Remember the heady days of Abercrombie and Fitch’s utter domination of the young, white middle class fashion market? What was that about? This week I’m joined by Ethan Lascity, an assistant professor and director of the fashion media program at Southern Methodist University, to discuss his book The Abercrombie Age: Millennial Aspiration and the Promise of Consumer Culture. Ethan helps me understand the wider historical context and significance of a very specific moment in American pop culture, when a vision of affluence was packaged and sold to a generation that would never actually attain it. Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to access all our bonus episodes and News Trap updates
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News Trap 7.4.25 - An Independence Day Manifesto...ON ACID!
Anyone with a brain and heart probably feels deeply conflicted about the Fourth of July, a celebration of American freedom that frequently feels crass and hollow in the context of an ever-expanding American cruelty. So I thought I would reflect on the some ideas about drugs and counterculture today. I share some new details of the CIA's MKULTRA mind control experiments, and read Allen Ginsberg's eerily prophetic 1959 piece, "Poetry, Violence, and the Trembling Lambs or Independence Day Manifesto." Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to access all our bonus content
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Ep 416 - America Eats Itself w/ Xaq Frohlich
Xaq Frohlich is Associate Professor of History of Technology at Auburn University. His work focuses on issues relating to food and risk at the intersections of science, law, and markets. In this conversation, he joins me to discuss his book From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age, a fascinating history of how Americans have navigated food and health issues through culture and politics. From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to RFK, Jr. and “MAHA Moms,” let’s take a journey through America’s always evolving and often conflicted attitudes toward eating, agriculture, government regulation, and human health. Check out the Nostalgia Trap Patreon page to access our News Trap and SCREENSHOTZ, along with a whole library of bonus podcast episodes
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Ep 414- Which Way, White Dude? w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)
Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater. 1993) remains a timeless classic of American adolescence…or does it? This week Justin joins me for a deep dive into one of the most nostalgia-laden films ever created, as we investigate how a seemingly breezy 1990s high school stoner comedy actually holds deep philosophical and political weight when viewed from 2025. From Matthew McConaughey’s lascivious lothario to Ben Affleck’s pathetic, psychotic bully, and a million characters in between, the film displays archetypes of American youth that point to the often narrow paths of identity available to each of us. All right, all right, all right? Listen to the whole episode here Check out Chuck Klosterman’s piece on the film Here’s another great analysis of Dazed and Confused’s take on nostalgia
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Ep 413 - Comanches in Gaza (PREVIEW)
What is “settler colonialism” and how is it different from other forms of imperialism? In this episode I share excerpts from S.C. Gwynne’s bracing, controversial book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, and reflect on the historical lines between the American project of removal and Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza. How is Zionism related to Manifest Destiny? And what can we learn from each of these tremendously disturbing eras? Listen to the full episode Check out Louis Theroux’s documentary on the radical Israeli settlement movement, The Settlers. Join the Culture Warrior tier and access our new SCREENSHOTZ news chat.
Österreich