Podcast appearances and mentions of Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela introduces Extreme: Peak Danger.A mountain of trouble.In August 2008, around 30 climbers took on K2. Over 2 disastrous days, 11 of those people would lose their lives. This is the story of what really happened.Sitting on the border between China and Pakistan, K2 is a perfect pyramid that pierces through the clouds. It looks like a kid's drawing of a mountain…but this terrifying peak is anything but child's play.Newlyweds Cecilie Skog and her husband Rolf Bae loved climbing mountains almost as much as they loved one another. In the summer of 2008, they embarked on a honeymoon like no other, when they decided to climb K2. What happened next would change their lives and the lives of everyone around them…forever.A devastating avalanche scatters high altitude climbers across K2's steep slopes. Life and death rescue missions quickly get underway. Who can be saved… before time runs out?Historian and podcaster Natalia Mehlman Petrzela returns with a sky-high story of human vs nature, and of survival against all the odds.What does it really take to push yourself to the brink of human possibility? How does it feel to stand with the whole world at your feet? And is it ever worth risking death… in order to feel alive?Peak Danger is Season 2 of Extreme, the BBC podcast about those who chase the impossible... who strive for superhuman status and refuse to accept that life has any limits. Every season tells an unforgettable, action-packed story about people who've pushed their minds and bodies to the very edge – but at what cost?Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Producers: Leigh Meyer & Amalie Sortland Editor: Josephine Wheeler Production Manager: Joe Savage Sound Design and Mix by Nicholas Alexander, with additional engineering from Daniel Kempson. Original Music by Adam Foran, Theme music by Adam Foran and Silverhawk Executive Producers: Max O'Brien & Craig Strachan Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke A Novel production for the BBC

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela introduces Extreme: Peak Danger.A mountain of trouble.In August 2008, around 30 climbers took on K2. Over 2 disastrous days, 11 of those people would lose their lives. This is the story of what really happened.Sitting on the border between China and Pakistan, K2 is a perfect pyramid that pierces through the clouds. It looks like a kid's drawing of a mountain…but this terrifying peak is anything but child's play.Newlyweds Cecilie Skog and her husband Rolf Bae loved climbing mountains almost as much as they loved one another. In the summer of 2008, they embarked on a honeymoon like no other, when they decided to climb K2. What happened next would change their lives and the lives of everyone around them…forever.A devastating avalanche scatters high altitude climbers across K2's steep slopes. Life and death rescue missions quickly get underway. Who can be saved… before time runs out?Historian and podcaster Natalia Mehlman Petrzela returns with a sky-high story of human vs nature, and of survival against all the odds.What does it really take to push yourself to the brink of human possibility? How does it feel to stand with the whole world at your feet? And is it ever worth risking death… in order to feel alive?Peak Danger is Season 2 of Extreme, the BBC podcast about those who chase the impossible... who strive for superhuman status and refuse to accept that life has any limits. Every season tells an unforgettable, action-packed story about people who've pushed their minds and bodies to the very edge – but at what cost?Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Producers: Leigh Meyer & Amalie Sortland Editor: Josephine Wheeler Production Manager: Joe Savage Sound Design and Mix by Nicholas Alexander, with additional engineering from Daniel Kempson. Original Music by Adam Foran, Theme music by Adam Foran and Silverhawk Executive Producers: Max O'Brien & Craig Strachan Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke A Novel production for the BBC

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Zibby discussed Natalia's recent New York Times op-ed centered on antisemitism. She shared details about her own experiences, the meaning of "intersectionality," and what it's like to be on the faculty at an academic institution today. Bio:Natalia is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). She is co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet and the co-host of PAST PRESENT podcast. She is a columnist for MSNBC Opinion, a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic.Natalia is a Carnegie Corporation Fellow in 2024-25, a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar in 2025-26, and is currently working on two new books, a short history of the school culture wars, and a history of the Hamptons, with historian Neil J. Young. She is the executive producer of a new BBC podcast coming in Summer 2024, and of a documentary series based on FIT NATION, in development with TIME Studios. Natalia's career began as a public school teacher, and she is currently Lead Historian on the Jewish American Hidden Voices curriculum for New York City's Department of Education, launching in June 2025.Natalia is Professor of History at The New School, co-founder of the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one of Hellish may be over, but we are not quite done with you yet. Every day of December we will be bringing back former damned souls to add one more song to their Infernal Playlists: a Christmas song they cannot stand.In this episode, we welcome back historian and podcaster NATALIA MEHLMAN PETRZELA, who originally joined us for episode twenty three. Check that out here: https://shows.acast.com/hellish/episodes/natalia-mehlman-petrzela-historian-podcasterWe discuss an episode of Natalia's podcast, Past Present, which covers controversial Christmas classics. it's great, and you can listen here: https://pastpresent.libsyn.com/episode-405-controversies-over-christmas-classicsCome back tomorrow for opening of the next door on the advent calendar of doom!If you don't want to wait, and would rather scoff all the hellish treats straight away, then Patreon subscribers have access to all the Xmas special RIGHT NOW, plus eight others that will not appear on the main feed. You'll also get longer, ad-free versions of all thirty episodes of season one, and our two pilot episodes. https://www.patreon.com/c/hellishpodHellish now has a bookshop - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/hellish - where you can get books written by our guests, and a choice selection of Hell literature. Help us out by ordering from us! Find us on Spotify to hear the songs on the Christmas Infernal Playlist in full, as well as the Ultimate Infernal Playlist which combines the choices of every damned soul we've met so far. https://tinyurl.com/hellishpodYou can find us/beg for absolution on social media...Instagram: www.instagram.com/hellish_podThreads: https://www.threads.net/@hellish_podFacebook: www.facebook.com/hellishpodcastBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/hellishpod.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/hellishpodTikTok: www.tiktok.com/hellishpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela runs through the five tracks she will meet in Hell.Quite aside from being a Professor of History at the New School, Natalia is the author of two books: Classroom Wars, and Fit Nation, the latter of which takes a fascinating look at the history of exercise as leisure in the United States. She's also a qualified fitness instructor, and a seasoned podcaster: she co-presents the excellent history show Past Present, and was the host of Welcome to your Fantasy, the hit true crime podcast about the Chippendales strip troupe.Natalia's current podcast series, Extreme: Muscle Men, is about a steroid ring in 1980s California, and is a must listen. Check it out here.Head to patreon.com/hellishpod to access episodes early and ad free, where you will find out which artists our guests will meet in Hell. You'll also get our two pilot episodes, and a bunch of other stuff depending which tier you pick - including the chance to come and work for Hell's H.R. department! If you just want to be nice/bribe your way out of Hell then you can also tip us over at ko-fi.com/hellishpodHellish now has a bookshop, where you can get books written by our guests, and a choice selection of Hell literature. Help us out by ordering from us!Find us on Spotify to hear the songs on Natalia's Infernal Playlist in full, as well as the Ultimate Infernal Playlist which combines the choices of every damned soul we've met so far.You can find us/beg for absolution on social media...Instagram: www.instagram.com/hellish_podThreads: https://www.threads.net/@hellish_podFacebook: www.facebook.com/hellishpodcastBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/hellishpod.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/hellishpodTikTok: www.tiktok.com/hellishpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In January 1995, the New York Times Magazine published a bombshell story with the headline: "THE GREAT IVY LEAGUE NUDE POSTURE PHOTO SCANDAL." The article revealed that, from the 1940s through the 1960s, elite colleges had taken naked photos of thousands of freshmen, including future luminaries like George Bush, Bob Woodward, Meryl Streep, and Hillary Rodham. For years, the schools had teemed with anxious, tawdry rumors about both the purpose and fate of the photos. Who had them? What were they really for? And where did they end up?On this episode, we get the real story behind the photos from science historian Beth Linker, whose new book, "Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America," dives deep into the era's widespread obsession with standing up straight, and how researchers tried to connect posture to people's health and character. We also hear from historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela about how America came to be both more obsessed with exercise than ever — and, yet, also unhealthier. Her book is "Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession"Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. triggered an online explosion with a very weird defense of himself for spending time with Jeffrey Epstein. Everyone laughed, but we think this saga is revealing: It opens a window on his underappreciated appeal to disaffected young men. So we chatted with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a New School professor who specializes in politics and culture and has dissected the Kennedy phenomenon in surprising ways. Petrzela helped us uncover the darker undercurrents driving Kennedy's popularity and the ugly truths it reveals about our politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. triggered an online explosion with a very weird defense of himself for spending time with Jeffrey Epstein. Everyone laughed, but we think this saga is revealing: It opens a window on his underappreciated appeal to disaffected young men. So we chatted with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a New School professor who specializes in politics and culture and has dissected the Kennedy phenomenon in surprising ways. Petrzela helped us uncover the darker undercurrents driving Kennedy's popularity and the ugly truths it reveals about our politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. triggered an online explosion with a very weird defense of himself for spending time with Jeffrey Epstein. Everyone laughed, but we think this saga is revealing: It opens a window on his underappreciated appeal to disaffected young men. So we chatted with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a New School professor who specializes in politics and culture and has dissected the Kennedy phenomenon in surprising ways. Petrzela helped us uncover the darker undercurrents driving Kennedy's popularity and the ugly truths it reveals about our politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ayelet and Paul are joined by historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela for a wide-ranging discussion on masculinity, in both politics and personal lives.

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sports

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and liberatory possibilities for counter-cultural communities, and the future of exercise in a post-covid world. In Fit Nation, Petrzela investigates the long history of fitness in the United States to better understand how fitness became such an important part of American life. She notes that the number of people who think fitness is essential for a full life has expanded dramatically since the 1890s and fitness shape our understandings of national community, industry, security, wealth, and wellness. Her comprehensive and readable account begins with the immigration of European fitness fanatics to the United States in the 19th century and illustrates how fitness became one of the most proto-typically American pursuits. The book is divided into seven sections; the first, “When Sweating Was Strange,” shows how American entrepreneurs translated European practices to a sceptical audience. Muscle Beach in Venice, California played a special role in promoting bodybuilding but it also alarmed ordinary Americans who worried about the time participants spent on what many thought were narcissistic and vain habits. One of the major themes of Petrzela's work is the role of the government in promoting physical fitness and in the Cold War world the state opened the door to mass fitness. In the second section, “Slimming the Soft American,” she demonstrates how presidents starting with Eisenhower put fitness at the centre of their Cold War educational programs. The most notable example of government interventions into fitness was the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Sport, Fitness, and Nutrition.) The third and fourth sections – “From the Margins to the Mainstream” and Movement Culture, Redefined” illustrate how fitness became a central part of the American experience and the limits to that experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Television brought fitness into American houses but gyms remained largely male spaces (although often associated with latent homosexuality.) Yoga and jogging made fitness accessible and linked fitness culture with counter-culture. Women were both the targets of most fitness programs – although not necessarily for liberatory reasons - and excluded from large sections of it. In the 1980s and 1990s, fitness changed further, moving away from the state-led efforts and counter-cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s. Fitness became big business. In her fifth part, “Feel the Burn,” Petrzela shows how a new gospel of fitness emerged that made gyms, workout classes, and sweating accessible and desirable to growing numbers of Americans. In her sixth section, “Hard Bodies and Soulful Selves”, Petrzela shows how fitness shifted from an obligation imposed by the state for geo-political reasons to a more intrinsic requirement of people living in the neo-liberal era, but not everyone always fulfilled those obligations and many people resisted them. In the final section, “It's Not Working Out,” Petrzela looks at the present and the future of the Fit Nation. Americans are by some measures less fit than ever before, but Petrzela raises real questions about the potential of any narrow definition of fitness to fix persistent health problems. 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, and Covid-19 changed the way people worked out – cross-fit, home gyms, and Peloton became more popular than ever but fitness was also politicized into the left/right dynamic that dominates American cultural life. Keith Rathbone is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

In a collaboration with Articles of Interest, Host Ronald Young Jr and Editor Sarah Dealy work with Avery Trufelman to find out what's the deal with plus sized clothing? Why do fat folks get the ‘cold shoulder'? Special thanks to Mayra Mejia, Molly Goodman, Stacy Toth, Brittany Saunders, Maddie Hughes, Hannah Leonhard, Lauren Downing Peters, Jessica Hinkle, Jen Wilder, Marcy Guevara-Prete, Leila Kelleher, Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, and Marissa Meltzer Also special thanks to Avery Trufelman for hosting us in our apartment, feeding us cookies and bagels, and giving us seltzer water.  If you have a story about weight you'd like to share with us, send us an email at weight@ohitsbigron.com Follow Ronald Young Jr. on Twitter, Threads, IG, and TikTok - @ohitsbigron In the market for a new mattress? Click this link and use the code WEIGHTFORIT at checkout to get $350 off your purchase at Big Fig Mattress! Credits Creator/Host - Ronald Young Jr. Editor - Sarah Dealy Sound Design and Mixing - The Reverend John Delore of Starlight Diner Show and Episode Art - Heather Wilder Theme music - Jey Red Additional music - Mass Potential, The Artist DT, the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder Additional Information You can find out more about this show and other ohitsbigron studios shows by following us on IG @ohitsbigronstudios and on Twitter @ohitsbigronstew Check out our sister podcast television and film review show Leaving the Theater, available everywhere you listen! Support Resources If you need support for disordered eating or your body image; please check out the links below: Crescent Counseling Center Intuitive Growth Counseling National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated disorders Project Heal Muti-service eating disorders association National Alliance for Eating Disorders Eating Recovery Center Or Check out some of these books; What We Don't Talk about when we talk about fat - Aubrey Gordon Heavy - Kiese Laymon Belly of the Beast - Da' Shaun Harrison The Body is Not an Apology - Sonya Renee Taylor

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). She is co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet and the co-host of PAST PRESENT podcast. She is a columnist for MSNBC Opinion, a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic.---A Tribute to Patricia Moreno on The Daily Burn---Billy Oppenheimer on James Cameron---Support TBAS by becoming a patron!!!! - https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Call Zak with your advice @ 844-935-BEST---IG: @bestadviceshow & @muzacharyTWITTER: @muzacharybestadvice.show

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a person of many parts: historian, fitness instructor, activist, and highly qualified Mom. She joins the show to discuss the history of fitness and how it came to be that everybody started going to the gym. Check out Natalia's work here: https://nataliapetrzela.com/

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a leading political and intellectual historian and a certified fitness instructor, explores the complex and far-reaching implications of how our contemporary exercise culture took shape.

This week, Julia is joined by Slate associate culture writer Nadira Goffe and Jamelle Bouie, opinion columnist at The New York Times. The panel begins by test driving Gran Turismo, a sports movie that is essentially a Playstation commercial based on popular intellectual property and “real life.” Then, they explore Mask Girl, a visually stylish K-drama that tackles men, capital letters, systemic violence, Korean beauty standards, and fame through smart social satire. Finally, the three discuss the virtues, or lack thereof, found in Oliver Anthony's number one hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond” (which Jamelle also covered in his essay “The Irony in the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond'”). In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel considers prep, preppy style, and their relationships to the American art form, inspired by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela's piece for The New Republic, “We're All Preppy Now.”  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Jamelle: The films of Satoshi Kon, the legendary Japanese film director, animator, and screenwriter. Jamelle particularly enjoys Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, which he calls a “love letter to mid-century Japanese filmmaking.”  Julia: A recent tomato sandwich devotee, Julia endorses Eric Kim's furikake tomato sandwich recipe for The New York Times. It calls for Wonder Bread, a bit of mayonnaise, heirloom tomatoes, and a sprinkling of the dry Japanese condiment.  Nadira: British neo-funk electronic collective, Jungle, and the dance-based music videos for their latest album, Volcano, specifically “Candle Flame,” “Dominoes,” and viral sensation “Back on 74,” brilliantly choreographed by Shay Latukolan.  Outro music: "Warefare" by Sandra Bjurman Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  Hosts Julia Turner, Nadira Goffe, Jamelle Bouie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Julia is joined by Slate associate culture writer Nadira Goffe and Jamelle Bouie, opinion columnist at The New York Times. The panel begins by test driving Gran Turismo, a sports movie that is essentially a Playstation commercial based on popular intellectual property and “real life.” Then, they explore Mask Girl, a visually stylish K-drama that tackles men, capital letters, systemic violence, Korean beauty standards, and fame through smart social satire. Finally, the three discuss the virtues, or lack thereof, found in Oliver Anthony's number one hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond” (which Jamelle also covered in his essay “The Irony in the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond'”). In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel considers prep, preppy style, and their relationships to the American art form, inspired by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela's piece for The New Republic, “We're All Preppy Now.”  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Jamelle: The films of Satoshi Kon, the legendary Japanese film director, animator, and screenwriter. Jamelle particularly enjoys Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, which he calls a “love letter to mid-century Japanese filmmaking.”  Julia: A recent tomato sandwich devotee, Julia endorses Eric Kim's furikake tomato sandwich recipe for The New York Times. It calls for Wonder Bread, a bit of mayonnaise, heirloom tomatoes, and a sprinkling of the dry Japanese condiment.  Nadira: British neo-funk electronic collective, Jungle, and the dance-based music videos for their latest album, Volcano, specifically “Candle Flame,” “Dominoes,” and viral sensation “Back on 74,” brilliantly choreographed by Shay Latukolan.  Outro music: "Warefare" by Sandra Bjurman Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong.  Hosts Julia Turner, Nadira Goffe, Jamelle Bouie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the podcast I am super psyched to be syncing up with my friend, author, historian, fitness instructor and thought leader, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Natalia is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture, and an associate professor of history at The New School in New York City. She is the author of two books, the most recent one being Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession and Classroom Wars. Natalia is also a certified fitness instructor with Intensati, the mind-body practice which she has been teaching for nearly three decades and where we met, way back when. She is also the co-host of the weekly history podcast Past Present, which discusses recent events in American politics in the context of American political history. Her work has appeared in top media outlets such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, CNN, MSNBC and more.  Natalia is a passionate runner, yogi, and fitness enthusiast, and she has a lot of insights to share about the history and culture of exercise in America. In this episode, we talk about her new book, Fit Nation, and how it connects to her personal and professional journey. We also discuss the origins and evolution of fitness trends at a high level as discussed in her book and do a deeper dive into Yoga and running  and how they all  reflect and shape broader social and political issues. And of course, we talk about her own fitness routine and how she balances it with her busy academic career. Natalia is a fascinating and inspiring person, and I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to our conversation. CONNECT Natalia Mehlman Petrazela on Instagram Marni On The Move Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or YouTube Marni Salup on Instagram and Spotify SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Download, for Marni on the Move updates, exclusive offers, invites to events, and exciting news! OFFERS AG1: DrinkAG1.com/MarniOnTheMove DeltaG: Get 20% off deltaG Ketones today at www.deltagketones.com use our code Marni20 SUPPORT THE PODCAST Leave us a review on Apple. It's easy, scroll through the episode list on your podcast app, click on five stars, click on leave a review, and share what you love about the conversations you're listening to. Tell your friends to what you love on social. Screenshot or share directly from our stories the episode you're listening to, tag us and the guests, and use our new Marni on the Move Giphy!  

Society's view on fitness swings wildly from era to era throughout history. There were times when caring about your body was considered feminine, times when it was masculine, times when it was patriotic, and times when that was too close to how ideologies we don't like behave - so not caring about your body was patriotic, but there have been many shifts in the last hundred years alone.Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture, an Associate Professor of History at The New School, and the author of two books, the latest of which is titled Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession. Natalia and Greg discuss how fitness has become part of a broader wellness movement. They discuss how access to fitness and attitudes around it has become reserved for the wealthy or privileged. Natalia details how PE offerings in schools have changed over the years to line up with different political attitudes and the fine line between professionalizing fitness instruction and limiting access to the profession.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The imperative of certification and licensing for health and fitness instructors56:57: One of the biggest impediments to protecting people, both instructors and students, would be certification, real professional guidelines, and licensing. Because right now, fitness instructors and trainers are assuming this outsized role in people's lives with basically no guardrails, no instruction, or no laws governing that. You can sue if you hurt your neck in class, etc. But it's a wild west. And there's a lot of incentives for fitness professionals to actually be really zany and cross boundaries, because that creates this rapport in this very intimate relationship. You want that role in people's lives, but that can go wrong. And so, licensing and professional standards would help with that.The fitness industry and the dimension of inclusivity21:33: The gym evolves in how intimidating it becomes over time, but that remains a hallmark of a lot of people's gym experiences. And I should point out that in some ways, that's what the fitness industry is selling—a dimension of exclusivity.The interplay between American lifestyle and exercise trends05:58: One of the things that has really happened, that's emerged, that's helped propel this industry and this pressure to exercise, is that so many aspects of American life have become more sedentary. One of the reasons that we do have this class divide and who's thought to participate in exercise regularly is that the big moments when you have the expansion of the fitness industry always have to do with the expansion of the white-collar workforce.Fitness and community should go hand in hand51:15: We both know, coming out of the pandemic, that exercise is really good for you, but we know it was a big help with comorbidities and it's so important. But on the other hand, unfortunately, I think we hastened some of this privatization because we shut down parks and recreation centers. And we were like, "Oh, go do Peloton in your home; good luck with that," and that really isolated us and got rid of the community aspect, which is never perfectly inclusive, but I think it's really important.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Katie SandwinaCharles AtlasRichard SimmonsMuscle BeachVic TannyJim FixxJane FondaGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at New SchoolNatalia Mehlman Petrzela's WebsiteNatalia Mehlman Petrzela on LinkedInNatalia Mehlman Petrzela on XHer Work:Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise ObsessionClassroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture NBC News Articles

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). She is co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet and the co-host of PAST PRESENT podcast. She is a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic. Natalia is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founder of the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City.

It's summertime and that means busting out those beach bodies! This week Natalia Mehlman Petrzela drops in to talk about the creation of the modern fitness world beginning in the early 1980s and seen onscreen with the John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis film, Perfect (1985). Natalia and I talk about her new book FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession along with how social media continues to transform the way we look at bodies (and ourselves) and even how academics present their sexuality through fitness online. This is such a great conversation. I hope you like it.About our guest:Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). She is co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet and the co-host of PAST PRESENT podcast. She is a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic.Natalia is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founder of the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City.You can find her website at https://nataliapetrzela.com/ or find her on twitter at @nataliapetrzela. 

This week, we finally discussed our Book of the Quarter for Q1 of 2023: "Fit Nation" by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. While the book wasn't our favorite, we did have a good conversation about the ideas in it and what they mean for us as members of the endurance community. We also announced our next BOTQ, which we will make sure to finish on time!

Guest host Julie Chavez interviews leading political historian, fitness instructor, and author Natalia Mehlman Petrzela about Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, a well-researched history of exercise in America that traces how the definition of health has changed over time. The two discuss activism, fitness as a product, and the destructive dynamics around women and exercise, as well as the role of exercise in their own lives. Finally, Natalia shares her vision for the future of exercise, which includes improved accessibility to fitness for all. Purchase on Zibby's Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3Osgh0JPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/438IM7GSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the history of children's story hour.  Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast On this week's Past Present episode, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil J. Young discuss the history of children's story hour.   Here are some links and references mentioned during this week's show:   ·         “Drag queen story hours” have become the latest arena in the culture wars. Niki drew on this Slate piece about children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore. Neil referenced this New York Times piece on the history of drag queen story hours. Natalia referred to historian Julia Mickenberg's book Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States.     In our regular closing feature, What's Making History: ·         Natalia discussed historian Ava Purkiss' new book, Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women's Exercise from Post Reconstruction to Postwar America. ·         Neil recommended Gina Kolata's New York Times article, “DNA From Beethoven's Hair Unlocks Medical and Family Secrets.” ·         Niki shared Maham Javaid's Washington Post article, “After a 1935 Tragedy, a Priest Vowed to Teach Kids About Menstruation.”

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! She hosts Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, professor of history at The New School, to discuss her recent book Fit Nation: The Gains And Pains Of America's Exercise Obsession. Then she is joined by Daniel Finn, features editor at Jacobin, to discuss his recent piece "Britain's Power Elite Has Defeated Its Challengers by Creating a Political Wasteland". Emma first runs through updates on another Fed interest rate increase, a Federal appeals judge ruling against Trump, Biden shutting down the White House's COVID response team, the Senate voting to keep the AUMF, the Chicago Teachers' union backing Brandon Johnson, and various updates on far-right challenges to democracy and Queer life, before parsing through Bernie Sanders' confrontation with Moderna over their planned vaccine price gauge. Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela then joins as she and Emma dive right into the history of America's fitness obsession and the complicated push and pull between progress with self-expression and corporations capitalizing on developing misogynist and capitalist expectations. First, Mehlman-Petrzela looks to the legacy of Jack LaLanne, the first Fifties fitness guru, and how his programs served to start a shift from seeing fitness as an ego-driven hobby to a fundamental aspect of self-improvement and health with broad consensus. After parsing through LaLanne's particular marketing to suburban housewives, Natalia and Emma tackle the development of the fitness industry not around communal ideas of public health, but hyper-individualized concepts of self-improvement that nestled somewhere between labor and leisure, and how this saw success across the political spectrum, before wrapping up the interview with the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, fitness' full transformation into a consumptive industry, and the hyper-atomization that we've seen since develop over the last few years. Daniel Finn and Emma then parse through his recent piece responding to the Economist's dubbing of a new era of British politics as a new “Great Moderation,” which attempts to paint the active expulsion of the left wing from politics as a return to a politics of managerial competence after a period of populist demagoguery. Parsing through this, Finn tackles the very-much-still-relevant presence of the populist far-right in British politics and why that is seen as valuable to the center-right establishment, before he and Emma step back to assess how the British establishment was able to expunge the left wing of the labor party from mainstream politics. They first look to the material foundation of the 2008 financial crisis that was met with a decade of British austerity which completely crippled the working class, also exploring the two challenges it faced: one in the form of Scottish independence led by Nicola Sturgeon and the other in the emergence of a Labour movement led by Jeremy Corbyn. Wrapping up the interview, Finn walks Emma through the process through which the British establishment, bolstered by the mainstream press, was able to fearmonger over wedge-issue culture wars, taking a single element of a popular platform (trans rights for Sturgeon and pro-Palestine support for Corbyn) and painting it as a broad strokes undemocratic attack on a minority group. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they talk with Brian from Flagstaff about gun buyback's potential in the US, also watching Russell Brand rep the Rumble brand, and the recent TikTok congressional hearing. Alena from VA on the coverage of Marianne Williamson, Charlie Kirk and Chaya Raichik use TikTok to connect the transphobic and anti-Chinese moral panics, and we get the previews of Sam's appearance on the PBD podcast, plus, your calls and IMs!   Check out Natalia's book here: https://nataliapetrzela.com/books/fit-nation/   Check out Daniel's piece here: https://jacobin.com/2023/03/britain-power-elite-political-wasteland-corbyn-sturgeon-starmer-media Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Do you sometimes berate yourself by thinking that you “should” work out? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? How can you create a truly healthy and loving relationship with exercise and your body? In this podcast episode, I speak about the book Fit Nation and America's obsession with exercise with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Ph.D. We reflect on the history of beauty ideals, and discuss the problems around societal messaging. Sign up for the FREE e-course to understand your eating disorder and embark on the road to recovery. SHOW NOTES: Click here Follow me on Instagram @behind_the_bite_podcast Visit the website: www.behindthebitepodcast.com

