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

Zohran Mamdani's win in NYC accelerates a civil war for the soul of the Democratic Party; ICE storm troopers refuse to take off their masks; Trump's bombing of Iran within the larger strategic maneuverings of world powers; the historical ingredients necessary for getting away with genocide.

Listen to the full episode here!

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

Is the fight against Trump's rising authoritarianism in the streets? Or in the courts? Why not both? At the five month mark, Justin joins me to survey the damage, and to assess the left's strategies in resisting an assault on our collective rights and dignity. Along the way, we consider Stephen Miller's nihilistic and libidinal hatreds, the Roberts' court's "fuck you" attitude toward the Constitution, the insurrection in Los Angeles, the efficacy of insurgent tactics of resistance, the psychotic undercurrents writhing through the right's "pro-natal" movement, and much more.

Click here to listen to the whole episode

What happened to the idea that “conservatives can’t do comedy”? Much to the horror of liberals, the past decade has witnessed the rise of a right wing comedy industrial complex, primarily found on podcasts, whose personalities and attitudes are inextricably linked to the success of Donald Trump’s populist conservative project. This week I talk with Nick Marx, co-author of the book That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them, about how figures from Joe Rogan to Greg Gutfeld have weaponized the public’s fatigue with elite liberal culture, and how their popularity reveals something deep and dark at the heart of a crumbling American society.

Check out the Nostalgia Trap Patreon page to access our News Trap and SCREENSHOTZ, along with a whole library of bonus podcast episodes

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

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.

Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas remains a classic of American drug literature, a haunting reflection on the cultural and political hangover of the revolutionary 1960s. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced a more resonant portrait of the American id than the carnival of vile, deranged American archetypes Thompson describes in these pages. Justin Rogers-Cooper has been similarly influenced by Fear and Loathing over the years, and joins me this week to talk about Thompson’s legacy, his dark take on the “meaning” of the 1960s, and his view of America as a debased post-Nazi hellscape.

Check out our new SCREENSHOTZ news chat on the Trap Patreon page, where we share a curated stream of excerpts from global news sources — a relentless, delicious feast of doom, with commentary!