Nostalgia Trap

This week Justin joins me to speculate on the inevitable "October Surprise" of the coming U.S. midterm elections: Terror attack? Alien invasion? Sharknado? The landscape of possibilities seems endless. Our conversation veers into a wider discussion of MAGA's fracture and the psychosexual politics of homoeroticized schadenfreude, the pleasure of punishment, and social media lynch mobs.

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Is the widespread hatred of AI just another stupid viral moment that will be forgotten in a week? Or is there something deeper happening? Justin and I game out the historical/psychological parameters of an anti-tech cultural politics, and try to come to terms with our own attitudes about the seemingly unstoppable rise of the machines.

Check out Sam Stein's latest book, A Right to Housing?

In taking his internet creepypasta Backrooms from YouTube to the cinema screen, director Kane Parsons has created a piece of popular art that resonates deeply with some of our favorite Nostalgia Trap themes: '90s analog culture, toxic masculinity, psychedelic dream spaces, and the overriding feeling that the historical vibe is growing dark. Justin joins me to explore this puzzle of a movie, and to unpack its uncanny connection to our collective trips into extradimensional worlds.

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In the shadow of the U.S. officially losing the war in Iran, the American political and economic world continues to chase after a high that's perhaps no longer attainable. This week we examine how Trump, MAGA, AI companies, and the American left are grappling with a bubbling existential crisis that's unprecedented in scale and intensity.

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It's time for the old "there's a civil war brewing in the Democratic Party" conversation again, and Justin joins me to poke holes in the orthodoxies embraced by both "sides" of the alleged progressive/left vs centrist debate currently gripping the American public. It's 2016 all over again! Or is it?

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This week Justin joins me to explore the tall claims made in a recent New York Times piece, "Gen Z Fell Out of Love With Work. I Don't Blame Them." Are we really experiencing a generational revolt against centuries of American attitudes about education, work, wages, and life itself? Let's see what these Gen Z kids have to say.

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Does economic crisis predictably produce extreme political movements? History's lessons are a bit unclear on that point and, as we investigate in this episode, the summer of 2026 is testing our understanding of the relationship between political economy and social reality. Strap in, folks: we just found a new planet hiding behind the sun!

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As a wave of Mamdani-supported COMMUNISTS win power in New York, Justin and I ask the question that's on everyone's minds: is this the future of the Democratic Party? And more importantly, what will American politics look like in the wake of the Trump era?

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With news that Elon Musk in the world's first trillionaire after the historic SpaceX IPO, Justin joins me to discuss the financial gamesmanship at work in the AI industry, the planetary limits of this particular phase of capitalism, and the reasons why the #TeslaTakedown moment is long in the past.

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Since the Iran war began many weeks ago, it feels like we're living in some kind of surreal rhetorical purgatory. Surveying the wider news landscape, though, a wider pattern emerges, and a "Charlie Brown" analogy reveals something a bit darker hidden in our collective basement.