🤬 First a warning: This podcast includes a few swear words. It’s impossible — or at least not as fun — to talk about Deadwood without them.🤬
The podcast has spoilers for the show — as much as you can spoil a 16-year-old show — but don’t let that deter you because it’s kind of an unspoilable show. What’s good about it isn’t primarily the plot, it’s the characters, the writing, the acting, the world-building, the metaphors, the themes, and how it’s filmed...
With that out of the way:
The main topic is Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006), what makes it special and what we can learn from it, but of course, this being David & I, we also talk about:
founders,
entrepreneurs,
obsessive creators,
the power of focus,
the power of strategy,
how civilization emerges,
intelligence as a currency,
violence as humanity’s fatal flaw,
sanitized origin stories,
addiction & abuse,
creating a body of work and planting seeds,
optionality from future technology,
the lessons of history about violence and corruption,
and all kinds of other interesting things.
We also talk about Tombstone (1993), which I hadn’t seen at the time, but watched soon after we recorded. I shared some thoughts on it here in edition #338.
🎧 Listen on Spotify
If you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts
Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:
📺 Watch on YouTube
📃 Full transcript
This podcast is only possible thanks to the support of paid supporters (💚 🥃). Tip of the hat to all of them! 🤠 If you aren’t part of the club yet, please upgrade:
Want more on Deadwood? 🤠
Here’s a great 26-minute video essay about the show by Matt Zoller Seitz, narrated by Jim Beaver (who plays Ellsworth on the show):
Here’s a great podcast that goes episode-by-episode and makes you re-live the show in a different format, with some great discussions and plenty of laughs:
If you want to go really deep, Matt Zoller Seitz’s Deadwood Bible is amazing:
I have a signed hardcover of it because I backed the Kickstarter for it in 2019. 🤘
This one is harder-to-find, but it’s also great:
Want more David Senra? 🎙📚
Here’s our previous recorded conversation together:
More Podcasts from the Archives 🗄
🎧 Going Deep on the Energy Crisis and Nuclear Power with Mark Nelson (Part 1 of 2) 🔌⚡️💡
🎧 Going deep on Constellation Software with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)
If you liked the pod and want more, please become a paid supporter (💚 🥃):
David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc)