News Trap 3.28.25 - FOMO w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
Guitar Center dudes and their insanely rigid opinions lead to a conversation with Justin about the political psychology of FOMO, the rise of the pedophile hunter influencer class, the masculine desperation of emoji-driven war-planning group chat jerkoff sessions, the abject horror of students kidnapped off the streets for their views on Israel and Palestine, and Trump's assault on free trade scrambling the political alignments of the past several decades.
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Ep 408 - The Final Frontier of Sociopath Presidents? w/ Adam Kotsko
Nostalgia Trap
Adam Kotsko is a writer and cultural critic whose work focuses on American pop culture, from to our . His latest book, considers how the Star Trek series has evolved (or devolved) in the political economy of streaming TV and the Marvel-ization of feature filmmaking. In this conversation we talk about how his work on TV sociopaths holds up during the new Trump administration, and the challenges of participating in fan culture within a fracturing and cynical landscape of cultural production.
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News Trap 3.21.25 - Irreconcilable Differences (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
Fascism comes to my local city council meeting, a proud Israel supporter haunts my gym, Elon Musk's transgender daughter drives him off a cliff, Trump wants to send people to foreign torture camps for Tesla vandalism, and the incompatible worldviews boil hotter than ever.
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News Trap 3.19.25 - Against the Wall
Nostalgia Trap
Today I fall into paranoid android mode, thinking about what it means to "own the libs" from the left in the new Trump Reich. My message to an increasingly marginalized left flank: be careful what you wish for! Check out John Ganz's terrific Substack, for access to all our bonus content
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News Trap 3.14.25 - Blowback w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
Trump and Elon Musk are actively working to destroy the global economic order, but to what end? This week Justin and I consider the wacky cartoon reality that Americans inhabit, and speculate about the different forms "blowback" might take when the punishment gets real.
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Ep 407 - A Complete Unknown w Stephen Petrus
Nostalgia Trap
Stephen Petrus is director of Public History Programs at and co-author of the book (2015). He joins me to discuss the movie , which tracks a brief but critical moment in the life of Bob Dylan, when his rise to stardom intersected with the wider social and political project envisioned by American folk musicians, fans, and organizers. For a deeper look at the folk scene from which Dylan emerged, don’t miss Martin Scorsese’s documentary (2005) to support the show and access our huge library of bonus content, videos, News Trap episodes, and more.
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News Trap 2.28.25 - Car's on Fire w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
Our good friend Justin Rogers-Cooper joins me to survey the first month of Trump's presidency, as we play out some of the nastier currents now circling in American and global political culture, from Trump's exoneration of his foot soldiers to the left salivating over Luigi Mangione, and much more. Who's really in control? And what can we anticipate as we head into truly uncharted territory?
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News Trap 2.26.25 - The Way of the Gun (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
A recent law school event featuring former honestly blew my mind, and made me think a lot about the intersection of crime, law enforcement, reform movements, and political violence. I try to put those ideas together alongside the current culture of J6 pardons and Luigi mania, as we fall further into a chaotic and vengeful national mindset. .
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News Trap 2.19.25 - Into the Thresher
Nostalgia Trap
There are currently too many news stories to fit into the "ominous portents of a dark future" file, so I've chosen a few of the most flagrant examples of Trump/Musk savagery to share, along with some reflections on how to fight for our minds and for each other as the world heads down the toilet. Check out our Patreon for more:
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Ep 406 - Work or Die, Part One (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
I got my first job when I was 15 years old, working at a Pumpkin Patch on a local farm, and it’s been all downhill from there. I’m partly joking, but the working world has never been a place of maximum success and happiness for me, and in this episode I try to come to terms with my own job history as a way of exploring the pressures that consume many of us: bosses, bills, weird co-workers, and the dark feeling that American life is often a big depressing rip-off. I’ve got stories to tell from a lifetime of shitty jobs, from manning the bakery case at Marie Callender’s as a teenager to...
info_outlineA 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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