Nostalgia Trap

Moustafa Bayoumi is an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College and the author of How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America (2009). In this conversation, we talk about his graduate years working with Edward Said; his development as a scholar of postcolonial literature and theory; his extraordinary article "Disco Inferno," which chronicles the use of American popular music in the torture of (mostly Arab) detainees; and the particular cultural, political, and economic elements of the Arab-American and Muslim experience in post-9/11 America. 

Will Menaker is an editor at Liveright Publishing, who recently put out Jacob Bacharach's debut novel, The Bend of the World. I've known Will since graduate school, where we shared a common love for The Onion, The Sopranos, and the weird ideological currents flowing through American popular culture. In this episode, we talk about his socialist ancestors, who opened cooperative factories in the United States, and how utopian fantasy and apocalyptic nightmares intersect with real politics.

Will Menaker is an editor at Liveright Publishing, who recently put out Jacob Bacharach's debut novel, The Bend of the World. I've known Will since graduate school, where we shared a common love for The Onion, The Sopranos, and the weird ideological currents flowing through American popular culture. In this episode, we talk about his socialist ancestors, who opened cooperative factories in the United States, and how utopian fantasy and apocalyptic nightmares intersect with real politics. 

Although the popular stereotype of "kids these days" has them staring apathetically at their phones, more concerned with selfies than politics, my experiences with young people at CUNY often give the lie to that idea. After a semester spent reading and writing about climate change, the students in Justin Rogers-Cooper's English 101 course at LaGuardia Community College were heavily engaged, and more than ready to share their thoughts. I sat down with the class and listened to harrowing stories about Hurricane Sandy, ideas for shifting the political conversation about climate change, and their fears and hopes for the future of life on planet Earth.

Although the popular stereotype of "kids these days" has them staring apathetically at their phones, more concerned with selfies than politics, my experiences with young people at CUNY often give the lie to that idea. After a semester spent reading and writing about climate change, the students in Justin Rogers-Cooper's English 101 course at LaGuardia Community College were heavily engaged, and more than ready to share their thoughts. I sat down with the class and listened to harrowing stories about Hurricane Sandy, ideas for shifting the political conversation about climate change, and their fears and hopes for the future of life on planet Earth.

Claudia Moreno Parsons is a professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, and also the wife of your humble host. Since I've spoken to so many guests about the different people that made an impact on their lives, I thought that, for the podcast's 30th episode, it would be appropriate to speak with someone who's had a profound impact on my life. Claudia talks with me about her childhood in South Brooklyn, how books came to be so important to her, and how working with Ammiel Alcalay at the CUNY Graduate Center helped give shape to her work while fueling her intellectual imagination.

Claudia Moreno Parsons is a professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, and also the wife of your humble host. Since I've spoken to so many guests about the different people that made an impact on their lives, I thought that, for the podcast's 30th episode, it would be appropriate to speak with someone who's had a profound impact on my life. Claudia talks with me about her childhood in South Brooklyn, how books came to be so important to her, and how working with Ammiel Alcalay at the CUNY Graduate Center helped give shape to her work while fueling her intellectual imagination. 

Currently a professor in the Economics department at John Jay College in New York City, Josh Mason is one of only a few economists that I know in real life, so it was great to have the opportunity to pick his brain about details we historians often tend to overlook. We talked about his background in left journalism, his work with major labor unions, the direction of U.S. labor politics, and the curious but perhaps understandable academic preoccupation with organic farming.

Currently a professor in the Economics department at John Jay College in New York City, Josh Mason is one of only a few economists that I know in real life, so it was great to have the opportunity to pick his brain about details we historians often tend to overlook. We talked about his background in left journalism, his work with major labor unions, the direction of U.S. labor politics, and the curious but perhaps understandable academic preoccupation with organic farming.

I've known English professor Neil Meyer for many years, since our time spent concurrently at the CUNY Graduate Center, which spanned more or less the entire Bush and early Obama eras. I never knew Neil was from Detroit before this conversation, and the discovery allowed us an entryway into a wide range of historical and political phenomenon. We talked about his work in early American literature, his thoughts on gay marriage, abortion, and other pieces of the so-called "culture war," and of course, our mutual concern about James Franco's graduate studies.