UNLOCKED: Episode 484: Ford's Foundation

The Bell Jar is a thinly veiled autobiography that follows Esther Greenwood, a talented and ambitious college student, as she experiences a mental breakdown. The novel begins with Esther's unfulfilling summer internship as a guest editor for a women's magazine in New York City, where she grapples with identity and societal norms. Upon returning home, Esther's mental health deteriorates, leading to several suicide attempts and eventual hospitalization. The novel explores her treatment, including electroconvulsive therapy, and her gradual recovery under the care of a progressive psychiatrist. It also critiques the limited roles available to women in the 1950s and the brutal psychiatric treatments of the time.

A non-fiction book by David Grann, adapted into a film.

Published in 1967, 'The Society of the Spectacle' is a seminal work of Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord. The book critiques contemporary consumer culture and the effects of mass media, arguing that modern society has replaced authentic social life with its representation. Debord introduces the concept of the 'spectacle', which he defines as the social relation among people that is mediated by images. He contends that this spectacle is a result of the capitalist mode of production, where relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, leading to alienation, commodity fetishism, and the degradation of human life. The book consists of 221 theses and is considered a key text of the Situationist movement, offering insights that remain relevant in the age of social media and digital culture.