Another Kind of Mind specializes in topic-driven, multi-episode series. Get ready to binge your next deep dive!
Pizza and Fairytales – The Story of John & Paul in the 70s.
Ep 1: More Than Yesterday – Our first episode follows John and Paul’s reconciliation in 1972-1973, John & Yoko’s decision to separate, John’s move to Los Angeles with May Pang and John’s steps toward self-acceptance.
Ep 2: Heart Like a Wheel – In our second installment, Yoko draws Paul into her mind games with John. Highlights include John & Paul’s L.A. jam session and a peculiar Polaroid message sent to Jann Wenner. Back in NYC, John gives his final stage performance and the Beatles are legally dissolved. Afterwards, Paul invites John to a rendezvous in New Orleans, setting the stage for a possible Lennon-McCartney reunion.
Ep 3: Love is Wanting – 1975 and 76 represent a pivotal moment for John Lennon, and his choices at this juncture determine his fate in his final years. Episode Three is a deep exploration of John’s ongoing inner conflicts: his lasting trauma over the Beatles breakup; his susceptibility to Yoko’s continuing mind games; his predilection for jealousy and insecurity.
All this, plus the long shadow cast by the nightmarish Primal Scream Therapy John underwent at the hands of Arthur Janov.
Ep 4: Then We Will Know – What happened between Paul and John that forever altered their relationship and created the emotional stalemate John dubbed “Pizza and Fairytales?” In episode four, we evaluate four likely scenarios based on a comprehensive study of the available evidence.
Ep 5: Make it Right – ‘Pizza and Fairytales’ is John Lennon’s phrase— a brilliant one—and he conjured it to describe one man: Paul McCartney. In this episode, we give McCartney detailed lyrical analysis and recognition of his atypical self-expression.
Lennon and McCartney will be joined forever; they deserve to have their true story told.
A Mistake in Many Ways – How Lennon & McCartney Accidentally Broke the Beatles
“I always felt the split was a mistake in many ways.” -John Lennon, 1976.
In this series, Phoebe and Daphne will argue that the breakup of the Beatles was an accident, the result of insecurity, hurt feelings and misread signals. Backed by rigorous research, we’ll analyze the events between September 1969 and April 1970 with probity, thoughtfulness and empathy.
Ep 1: I Want a Divorce – Episode One will examine the divorce meeting that triggers the six-month-long standoff between John & Paul. We’ll discuss Paul’s reactions, both in the moment and over the following week. We’ll also dissect some striking statements from John in a revealing interview he gives just days after the divorce meeting.
Ep 2: The Beatles Thing is Over – Episode two provides a comprehensive examination of Paul’s state of mind in autumn of 1969. We discuss the deluge of problems he faces and consider how this confluence of issues triggers one of the worst episodes of Paul’s life. How might this depression have impacted Paul’s ability to interpret and respond to John’s continuing attempts to communicate through the media? We dissect four key interviews from John, identifying and tracking the gradual evolution of his outreach to Paul as the communication gap between the two men grows ever wider and deeper.
Ep 3: Probably A Rebirth – After the new year, John approaches the Beatles with a new outlook and a new idea for the future. The trial separation, John predicts, “will either be a death or a Rebirth.” And John has made his choice! Episode Three delves into John’s hopes and fears for the fate of Lennon/McCartney in 1970, ties in some pertinent quotes from 1980, and continues the unfolding drama of the standoff between the estranged partners in Phase Two of the Trial Separation.
Ep 4: That Makes Two of Us – When John’s attempts to lure Paul back to the fold prove unsuccessful, he orchestrates one final outrageous maneuver. But John’s actions are another miscalculation; Paul responds irately to John’s tactics and further digs in his heels with a combative questionnaire inserted into press copies of his McCartney LP. Early April shows an escalation in the acrimony between Lennon and McCartney as the Breakup of the Beatles irreversibly begins.
Ep 5a: I Want to Give Him That Divorce
Ep 5b: I Want to Give Him That Divorce – In the final (2 part) episode of our series, we’ll address the final event in the Breakup drama of April 1970: the battle of Phil Spector’s production of The Long and Winding Road. We’ll also take an in-depth look at Paul’s revelatory interview in The Evening Standard. And we’ll address the ultimate question: Could John and Paul Have Turned Things Around?
Welcome to STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, an AKOM series about Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney after John Lennon’s death.
Ep 1: It’s Contentious – Episode 1 delves deep into the 1980s! Discussed in this episode: Paul’s grief and Yoko’s peculiar comments in the aftermath of John’s death, Yoko’s kindness towards Paul and his efforts to reciprocate, Paul’s
failed attempt to recover the Lennon/McCartney catalog, the McCartney/Ono origin story, the burgeoning Lennon Industry, a lawsuit, an award, a tribute concert & more. It all culminates in a pivotal transition in Paul’s public tone about John moving into the 90s.
