“The woke message” is consistently planted throughout this podcast.

Loved this so much! WHEN WILL WE GET A NEW SEASON?!?

She’s the bomb

Love everything Avery does. This is super interesting and a great listen!

Is there anything better than Avery Trufelman’s infectious curiosity and keen intelligence, gallivanting wit and spirited insights into stories and histories and ideas that would fall apart as coherent narratives in lesser hands. Keep it going!

Have a listen - you won’t be sorry!

Great host and great content

More like, F*** Yeah, Podcast Well Done! I love Avery. Great podcast. I’ll listen to everything she releases.

I just started today and am already on episode 5. So interesting!

…to all involved in creating this wonderful podcast. Rarely do I experience any sensation of sadness when I arrive at the conclusion of literary works, plays and movies. Now I must add this podcast to that select list. What a delight it has been, as a student of history, a user of a long line of different vacuums, cooking devices and typing implements, along with necessity generating an appreciation for bidets. Thanks again. I thoroughly have enjoyed it. I hope more seasons are coming.

Just on Season 2 so far. Really interesting to hear about household gadgets- their history & ramifications. Great show!

This podcast belongs in another league than most podcasts. It’s edifying, and incite full, funny and fully entertaining.

I’m pretty picky about podcasts and was really mourning the loss of PJ vogt from reply all. It’s amazing to find another podcast that dissects the mysteries of the ordinary that we take for granted. And explores how that item’s history is both a reflection of the culture and shapes the culture that it’s in. I also love the word play at the end.

The platonic ideal of a podcast topic & structure. I’ve been recommending it to everybody.

Yay! Found my new favorite podcast for 2022! Well made and interesting topics. I’ve laughed out loud more than once and learn something new with each episode. Avery makes it interesting and entertaining.

Absolutely amazing

As a fan of 99% invisible, I quickly jumped into season two of this podcast. The first half of each episode offers a fascinating lesson re: the origins of everyday objects/concepts. The show, however, is not content on being an objective time capsule and then segues into some rather skewed modern day takes. You'll hear about how the invention of the stove is a weapon of the patriarchy, the doorbell is sexist, the vacuum is racist, and Crossfit is for white supremacists (a claim that never got challenged). I appreciate the aims of this podcast, but the shoehorned social commentary and clearly biased POV get in the way.

Season two is SO GOOD. I find myself thinking about episodes for days after listening. Thank you for making this show!

Half of an episode will cover the interesting history of something, and the second half will try to shoe horn in some modern day politically charged parallel. It’s tedious.

I really loved season 1 but you lost me at saying that vacuums with bags are more sustainable than long lasting Dysons. A degree in industrial design would do you wonders, or at the very least; learn the basics of sustainable design through research.

The show has sort of fallen of a cliff in season 2. I’ll probably continue to listen, because I listened to 99PI & AOI, which I enjoyed. I hope the content improves

Avery is a fantastic guide through these worlds that have gone unseen. I typically don’t expect the conclusions she arrives at, and after every episode I look at something familiar a little differently. Stays with you.

Nothing like a negative judgemental person to have their own platform.

I love how Avery finds wonder and depth in the simple things that surround us. It’s a podcast that makes me love and appreciate all the quirkyness of what it is to be human! Love her style and production quality too!

The first season was a fun, well produced look at utopias. The second is about.. Well I don't know actually, appliances? home goods? I'm slogging throught the episode on mattresses and wondering when it'll get good again.

This has been tons of fun! I can’t get enough. I encourage you to listen to everything you can from Avery Trufelman, you won’t be disappointed.

It’s a great podcast. Insightful, fun, good pacing and show length. 5 stars, more if I could.

This is a refreshing podcast filled with facts and anedotes about interesting topics. The delivery and format is particularly engaging.

Sorry it’s a little academic? There’s a lot of dummies out there.

The first episode should have inserted the term white people before into about half of its sentences. How could a such a usually smart show be so utterly culturally stupid? You told the story of white, middle and upper class people only, and passed it off as the story of the American people, which is unforgivable in this day and age. I’m done. I will not be listening to any more of this podcast. - Disgusted White Person.

Great first season followed by absolutely BORING episodes on doorbells and vacuum cleaners. A discovery of central vacuums is not exactly compelling. Really? Central vacuums? Unsubscribing for boring me to death.

Nice sound, thoughtful, interesting information not generally known, and a cut above the many podcasts where you often have to ignore some irritating aspects to get to the good parts. Most interesting for those who like to find out more about the history of daily life, aka the material culture experience of the ordinary American person past into present. There’s an infinite supply of topics, so I hope this keeps going. Like an audio version of a carefully curated and kept antique shop where each thing in it tells a story.

Reason: It’s all about how well the host performs = 5*

Season 2 so far doesn’t live up to the previous season. Seems to be tying to hard, stick to the facts and history. Trying to hard to make listeners “woke”

I typically love everything Avery Truffleman does but there are some really odd and narrow takes in some of these so far. Trying to shake it off. Hoping these were blips. Idea is super cool. Production awesome as usual. Writing and pacing are fab. We’ll see…

Well researched, delivered professionally but also with enthusiasm. Avery Trufelman has a beautiful voice and her pace and intonation of humor are just right. I have degrees in History of Art and Visual Cultures and in Architecture so her interests take both of those fields I live and overlay them with a welcome dose of sociology and feminism in a distinctly American lens. The first season is all about attempted utopian communities in modern history (I mean, seriously, thank you!) The second is each focused on the history and implications of the most ubiquitous household objects, which is something I think about a lot. If any of this sounds boring or dumb then this isn’t the podcast for you. History nerds welcome.

As I write this review only two episodes have been released, nonetheless I hope it becomes wildly popular. If the book More Work for Mother rocked your world, this is the podcast update every bit as good as the original book. If you have never heard of Ruth Schwarz Cowan, you are in for a treat. This is a podcast about home technology, the doorbell and the vacuum cleaner so far, but really it is about why our lives are so overwhelming and stressful. In particular I wish the economists wringing their hands over the great resignation would listen in. This podcast is about how we can be so rich and yet so unhappy. Our devices create a home that is isolated and filled with endless tasks. The process began in the early 20th century in an attempt to replace servants with devices. For me it raises the question I have wondered about since reading cowan’s original book: is it possible to create order out if chaos without oppressing someone else? No easy answers here but you may find your paradigm shifts.

So brave.

Informative and fascinating stories about little known aspects of history

So excited for the next season! Always makes me happy and makes me think

I love this podcast and was sad to see the update status being so old. So well done and interesting stories. Great host and great guests!

This podcast has a condescending view and the show host is too stuck on her soapbox to notice.

I hope she keeps going with this.

I really enjoyed this. Would love more!

For a lot of reasons, utopias are typically seen as taboo subjects with multiple competing sides and dark histories. Avery never shied away from the controversy and presented multiple sides honestly. Well done.

I loved it! Avery tells each story with a really open mind to what the people involved were hoping to do. I learned about a lot of social experiments I hadn’t heard of before, and I love that it’s focused on the effort to build a perfect place rather than the failures of those places.

Critical studies on how and where we live

I really enjoyed this series and interested in what the topic for S02 might be.

This series was wonderful! I binged it in a couple of days because I couldn’t get enough. 👏🏻

Interesting stories well told!