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Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea | KQED Truly CA

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea | KQED Truly CA

KQED Arts
4 HN recommenders · discussed 2017–2025
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About this video

A KQED Truly CA documentary narrated by John Waters about the Salton Sea, a once-glamorous California vacation spot now home to an eccentric community. It covers the area's economic, political and environmental problems and features Salvation Mountain.

Why it appears in the archive

HN recommends it as an engaging, funny and fascinating documentary, and cites it in threads on the Salton Sea's history and environmental decline.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

nolanpro · 2017-06 · strong rec

Theres a great documentary "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" (narrated by John Waters!) Definitely one of my top 10 documentaries [VIDEO]

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darrenf · 2023-07 · strong rec

The similarly named Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is one of my favourite documentaries of all time, I find it so fascinating: [VIDEO] The video made to sell the place as a paradise in the 60s is also fascinating: [LINK]

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scrose · 2021-10 · rec

For anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Salton sea and the effect all these chemicals have had on the surrounding areas, check out this documentary: [VIDEO] A part of me wants to visit just to fully take in the reality of it all. But I don’t think my family would be too happy.

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lizknope · 2025-11 · rec

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea narrated by John Waters [VIDEO] I watched this 20 years ago. It's a really interesting and funny documentary about the Salton Sea and the area around it. [LINK]

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TSiege · 2022-04 · reference

The salton sea is a man made disaster. I couldn't see how it could be any worse than it is now. Given the dire climate situation we're in, it seems like a no brainer [VIDEO]

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TSiege · 2024-01 · reference

I remember watching a documentary on the Salton Sea and it interviewed some residents who were holding out that eventually there was gonna be a turn around and kept buying real estate in the hope of that. I wonder how they're fairing now with this latest development Doc in question: Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea [VIDEO]

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