Ep 2: Sticky Situations w/ Joe Hagan – In Episode 2 we welcome author Joe Hagan for a loose, candid and wide-ranging conversation centered around Paul, Yoko and Jann Wenner. Topics include: Rolling Stone’s stake in the Ono-McCartney drama, Jann’s autobiography, the Rock Hall, Paul’s endorsement of Wenner’s book, McCartney’s image building, Joe’s experiences interviewing both McCartney and Ono, Yoko’s attitude towards Paul, Paul’s “Fairy Dust,” Wenner’s philosophy and attitude towards music and pop culture, John and Yoko’s media obsession, George Harrison and loads MORE.
Ep 3: Hiroshima Sky – Episode Three covers the 1990s, a decade that sees some of the most significant highs and lows between Ono and McCartney. Goodwill abounds when Paul inducts John into the Rock Hall in 1994. Building on this positivity, Yoko earns Paul’s gratitude during the making of the Beatles Anthology. But the peace is short-lived, and a set of seemingly minor squabbles escalate into their most vicious public arguments to date, setting the stage for a cold war as Yoko and Paul enter the new millenium.
Ep 4: A Real Story About Real Human Beings – The 2000s are here! Paul and Yoko get real and the truth comes out! Will it draw them and their families closer together? Or deepen the divide? How do Paul and Yoko see their own relationship? As kindred spirits or mortal enemies? Hear our conclusions in Episode 4!
Welcome to Fine Tuning, an Examination of Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In.
Ep 1: Intro & Syllabus – an overview of our 11-part series including its impetus, our objectives and summaries of the upcoming installments.
Ep 2: Shoulder to Shoulder – This is a look at Tune In’s most positive descriptions of John and Paul respectively. By comparing how Lewisohn chooses to describe John versus Paul, we will reveal many undeniable discrepancies in word choice, enthusiasm, depth, and tone.
Ep 3: Creative Whirlwind – a look at how Tune In reports and characterizes young Lennon and McCartney as budding artists. We’ll show that Tune In significantly downplays and shortchanges (and sometimes even ignores) crucial aspects of McCartney’s artistic development and identity. On the other hand, Lennon’s creative development is shown from all angles in loving detail and with unbridled admiration.
Ep 4: Shells & Barriers – This episode explores Tune In’s unequal treatment of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s childhoods, with particular attention paid to the disparate coverage of their childhood stressors and the deaths of their mothers, Julia and Mary. We go pretty deep into what we know of John and Paul’s boyhoods and how those experiences shaped their personalities and affected their adult behaviors. Does Tune In do the same? For both? We’ll see!
Ep 5: Leader Lennon – Leader Lennon examines Tune In’s major thesis, that John Lennon was and is the leader and implicit owner of The Beatles forever. We take a hard look at Tune In’s obvious affection for hierarchy and dominance and how this pervades its storytelling. We’ll discuss the deficiencies of this framework, why it is a problem, and how it distorts the Beatles’ story.
Ep 6: A Prolonged Jealousy – We tackle one of Tune In’s main talking points: that Paul McCartney is a fundamentally jealous person whose obsessive, one-sided jealousy of and over John Lennon was brought to a boil by the presence of Stuart Sutcliffe in the band. Is Tune In’s unforgiving portrayal of Paul’s jealousy fair? Or is it over the top? We’ll discuss!
Ep 7: Spanner in the Works – Spanner in the Works shows how Paul is portrayed as uniquely difficult to manage and unjustifiably obstructive, even to the point of sabotaging the band. We use Tune In’s reporting of the early friction between Paul and Brian Epstein as a case study to illustrate how Tune In guides the reader to distrust and second-guess Paul whenever he comes into conflict with other major players in the Beatles’ story.
Ep 8: No Greater Buddy – No Greater Buddy examines how Tune In handles the naughty behavior of its resident Bad Boy, John Lennon. This is a study of Lewisohn’s coverage of John’s bad behavior (rather than the behavior itself).
Ep 9: WTF? – In our 9th episode, we tackle a handful of loose ends from Tune In and pose the question: WTF?
Ep 10: Unseen Paul – Unseen Paul builds on our earlier episodes by sharing even more quotes, stories, and insights about young Paul McCartney, a fascinatingly dualistic person and artist. We explore some of his more overlooked character traits: his quirks and gifts; his stressors and anxieties; his unusual interests and values.
Ep 11: Wrap Party – In our final episode of Fine Tuning, we summarize our conclusions, respond to listener feedback, issue corrections, share our hopes and fears for future books and offer our thoughts and predictions on the future of Beatles scholarship.
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