The American Vandal

The second episode derived from the  ⁠Modes of Reading Today Symposium⁠ , hosted by the  ⁠Townsend Center For The Humanities⁠  assesses what it means that "close reading is having a moment" through papers titled "What is Close Reading?" [8:00], "Finding The Right Place For Close Reading" [30:00], "The Affected Fallacy" [56:00], "On Generalizing" [77:30], and "Close Reading as Field-Making" [100:00...

An episode recorded as part of the Modes of Reading Today Symposium , hosted by the Townsend Center For The Humanities begins with a discussion of John Donne's insomnia and Wilfred Bion's undigested nightmares, followed by a vigorous discussion of attention, sleep, and immersion as they relate to literature and criticism [39:00], after which the symposium's organizer (and host of the P...

A discussion of the historical trajectory informing the current polycrisis reverberating from the Strait of Hormuz with two historians of Iranian Oil, authors of "Nationalising Oil & Knowledge in Iran" (Edinburgh UP, 2025) and "Machineries of Oil" (MIT Press, 2018). Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Katayoun Shafiee, and Mattin Biglari Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby For more about thi...

Two events organized by the Center For Mark Twain Studies focus on the complex legacy of Mark Twain and the omissions and misrepresentations of his wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, and extended family. Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Ann Ryan, Kerry Driscoll, Barbara Snedecor, Chuck Lindsay Dates Recorded: October 16, 2025 and November 30, 2023 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby For more a...

A live crossover podcasting event with the This Guy Sucked podcast, hosted at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The question is not only whether and how much Mark Twain might have sucked, but also the potential for Twain's complex legacy to be altered by politics, propaganda, education, and scholarship. Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Claire Aubin, Erin Bartram D...

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, Nisrine Rahal, Barry Trachtenberg, Jeff Bills-Solomon, Dean Franco, Amanda Gengler Date Recorded: April 29, 2...

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. Date Recorded: April 1, 2026 Music: Redd Holt & The Heptet TheAmericanVandal. Substack.com

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 features a conversation with UVU faculty and students about the impact of the Generative AI boom on their inst...

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, Brian Glavey, Matt Seybold, Nathan Suhr-Sytsma, Lindsay Reckson, Christopher Spaide, Katie Kadue, Dan Si...

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, Farah Bakaari, Nathan Suhr-Sytsma, Dan Sinykin, Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, Oren Izenberg, Beci Carver, Br...

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 appearance): Dan Sinykin, Matt Seybold, Johanna Winant, Beci Carver, Joshua Kotin, Julie Orlemanski, Omari...

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 intelligence, surveillance and data-mining, Ponzi austerity, and more. Cast (in order of appearance): Jeff Kess...

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 scholars [50:00]. Cast (in order of appearance): Jeffrey Insko, Matt Seybold, Alexander Menrisky, Apri...

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 Christopher Newfield. Cast (in order of appearance): James English, Christopher Newfield, Matt Seybold, Wh...

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 TheAmericanVandal. Substack.com/Lingering

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 Osgood & SNR Audio For more about this episode, including a complete bibliography, please visit TheAmerican...

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 Vandal Podcast feed, as well as the first lecture in the series, "Models of Ideological Analysis." For a 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 and the connection of that moment to the more recent method wars [24:00] , the specter of Foucault in Ja...

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 Vandal Podcast feed. For a bibliography, please visit or subscribe to Matt Seybold's newsletter at TheAmeri...

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 commodity as its own ideology [55:00}, and the long arc of Jameson's thought and influence [71:30]. Cast...

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 Dowland, Dan Sinykin, J.D. Connor, Robert Tally Soundtrack: DownRiver Collective For more about this e...

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 Economic Criticism? [94:00] Cast (in order of appearance): Dan Sinykin, Matt Seybold, Brandon Taylor, Rachel...

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 speculative fiction [37:00], and technofeudal yearning to convert probability to prophecy [70:00]. Cast (in order...

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" and "Criticism LTD," and discussing the roles of humanities educators in addressing climate crisis, decli...

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 solidarity in the age of insecurity [33:00], the Panic of 1873 as a model [41:30], panics to come [53:00], a...