Nostalgia Trap

Conversations about history, politics, and pop culture.

News Trap 6.27.25 - Genocide's Ghost w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 06/27/2025

News Trap 6.27.25 - Genocide's Ghost w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Zohran Mamdani's win in NYC accelerates a civil war for the soul of the Democratic Party; ICE storm troopers refuse to take off their masks; Trump's bombing of Iran within the larger strategic maneuverings of world powers; the historical ingredients necessary for getting away with genocide. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/37197755

Ep 416 - America Eats Itself w/ Xaq Frohlich 06/20/2025

Ep 416 - America Eats Itself w/ Xaq Frohlich is Associate Professor of History of Technology at Auburn University. His work focuses on issues relating to food and risk at the intersections of science, law, and markets. In this conversation, he joins me to discuss his book , a fascinating history of how Americans have navigated food and health issues through culture and politics. From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to RFK, Jr. and “MAHA Moms,” let’s take a journey through America’s always evolving and often conflicted attitudes toward eating, agriculture, government regulation, and human health. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/37091465

News Trap 6.13.25 - Scoreboard w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 06/13/2025

News Trap 6.13.25 - Scoreboard w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Is the fight against Trump's rising authoritarianism in the streets? Or in the courts? Why not both? At the five month mark, Justin joins me to survey the damage, and to assess the left's strategies in resisting an assault on our collective rights and dignity. Along the way, we consider Stephen Miller's nihilistic and libidinal hatreds, the Roberts' court's "fuck you" attitude toward the Constitution, the insurrection in Los Angeles, the efficacy of insurgent tactics of resistance, the psychotic undercurrents writhing through the right's "pro-natal" movement, and much more. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/37002765

Ep 415 - Own the Libs w/ Nick Marx 06/06/2025

Ep 415 - Own the Libs w/ Nick Marx What happened to the idea that “conservatives can’t do comedy”? Much to the horror of liberals, the past decade has witnessed the rise of a right wing comedy industrial complex, primarily found on podcasts, whose personalities and attitudes are inextricably linked to the success of Donald Trump’s populist conservative project. This week I talk with Nick Marx, co-author of the book , about how figures from Joe Rogan to Greg Gutfeld have weaponized the public’s fatigue with elite liberal culture, and how their popularity reveals something deep and dark at the heart of a crumbling American society. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36897090

Ep 414- Which Way, White Dude? w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 05/30/2025

Ep 414- Which Way, White Dude? w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) (dir. Richard Linklater. 1993) remains a timeless classic of American adolescence…or does it? This week Justin joins me for a deep dive into one of the most nostalgia-laden films ever created, as we investigate how a seemingly breezy 1990s high school stoner comedy actually holds deep philosophical and political weight when viewed from 2025. From Matthew McConaughey’s lascivious lothario to Ben Affleck’s pathetic, psychotic bully, and a million characters in between, the film displays archetypes of American youth that point to the often narrow paths of identity available to each of us. All right, all right, all right? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36791830

Ep 413 - Comanches in Gaza (PREVIEW) 05/21/2025

Ep 413 - Comanches in Gaza (PREVIEW) What is “settler colonialism” and how is it different from other forms of imperialism? In this episode I share excerpts from S.C. Gwynne’s bracing, controversial book , and reflect on the historical lines between the American project of removal and Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza. How is Zionism related to Manifest Destiny? And what can we learn from each of these tremendously disturbing eras? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36660605

Ep 412 - Nation of Swine w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper 05/13/2025

Ep 412 - Nation of Swine w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 novel remains a classic of American drug literature, a haunting reflection on the cultural and political hangover of the revolutionary 1960s. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced a more resonant portrait of the American id than the carnival of vile, deranged American archetypes Thompson describes in these pages. Justin Rogers-Cooper has been similarly influenced by Fear and Loathing over the years, and joins me this week to talk about Thompson’s legacy, his dark take on the “meaning” of the 1960s, and his view of America as a debased post-Nazi hellscape. Check out our new , where we share a curated stream of excerpts from global news sources — a relentless, delicious feast of doom, with commentary! /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36551170

