In this episode conference director Matthew Biberman talks with Alan Nadel. Currently the William T Bryan Chair of American Literature and Culture at the University of Kentucky, Nadel has published numerous books on post-WW2 American film, drama, fiction, and popular culture generally. In addition to being a well-noted poet, Alan is also a leading expert on August Wilson and Cold War Studies. Our conversation explored and evaluated the current state of "cultural narrative" studies. We discussed Foucault and Barthes and other cultural narrative progenitors as well as a range of current hot topics within this broad field (such as Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Studies, and Qanon/Conspiracy Studies).