The American Vandal

Our second episode from the "Public Bugets, Public Good" workshop, hosted by Wayne State University and co-sponsored by Labor@Wayne⁠, ⁠AAUP⁠ , ⁠HELU⁠ , and Public Good U features Christopher Newfields "AI & The Public Good," followed by a lengthy Q&A [21:00], then the Bluestone Labor Workshop helps us make the most of FOIA requests [45:00]. Cast (in order of appearance): Elizabeth Faue, Jamie McQuaid, Christopher Newfield, Bruce Simon, Brian Deyo, Matt Seybold, Sean O'Brien, Sofya Aptekar, Yasmeen Hishmeh, Justin Flores, Stephen Hastings-King Date Recorded: April 30, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

The first of two episodes recorded at the "Public Budgets, Public Good" workshop hosted by Labor@Wayne , and co-sponsored by AAUP , HELU , and Public Good U . This episode features presentations on the Lend & Rule approach to campus debt, the bourgeois coldness of budget models, the Locus of Authority playbook for university presidents, and a pro-friction approach to EdTech. Cast (in order of appearance): Sofya Aptekar, Matt Seybold, Brian Deyo, Kelly Grotke, Stephen Hastings-King, Justin Flores, Sean O'Brien, Bruce Simon Date Recorded: April 30, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

On a hot Summer night in Brooklyn, Matt Seybold is joined by McKenzie Wark to launch the "Intellectuals" issue of e-flux Journal . They discuss the legacy of the public intellectual (and other mythic species), the belated reception of the vectoralist hypothesis, education and other other spaces, the practice and pleasures of being vulgar. Followed by an energetic Q&A. Cast (in order of appearance): Brian Kuan Wood, Matt Seybold, McKenzie Wark Date Recorded: June 11, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet

The final episode recorded at the ⁠Modes of Reading Today Symposium⁠ , hosted by the ⁠Townsend Center For The Humanities⁠ focuses on media, mediation, and machine-generated texts. It opens with Nicholas Baer and Pardis Debashi's "Unattainable Texts," followed by David Bates's "Reading and Writing" [20:00], Nina Beguš's "Novel Audiences in 'Finnegan's Wake'" [37:30], Hannes Bajohr's "Surface Reading LLMs" [57:00], Matt Seybold's "The Technofeudal Reader" [81:00], and a brief Q&A [100:00]. Cast (in order of appearance): Yael Segalovitz, Nicholas Baer, David Bates, Nina Beguš, Hannes Bajohr, Matt Seybold, Jacob Gaboury, Deniz Göktürk, Jonathan Kramnick Dates Recorded: February 19-20, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

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] Cast (in order of appearance): Yael Segalovitz, Matt Seybold, Jonathan Kramnick, Toril Moi, Joshua Gang, Dora Zhang, Farah Bakaari Dates Recorded: February 19-20, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

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 Psychoanaliterature podcast) flips the studio for some analysis of The American Vandal 's creator [90:00]. Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, David Marno, Yael Segalovitz, Jonathan Kramnick, Toril Moi, Emma Lieber, Nicholas Baer, Dora Zhang, Anne-Lise François, Farah Bakaari, Sina Dell'Anno Dates Recorded: February 19-20, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby, L. D. Miller For more about this episode, please visit TheAmericanVandal.com

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 this episode, please visit TheAmericanVandal.substack.com

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 about this episode, please visit TheAmericanVandal.substack.com

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 Date Recorded: May 6, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet For more about this episode, please visit ThisGuySucked.com or TheAmericanVandal.substack.com

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, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

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 institution. Cast (in order of appearance): Matt Seybold, Christa Albrecht-Crane, Angie McKinnon Carter, Chiler Moore Date Recorded: March 3, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

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 Sinykin, Jeff Dolven, John Lysaker, Omari Weekes, Patrick Sui, Oren Izenberg, Paul Buchholz, Farah Bakaari, Annie Abrams, Beci Carver Date Recorded: November 7, 2025 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com

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, Brian Glavey, Miranda Hickman, Patrick Sui, Jeff Dolven, Katie Kadue, Omari Weekes, Lisa Lee, Daniel Reynolds, Julie Orlemanski, Joshua Kotin Date Recorded: November 7, 2025 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby Episode Webpage: TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com/Collarbone

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 Weekes, Anthony Cuda, John Lysaker, Dez Miller, Jeff Dolven, Oren Izenberg, Benjamin Reiss, Miranda Hickman, Emma Davenport, Farah Bakaari Date Recorded: November 7, 2025 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby Episode Webpage: TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com/RedWheelbarrow

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 Kessler, Matt Seybold, Anna Kornbluh, Dominique Baker, Peter Coviello, Nassar Mufti, Jeff Edwards Date Recorded: December 4, 2025 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet

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, April Anson, Caroline Levine, Brent Bellamy, Thomas S. Davis Date Recorded: October 10, 2025 Music: Redd Holt & The Heptet For more about this episode, please visit TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com/EverydayEcofascism

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, Whitney Trettien, Jenny, Zachary Lesser, Mark Algee Hewitt, Kerry McAuliffe, Eilis Lombard, Laura McGrath, Qing (Ruby) Liao Date Recorded: October 22, 2025 Music: Redd Holt & The Heptet Sound Engineering: Brian J. Kirk For more about this episode, please visit TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com/Penn25

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 TheAmericanVandal.Substack.com/CruelFuturism