Ep 411 - House on Fire (PREVIEW) 05/08/2025

Ep 411 - House on Fire (PREVIEW) An explosive piece called raises a few questions for me: What is the left's attitude toward tech? Is there anything positive about AI?Is digital technology compatible AT ALL with a progressive vision of the future? ARE WE DOOMED AS A SPECIES??? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36480705

News Trap 5.6.25 - Terminal Velocity 05/06/2025

News Trap 5.6.25 - Terminal Velocity FAA failures creating realistic fears of looming airline disasters, Trump's cryptocurrency scam, quantum computing and financial apocalypse, Kanye's celebrity vagina mega corporation, Israel's endgame for Gaza, the 4Channing of the world, the Baldoni/Lively mind control machine, and much more. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36456490

Ep 410 - Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam, We've All Been There 04/30/2025

Ep 410 - Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam, We've All Been There April 30, 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, so I’m marking the occasion by reflecting on the war’s meaning all these decades later. I share my own experiences as a historian of the war, along with some clips from books and documentaries that I think capture the impossible decisions the war forced upon millions of people. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36376040

Ep 409 - This is the End w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 04/25/2025

Ep 409 - This is the End w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) The recent death of Val Kilmer got Justin and I thinking about Jim Morrison and the curious legacy of The Doors in American pop culture. In this conversation, we continue our exploration of the amorphous brand of white masculinity embodied by Morrison and other doomed rock gods of the late 20th century, as we share memories of how The Doors blew our alienated teenage minds before the massive buzzkill of adulthood forced us to reckon with the cringier elements of Morrison’s persona and cultural imprint. From psychedelic drugs and beat literature to sex, cars, and jazz – The Doors broke us through a certain mode of American manhood. But what was waiting for us on the other side? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36317375

News Trap 4.23.25 - Trapdoor (PREVIEW) 04/23/2025

News Trap 4.23.25 - Trapdoor (PREVIEW) I'm reading S.C. Gwynne's incredible book , and it's making me think about Israel, Gaza, and the fatal arrogance of the leadership class throughout history. A brings that arrogant tendency right up to 2025, as we witness the Democratic Party's inability to conjure a coherent battle plan to confront Trump and company's unbelievably evil intentions. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36280525

News Trap 4.16.25 - See You in the Camps 04/16/2025

News Trap 4.16.25 - See You in the Camps As the Trump administration tests the "Hamilton glitch" in the U.S. Constitution by sending Abrego Garcia and others to a foreign concentration camp without legal due process, I thought it might be time to contemplate what ordinary people can do to express their outrage/disapproval/humanity in the face of injustice. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36190250

News Trap 4.11.25 - Hard Decoupling w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 04/11/2025

News Trap 4.11.25 - Hard Decoupling w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) Trump's tariff carnival is doing real damage to the global economy, and Justin shares his thoughts on how a collapsing financial architecture will impact big capital, our daily lives, and the Trump project itself. Plus, we address the "Hamilton glitch" of judicial weakness, baked into the Constitution, that's creating a rapidly escalating showdown over who's really in charge. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/36104315

News Trap 4.3.25 - Tariffs? I Just Met Her! 04/03/2025

News Trap 4.3.25 - Tariffs? I Just Met Her! Trump is dismantling the global neoliberal economic order that has served as the left's boogeyman for years, which SHOULD be an opportunity for the left to offer something beyond shrugging ambivalance and lib-dunking. Why isn't that happening? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35997710

News Trap 3.28.25 - FOMO w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 03/28/2025

News Trap 3.28.25 - FOMO w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 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. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35912515

Ep 408 - The Final Frontier of Sociopath Presidents? w/ Adam Kotsko 03/26/2025

Ep 408 - The Final Frontier of Sociopath Presidents? w/ Adam Kotsko 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. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35873050

News Trap 3.21.25 - Irreconcilable Differences (PREVIEW) 03/21/2025

News Trap 3.21.25 - Irreconcilable Differences (PREVIEW) 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. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35816190

News Trap 3.19.25 - Against the Wall 03/19/2025

News Trap 3.19.25 - Against the Wall 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 /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35778995

News Trap 3.14.25 - Blowback w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 03/14/2025

