Carrie Conners is a poet, writer, and professor of English at LaGuardia Community College; her latest book Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre, and Political Critique in Late Twentieth Century American Poetry explores how American poets since the 1950s engage humor as a political and aesthetic tactic. In this conversation, we talk about the language games of standup comics from George Carlin to Dave Chappelle, and trace the wider shifts in poetry, comedy, and political culture since the invention of the atomic bomb. We also examine how Carrie navigates these ideas in her own poetry, with excerpts from her two excellent collections, Luscious Struggle (2020) and Species of Least Concern (2022).

Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap for bonus content, including our newest podcasts GENDER TRAP w/ Yasmin Nair and CAMPUS TRAP w/ Ryan Boyd: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap