The Cleveland BalloonFest Fiasco (1986) w/ Clare Malone

This Day in Esoteric Political History

It’s September 19th. In 1986, the city of Cleveland decided to stage a charity event in which they released millions of balloons into the air. It went very, very poorly.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by The New Yorker’s Clare Malone, a Cleveland native, to discuss why balloonfest went so wrong, and what to make of Cleveland’s many attempts at rehabilitating its image.

Here’s a video of Balloonfest: https://youtu.be/n0CT8zrw6lw

Be sure to check out Clare’s Ringer podcast series “Just Like Us.”

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And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia