News Trap 10.10.25 - The Best of Times, the Worst of times w/ Justin Rogers-Cooper (PREVIEW)

This week Justin joins me to consider the dialectical nature of our 2025 reality, as we examine the utopian and dystopian properties of Bad Bunny Super Bowl discourse, the rise of Zohran Mamdani, and the accelerated unleashing of AI slop upon a world of hungry little piggies. Are we in heaven, or are we in hell? Why not both? Subscribe for a FREE 7 day trial to listen to this whole episode, plus gain access to our giant library of delicious, nutritious bonus content 

The Supreme Court is scared of crossing Trump; Stephen Miller wants to declare the Democratic Party a terrorist organization; an ICE raid in Chicago lays the groundwork for a new era of authoritarianism; late night TV says goodbye; microplastics are giving everyone cancer; and we're all awaiting an economic crash at a scale the world has never seen. Cheers! Click here to listen to this whole episode and all our livestreams, news traps, and other bonus content

This week on the Nostalgia Trap Livestream: Conspiracy theory mind-melt reaches the upper echelons of power, AI-generated savagery plunges further into the toilet, Chuck Schumer and Zohran Mamdani flirt with the limits of liberal possibility, a shocking violation of the 1st Amendment that's NOT Jimmy Kimmel (so no one cares), plus some delightful Cuban piano grooves! Listen to the whole episode here

On this week's News Trap update, Justin joins me to discuss the question on everyone's mind: when is the fever gonna break? As the cartoonish reality of Trump's second term takes on increasingly demented dimensions, we game out how larger forces, particularly the insane bubble that is the AI economy, are stirring in the background, threatening an imminent meltdown that promises to flip the script of what both left and right are currently imagining. Listen to the whole episode by joining the Nostalgia Trap Patreon with a FREE 7-Day Trial

On this week's livestream I talk about the deceptive power of the Kirk memorial, the postmodernity of conspiracy culture, the ironic twist of right-wing cancel campaigns and, of course, Jimmy Kimmel. Plus I share some juicy bits from Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Join the Nostalgia Trap Patreon and hear the whole episode, along with all our weekly bonus content

The fallout from Charlie Kirk’s assassination continues to mutate into an escalation of the right’s multi-front authoritarian campaign. On this episode, I talk with Judd Legum, journalist and creator of two of the most important  independent progressive publications of the past two decades: the political news site ThinkProgress (RIP!) and the current Substack newsletter Popular Information. We talk about people being fired for comments about Kirk’s death (including Jimmy Kimmel), the Trump administration’s strategy of suing their enemies, and the outlook for progressive and left journalism in this increasingly stifling political atmosphere. Support independent media! Subscribe to the Nostalgia Trap Patreon to access all our bonus content, including News Trap updates, livestreams, and more.

America is taking a turn into a dark cul-de-sac, and many liberals are hoping that Stephen Colbert and John Oliver's sunnier version of the national id will somehow, magically, win the day. But will it? Has it ever? Listen to the full episode here!

Here's our attempt to put Charlie Kirk's assassination in the context of the algorithmic dream world we inhabit, the queer libidinal dimensions of love and murder, and the larger politics of incompetent maniacs in the driver's seat of global power. This is a preview clip from a much longer and wider-ranging discussion, for Nostalgia Trap subscribers. Listen to the whole episode with a FREE 7-day trial of our Patreon Feed

Like many hip youngsters of my generation, at some point in my twenties I got Jazz-pilled by Beat literature, with writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg name-dropping bop-era musicians like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and many more, sending me to Limewire to download mp3s of 1950s and 1960s Jazz. In recent years, my casual appreciation has turned into a more intense investigation of music history and practice, particularly after discovering “The Grape,” a Jazz club in my neighborhood that’s overflowing with colorful characters and musical adventure. My guest today is one of those characters: Monte Montgomery is a multi-instrumentalist, former touring funk guitarist, and all around hip music dude. In this conversation, he shares highlights from his decades in music, from playing funk with a group of Black GIs on a military base in Germany at the age of 17, to entertaining celebrities and insanely rich people on the Beverly Hills philanthropic event circuit, to his current gig holding court on piano, guitar, and drums every Tuesday night at The Grape. Check out my new ‘90s music podcast/video series with John Lombardo, 120 MONTHS: https://substack.com/@120months Listen to our special News Trap episode on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with Justin Rogers-Cooper: https://www.patreon.com/posts/news-trap-8-30-w-137726055  Subscribe to the Nostalgia Trap Patreon for FREE to get updates on all our podcasts, videos, and writing:  patreon.com/nostalgiatrap    

It's hard to believe, but today it's been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, a mega-event that, in hindsight, seems like a critical moment for understanding our current reality. This week Justin and I talk about Katrina as a wormhole into a dark present, as we reflect on several threads from the disaster in New Orleans, including climate capitalism, "organized abandonment," racialized brutality, human trafficking, privatized fascism, social media clout chasing, and more. Let's take a ride from Katrina to Gaza, and survey the architecture of history that bridges them. Listen to the full episode w a FREE 7 Day Trial of our Patreon