Shows
Why Now? A Political Junkie PodcastPolitical Junkie Summer Film Festival: Reese Witherspoon’s “Legally Blonde” (2001) with Natalia Mehlman PetrzelaThank you to everyone who tuned into today’s live video! This morning, Natalia and I had fun talking about Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) making the transition from SoCal sorority president to class valedictorian at Harvard Law School! If you have not yet watched “Legally Blonde,” go here.Stay tuned for the next film in my series about the cultural obsession with Harvard University. Historian Neil J. Young will join us for a Substack Live about that classic Harvard romance, “Love Story” (1970), adapted from the 1970 best-selling novel of the same name by classics professor Erich Segal. A f...2025-06-1917 min
Why Now? A Political Junkie PodcastWe Love You, BroHi friends: You may have seen changes in this neighborhood lately. Starting this summer, there’s going to be more multi-media content that you can consume the way you choose: you will be able to read, or watch, or listen on the Why Now? podcast platform. You can also elect to have podcast episodes download directly to your device from Apple iTunes or Spotify.) In addition to my weekly date with historian Neil J. Young, where we dive deeply into one political story, I am tapping my list of friends to bring more expert opinion on current events to yo...2025-06-1733 min
Why Now? A Political Junkie PodcastEpisode 7: You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too ThinIn this episode, I welcome my friend and New School colleague, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, to join me in a conversation about the history of exercise culture in the United States. Her new book, Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023), tracks the history of Americans’ investment in fitness. Taking her readers from late nineteenth-century performances of bodybuilding through today’s glittering gyms, elite studio classes, celebrity instructors, and extreme sports, Petrzela—a scholar, journalist, and podcaster who has a not-so-secret life as an IntenSati leader—both explores an American obsession with fit...2022-12-1747 min