Ep. 161: The Paranoid Style w/ Anika Jade Levy

In this episode, Sam is joined by friend of the pod Anika Jade Levy, author of Flat Earth and founding editor of Forever Magazine, for a sprawling investigation into the paranoid spirit of the United States of America. Beginning with the America’s founding fantasy of paradise, Anika and Sam trace how the country’s utopian dream soured into a national aesthetic of suspicion: from Puritan invisible enemies and the feminized conspiracy of the Salem Witch Trials, to the pastoral terror of data centers humming in the American wilderness, to cyberpunk stealthwear, urban camouflage, hollow earths, Atlantis, visions of a lost world, and much, much more. Drawing from Leo Marx, Richard Hofstadter, Adam Curtis, Cotton Mather, Anette Kolodny, Silvia Federici, and Anika’s own novel, the girls move through history, politics, media, and fashion to uncover what conspiracy reveals about American self-invention. Links: Anika’s InstagramFlat Earth by Anika Jade LevyForever MagazineAgens Denis’s A Confrontation: Battery Park LandfilThe Machine in the Garden by Leo Marx The Paranoid Style in American Politics by Richard Hofstadter The Lay of the Land by Annette Kolodny Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici The Significance of the Frontier in American History by Fredrick Jackson TurnerWonders of the Invisible World by Cotton MatherThe Cultural Cold War by Frances Stonor SaundersCV DazzleBalenciaga Panic of 2022Lotta Volkova ConspiracyData Center Hum on TikTokMr. Bean/Princess Diana ReelThe Century of the Self by Adam CurtisMAGA as Fan Fiction by Gideon JacobsPlayer One and Main Character by Gideon JacobsNew Models: The Online Marketplace of Ideas with Joshua CitarellaThe Gurdjieff MovementsThe New Age Bible by Sheila Heiti This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe