GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST
“The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast,” the official Grateful Dead podcast, is a series devoted to exploring the music and mythology behind one of the most enduring, progressive, and influential bands in the history of recorded music. The podcast’s tagline is “For The Committed And The Curious,” as episodes will invite new fans to explore the band’s enormous mythology in digestible chunks and enlighten life-long Dead Heads about corners of the band’s history they never knew existed. No topic will be off limits on “The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast” as hosts Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow explore the band’s outrageous history, innovations, and impact from 1965 to today.
Episodes
Skull & Roses 50: Side B
Our celebration of the Skull & Roses 50th anniversary reissue continues as we explore the “spaceship in construction” of the Grateful Dead in 1971 with Rosie McGee, luthier Rick Turner (maker of Jerry Garcia’s Peanut guitar), tie-dye pioneer Courtenay Pollack, & rare audio.
GUESTS: Rosie McGee, Rick Turner, Courtenay Pollack, Bob Matthews, David Crosby, David Lemieux, Gary Lambert
Skull & Roses 50: Side A
We begin our 50th anniversary celebration of 1971’s live album Skull & Roses with co-producer Bob Matthews, lighting director Candace Brightman, tour manager Sam Cutler, David Crosby, & David Freiberg, plus lost sessions, a 6-night false start, dream telepathy, song origins & more.
GUESTS: Bob Matthews, Candace Brightman, David Crosby, David Frieberg, David Nelson, Sam Cutler, Stanley Krippner...
Hug the Heat, or the Story of the First Dead Tape
We wish you a merry Pranks Day with a surprise Deadcast about the first known live Grateful Dead tape, from 1966, and reveal what happens when you try to shut down an Acid Test, featuring Merry Pranksters Ken Babbs and Denise Kaufman, with additional storytelling by Jerry Garcia.
GUESTS: Ken Babbs, Denise Kaufman
The Deadcast season finale wraps up American Beauty and looks at the iconic Truckin’, the autobiographical album-closing road anthem, unpacking the band’s history from its verses, lost lyrics, and never-heard original ending.
Bob Weir, Stephen Barncard, Mickey Hart, Howard Wales, Steve Silberman, David Lemieux, Gary Lambert
A surprising and wide-ranging conversation with Ned Lagin, the pioneering jazz-trained electronic composer whose friendship with the Grateful Dead began when the band crowded into his M.I.T. dorm room to jam and would encompass contributions to American Beauty and Wake of the Flood, nearly 20 onstage appearances with the band between 1970 and 1975, and Lagin’s own Seastones project, released by Jerry Garcia’s Round Records, featuri...
Two episodes in one: we meditate on the harmony tracks and metaphysical overtones of the hymn-like Attics Of My Life, before David Crosby and Steve Silberman return for extended look at how the American Beauty sessions flowed into Croz’s masterpiece, If I Could Only Remember My Name, where Jerry Garcia and the Dead served as supporting musicians and friends.
Bob Weir, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Barncard, Ira Kaplan, Steve Si...
Jumping off from “Till the Morning Comes” and the outtake “To Lay Me Down” we hear from Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay on falling in love with (and to) the Dead, Bob Weir on the secret to recording Phil Lesh, Stephen Malkmus with a psychedelic book recommendation, and time travel to Winterland in October 1970.
Bob Weir, Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay, Stephen Barncard, Stephen Malkmus, Billy Strings, Nick Paumgarten, David Lemieux, Gary Lam...
We examine how the Grateful Dead classic “Brokedown Palace” forms a hidden but powerful song suite with “Ripple,” the preceding song on American Beauty, with guests Bob Weir, pianist Howard Wales, longtime Dead publisher Alan Trist, historian Nicholas Meriwether, and musicologist Mike Hamad, plus a search for Pigpen’s cat.
Bob Weir, Howard Wales, Alan Trist, Nicholas Meriwether, Mike Hamad, Nick Paumgarten, David Lemeiux, Gary Lambe...
On a very special bonus episode, we check in with Mickey Hart about his latest drones and hear high tales of Grateful Dead madness, from frying bacon onstage to using firearms as percussion, plus stories about his handcrafted instrument, the Beam, and a look into the Barn, his recording “crucible” in Novato and one of the great and oft-forgotten studios of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
We examine Ripple, the timeless cosmic hymn leading off Side B of American Beauty, written during what Robert Hunter called a peak experience, and take a close look at the Dead’s very own softball team, with guests Bob Weir, David Grisman, Ned Lagin, and many more, including Ripple chorale performer Sam Cutler.
