The American Vandal
Matt Seybold, Center For Mark Twain Studies
An ever-growing collection of conversations about literature, humor, and history in America, produced by the premier source for programming and funding scholarship on Mark Twain's life and legacy.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 18, 2021 • 57min
Generation Z, Mark Twain's Poetry, & Teaching English From East Texas to Harvard with Jocelyn Chadwick
The coordinators of the 2021 Summer Teachers Institute sponsored by the Center For Mark Twain Studies converse about the upcoming event, the state of U.S. education, the resonance of Mark Twain for contemporary students, and much more.
For more about the Institute, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/2021-Summer-Teachers-Institute/
Jun 15, 2021 • 1h 19min
Teaching With Tension & The Illusion of Postracialism with Philathia Bolton, Cassander Smith, & Lee Bebout
The co-editors of a new collection on "Race, Resistance, & Reality in The Classroom" discuss the "flash point" of 2008 for American education, the recent Critical Race Theory panic, pedagogical strategies for teaching with tension, and Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'
For more information about this episode, visit MarkTwainStudies.com/TeachingWithTension
To Register for the 2021 Summer Teachers Institute, visit MarkTwainStudies.com/2021-Summer-Teachers-Institute
May 19, 2021 • 59min
Mark Twain, Journalism, & the Search for Genus Americanus with Loren Ghiglione, Alyssa Karas, & Dan Tham
The authors of Genus Americanus (2020) join host Matt Seybold to discuss their 2011 road trip. Inspired by Mark Twain, they went looking for American identity through interviews with other journalists, scholars, immigrants, and nomads. What did the find? And how has it shaped their understanding of the decade which followed?
For more information, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/GenusAmericanus
May 4, 2021 • 1h 30min
Exterminate All The Brutes with Sheri-Marie Harrison, Andrew Hoberek, & Ignacio Sanchez Prado
The recent HBO documentary series, directed by Raoul Peck, offers a grand narrative of European colonialism and American imperialism which is broadly sympathetic with the works of Mark Twain from the final decade of his life. In this episode, a diverse group of scholars discuss Peck's film, as well as where it fits in global cinema, the U.S. media ecosystem, and postcolonial scholarship.
Apr 26, 2021 • 1h 29min
BONUS EPISODE: Readings for Hal Bush & Hiroko Bush
A beloved member of the Mark Twain Studies community, author, and St. Louis University Professor, Hal Bush, recently suffered a traumatic brain injury which has put him into a coma. In this episode, friends and fellow scholars read to him from a series of his favorite works, mostly by Mark Twain. To learn more about how you can help, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/HalBush.
Special Thanks to St. Louis University for providing theme music for this episode, a composition by Roberto Murguia and Róisín Malone.
Apr 8, 2021 • 51min
The Suez Canal, #Stuckboat, & The Sinews of War & Trade with Laleh Khalili
Following on the heels of the grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal last month, Matt Seybold speaks with Dr. Laleh Khalili, whose 2020 book, Sinew of War & Trade: Shipping & Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, covers the history, present, & potential futures of maritime transport.
For a bibliography of this episode, visit MarkTwainStudies.com/SuezCanal
Mar 31, 2021 • 1h
A Music Box, Minstrel Songs, & Mark Twain's Emo Playlist with Erin Bartram & Kerry Driscoll
This episode brings together three scholars who have been researching and writing about Mark Twain's musical tastes and the role of music education and performance in the Clemens family household.
For more information about the guests and a bibliography of works discussed during this episode, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/TwainMusic
Mar 16, 2021 • 1h 19min
Unsealing the Archive of T.S. Eliot's Love Letters To Emily Hale with Frances Dickey, Megan Quigley, & John Whittier-Ferguson
Very few embargoed archives are as momentous as Mark Twain's Autobiography, released a century after his death, but the Hale archive, opened last year, is an obvious rival. Emily Hale saved over a thousand letters from the poet and critic, T. S. Eliot, with whom she had a decades-long love affair. In this episode, we talk to three scholars who spent portions of 2020 reading the letters and processing their many surprising revelations.
For more about this episode, including a bibliography, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/EmilyHale
Feb 23, 2021 • 53min
Project Huckleberry (a.k.a. The Mandalorian) with Emmet Asher-Perrin & Nathaniel Williams
The hit Disney+ & Lucasfilm TV series, The Mandalorian, was produced under the working title of "Project Huckleberry." This allusion the Mark Twain's under-appreciated legacy as an innovator in Science Fiction provides the grounds for a ranging conversation about Star Wars, The Mandalorian, and genre fiction with Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com & Nathaniel Williams of UC-Davis.
For more information about this episode, including a bibilography, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/ProjectHuckleberry
Feb 11, 2021 • 1h 5min
Robinhood, r/WallStreetBets, Who's Yellen Now, & The GameStop-ification of Finance with Anna Kornbluh, Leigh Claire La Berge, & Michelle Chihara
Three scholars of finance and literature join to talk about the ongoing story of the "Reddit Revolution," members of the r/WallStreetBets forum who organized a run on several stocks, notably GameStop, using the retail trading app, Robinhood. How is this speculative mania interconnected with the 2008 financial crisis, the current economic recession, and the new U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen?
For more about this episode, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/Robinhood