Do you sometimes berate yourself by thinking that you “should” work out? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? How can you create a truly healthy and loving relationship with exercise and your body? In this podcast episode, I speak about the book Fit Nation and America's obsession with exercise with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Ph.D. We reflect on the history of beauty ideals, and discuss the problems around societal messaging. Sign up for the FREE e-course to understand your eating disorder and embark on the road to recovery. SHOW NOTES: Click here Follow me on Instagram @behind_the_bite_podcast Visit the website: www.behindthebitepodcast.com

Fitness and wellness historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela joins Christy to discuss her new book, Fit Nation; the historical shifts that made fitness go from being viewed as a narcissistic practice to being seen as a good thing across the political spectrum; why so many people are disillusioned with our medical system and looking for answers and validation in the alternative medicine space; how people can be critical consumers of online wellness content; and more. (Content warning: discussions of fitness and the food environment.)Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is co-producer and host of the podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios and Gimlet – and recognized as the “best of 2021” by Vogue, Esquire, the New York Times, and Vulture – and the co-host of Past Present Podcast. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations.Natalia is a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to international and domestic news outlets, from the New York Times to the Washington Post to CNN to the Atlantic. She is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founded and directed the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and is a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a master's and Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City. Learn more about her and her work at nataliapetrzela.com.If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! Just search for Rethinking Wellness with Christy Harrison wherever you get your podcasts, or sign up to get it in your inbox each week (with a full transcript) at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release!If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com/subscribe

On episode 164, we welcome Natalia Petrzela to discuss America's obsession with fitness; fitness as a symbol of status and its expression on social media; masculinity's historical aversion to fitness; Alen's fitness weight-loss journey; issues around race, gender, and class it relates to exercise; the covid-19 pandemic's effect on our relationship to fitness; the various forms of exercise; how fitness become synonymous with self-actualization; whether fitness is anti-feminist; how access to resources affects whom you're attracted to; the forms of mental illness related to fitness-obsession; potentially effective social policy changes that focus on improving general physical health; and the positive and negative effects of modern day fitness. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and associate professor of history at the New School. A certified fitness instructor, she has worked out at home and in gyms for nearly three decades. She is the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, and her work has appeared in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CNN. She is coproducer and host of the acclaimed podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy and cohost of the Past Present podcast. Her newest book, available now, is called Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession.   | Natalia Petrzela | ► Website | https://nataliapetrzela.com ► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/nataliapetrzela ► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/nataliapetrzela ► Twitter | https://twitter.com/nataliapetrzela ► Fit Nation Book | https://amzn.to/3yyyXTc   Where you can find us:   | Seize The Moment Podcast | ► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/SeizeTheMoment ► Twitter | https://twitter.com/seize_podcast ► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/seizethemoment ► TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@seizethemomentpodcast ► Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/user?u=32208666

Historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela was a self-proclaimed bookish kid growing up in the 1990s. She didn't exercise, she didn't play sports and she loathed physical education at school. But that changed when she first stepped into a group exercise class. “When I walked in there, I discovered there was something called fitness,” she tells host Kerri Miller on this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas. “Pretty quickly I realized this is not only better than PE, I love this. I don't just tolerate it.” So began a shift within Petrzela. She started to move her body and like it. She became a fitness instructor and taught classes, even as she ended up working in academic. And as a historian, she couldn't help but look around her secondary world and wonder: How did this fitness culture come to be? Her new book, “Fit Nation,” is the result of digging in to that question. The book charts the evolution of our collective attitudes toward exercise. From body builders on the beach in the 1940s, to Jack LaLanne introducing exercise to housewives in the 1950s, from Jane Fonda and Jazzercise to the current Peloton mania, Petrzela shows how working out went from a bizarre pastime to being an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. She also reveals the double-edged sword beneath it all — how exercise can be both empowering and elitist at the same time. Guest: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture at The New School, in New York City. Her latest book is “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession.” To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, associate professor of history at The New School, a university in New York City and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Love history? Love fitness? This episode of Many Happy Miles is for you. The hosts bring on Historian, professor, and mother runner Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, the author of the brand-new book Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, which offers a very deep (and enlightening) dive into the evolution of the fitness world in the U.S. In this episode, Dimity, Sarah WF, and Natalia cover several topics, including:  The fascinating origins of fitness staples like the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and the JFK 50 Mile run How Jane Fonda became a fitness icon (and other women who paved the way for today's “fit-fluencers”) How fitness has become both “inescapable and inaccessible” in our country, plus Natalia's visions of creating a more inclusive, stronger future, and more. You can purchase your own copy of Fit Nation here (we give it five stars!). And follow Natalia (including updates on her half-marathon training) on Instagram. When you shop our sponsors, you help AMR. We appreciate your—and their—support!  Stress less, sleep better: Enjoy 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at Calm.com/amr Pretty is as pretty does: Enjoy 15% off your first order at ThriveCausemetics.com/AMR Say yes to pleasure: Enjoy an extended 30-day free trial at Dipseastories.com/amr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela provides an excellent overview of the debates about how feminism has been discussed in terms of varieties of “family values” in modern American history. From the early suffragists, through the Progressives, through the Second Wave, and up to the 21st Century, Professor Petrzela shows the emphasis that feminists have put on parenting and family. And they did all this in the face of nasty opposition and abusive characterizations of their ideals by opponents of women's rights! Episode 497.

Fitness and wellness historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela joins Christy to discuss her new book, Fit Nation; the historical shifts that made fitness go from being viewed as a narcissistic practice to being seen as a good thing across the political spectrum; why so many people are disillusioned with our medical system and looking for answers and validation in the alternative medicine space; how people can be critical consumers of online wellness content; and more. (Content warning: discussions of fitness and the food environment.) Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of FIT NATION: The Rise—And Price—Of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is co-producer and host of the podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios and Gimlet – and recognized as the “best of 2021” by Vogue, Esquire, the New York Times, and Vulture – and the co-host of Past Present Podcast. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. Natalia is a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to international and domestic news outlets, from the New York Times to the Washington Post to CNN to the Atlantic. She is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founded and directed the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and is a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a master's and Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City. Learn more about her and her work at NataliaPetrzela.com. Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, for weekly Q&As and more. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

How do shifting ideas about physical fitness, health, and the body reflect larger ideological structures like nation, race, gender, and capitalism? Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of American culture and politics and associate professor of history at the New School. In this conversation, we discuss her latest book Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, which tracks the evolution of fitness culture from the strongman exhibitions at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to the Peloton/home gym movement of the COVID-19 era.   Subscribe to Nostalgia Trap to access our library of bonus episodes, livestreams, and video essays: patreon.com/nostalgiatrap

An interview with Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, author of Fit Nation: the Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession.A big story is laying out the way that we have the rise of a massive fitness industry and a kind of collective sense that exercise is good for you and you should be exercising more and this is just uncontroversially like a positive thing. Yet, at the same time, we don't believe that hard enough to make it a policy priority or a right of kind of civic participation.Dr. Natalia Mehlman PetrzelaGroup exercise instructor perspective Fitness professional challengesHealth & fitness industry labor experienceFitness professional professionalizationWomen in the health & fitness industryServing the women's marketPublic versus private sector investment in fitnessExpanding access to fitnessFixing a broken systemhttps://www.movetolivemore.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/move-to-live-more@MovetoLiveMore

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (01/03/2022): 3:05pm- On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representative began voting to decide the next Speaker of the House. On the first vote, the presumptive next Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, received 203 votes—well short of the 218 needed to become Speaker. According to the New York Times, it's the first time since 1923 the House Speaker was not selected on the first vote.  3:25pm- After a second vote to decide the Speakership, Rep. Kevin McCarthy once again fell short of the 218 votes required. What happens now? Rep. Matt Gaetz called for Republicans to vote for Rep. Jim Jordan. Meanwhile, Jordan insisted that he still supports McCarthy.  3:40pm- Jeffrey Tucker—Founder & President of the Brownstone Institute—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his latest editorial, “Fauci Fibbed on the Day Everything Changed.” In the piece, Tucker evaluates Dr. Anthony Fauci's claim that COVID-19 is 10x as deadly as the flu. He writes, “[l]et's just assume that Fauci is correct about the flu, though there is plenty of controversy about his chosen figure of 0.1 percent. If he is right about, for the most affected demographic from Covid, he was off by two times. For youth, he was off by 3,333 times—an exaggeration of more than 300,000 percent!” Read the article at: https://brownstone.org/articles/fauci-fibbed-on-day-everything-changed/v 4:00pm- Prior to holding a third vote to decide the next Speaker of the House, Congressman Steve Scalise implored Republicans to vote for Kevin McCarthy. Will it have any impact on the vote? 4:25pm- 3rd Vote for Speaker of the House: With only a fraction of the vote having been counted, enough Republicans have already defected to prevent Kevin McCarthy from achieving the 218 votes necessary to become Speaker.  4:40pm- Twitter Files Part 11: On Tuesday, investigative journalist Matt Taibbi released another series of Twitter files—this time documenting why the social media company allowed the intelligence community to suppress and moderate content.  5:00pm- For the third time, Kevin McCarthy has failed to reach the 218-vote threshold necessary to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. 5:05pm- While speaking to the press on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden Administration's decision to place new restrictions on travel from China in response to the country's sudden uptick in COVID-19 cases.  5:10pm- In an editorial featured in Time Magazine, associate professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela argued that exercise is (somehow) linked to racism. Meanwhile, on social media, TikTok personality and activist “AntiDietPilot” claimed that going to the gym to lose weight is "fatphobic." 5:25pm- Kevin McCarthy says he's “not going anywhere” despite failing to garner support to be the next Speaker of the House. Will McCarthy supporters begin to defect? Will there be long-term damage to the Republican party?  5:40pm- The House of Representatives has adjourned for the day after three failed attempts to select a new Speaker.  5:45pm- Speaking at his inauguration, Governor Ron DeSantis stated that “Florida is where woke goes to die.” 6:00pm- With House Republicans seemingly deadlocked, what happens next in the race to become Speaker of the House of Representatives?  6:10pm- While appearing on Fox News, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert continued to state she would not support Kevin McCarthy's bid to become Speaker of the House while insisting she is seeking unity within the party.  6:15pm- In a recent Wall Street Journal opinion editorial, columnist Allysia Finely hypothesized that COVID-19 vaccines may have resulted in the virus rapidly mutating to avoid not only vaccinations but acquired immunity. 6:20pm- Do millennials hate Hooters? 6:40pm- With Kevin McCarthy's chances of becoming Speaker of the House slipping away, who else is a potential contender? Rich believes that Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are the likely front runners in the event McCarthy steps aside.  6:50pm- Why did Sam Bankman-Fried meet with members of the Biden Administration four times just prior to the collapse of FTX?  6:55pm- Who Won Social Media?

In an editorial featured in Time Magazine, associate professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela argued that exercise is (somehow) linked to racism. Meanwhile, on social media, TikTok personality and activist “AntiDietPilot” claimed that going to the gym to lose weight is "fatphobic."

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 3: For the third time, Kevin McCarthy has failed to reach the 218-vote threshold necessary to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. While speaking to the press on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden Administration's decision to place new restrictions on travel from China in response to the country's sudden uptick in COVID-19 cases. In an editorial featured in Time Magazine, associate professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela argued that exercise is (somehow) linked to racism. Meanwhile, on social media, TikTok personality and activist “AntiDietPilot” claimed that going to the gym to lose weight is "fatphobic." Kevin McCarthy says he's “not going anywhere” despite failing to garner support to be the next Speaker of the House. Will McCarthy supporters begin to defect? Will there be long-term damage to the Republican party? The House of Representatives has adjourned for the day after three failed attempts to select a new Speaker. Speaking at his inauguration, Governor Ron DeSantis stated that “Florida is where woke goes to die.”

In the late 1960s, Air Force surgeon Dr. Kenneth Cooper was evaluating military fitness plans when he realized that aerobic activities, what we now call cardio, like running and cycling, was the key to overall physical health. His 1968 book Aerobics launched the aerobics revolution that followed, as he inspired women like Jacki Sorensen and Judi Sheppard Missett to combine dance with exercise, creating Dance Aerobics and Jazzercise in the process.   I'm joined on this episode by Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Associate Professor History at The New School and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is: “Jacki Sorensen at an Aerobic Dancing, Inc., event in New York,” photographed by an employee of Aerobic Dancing, Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Additional Sources: “The Fitness Craze That Changed the Way Women Exercise,” by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, The Atlantic, June 16, 2019. “History of Aerobic Exercise.” “Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH,” CooperAerobics. “The 75-Year-Old Behind Jazzercise Keeps Dancing on Her Own,” by Samantha Leach, Glamour, June 21, 2019. “Jane Fonda's 1982 Workout Routine Is Still the Best Exercise Class Out There,” by Patricia Garcia, Vogue, July 7, 2018. “Jane Fonda's first workout video released,” History.com. “History: IDEA Health & Fitness Association. “Interview with Richard Simmons,” by Eric Spitznagel, Men's Health, April 25, 2012. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Behind the News, 12/8/22 - guests: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela on the history of fitness in the US; Paolo Gerbaudo on the weakness of the Italian bourgeoisie - Doug Henwood

Here in the United States we have an obsession with exercise, at the same time that we have an obesity epidemic. People are often judged based on whether or not, and how much, they exercise. And yet, there are systems and structures in place that make it difficult for so many people to incorporate regular exercise into their lives. My guest today, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, has a new book out that takes a look at this issue and makes recommendations for what we can do to make positive changes in our society that will improve our overall health and life satisfaction. In today's episode, Natalia talks about: Some of the structural impediments that make it difficult for so many to maintain a healthy lifestyle The connections between socioeconomic status and exercise The rise of labor-saving products and the increase in the sedentary lifestyle The relationship between race and fitness The changing views of fitness in the US How a “suburban housewife” sounded the alarm about a growing health crisis and got the ear of President Eisenhower Why fitness is a social justice issue To learn more about and follow Natalia Mehlman Petrzela: www.nataliapetrzela.com www.amazon.com/Fit-Nation-Americas-Exercise-Obsession/dp/022665110X www.instagram.com/nataliapetrzela https://www.facebook.com/nataliapetrzela/ twitter.com/nataliapetrzela About Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming Jan 2023). She is co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet and the co-host of PAST PRESENT podcast. She is a columnist at the Observer, and a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic. Natalia is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founder of the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati.cHer work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City. We're changing the world one woman at a time. Go to Apple Podcasts and leave a 5-star review and subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela explains why Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier. Her great new book, Fit Nation, explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future. Listen to her explain the broad contexts of American fitness history and the implications for American culture. Episode 491.

In this episode, I spoke with historian, podcaster, speaker, and wellness instructor Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Natalia is an associate professor of history at The New School. Her first book, Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, was published in 2015. She is a co-host of the weekly podcast Past Present, and also hosted the amazing podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy, about the cultural phenomenon of Chippendales. Natalia's newest book, Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession is coming next month from the University of Chicago Press.

America is more obsessed with fitness than we've ever been...but somehow the unhealthiest we've ever been. How is this so, and how we can break the barriers that Fitness + Wellness Culture tells us we must subscribe to? Natalia Mahlman Petrzela, the author of FIT NATION, is here to answer these questions and more. For her, fitness is, as her new book describes, "a social justice issue. She argues that the fight for a more equitable exercise culture will be won only by revolutionizing fitness culture at its core, making it truly inclusive for all bodies in a way it has never been."   SHOW NOTES: Buy Fit Nation here Natalia's website Instagram Facebook  Twitter Natalia on Episode 043 of The WANTcast Past Present podcast Welcome To Your Fantasy podcast Love the WANTcast? Share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts telling people why you love it. Find us at womenagainstnegativetalk.com Follow Katie on Instagram and Twitter @katiehorwitch, or visit katiehorwitch.com

In this episode, Rusha interviews Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Natalia is a burst of energy, both professional, personal and physical. She is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture, an activist, as well as one of the most sought after fitness trainers in the country. She explains that the underlying ideology behind wellness is broadly appealing but can be claimed by conservatives and liberals alike, which makes it easy to sell. Listen as Natalia talks about how wellness is more than just the absence of illness, it encompasses a holistic approach to physical, emotional, and mental health. Key Highlights:[00:01 - 04:09] - Opening segmentRush introduces Natalia Mehlman Petrzela![04:10 - 13:44] – Seeking Out Social Interaction and Human Connection with ExerciseNatalia discusses how wellness has become commercializedCommercialization has led to wellness becoming inaccessible for many people Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert PutnamPeople seek out social interaction and human connection over digital alternatives[13:45 - 34:44] – The Obsession in Modern CultureBe deliberate about thinking about what's going to get people out the doorFitness culture has become a way to discipline the body[34:45 - 50:54] – The Politicizing of the Public-School SectorShe explains how equity and social justice are not being upheld when strict regulations are put in placePublic schools are essential and should be one of the first things to prioritize when it comes to keeping children healthy[50:55 – 58:21] - Closing SegmentThe challenges that America is facing with regards to wellness, and how structural changes are necessary in order to move forwardConnect with Natalia at her website, get her book: Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession, Welcome To Your Fantasy Podcast, and Past Present Podcast! CRAVING MORE?What are you waiting for? Head to Alchemy of Politics; join the conversation and start a change reaction! Follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok.You can connect with Dr. Rusha on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.Thanks for tuning in! If you liked my show, LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW, like, and subscribe!Share it with your friends, and family, and spark a conversation. Contribute, comment, and disagree.Remember: Solutions, not shouting.Tweetable Quotes: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela - "People are realizing that, home fitness is great, it's convenient, there are so many great things about it. I don't think it's going away; it is almost impossible to replicate what you get from being with other humans in space and moving together.”Natalia Mehlman Petrzela - "People are finding community through fitness, and it's not this purely individualistic project of self-improvement or physical improvement."Rusha Modi - “Access, opportunity, and inclusion. Those are the ways to move forward.”

On the internet, body shaming is alive and well, nutrition advice can be wildly inaccurate, and it's a lot easier to scroll through Instagram for hours than to get up and go for a run. But Danielle Friedman, who literally https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645493/lets-get-physical-by-danielle-friedman/ (wrote the book) on women's fitness, says there's one extremely good thing that social media has done for our bodies, which we shouldn't ignore. "Body acceptance activist Virgie Tovar told me that social media has given a voice to the people who have always been the majority in number, but not in influence," Danielle says. "You don't have to go through all of the traditional channels to be visible. You can just start posting selfies and find an audience and build an audience that way. And I know it's easier said than done, but in spending years researching this history, that is a significant shift." Today on Follow Friday, Danielle talks about what else she learned while researching https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645493/lets-get-physical-by-danielle-friedman/ (Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World). And she opens up about four of her favorite people she follows online: Someone who she just started following: Katie Sturino, @katiesturino on https://www.tiktok.com/@katiesturino/ (TikTok) and https://www.instagram.com/katiesturino/ (Instagram) Someone who makes her laugh: 70s Dinner Party, https://www.instagram.com/70sdinnerparty/ (@70sdinnerparty) on Instagram and https://twitter.com/70s_party (@70s_party) on Twitter Someone who makes her think: Laura McLaws Helms, https://www.instagram.com/laurakitty/ (@laurakitty) on Instagram Someone who makes the internet a better place: Jessamyn Stanley, @mynameisjessamyn on https://www.instagram.com/mynameisjessamyn/ (Instagram) and https://www.tiktok.com/@mynameisjessamyn (TikTok), https://twitter.com/JessamynStan (@JessamynStan) on Twitter, and https://www.youtube.com/c/JessamynStanley/videos (@JessamynStanley) on YouTube Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Elizabeth, Sylnai, and Matthias. On https://www.patreon.com/followfriday (our Patreon page), you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Danielle talks about someone who's an expert in a very specific niche she loves: Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Also: Follow Danielle https://www.instagram.com/DanielleFriedmanWrites/ (@daniellefriedmanwrites) on Instagram and https://twitter.com/DFriedmanWrites (@DFriedmanWrites) on Twitter Follow us @FollowFridayPod on https://twitter.com/followfridaypod (Twitter) and https://www.instagram.com/followfridaypod/ (Instagram) Follow Eric https://twitter.com/HeyHeyESJ (@heyheyesj) on Twitter This show is a production of Lightningpod.fm, hosted and produced by Eric Johnson Music: https://www.fiverr.com/yonamarie (Yona Marie) Show art: https://www.fiverr.com/dodiihr (Dodi Hermawan) Social media producer: Sydney Grodin

