Jane Fonda Archives - Public Seminar

Why Now?

You Can Never Be Too Rich—Or Too Thin

February 8, 2023 • by Claire Potter and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

If you really want to go back to the origins of American fitness culture, it doesn’t start in a gym as we know it: it starts in circuses and world’s fairs, where these strong men and women are on stage, flexing their muscles, wearing different costumes. ...

<strong>You Can Never Be Too Rich—Or Too Thin</strong>

Activism

Fonda’s Firedrill Fridays

December 28, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Each features a rally on the southeast quadrant of the Capitol lawn followed by a short march and mass civil disobedience in a different location. The theme varies. On November 29 (the day after Thanksgiving) it was Food Justice and Agriculture. On December 20 it was it was Health. Held the day before ...

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Working On The Work of Working Out

A history of fitness in America

January 3, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

“You don’t want to be an aerobics instructor forever, do you?” Condescending and incredulous, the Rolling Stone journalist played by John Travolta asks this question of Jessie (Jamie Lee Curtis), his costar and L.A. fitness queen in the 1985 film Perfect. Jessie’s celebrity in the superficial, slightly louche, SoCal workout scene is portrayed as ...

Multi Media

Theresa May, Goop, and Father’s Day

Past Present: Episode 88

June 22, 2017 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Neil J. Young and Nicole Hemmer

In this week's episode, Niki, Neil and Natalia debate the outcome of the recent British election, Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, and the history of Father's Day.

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Tom Hayden And Unofficial Peace Diplomacy During The Vietnam War

Private Citizens and Conflict Resolution Efforts

December 1, 2016 • by Lior Lehrs

To the memory of Tom Hayden On December 28, 1965, in light of the escalating war in Vietnam, three American private citizens landed in Hanoi, North Vietnam. They were Staughton Lynd, a Yale professor of American history and civil rights activist; Herbert Aptheker, an historian and communist activist; and Tom Hayden, ...