News Trap 3.14.25 - Blowback w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 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. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35702445

Ep 407 - A Complete Unknown w Stephen Petrus 03/07/2025

Ep 407 - A Complete Unknown w Stephen Petrus 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. /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35577645

News Trap 2.28.25 - Car's on Fire w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 02/28/2025

News Trap 2.28.25 - Car's on Fire w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW) 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? /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35486490

News Trap 2.26.25 - The Way of the Gun (PREVIEW) 02/26/2025

News Trap 2.26.25 - The Way of the Gun (PREVIEW) 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. . /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35440670

News Trap 2.19.25 - Into the Thresher 02/19/2025

News Trap 2.19.25 - Into the Thresher 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: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35356265

Ep 406 - Work or Die, Part One (PREVIEW) 02/14/2025

Ep 406 - Work or Die, Part One (PREVIEW) 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 dealing with obnoxious D-list celebrities as a production assistant in Hollywood. As a , “work sucks, I know.” Here’s a few slices of how I found that out. Subscribe to hear the whole episode and access our whole library of bonus content: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35288595

Ep 405 - All I Can Say w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper 02/09/2025

Ep 405 - All I Can Say w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper The haunting documentary , which chronicles a few vibrant years in the life of Shannon Hoon, the lead singer of 90s grunge rock band Blind Melon, is a slice of deep 90s nostalgia shot on camcorder by Hoon himself before he died of a drug overdose in October 1995. In this conversation, Justin Rogers-Cooper joins me to reflect on Hoon’s complicated legacy, the strange power of his intimate pre-Internet video diary, and the larger galaxy of 90s grunge martyrs. Check out Justin’s chapter all about Blind Melon And enjoy the entire series of essays here: Our episode on 90s music with Happy Nostalgia series editor David Humphries: Our episode on Elvis with Justin, a personal favorite: Please support the show! Subscribe to our Patreon for access to all Nostalgia Trap bonus content: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35207725

Ep 404 - Adventures in Adjuncting (PREVIEW) 01/31/2025

Ep 404 - Adventures in Adjuncting (PREVIEW) I started teaching college history courses in 2005 when I was a graduate student at the City University of New York. Looking back at those early years, I can hardly believe how little I knew about how to teach college courses. As I mark my 20th year of teaching, I thought I would reflect on everything I’ve learned from two decades of serving as an adjunct professor at a wide range of institutions, from working class community colleges to elite private schools and everything in between. I’ve changed a lot in these years, and so has the wider political economy and culture of American higher education. In this episode you’ll hear my takes on the rise of tech in education, dealing with woke culture (the good and the bad), the slow humiliation of professorial hierarchies, belligerently anti-communist business students, and lots more. I also share some stories of true communion with students and colleagues, moments that make the whole journey, despite its many challenges, incredibly rewarding. To hear the whole episode and access our whole library of bonus content, subscribe to Nostalgia Trap here: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35102520

Ep 403 - Only in Dreams 01/29/2025

Ep 403 - Only in Dreams David Lynch died earlier this month, and like many others I’ve been reflecting on his legacy, not only in the wider culture but in my own personal trajectory and identity. In this episode, I focus on the latter. Rather than trying to analyze the larger meaning of Lynch’s filmography, I wanted to sort out how his work intervened on my life, in particular considering how ideas of dark magic, synchronicity, and dreams in his films connect with my own weird experience of American reality. So I share some strange stories here, along with stray thoughts on how David Lynch, more than any other artist, somehow captured the uncanny feeling that some dark undercurrent pulsed beneath the surface of American life. Some reading recs I mention in the episode: Subscribe to our Patreon page for bonus content, including full episodes, videos, and our News Trap updates: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/35066115

News Trap 1.24.25 Broligarchy's Endgame w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper 01/24/2025

News Trap 1.24.25 Broligarchy's Endgame w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper 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: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/34999265

News Trap 1.22.25 - What's Next? w/ Ross Barkan 01/22/2025

News Trap 1.22.25 - What's Next? w/ Ross Barkan Ross Barkan is a political writer and novelist whose 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, , 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: /episode/index/show/nostalgiatrap/id/34964250

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