Robert Neer is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

He is a historian at Columbia University and the author of Napalm: An American Biography.

Robert's work is a incisive and unique example of the history of objects and how that type of social history can illuminate broader questions of politics, life, and society. Napalm: An American Biography is more than the history of a horrific weapon: it is an insight into American war fighting, inventions, and foreign affairs. Dr. Neer and Chauncey talk about the history of napalm, its inventors, the moral questions that (should) govern the use of technology and science, the Vietnam War, American power, and the symbolism and meaning that have been constructed around such an iconic and terrifying weapon in both the world's and America's public imagination. Chauncey also shares his thoughts on Tom Brady and "Deflategate", the Oklahoma tornadoes and the Amtrak train crash, how Republican racism has hurt America's infrastructure in the Age of Obama, and a frightening encounter with an entitled student who was moved to gross anger by a discussion of wealth inequality and consumerism.