Nostalgia Trap

Drew Morton is an Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. He is the co-editor and co-founder of [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Stud…

Yasmin Nair returns to the Trap for a deep dive into the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), a conversation that helps us frame ideas about prison abolition, animal rights, environmentalism, …

As we continue our series on the politics of COVID-19, Justin Rogers-Cooper takes aim at the absurd ideology of “sacrifice,” as we explore how American sentimental mythology allows us to justify capi…

Mistress Snow, Ph.D. is an academic in the humanities who was abruptly rejected by her mentor after coming out to her as a working dominatrix, an experience she documents in a recent Chronicle piece…

Yasmin Nair is a writer and activist who always says what’s on her mind, and the results are consistently some of the most refreshing and challenging takes on modern American politics and culture. In…

Evan Purchell is a film historian and archivist whose latest film project, Ask Any Buddy, presents excerpted bits from 126 different gay male “adult” films from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. The effect is…

With a nation in quarantine, Justin Rogers-Cooper joins us for a deep dive into the political opportunities presented by the COVID-19 moment, as we track the rapid evolution of capitalism in crisis. …

Justin Rogers-Cooper returns to continue our series on the extraordinary historical moment created by the COVID-19 crisis. In this conversation we take on the rapidly evolving politics of the virus, …

Preview of bonus episode 182: Contagion with Justin Rogers-Cooper.

Kevin Baker is a historian studying the ways policymakers use predictive computer models to map the future. In this conversation, he tells us about navigating the shock of class consciousness in the …

Alice Bag is a punk icon, the lead singer of legendary 1970s L.A. punk band The Bags, and now a writer, educator, and feminist archivist. In this conversation, she tells her story of overcoming a chi…

Rick Paulas is a journalist covering issues of housing and homelessness; his recent piece on Moms 4 Housing details what happened when a group of Black mothers occupied a vacant house in Oakland, Ca…

Lavelle Porter is a writer and professor of English at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology. He joins us to discuss his new book The Blackademic Life: Academic Fiction, Higher Education, and th…

Sarah Milov is a professor of history at the University of Virginia and the author of The Cigarette: A Political History. In this conversation, she describes how the intersection of private capital …

Sarah Taber is a crop scientist and ex-farmworker with a wide knowledge of agricultural history and practice, which you can hear in action on her excellently-named podcast Farm to Taber.  In this con…

Luke O’Neil is a writer whose work chronicles the dark edges of 21st century America, capturing the horrific tenor of our age in his incredible newsletter and in his latest book, Welcome to Hell Wor…

A.M. Gittlitz is a writer on radical politics, counterculture, and the paranormal, and the producer of a wonderful podcast called The Antifada. In this conversation, he catches us up on the worldwide…

Mike Pearl is a writer and self-described “apocalypse expert” whose new book The Day It Finally Happens explores the increasingly bizarre scenarios that threaten to totally ruin our collective futur…