Nostalgia Trap

Latest Episodes:

News Trap 1.24.25 Broligarchy's Endgame w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper Jan 24, 2025

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The politics of rebuilding Los Angeles after the fires, tech maneuvering for Trump juice, social media outrage missing the mark, Elon's Nazi salute masking something darker, a new Gilded Age comes into view, what's at risk with global capital behaving like a caged animal.

This is a short clip from a full episode, which you can hear by subscribing to our Patreon. Subscibers get access to all of our bonus content, including full episodes, videos, book recs, and News Trap updates: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120711896?pr=true&forSale=true

News Trap 1.22.25 - What's Next? w/ Ross Barkan Jan 22, 2025

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Ross Barkan is a political writer and novelist whose Substack is one of our favorite places for thoughtful takes on the current political and cultural landscape. He joins me this week to survey the landscape with Trump taking office again, as we consider the tech world's shifting allegiances and cultural power, the exhaustion with #resistance outrage and performative politics, the online popularity of Luigi Mangione, the Elon Musk "Nazi" salute, and much more. Ross also tells us about his latest novel, Glass Century, and reflects on why he thinks novel-writing (and reading) are such an integral part of being human.

Subscribe to our Patreon and get access to all our bonus episodes and News Trap updates: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap

Ep 402 - The Bookshop w/ Evan Friss Jan 18, 2025

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This week I'm joined by Evan Friss, author of the current New York Times bestseller The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, which traces the development of bookshops as integral, often paradoxical, spaces within the landscape of American consumer culture. What is a bookshop? And what makes it different from literally any other place you can visit? In this conversation, Evan shares some highlights from the book, as we discuss places like New York City's The Strand, the pioneering gay rights bookshop Oscar Wilde, the proliferation of sidewalk booksellers (and the moral outrage they provoked), the unlikely redemption of Barnes & Noble as the hero of independent bookshops, and of course the rise of the villainous Amazon. As Evan explains, the bookshop isn't dead, and its evolving fate in the 21st century provides a dynamic glimpse at how literacy and political economy intersect in the past, present, and future.

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News Trap 1.10.25 - Let 'Em Burn w Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Jan 10, 2025

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Fires in Los Angeles unleash a wave of online hate from the left and right. What chance do we have to mitigate the coming climate change disasters if the population's reactions are driven by algorithms that massage and indulge our worst impulses?

This is a short clip from a full-length episode for Nostalgia Trap subscribers, sign up for a FREE 7-day trial to listen to the whole thing, plus gain access to our library of bonus episodes, videos, and more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/119735891?pr=true&forSale=true

Ep 401 - Love Means Research w/ David Humphries Jan 03, 2025

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This week I talk with David Humphries, a professor of English at Queensborough Community College in New York City, about his excellent project Happy Nostalgia: Making Connections with the Music of the '90s, which collects essays from CUNY scholars on the last "analog" moment of music fandom, the beautiful and tragic 1990s. We get a chance to trade nostalgic stories about our own music obsessions of the '90s, and try to frame how things changed for us (and everyone else) when streaming music blasted a whole lifestyle into oblivion. What died, and what remains alive? And are we just being cranky old men about Spotify's algorithmic nightmare? This is an intense and fun conversation about the meaning of nostalgia and how music gives us a constant pulse through the decades of technological and cultural evolution.

Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to hear all our bonus episodes and News Trap updates: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap

Ep 400 - The Disney Revolt w/ Jake S. Friedman Dec 20, 2024

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A critical but often overlooked chapter in American labor history, the animator's strike that shook the Walt Disney Corporation in 1941 was part of a wave of labor struggle in World War II era Hollywood. Jake S. Friedman's book The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age chronicles the strike in colorful detail, and includes plenty of eye-popping images of the strike's particularly cartoonish aesthetic. Friedman joins me for a conversation about his book, the strike, and the wider history of the Disney project, which shifted dramatically in the wake of the rebellion by its key artists. From communist infiltrators to mafia-connected union leaders, this is a fascinating picture of the intersection of art, industrial capitalism, and pop culture.

For more on the book, including lots of great images from the strike: https://www.thedisneyrevolt.com/

Our previous episode on World War II era Disney history: https://www.patreon.com/posts/trap-tv-brick-to-75566223

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Ep 399 - Severance/Doppelganger w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

This week we watched the excellent Apple TV series Severance and put it in conversation with Naomi Klein's latest book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. Both texts explore how the concept of "doubles" plays out in capitalist culture, and we have fun talking about the ways they did (and didn't) blow our minds. From Klein's refreshing take on the left's severe mistakes of the COVID era (and how Steve Bannon greedily lapped up the detritus) to Severance's terrifying vision of a corporation that aims to replace your entire identity, we take the opportunity to look into the mirror at the selves we make, and that are made for us.

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News Trap 12.6.24 Survival of the Fittest w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Dec 07, 2024

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A United Healthcare CEO is assassinated and the world laughs, fitness and nutrition culture goes fascist, Europe in collapse while China salivates, Trump's tariffs portend new global shockwaves.

To hear the whole episode, subscribe for a FREE 7 day trial: https://www.patreon.com/posts/117457956?pr=true&forSale=true

News Trap 11.29.24 - The Internet Eats America w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Nov 29, 2024

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It's Black Friday, so between insane binges of online shopping, Justin and I sat down to record a conversation about the Netflix documentary The Antisocial Network: From Memes to Mayhem, as we consider the path from Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders to 1/6 and Donald Trump's triumph in the 2024 election. What role has internet culture played in shaping our current reality, and what can we expect in the future?

This is only a short bit from a much longer episode, so subsribe to enjoy the whole thing --- lots of juicy ideas here.

Subscribe for a FREE 7-day trial to hear the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116970931?pr=true&forSale=true

News Trap 11.25.24 - Tending the Light Nov 25, 2024

Show notes

Musk's endgame on environmental regulations, universities bracing for a war on DEI and critical race theory, Houthi pirates drawn to their deaths in Ukraine, national economies bracing for world war. Happy Thanksgiving!

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