Nostalgia Trap

Here's a quick look at our new video lecture series NAM-TV, our new video lecture series on the Vietnam War and American historical memory. Episode One is available now for subscribers at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap, with new episodes dropping regularly throughout the summer. 

Katrinell Davis is an associate professor of sociology at Florida State University and the author of two incredible books: Hard Work is Not Enough: Gender and Racial Inequality in an Urban Workspace (2016) and Tainted Tap: Flint's Journey from Crisis to Recovery (2021). In this conversation, we explore how different populations, from Black women bus drivers in San Francisco to the working class residents of Flint, Michigan, face extraordinary socioeconomic constraints, and how these communities respond, resist, and live joyously in the face of capitalism's relentless attacks.

Katrinell Davis is an associate professor of sociology at Florida State University and the author of two incredible books: Hard Work is Not Enough: Gender and Racial Inequality in an Urban Workspace (2016) and Tainted Tap: Flint’s Journey from Crisis to Recovery (2021). In this conversation, we explore how different populations, from Black women bus drivers in San Francisco to the working class residents of Flint, Michigan, face extraordinary socioeconomic constraints, and how these communities respond, resist, and live joyously in the face of capitalism’s relentless attacks.

Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero? Holy Angel of Liberation? Capitalist collaborator? Matthew Stanley has some ideas for us. As an associate professor of history at Albany State University, his work focuses on how we remember the Civil War, and why that matters. In this conversation we discuss his latest book, Grand Army of Labor: Workers, Veterans, and the Meaning of the Civil War, which explores the diverse ways that historical memories and images of war function within radical political movements.

Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero? Holy Angel of Liberation? Capitalist collaborator? Matthew Stanley has some ideas for us. As an associate professor of history at Albany State University, his work focuses on how we remember the Civil War, and why that matters. In this conversation we discuss his latest book, Grand Army of Labor: Workers, Veterans, and the Meaning of the Civil War, which explores the diverse ways that historical memories and images of war function within radical political movements.

This week Justin and I watch the HBO documentary Q: Into the Storm, and share our ideas about the QAnon phenomenon, from the sewers of 8chan to the hordes of Q-Tubers amplifying its ideas, paying special attention to the malevolent father-son duo Jim and Ron Watkins, who hijacked the brain of an American president. What is this new technological/psychological terrain we inhabit? And where is the rabbit hole leading us? For full episode subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

This week Justin and I watch the HBO documentary Q: Into the Storm, and share our ideas about the QAnon phenomenon, from the sewers of 8chan to the hordes of Q-Tubers amplifying its ideas, paying special attention to the malevolent father-son duo Jim and Ron Watkins, who hijacked the brain of an American president. What is this new technological/psychological terrain we inhabit? And where is the rabbit hole leading us? For full episode subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap. 

What does it mean to "eat like a man"? This week's guest, Emily J.H. Contois, is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa and the author of Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture. In this conversation, she explains how the concept of "dude food" became a powerful branding strategy in Great Recession America, as food production and consumption became central sites in the contest over masculinity and identity.

What does it mean to “eat like a man”? This week’s guest, Emily J.H. Contois, is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa and the author of Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture. In this conversation, she explains how the concept of “dude food” became a powerful branding strategy in Great Recession America, as food production and consumption became central sites in the contest over masculinity and identity.

This week Claudia joins us to survey two of Martin Scorsese's earliest films, Mean Streets (1973) and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), both of which express the lived experiences of working class Americans in often surprising ways. We talk about how these films depict class mobility and ethnic tribalism, violence (both economic and domestic), the multidimensional traps of gender, and the sometimes impossible moral challenges faced by people struggling to survive in the dark terrain of 1970s America. Subscribe for the full episode: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.