Nostalgia Trap - Episode 113: The Center Collapses w/ Shuja Haider
Release Date: 08/28/2018
Nostalgia Trap - Episode 390: Impossible Wish, Part 2 w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
As campus protests against Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza continue, Justin and I pick up on about the wider historical issues at play. This week we talk more about anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, and consider the idea of “divestment” at elite colleges. The neoliberal, corporate university is having quite a moment – confronting the contradictions of its hyper-capitalist structure and social justice culture – and we are here for it. Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to access our library of bonus episodes and News Trap updates:
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News Trap 5.2.24
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On today's News Trap I share some snippets about Chinese state capitalism, RFK's hilariously shitty presidential campaign, Elon Musk pulling the plug on everyone's dumb car chargers, the normalization of guns in schools and, of course, more on the campus protests against Israel's still unfolding genocide in Gaza. Subscribe for more: Instagram: YouTube:
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Nostalgia Trap - Episode 389: Impossible Wish w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Nostalgia Trap
This week Justin and I attempt to put the latest round of campus protests into historical context, both in the wider view (19th century abolitionism, Vietnam, South Africa) and in our specific moment (Occupy, Black Lives Matter, pandemic, Israel/Gaza). What are the students’ demands, and how do we reconcile them with a popular social movement that could actually win? Subscribe to hear the full episode:
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Nostalgia Trap - Episode 388: Doom Loop w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
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It’s been a minute since Justin and I have shared our takes on “the news,” so this week we have a typically dark, unhinged conversation about what’s coming for us in 2024, with an American population frothing at the mouth to BUILD THE WALL and weapons-crazy madmen lashing out around the globe. It’s an incredible time to be alive. Full episode:
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Nostalgia Trap - Episode 387: Touching the Octopus w Justin Rogers-Cooper
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Conspiracy theories are a hell of a drug. Justin and I know this from experience, so watching the new Netflix documentary brought up some deeply identifiable thoughts and emotions for both of us. Do you REALLY want to know the exact details of the dark forces at work within our most sacred institutions? As we discuss here, there’s a heavy price to pay for that knowledge, one way or another.
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Nostalgia Trap - Episode 386.5 - The History of America in Six Cars, Part Four - The Fall of Detroit (1st Half)
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This is the first half of this week's episode, go to our Patreon page to listen to the whole thing! It’s Part Four of our six-part adventure through the history of American automaking and car culture, and we’ve finally reached the moment when everything starts to unravel: the 1970s. When Arab nations decide to flex their oil muscle against the United States in 1973, they deliver American consumers into an entirely new economic reality, and Detroit struggles to meet the era’s new demands for fuel efficiency, safety, and lower emissions. Meanwhile, Japan enters the market with a new...
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Nostalgia Trap - Ep 385: The History of America in Six Cars, Part Three - Sweetheart of the Supermarket Set (PREVIEW)
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In Part Three of our journey through the history of American car culture, we explore how the massive cultural and political shifts of the 1960s made an impact on American automaking. From the Chevrolet Corvair spinning out and making Ralph Nader a household name, to the Ford Mustang turning boring housewives and husbands into hip celebrities, this was a wild era. When Detroit takes a sinister turn with the 1965 Pontiac GTO, a muscle car war grips American street racing subcultures, before it all burns out when the gas gets too expensive and the smog chokes the skies. Full episode here:
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Nostalgia Trap - Ep 384: The History of America in Six Cars, Part Two - Size is Everything (PREVIEW)
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As we continue our story of America’s love affair with the automobile, it’s time to look at the tailfin behemoths of the 1950s, the cars that look like “guns you can fuck.” With the automakers morphing into weapons manufacturers to help Uncle Sam win World War II, the postwar consumer reaped the strange benefits of military technology and imperial ideology seeping into the design of his suburban luxury sedan. Meanwhile, a cute little car produced by the Nazis was slowly stealing the hearts of America’s budding counterculture. Full episode here:
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Nostalgia Trap - Ep 383: Fast and Furious - Hamas Drift w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
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This week we watch (2011), the fifth installment in the , and contemplate how these movies embed radical ideas about criminality, subversion, insurgency, and family in often goofy stories about driving really fast cars, furiously. Full episode here: For more reflections on car culture, check out Part One of our new series, The History of America in Six Cars:
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Nostalgia Trap - Ep 382: The History of America in Six Cars, Part One - Henry Ford, Nazis, and the Model T
Nostalgia Trap
The supreme object of the 20th century, the automobile’s development as both transportation technology and cultural totem is literally the story of American capitalism. In the first episode of a six-part series, we examine the life and legacy of Henry Ford, whose Model T took the nation by storm after its debut in 1908. As Ford rises to an unprecedented position of wealth and power, his virulent anti-semitism and destructive business impulses threaten his company’s dominance of an emerging mass market in the 1920s. The Model T’s rise and fall as the nation’s most popular...
info_outlineShuja Haider is a writer and editor for a number of left publications (check out his work in Popula and Viewpoint). In this conversation, we talk about historical cycles of generational politics, the weird road from 60s counterculture to "conservatism is the new punk rock," and the growth of left/right radicalism among young people in the Trump era.