Nostalgia Trap

Latest Episodes:

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 287: Along the Royal Road w/ Jenni Olson Aug 24, 2021

Show notes

Jenni Olson is a historian, archivist, and experimental filmmaker whose two feature-length films The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) combine dreamlike urban landscapes, the dark history of California, and deeply personal reflections on queer love and desire. In this conversation, we talk about the origins of her aesthetic and the particular challenges of both creating and exhibiting historical material in non-traditional form. To hear more about queer and radical cinema, see Episode 281 with Donald Borenstein: patreon.com/posts/ep-281-at-new-we-53149916.

Nostalgia Trap - NAM-TV - S1 E6: Seduce and Destroy Aug 17, 2021

Show notes

On Episode 6 of NAM-TV, we cover events in 1964 and 1965, as American involvement in Vietnam finally made the move from distant meddling into a full-blown military invasion. We trace a direct line from Lyndon Johnson's disturbing sociopathic fantasies and stunning political cynicism to the sickening acceleration of violence unleashed in late 1964, after a questionable series of events in the Gulf of Tonkin and a hasty congressional resolution give the president a blank check to wage war in Vietnam. Listen to the whole series at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 286: How Do You Do, Fellow Working Class? w/ Erik Baker Aug 10, 2021

Show notes

Who are "the people"? Erik Baker joins us to discuss his latest piece in n+1, a review of Thomas Frank's 2020 book The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism. Baker takes on Frank's New Deal nostalgia and romantic vision of a monolithic, left-leaning American working class, a set of distorted perspectives that still hold weight for a significant portion of the (extremely online) left. In this conversation, we explore what's the matter with Frank's analysis, and how to move past the ahistorical assumptions that continue to animate progressive discourse. For more on left populism and angry white dudes, check out this week's bonus episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-285-party-its-54555603

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 285: Party Like It's 1999 w/ Kyle Riismandel (TEASER) Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

Full episode: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap. Kyle Riismandel returns to the Trap to discuss the abysmal HBO documentary Woodstock '99: Peace, Love, and Rage, a film that, despite its shortcomings, gives us plenty to chew on about a weird era in American cultural politics. From Alanis Morrissette to Kid Rock, from Girls Gone Wild to Monica Lewinsky, we talk about the jarring social landscape of third-wave feminism, frat rock backlash, cynical corporate cash-grabs, and lots more heavy, angsty riffs straight from the late '90s.

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 284: That's America, Charlie Brown w/ Blake Scott Ball Jul 26, 2021

Show notes

What do Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and the rest of the gang have to tell us about the staggering loneliness at the heart of the American experience? Blake Scott Ball is a professor of history at Huntingdon College and the author of Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts. In this conversation, we trace the history of Charles Schulz's iconic comic strip alongside the history of the late 20th century, as we see how Schulz's characters navigated the Cold War, civil rights movement, Vietnam War, and other epochal events of the era, creating an emotional throughline that continues to permeate the American cultural imagination.

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 283: Poddin' 'bout My Generation w/ Kyle Riismandel (PREVIEW) Jul 19, 2021

Show notes

Kyle Riismandel, author of Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001, returns to talk about the idea of generations, both as useful historical dividers and as complicated, constructed cultural identities. Are you Gen X? Boomer? Millennial? Zoomer? Does any of this shit matter? In this conversation, we reflect on what makes this generational stuff so powerful (hint: it makes a lot of money), and think about both the utility and limits of this brand of temporal categorization. To listen to the full episode and access all our bonus content, subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Nostalgia Trap - NAM-TV - S1 E5: Oval Room (PREVIEW) Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

On Episode 5, we take a look at the period 1956-1963, when the United States attempted to create an anti-communist state called South Vietnam, with a well-connected Catholic-Confucian politician named Ngo Dinh Diem as its president. When JFK takes over in 1961, Diem's violent repression of the Vietnamese population accelerates, and a homegrown resistance called the National Liberation Front begins organizing a military and political movement to oust Diem and unify Vietnam. For full episode subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 282: You Don't Belong Here w/ Elizabeth Becker Jul 07, 2021

Show notes

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning author and journalist; her latest book, You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War (2021), profiles three journalists whose groundbreaking work rearranged the history of the Vietnam War. In this conversation, Becker explains how Kate Webb, Catherine Leroy, and Frances Fitzgerald each developed critical journalistic practices that brought new insights to the conflict, and offers some jaw-dropping stories (spoiler: she met Pol Pot!) from her own extraordinary career.

Nostalgia Trap - Episode 281: At a New Life We Took Aim w/ Donald Borenstein (PREVIEW) Jul 02, 2021

Show notes

Donald Borenstein is a freelance video director, editor, and one of my favorite online friends, whose posts on politics, culture, and media have been a highlight of my feed for years. This week we finally get to meet face to face (on Zoom) and talk about two of our respective favorite films, Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames (1983) and Slava Tsukerman's Liquid Sky (1982), both of which are essential viewing for anyone interested in radical politics and radical filmmaking practices. As works of sci-fi queer punk feminism, Born in Flames and Liquid Sky occupy a totally unique territory in the history of American politics and culture. In this conversation, Donald and I reflect on what makes these films "important" but also what makes them feel so fun and alive, and how they reshape the aesthetic and narrative boundaries of "political cinema." For full episode subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Nostalgia Trap - NAM-TV - S1 E4: Secret Agent Men (PREVIEW) Jun 24, 2021

Show notes

On this week's episode we explore the world of CIA spookery unleashed in Vietnam as the French exited the region and the United States began escalating its involvement in Vietnamese affairs. From the gangster-style machinations of the Dulles brothers to the psychological warfare practiced by characters like Edward Lansdale and Dr. Tom Dooley, this is the story of America's covert war to manipulate the situation in Vietnam in the years 1954-1956, as it tried desperately to build an anti-communist alternative to Ho Chi Minh and to undermine the existence of a united, independent Vietnam. For full episodes of NAM-TV go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

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