PODCAST · arts
The American Vandal
by Matt Seybold, Center For Mark Twain Studies
An ever-growing collection of conversations about literature, humor, and history in America, produced by the premier source for programming and funding scholarship on Mark Twain's life and legacy.
Episodes
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After OpenAI (Vandal Live at Wake Forest Humanities Institute)
As part of the Spring Symposium at the Wake Forest Humanities Institute, Matt Seybold discusses the present and future of AI speculation, including an extended discussion with Wake Forest faculty. Cast (in order of appearance): Jennifer Greiman, Matt Seybold, Derek Lee, Michaela Appeltova…
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Muskism with Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff
A discussion of the forthcoming book "Muskism: A Guild For The Perplexed" with its authors. Topics includes Muskism as the antidote to Musk Fatique, methods of historical research under threat of enshittification, the cultural imaginary of Elon Musk and Grok, satellite data centers, and more.…
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The Secret History of Canvas LMS, Corporate Raiders, & The Chatbot Bubble (Vandal Live at UVU)
Opens with Matt Seybold's short history of Instructure, the makers of Canvas LMS, with special emphasis on its acquisition by Dragoneer and KKR in 2024. This talk was delivered at Utah Valley University, with supplemental recording from University of Albany. The second half of the episode…
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Close Reading Is Not A Luxury (Vandal Live at Emory)
From the Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium, hosted by Emory University. What are the challenges, strategies, and rewards for teaching close reading? What are the stakes of teaching close reading through the nightmare of the contemporary? Cast (in order of appearance): Johanna Winant,...
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Close Reading Is A Conversation (Vandal Live at Emory University)
From the Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium, hosted by Emory University. Why is close reading best understood as a conversation? What are its evaluative standards? How does it extend the conversation beyond literary studies? Cast (in order of appearance): Johanna Winant, Matt Seybold,...
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Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium (Vandal Live at Emory)
The first of three episodes based on the "Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium" hosted by Emory University. The symposium's opening address is followed by short provocations on "Freedom," "The Best," "Language," and "Difficulty," after which a there is a lengthy Q&A. Cast (in order of...
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Theory At The Bargaining Table with Dominique Baker & Anna Kornbluh (Vandal Live at UIC)
Hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago United Faculty, a roundtable discussion about confronting the challenges facing higher education labor organizing. Topics included education technology, faculty autonomy, power mapping, board composition, lobbying state legislators, artificial...
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Everyday Ecofascism with April Anson & Alexander Menrisky (Vandal Live at 2025 Quarry Farm Symposium)
The event launching the 2025 Quarry Farm Symposium on Energy Studies begins with opening address by co-organizer Jeffrey Insko, then discussion of the theory of Everyday Ecofascism with collaborators from University of Connecticut [8:00}, then questions from the live audience of Energy Humanities...
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Criticism & The Chatbot Bubble with Christopher Newfield & Whitney Trettien (Vandal Live at UPenn English)
A spirited discussion of the state of higher education, the history of criticism, and the future of literary knowledge production, recorded with a live audience at University of Pennsylvania's English Faculty Lounge as part of the annual Penn English Department Lecture, delivered this year by...
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Inside Slow Civil War with Jeff Sharlet
A chance to reflect, with journalism professor Jeff Sharlet, on his book, "The Undertow: Scenes From A Slow Civil War," the looming threat of acceleration, the methods and media of lingering, documentary modernism, and monsters within. For a bibliography of this episode, please visit...
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Cruel Futurism
The finale of "A Tale of Today," the eleventh season of "The American Vandal." Matt Seybold offers his journey of curiosity from the end of "Criticism LTD" to "The Technofeudal Text." Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Nathan Wolff Soundtrack: DownRiver Collective Narration: Nathan…
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"Ideology: Marx & Lukacs" by Fredric Jameson (1977 Institute On Culture & Society)
Remastered audio of Fredric Jameson's second lecture at the 1977 Institute On Culture & Society sponsored by the Marxist Literary Group and hosted by St. Cloud State University. For further context, consider listening to "The Jameson Tapes" episodes which precedes this episode in The American...
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The Jameson Tapes, Side B
The second episode contextualizing Fredric Jameson's lectures at the 1977 Institute On Culture & Society begins with a discussion of Jameson's controversial efforts to resuscitate György Lukács. From this begins a conversation about moment of high theory into which the Institute was inaugurated…
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"Models of Ideological Analysis" by Fredric Jameson (1977 Institute On Culture & Society)
Remastered audio of Fredric Jamesons opening lecture at the 1977 Institute On Culture & Society sponsored by the Marxist Literary Group and hosted by St. Cloud State University. For further context, consider listening to "The Jameson Tapes, Side A" which precedes this episode in The American…
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The Jameson Tapes, Side A
The first of two installments contextualizing Fredric Jameson's lectures at the 1977 Institute On Culture & Society begins with a discussion of "Marxism & Historicism," followed by conversations about historicizing the lectures [8:00], the process of recovering them [33:30], a key passage about...
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Spitesgiving in Flyover Country
Analysis of the Gilded Age tropology of alienation precedes discussions of Hubert Humphrey & Tim Walz [9:00], the reception of "Hillbilly Elegy" and its aftermath [38:00], and "The Mismeasurement of Orcs" [78:00]. Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Andie Tucher, Samuel Freedman, Douglas...
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Literary Sociology a.k.a. The Institutional Turn a.k.a The Spreadsheet School of Literary Criticism
A so-called Spreadsheet Man responds. Does the institutional turn have a distinctly feminine ethos? [27:30] How is it rooted in the Post45 Collective? [49:00] What are its debts to New Historicism and Marxist Literary Criticism? [69:00] And to Fredric Jameson? [84:30] And what has become of...
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The Mutational Romances of Silicon Valley Speculation
Our ideology critique of contemporary tech fascist SciFi begins with the first selections from Fredric Jameson's 1977 seminar at the Institute On Culture & Society, followed by a journalists narration of the tech fascist turn in Silicon Valley [10:00], ideological analysis of Alt-Right…
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Vandal Live: Affordances of Enclosure & The Ends of Empires
Our inaugural installment of "live" podcasting was recorded with a small audience in the library at Quarry Farm. It features Caroline Levine and Jed Esty discussing their recent books, "The Activist Humanist" and "The Future of Decline," as well as responding to the themes of "A Tale of Today"…
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Solidarity & Speculation
The finale of our trilogy centered on Technofeudalism begins with the intersection of political economy with aesthetics and literary forms, followed by a synthesis of financial and fictive definitions of speculation [18:00], what can be done with the technofeudal thesis [27:30], the role of...
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From Technostructure To Technofeudalism
An exploration of the political economy of technofeudalism begins by defining the technostructure and introducing its personification, followed by testimony from a skeptic [26:00], competing periodizations of the present [48:00], and media praxis under the rein of the cloudalists [73:00]. Cast…
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Newspapers Worse Than Dead (But Print Is A Rent Strike)
Episode opens with journalism's "race to the bottom," described by a journalist who lived it, followed by what "The Facebook Files" revealed about social media's relationship to news [8:00], the tactics of parallel journalism [27:00}, the difference between fake news and fake journalism [38:00],...
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The Facebook Files & The Gutenberg Parenthesis
A two-part meditation on the history of journalism and the fate of investigative journalism under tech fascism begins with the model of Ida Tarbell, the epochal Wall Street Journal reporting on Facebook in 2021 [6:00], the professionalization of journalism during the Gilded Age and interbellum...
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The Gilded Network
Our 150th anniversary celebration of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today" turns to political economies of mass media, then and now, beginning with a close reading of the novel's title. We are then introduced to the tech fascist fantasy of the Network State...
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A Journey of Curiosity
The second act of "A Tale of Today," focused on HBCUs and the political economy of education in Gilded Ages old and new, concludes with a journey of curiosity through the unschooling movement, a historicist close reading of Ruth Bolton's time at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania [24:40],...
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The First Curriculum Is Work Without Wages
Following Jelani Favors's description of how the second curriculum of HBCUs has been compromised since the 1980s, we look back at the origins of Howard University in the Freedman's Bureau [10:00], discuss the labor history of literature instruction [28:00], and mark the college football playoffs…
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Fake Work, Fucking Models, & The Archive of Empire
Archives, physical and digital, are suffering from austerity, enshittification, and censorship. In this episode scholars discuss the ambivalent impacts of digitization, what information matters in the data economy [8:30], an analogy involving European colonialism [23:00], the competition to...
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Half Castle 'Gainst The Scott Walkers
"A Tale Of Today" returns with an episode inspired by "The Teaching Archive." Its authors discuss the pedagogical innovations of HBCUs and strategies for teaching literary history, followed by the legacy of New Historicism in the classroom [14:00], the model of the Monks of Lindisfarne [24:00]…
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The Education Gospel, Enshittify.edu, & The Expansion of Lower Ed
An episode built around an interview with Tressie McMillan Cottom covers what lessons the rest of Higher Ed can learn from HBCUs [3:00], the vectors of financialization in the New Gilded Age [19:00], the migration of the for-profit model into not-for-profit institutions [60:00], and how Modern...
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Philanthrocapitalism U
A Morehouse college commencement speaker makes an extraordinary financial commitment, but there's a "profound story" to tell about the durable funding of HBCUs in the US since the Gilded Age [12:00]. How does philanthrocapitalism work? [42:00] What is the Double Tax? [48:00] How might EdTech...
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The Black University Concept & The Second Curriculum
A brief history of HBCUs through conversations with five scholars about the second curriculum which informs movements for Civil Rights in the midcentury US, segregation scholars and the long withholding of postbaccalaureate education from HBCUs [40:00], the aspirational Black University Concept…
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BONUS EPISODE: "First at Farce: Structures of Feeling in The Gilded Age" by Nathan Wolff (2024 Quarry Farm Symposium Keynote)
As Nathan Wolff himself puts it, his recent keynote address at the 2024 Quarry Farm Fall Symposium is "very much in dialogue with The American Vandal." In this talk, Wolff not only summarizes Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's "The Gilded Age" (1873), but further interpolates it with concepts...
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The Historical Novel
Organized around a comparison of György Lukács's "The Historical Novel" and Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner's "The Gilded Age," in this episode we take a detour from Jameson to Lukács, question what realism means [8:30], whether "The Gilded Age" is a historical novel [19:30], whether…
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Always Historicize?
From Fredric Jameson on why "the most important goal is history itself" follows a series of conversations about dialectical criticism vs. new historicism [5:00], the wisdom of "always historicizing" [17:30], the anxiety of influence between new historicism and literary fiction [34:00] as well as...
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Strategic Presentism & Resistance History
What's the difference? The episode opens with defenses of presentism by two literary critics and a reception history of "The Gilded Age" [6:30] before turning to a critique of resistance history from within the discipline [12:30], a response from a prominent historian [44:30], a consideration of...
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Fredric Jameson R.I.P
Earlier this Summer, Matt Seybold asked Anna Kornbluh what Fredric Jameson meant to literary criticism. On the occasion of his passing, we'd like to share her answer.
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Cruel Optimism & The Enclosure of the Commons
A new episode of "A Tale of Today" begins with an explanation of the forest charter and the enclosure of the commons through a revisionist version of a familiar story. The enclosure of the commons is then traced into The Gilded Age [8:00], before two scholars of the novel discuss its affective...
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The Age of Insecurity
A new season inspired by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's 150-year-old novel, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today," launches with an introduction to Colonel Sellers; a discussion of Astra Taylor's "The Age of Insecurity" (2023) [10:00]; questions about the discipline of history in the...
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Criticism LTD: Continuing The Dialogue (A Project Narrative Event)
Recorded at The Ohio State University, as part of the Project Narrative series, Matt Seybold reflects on the making of "Criticism LTD" [3:15], as well as ongoing Ponzi austerity, reassessment of close reading, and AI speculative euphoria since its conclusion [14:30]. James Phelan (Director of...
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Close Reading Feudalism(s) in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with James Phelan (A Project Narrative Crossover Episode)
From the production studios of Ohio State University, American Vandal host, Matt Seybold, and James Phelan, the Director of Project Narrative, read aloud Chapter 18 of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain [3:40], then discuss it [30:00] with emphases on the opportunities the chapter...
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2024 with Anna Kornbluh & J.D. Connor
The finale episode of our miniseries on corporate allegory was recorded the day after the publication of Anna Kornbluh's "Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism" by Verso. With numerous allusions to the book, Matt Seybold asks Kornbluh and "City of Industry" blogger J. D. Connor to…
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iLiberalism, The Morning Show, & The Sheeny Blandness of AppleTV+ with Anna Shechtman & Michael Szalay
Our series on corporate allegory continues with an extended discussion of Apple TV+, both its film and television offerings, as well as the relationship between such "content" and the corporation's primary business: selling iPhones and other hardware. Among the specific works discussed are...
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Close Reading, Conglomerate Authorship, & Qween Danielle Steel with Dan Sinykin & Johanna Winant
In an episode which operates as both coda to "Criticism LTD" and herald of 2024, Matt Seybold is joined by two scholars working on the complex history and sometimes conflicting methods of close reading. They also discuss the reception of Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed The Publishing...
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Netflix Necrocapitalism & The House of Usher with Jane Hu & Phillip Maciak
A new season on corporate allegory, business melodrama, and new releases from academic presses kicks off with a discussion of the recent Mike Flanagan adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall Of The House of Usher" for Netflix. For more about this episode, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/Usher...
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The Empire of Criticism (Finale)
"Criticism LTD" concludes its lengthy examination of the unanswerable questions about the state of literary studies with a lengthy consideration of "The Future of Decline" [8:00], the delusion of progress [16:00], the British model of declinist politics [22:00] and literary criticism [29:00], an...
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The Empire of Criticism (Part Two)
In the second part of the finale of "Criticism LTD," we hear about the origins of Jacque Derrida's "Limited Inc." from its editor, the fraught alliance between criticism and history [17:00], the Center For The Literary Arts at Washington University in St. Louis [33.00], the transition from…
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The Empire of Criticism (Part One)
The tripartite finale of "Criticism LTD" begins with a the feud between Matthew Arnold and Mark Twain, followed by "Bed Glee" [14:00], "Outing Criticism" [40:00], and "The Fate of Professional Reading" [59:00] Cast (in order of appearance): Beci Carver, Kim Adams, Ryan Ruby, Ainehi Edoro, Jed…
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Ed Tech, AI, & The Unbundling of Research & Teaching
A sometimes uncanny Halloween week exploration of the EdTech griftopia. Who's monetizing our data? How is EdTech being used to bust unions [8:00]? How does EdTech reveal the interdependence of teaching and research, and the horror of their unbundling [36:00]? How does being a union member effect...
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Podcasting Criticism
An appropriately rangy discussion of the podcast medium and its debts to existing print and audio forms. The origin story of The American Vandal Podcast is followed by comparison with several other podcasts, including Revisionist History [11:30], Remarkable Receptions [30:00], and High Theory...
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Criticism in The Conglomerate Era
As mass-market literature has been consolidated into a small handful of publishing conglomerates, the critical work once done by publicity and editorial departments has been offloaded. In this episode we discuss the rise of literary agents and their function as critics [8:00] and the role of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
An ever-growing collection of conversations about literature, humor, and history in America, produced by the premier source for programming and funding scholarship on Mark Twain's life and legacy.
HOSTED BY
Matt Seybold, Center For Mark Twain Studies
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The American Vandal have?
The American Vandal currently has 113 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The American Vandal about?
An ever-growing collection of conversations about literature, humor, and history in America, produced by the premier source for programming and funding scholarship on Mark Twain's life and legacy.
How often does The American Vandal release new episodes?
The American Vandal is no longer actively publishing new episodes, but the existing catalog remains available.
Where can I listen to The American Vandal?
You can listen to The American Vandal on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening.
Who hosts The American Vandal?
The American Vandal is created and hosted by Matt Seybold, Center For Mark Twain Studies.
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