Ep. 45: Jonathan Lethem on "Old" New York, "They Live", and the Culture of Disreputability

Jonathan Lethem is the featured guest on this week's installment of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is the author of many award winning books including Dissident Gardens, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn. Jonathan conducted a master class and did some wonderful sharing about the culture of disreputability, the movie They Live, race and class, generational politics, and shared some stories about growing up in a pre-Disneyfied New York City. This episode also features a conversation with psychologist Dr. David Reiss about the loss of the great and amazing professional wrestler known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, and why his death has hit fans of the sport so hard, and the reasons that so many people felt a personal connection to him. In addition, portions of this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show were recorded in the very moments when The Charleston Massacre was a "breaking news event" on the cable news networks. Instead of editing out those segments, they have remained in the show as a type of archive and online testimony to the power of that moment. At the end of this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey reflects on the week's happenings since The Charleston Massacre, the news cycle, the Right-wing hate media, and the GOP's efforts to derail any conversation about white domestic terrorism, guns, and toxic white masculinity.