A view of the filament coils and inner of a halogen lightbulb
Credit: Nick Ansell/PA Wire/Press Association via AP Images

This week we discuss the recently rediscovered history of mid-century lighting, the elegant modernist style of lamps and fixtures that emerged in small design firms and flourished from the 1940s through the ’70s before being consumed by mega corporations that flattened their products’ quality, style, and influence.

This style was spearheaded by a company called Modeline, but until very recently dealers and scholars alike often misattributed their work and the work of similar designers. Our guest today is Nick Ferrell, a dealer, author of Modeline of California: Pioneer of Modern Lighting, and proprietor of EstheticVintage, who has been instrumental in correcting the record. Together we discuss the history of these nature-inspired lamps, how a spirit of artistic openness and economic solidarity fostered these beautiful objects, and how greed and consolidation spelled their end.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. He is the author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power and Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud. He co-hosts the podcast Organized Money with Matt Stoller. He can be reached on Signal at ddayen.90.

Matt Stoller is research director at the American Economic Liberties Project and the author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.