Nostalgia Trap

After Hours (1985) and Life Lessons (1989), two of Martin Scorsese’s most underrated films, share an obsession with the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s and the fabric of life in a city that no longer exists. Claudia Moreno Parsons joins us for a genuine nostalgia trap, as we explore how these two incredible films depict the intoxicating nightmare of city life, the class and gender dynamics of art world hipsterism, and the violence lurking within the act of creativity. For full episode go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Erik Baker is a doctoral candidate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, researching the history of scientific and cultural ideas about work and workers in the 20th century United States. He joins us to discuss his latest piece in The Drift, “The Cure and the Disease: Social Darwinism from AIDS to COVID-19,” which connects AIDS conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination movements,, and the disturbing discourse about life and death coursing through the politics of COVID.

Point Break (1991, dir. Kathryn Bigelow) is a classic of 90s action cinema, combining an absolutely ludicrous plot (a gang of surfing bank robbers infiltrated by a rookie FBI agent) with masterfully staged action sequences and goofy performances from leads Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. Claudia joins us to explore how Point Break’s intense engagement with gender, homosociality, and violence gives us that toxic mix of pure pleasure and pure ideology that marks the most powerful Hollywood productions. Speaking of which, at some point in this conversation, we also take on another Keanu blockbuster, 1994’s Speed, a film that exists as a kind of spiritual cousin to Point Break, and helps further develop our ideas about bodies in motion, late capitalism, and 90s Los Angeles. For full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Jason Wilson is an independent journalist whose work focuses on the American far right, extremist groups, and the U.S. security state. He joins us in the wake of Trump’s Capitol riot to offer details on the specific groups involved, from Boogaloo boys to Qanon, and to explore how the right’s world is shifting in response to Trump’s loss, internal fissures, and a looming federal government crackdown.  

Luke O’Neil’s Hell World newsletter collects stories and transmissions from the darker corners of modern American life, which at this point seems like every fucking corner, to be honest. In this conversation, he talks about his latest book, Lockdown in Hell World, which takes us on a detailed journey into the madness of the COVID-19 year, including despairing over our “last normal day,” watching Bernie eat shit in the primaries, and powerlessly watching the nation devolve into biological barbarism. Along the way, we try to understand how the “good ones” (you know, us) might be able to take the world back from hell.

A deceptively straightforward romantic drama set in the early 1960s, Dirty Dancing (1987) is a unique entry in the pantheon of 1980s blockbusters. Claudia Moreno Parsons joins us to explain what makes this film such a potent nostalgia trap, from its epic rock and roll soundtrack to the infectious chemistry of its two main stars, Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. But as we explore in this conversation, Dirty Dancing invests its coming of age story with complex critiques of class, gender, and racialized bodies at a specific moment in American history.  

Justin Rogers-Cooper joins us to navigate the politics of desire as we unpack the career of Brad Pitt, an enigmatic American mega-celebrity whose on-screen presence and media persona carry a particular resonance in the story of American capitalism. This conversation features take after take on Pitt movies, from 90s bad boy stuff like Fight Club and Seven to later works like Moneyball, Fury, War Machine, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. We examine Pitt’s place in the pantheon of Western heroes, exploring how his characters’ “savage” violence reflects ancient ideas about American masculinity, race, and power. To hear full episode go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

Jordan Thomas is a graduate researcher in anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on the cultural and historical forces that shape fire. He also works as a firefighter, spending increasingly long fire seasons laboring in the mountains alongside thousands of others, collectively battling some of the largest wildfires in human history. His recent piece in The Drift details the astonishing effort to save California from the ruinous results of centuries of environmental mismanagement. In this conversation, Thomas tells us why these fires have grown so large (hint: it’s climate change), tells us about his research into the history of indigenous fire practices erased by imperialism, and provides perspective on the fierce ground battles waged by firefighters on the front lines of climate catastrophe.  

Paul Thomas Anderson’s second feature, Boogie Nights, is a nostalgia trap in every imaginable way, combining an obsessively detailed vision of 1970s porn production with a hip, postmodern aesthetic that defined 90s indie cinema. Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House is a fellow Boogie Nights appreciator, and joins us for a conversation about the cultural context that produced auteurs like PTA and Tarantino, the endless (and endlessly awful) imitators that followed, and the ways in which Boogie Nights represents, in both form and content, ideas of authorship and art that are rapidly transforming. To hear the full episode go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.

This week on the livestream, Justin Rogers-Cooper dropped by to discuss Biden's shocking pick for Secretary of the Interior, and why green capitalism is the battlefield (literally) of the future. Plus, David continues sketching out his pop cultural biography, reflecting on how a year of movie obsession in 1998 forced some painful self-reflection, but also offered an unexpected path out of a vapid suburban spirituality. To listen go to patreon.com/nostalgiatrap.