Bob Weir, David Grisman, Sam Cutler, Alan Trist, Stephen Barncard, Ned Lagin, Stephen Malkmus, Steve Silberman, Nicholas Me...
With the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, we examine how “Candyman” updates an old folk meme, we welcome David Crosby to talk about the hottest session guitarist in 1970 San Francisco, Jerry Garcia; plus a cavalcade of stars.
To celebrate “Operator,” the fourth song on American Beauty and the first Grateful Dead song written solely by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, we examine his life and offer an extremely rare look into the Pigpen archives, a collection of journals, letters, and more inherited by an old family friend.
Bob Weir, Jim Sullivan, Brain Kehew, Michael Parrish, David Lemieux, Gary Lambert
We are honored to welcome the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir (!!!) for a deep look at his signature song, “Sugar Magnolia,” and the making of the Dead’s landmark American Beauty in 1970, plus surprising memories of the song from Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.
Bob Weir, Rhoney Stanley, Stephen Malkmus, Ira Kaplan, David Lemeiux, Gary Lambert
BONUS: Dead Behind / Dead Ahead
In the fall of 1980, the Grateful Dead celebrated their 15th anniversary with a series of 25 special shows in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Manhattan, playing acoustic sets for the first time in a decade, along with two electric sets each night. The shows would yield the live double-albums Reckoning and Dead Set, as well as a Halloween simulcast that became the concert film Dead Ahead. We went behin...
American Beauty 50, Episode 2: Friend of the Devil
The Grateful Dead’s most-covered song, “Friend of the Devil,” also uncovers the secret history of American Beauty, including a never-heard demo reel for the album and totally scrapped session tapes newly released as The Angel’s Share, with guests David Grisman, David Nelson, Stephan Barncard, and more.
David Grisman, David Nelson, Stephen Barncard, David Lemieux, Gary Lambert, Brian ...
To celebrate the 50th anniversary remaster of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty, we begin our track-by-track exploration of the band’s bittersweet 1970 masterpiece, powerfully embodied by opening track “Box of Rain,” featuring archival audio, and guests including co-producer Stephen Barncard and Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig.
Stephen Barncard, David Nelson, Paul Feig, Sam Cutler, Steve Silberman, Rebecca Adams, Nick Paumgarte...
DESCRIPTION: In our packed season finale, we explore how “Casey Jones” combined folk traditions and became an underground hit too risque for pop radio, hear a break down of the multi-track, discuss the infamous sniff and other Workingman’s Dead’s finishing touches with co-producer Bob Matthews, figure out the location and date of the cover photo, and more.
GUESTS: Bob Matthews, Brian Kehew, Billy Strings, Bob Egan, Gary Lambert, Dav...
DESCRIPTION: We explore how “Easy Wind” was the only song on Workingman’s Dead sung by Pigpen and the first Dead tune solely written by lyricist Robert Hunter, featuring rarely heard radio promo spots recorded by Hunter.
GUESTS: Bob Matthews, Rhoney Stanley, Eric Schwartz, Gary Lambert, David Lemieux, Mike Johnson, Brian Kehew
DESCRIPTION: With special guests Graham Nash and Rhoney Stanley, our dive into the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead examines how a mishap with an estimated $50,000 worth of LSD led to both the writing of “Black Peter,” perhaps the Grateful Dead’s most somber song, and turned Jerry Garcia into a Crosby, Stills and Nash fan.
GUESTS: Rhoney Stanley, Graham Nash, Bob Matthews, Gary Lambert, Shaugn O’Donnell, Buzz Poole
DESCRIPTION: A very Jerry bonus episode explores Jerry Garcia’s early ‘60s years in the Palo Alto folk scene and his progression from guitar strummer to banjo picker during a prodigious half-decade before going electric with the Grateful Dead, including interviews with David Nelson and Bob Matthews, both one-time members of Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions.
GUESTS: David Nelson, Bob Matthews, Nicholas Meriwether, Dennis McNally
Chat About GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
The Daily
This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, ready by 6 a.m.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.