs, but it turns out that the dogs in Indiana are plotting against the humans.
In Indiana, people anthropomorphize their pets, attributing beliefs to them that they may or may not possess.
The dogs have large yards to run around in, and this allows them to become more territorial and aggressive than dogs in cities.
Whenever I go to the UK, I am always impressed by how calm and civilized the dogs are.
It follows a boy from New Jersey who is forced to move with his parents to Indiana.
When you are from Indiana and you have never been anywhere else, you regard it as boring.
But once you leave Indiana and return to it, you discover that it is indeed weird.
In each episode, the boy has a strange encounter with something out of the ordinary.
Each unusual experience points, in some way, at something about life in Indiana that is genuinely strange.
For instance, in the first episode, the boy meets a neighbor lady who keeps her sons sealed in Tupperware that prevents them from aging.
This has allowed the neighbor lady to continue living as a 1960s housewife in 1991.
In reality, we do not have this technology, but there are many families who use the geography of Indiana to sustain slightly outmoded forms of life past their expiration date.
There are many people in Indiana who live as if it were 20 or 30 years ago.
Because there are many of these people around, slightly outmoded forms of life seem more realistic or more possible in Indiana than they really are.
For instance, if you drive past the steel mills in Gary, or the great ash maker, the coal power plant in Michigan City, you might very well think it could be possible to employ large numbers of people in manufacturing.
If you drive past the many churches of Valparaiso, you might think that it is possible for Western liberal democracies to return to their Christian roots.
If you head down to Coutts, past the cornfields and farmhouses, you might think that wealth inequality could be resolved by redistributing the farmland.
People in Indiana have the latest technology, but this technology is used to keep previous moments in modernity alive.
In the second episode, the boy meets a local who is wearing a retainer that allows him to communicate with dogs, but it turns out that the dogs in Indiana are plotting against the humans.
In Indiana, people anthropomorphize their pets, attributing beliefs to them that they may or may not possess.
The dogs have large yards to run around in, and this allows them to become more territorial and aggressive than dogs in cities.
Whenever I go to the UK, I am always impressed by how calm and civilized the dogs are.
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