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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    The complicated politics of counterculture icon Jerry Garcia

    Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead were counterculture icons. But according to author Jim Newton, Garcia himself wasn’t particularly political. At least not publicly, or even in ways we might traditionally think.

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    By Madeleine Brand • Aug 20, 2025 • 1 min read

    Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead were counterculture icons. But according to author Jim Newton, Garcia himself wasn’t particularly political. At least not publicly, or even in ways we might traditionally think.

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

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      Sarah Sweeney

      Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

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      Angie Perrin

      Producer, Press Play

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Amy Ta

      Digital News & Culture Editor

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      Jim Newton

      professor of public policy and communications at UCLA, author of “Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening”

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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand