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Nostalgia Trap

David Parsons

Deep dive conversations on American history, politics, and pop culture, hosted by history professor and writer David Parsons.

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  • 21 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 16 min
  • English

Episodes 21

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  • Friday · 3 min

    Meet Me in the Backrooms w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper

    In taking his internet creepypasta Backrooms from YouTube to the cinema screen, director Kane Parsons has created a piece of popular art that resonates deeply with some of our favorite Nostalgia Trap themes: '90s analog culture, toxic masculinity, psychedelic dream spaces, and the overriding feeling that the historical vibe is growing dark. Justin joins me to explore this puzzle of a movie, and to unpack its uncanny connection to our collective trips into extradimensional worlds. Listen to the whole episode here

  • August 21 · 4 min

    Chasing It w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    In the shadow of the U.S. officially losing the war in Iran, the American political and economic world continues to chase after a high that's perhaps no longer attainable. This week we examine how Trump, MAGA, AI companies, and the American left are grappling with a bubbling existential crisis that's unprecedented in scale and intensity. Click here to listen to the whole episode!

  • August 7 · 6 min

    Vote Blue No Matter Who w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    It's time for the old "there's a civil war brewing in the Democratic Party" conversation again, and Justin joins me to poke holes in the orthodoxies embraced by both "sides" of the alleged progressive/left vs centrist debate currently gripping the American public. It's 2016 all over again! Or is it? Click here to hear the whole episode!

  • July 24 · 5 min

    No One Wants to Work Anymore w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This week Justin joins me to explore the tall claims made in a recent New York Times piece, "Gen Z Fell Out of Love With Work. I Don't Blame Them." Are we really experiencing a generational revolt against centuries of American attitudes about education, work, wages, and life itself? Let's see what these Gen Z kids have to say. Listen to the whole episode here.

  • July 10 · 3 min

    News Trap 7.10.26 - The End of Curiosity w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a preview clip from a subscribers-only episode. Click here to listen to the whole thing! Does economic crisis predictably produce extreme political movements? History's lessons are a bit unclear on that point and, as we investigate in this episode, the summer of 2026 is testing our understanding of the relationship between political economy and social reality. Strap in, folks: we just found a new planet hiding behind the sun!

  • June 26 · 3 min

    New Trap 6.26.26 - Thread the Needle w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a preview clip from a subscribers-only episode. Click here to hear the whole episode with a FREE 7-Day trial subscription. As a wave of Mamdani-supported COMMUNISTS win power in New York, Justin and I ask the question that's on everyone's minds: is this the future of the Democratic Party? And more importantly, what will American politics look like in the wake of the Trump era?

  • June 12 · 3 min

    News Trap 6.12.26 - Only the Orcas Can Save Us Now w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a free preview of a subscribers only episode. CLICK HERE to hear the full episode with FREE 7-day trial. With news that Elon Musk in the world's first trillionaire after the historic SpaceX IPO, Justin joins me to discuss the financial gamesmanship at work in the AI industry, the planetary limits of this particular phase of capitalism, and the reasons why the #TeslaTakedown moment is long in the past.

  • May 29 · 4 min

    News Trap 5.29.26 - This Time It's Different, Charlie Brown w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a free preview of a subscribers-only episode. Click here to listen to the whole thing with a free 7 day trial. Since the Iran war began many weeks ago, it feels like we're living in some kind of surreal rhetorical purgatory. Surveying the wider news landscape, though, a wider pattern emerges, and a "Charlie Brown" analogy reveals something a bit darker hidden in our collective basement.

  • May 15 · 2 min

    News Trap 5.15.26 - K Hole w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    It's the best of times and the worst of times, as average Americans are paying more for pretty much everything while the stock market breaks records. What's up with that? Justin joins us this week to talk about the contradictions currently bracing up the global economy, as we map out how the Ukraine and Iran Wars are reshaping global power and the outlook for everything from gas and food prices to the "AI bubble." Plus, our usual speculations on the possibilities for progressive politics and leftist revolution within this particular social and economic climate. BUY BUY BUY or SELL SELL SELL? Click here for full episode!

  • April 10 · 5 min

    News Trap 4.10.26 - Summoning Aliens w Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This week we check out the explosive Ronan Farrow piece on Sam Altman and consider the intersection of AI, climate crises, and sociopathic personalities that defines this historical moment. Who is really in the driver's seat of our collective future? Listen to the full episode here

  • March 26 · 4 min

    News Trap 3.26.26 - Kill Box w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    By joining Israel in a reckless attack on Iran, Trump has put the entire global system in the kill box, which begs the question, what's more dangerous: Trump when he's winning or Trump when he's trapped like a dog? And what happens when the material realities unleashed by this attack come home to roost? Click here to listen to the whole episode

  • March 5 · 2 min

    News Trap 3.5.26 - The Iran Wormhole w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This week Justin and I game out scenarios unfolding from the U.S./Israel attack on Iran. Is it all about Epstein? (LOL) Or might China and Russia have something to do with Trump's latest insane wager? Let's take a look at the imperial chessboard. Listen to the whole episode here.

  • February 20 · 1 hr 5 min

    Ep 425 - Cultural Inappropriation w/ Alan Burgess and Monte Montgomery

    My late night adventures into the local jazz underworld have introduced me to some fascinating new friends, and I wanted to bring two of them into the Nostalgia Trap universe. Monte Montgomery and Alan Burgess are old pals whose frequent conversations often veer into the uncomfortable territories of race, culture and politics that will be familiar to Trap listeners. In this first episode in a series with Monte and Alan, we tackle the idea of "cultural appropriation" within the context of "race music," from Elvis to Eminem. Check out Monte's first appearance on Nostalgia Trap here. Subscribe to the Nostalgia Trap Patreon for access to our regular News Trap episodes and a whole world of bonus content: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap

  • February 6 · 6 min

    News Trap 2.6.26 - Brain Damage w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a preview clip from a subscribers-only episode. Check out our Patreon and subscribe to listen! On this week's News Trap Justin and I talk about the delicious crash of the crypto hustle, the sinister promise of "agentic AI," the human wreckage of Silicon Valley's utopian projects, the sad fall of Noam Chomsky, and the larger implications of Jeffrey Epstein's legendary run as the elite's favorite BFF.

  • February 4 · 1 hr

    Ep 424 - How Does It Feel? w/ Charles L. Ponce de Leon

    When I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, Rolling Stone magazine was an indispensable resource for discovering the hip edge of American pop culture. Of course, I didn't realize at the time that the magazine had its roots in the 1960s counterculture, crafted by entrepreneur Jann Wenner as a subversive Trojan horse within the staid landscape of Cold War America. On this episode, historian Charles L. Ponce de Leon joins me for a conversation about his new book Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How a Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America (UNC Press 2026), as we explore the magazine's complex evolution and the ironies of "counterculture" becoming "mainstream." Check out my '90s music podcast/video series with John Lombardo, 120 MONTHS: https://substack.com/@120months Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to listen to our News Trap freakouts and other bonus content: https://patreon.com/nostalgiatrap

  • January 23 · 3 min

    News Trap 1.23.26 - Taking It to the Limit w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a brief clip from a full episode on our subscribers feed. Subscribe to hear the whole thing! This week Justin joins me to consider what would happen if the post-1945 "rules based order" really does collapse -- something that seems more inevitable with each passing moment. With the Trump administration acting in severely irrational ways, how will the global system react? In addition to thinking about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's dire warning at this week's Davos conference, we talk about the wider chaos unleashed by ICE in Minnesota, Trump's attack on the Fed, and the continued dive into the abyss of 19th century imperial logic.

  • January 21 · 1 hr

    Ep 423 - High School Students Unite! w/ Aaron G. Fountain, Jr.

    This week we're talking with Aaron G. Fountain, Jr. about his new book High School Students Unite! Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America (UNC Press, 2025). By shifting focus from college campuses to American high schools, Fountain's work uncovers a whole world of 1960s and 1970s activism by young people around the country, who fought for their own rights within a larger struggle for social, racial, and economic justice. In this conversation, he shares some of the most compelling revelations he's discovered in oral history interviews, underground newspaper archives, and FBI records, and reflects on the role that high schoolers play in today's chaotic political landscape. Become a Nostalgia Trap Patron to access all our bonus episodes, including weekly News Trap updates.

  • January 16 · 7 min

    News Trap 1.16.26 - Flood the Zone w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

    This is a preview of a subscribers-only episode. Click here to listen to the whole thing, and access our big library of bonus content. 2026 is leaping out of the gate with a flood of chaotic news stories, from Minneapolis to Greenland, from Venezuela to Iran. Justin joins me to look for the patterns uniting this increasingly jarring geopolitical reality, and to consider the poisonous cocktail of psychological, economic and historical forces that are launching us into a seemingly bleak future.

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