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.  

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!

Recent debates about whether or not leftist streamers like Hasan Piker should be embraced by the Democratic Party lead Justin and me to explore how the "marketplace of ideas" intersects with the broad historical and economic forces that govern our collective destiny. Subscribe and hear the full episode here

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

Did Bernie's loss break the left's brain? Listen to the full episode here

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

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.

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

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.

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