Caela Fenton is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Oregon. Her research lies primarily in cultural studies of sport, utilizing feminist approaches to consider gender equity in sport industry, as well as digital iterations of physical culture. Her academic work has appeared in The International Journal of the History of Sport, Narrative, and Aethlon. Her journalistic work has appeared in Canadian Running Magazine, iRun, and The XC. Most recently, she served on the communications team at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials. In this episode, we discuss social media as it relates to professional athletics, gendered expectations, and capitalism. We also discuss representations of women distance runners throughout time and in various forms of media. Caela blows Emma's mind multiple times, and she will likely blow your mind, too! Discussed in this episode: --Running, Identity, and Meaning by Neil Baxter --Athlete identity crises --Perdita Felicien --Sarah Banet-Weiser and brand culture --Women runners and self-representation over Instagram --Fetishization of female runners' bodies --Heather Caplan on Social Sport --Colleen Quigley's Instagram post on pulling out of Olympic Trials --Allie Ostrander's video on beginning eating disorder treatment --Postfeminism --Once a Runner by John L. Parker --"Why I Loathe Once a Runner," Caela's article in Canadian Running --Late Air by Jaclyn Gilbert --Inadequate representation of Black women runners --"Jogging Has Always Excluded Black People," but Natalia Mehlman Petrzela for NYTimes --Risa Isard on Social Sport --"Hayward Magic in the Era of Globalized Sport Culture" --Coach Tom Heinonen --The Passage series Follow Caela: Twitter, Instagram Follow Social Sport: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Newsletter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/socialsport/support

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ph.D. is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and is currently writing a book on American fitness culture, FIT NATION: How America Embraced Exercise As The Government Abandoned It (under contract with University of Chicago Press). She is the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford 2015), co-host of Past Present Podcast, a frequent media guest expert, speaker at universities and conferences, and contributor to international and domestic news outlets from the BBC to the New York Times to the Atlantic. Natalia is Associate Professor of History at The New School, a co-founder of wellness education program Healthclass 2.0 and a Premiere Leader of intenSati. She is a co-producer and the host of WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, a forthcoming podcast from Pineapple Street Studios. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a master’s and Ph.D. from Stanford and is based in New York City. Click here to learn more about Natalia Click here to learn more about Mindful Strength

The New School historian on when to turn down a media opportunity, why corporations need historians on staff, how she preps for a podcast and why female scholars need to own their ideas publicly ASAP.

Stephanie chats with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an American historian, specializing in the culture of the modern United States. Natalia is working on a book about American fitness culture and helped lead the session we participated in with PBS NewsHour last month.

**TW racist violence** During the month of August, the Burn It All Down crew is taking a break from regular weekly Tuesday episodes. In their place, you will hear an episode of a podcast hosted by a guest of Burn It All Down. This week's episode is from the podcast Past Present co-hosted by historians Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer, and Neil Young. They discuss the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, it being called a modern-day lynching, racialized policing, oppression of Black Americans by the state, and the sport/the act of running itself. For more about the Past Present podcast: http://www.pastpresentpodcast.com/. To support them on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast. Follow Natalia on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nataliapetrzela, Nicole at https://twitter.com/pastpunditry, and Neil at https://twitter.com/NeilJYoung17. For their new podcast, Welcome To Your Fantasy: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/welcome-to-your-fantasy/id1517709981?i=1000478993399 For show notes, transcripts, and more info about Burn It All Down, check out our website: www.burnitalldownpod.com To help support the Burn It All Down podcast, please consider becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/burnitalldown For BIAD merchandise: teespring.com/stores/burn-it-all-down Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/BurnItDownPod; Facebook: www.facebook.com/BurnItAllDownPod/; and Instagram: www.instagram.com/burnitalldownpod/

This week, the gang’s back! We talk about women's sports affected by the novel coronavirus and baseball's Opening Day. Then, Shireen interviews WNBA basketball player Kia Nurse about the Olympics postponement [27:45]. Brenda sits down with Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela to discuss fitness and neoliberalism during Covid-19 [47:35]. Of course you’ll hear the Burn Pile [1:07:15], our Bad Ass Woman of the Week [1:20:50], and what is good in our worlds [1:22:46.] To help support the Burn It All Down podcast, please consider becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/burnitalldown For BIAD merchandise: teespring.com/stores/burn-it-all-down For more info check our website: www.burnitalldownpod.com Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/BurnItDownPod; Facebook: www.facebook.com/BurnItAllDownPod/; and Instagram: www.instagram.com/burnitalldownpod/

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss “cancel culture,” the lost art of hobbies, and the tragic Ethiopian Airlines crash. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast On this week’s Past Present episode, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil J. Young discuss “cancel culture,” the lost art of hobbies, and the tragic Ethiopian Air crash. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  Young Adult literature is the latest arena for controversies over “cancel culture.” Neil recommended Jennifer Senior’s New York Times article on the perils of taking it too far. Hobbies, or engaging in an activity only for the joy it brings, are increasingly a rarity. Neil referred to Hanna Rosin’s book The End of Men: And the Rise of Women. Natalia recommended this history of the “side hustle” at The Conversation. A tragic airplane crash has killed 157 people and raised questions about the Boeing 737 Max 8 model. Neil recommended the book, Flying Without Fear. Natalia referred to this Wall Street Journal article about the effect of crashes on the airplane industry. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed Matthew Remski’s new book, Practice and All is Coming. Neil recommended Patrick Radden Keefe’s book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland and his previous reporting at The New Yorker. Niki talked about her recent appearance on Trumpcast.

From the moment your alarm goes off until your head hits the pillow at night, fitness is in your face. During the day, most of us will either go to the gym, think about working out, get a reminder from our fitness tracker, walk by a fitness studio, or feel bad for not getting any exercise at all. Fitness is not only a large part of our day, but it's a part of our cultural identity and pop culture.  This week Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Associate Professor of History at The New School, joins This Week in Dystopia Host Chris Robichaud for a conversation about fitness, pop culture, and public policy. We talk about everything from SoulCycle to physical education in schools. Want more This Week in Dystopia? Don't forget to subscribe, follow This Week in Dystopia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeekinDystopia and like the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisWeekinDystopia/ This podcast is brought to you by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.

In this podcast, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss Howard Schultz’ presidential bid, gay men in the priesthood, and the enduring fascination with serial killer Ted Bundy. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast On this week’s Past Present episode, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil J. Young discuss Howard Schultz’ presidential bid, gay men in the priesthood, and the enduring fascination with serial killer Ted Bundy.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has announced he is running for the presidency in 2020. Natalia referred to Michelle Goldberg’s New York Times piece pleading Schultz not to run. Gay men, by even the most conservative metrics, are represented in the priesthood in greater proportion than in the general population. Neil referred to Andrew Sullivan’s New York article on why this might be. Serial killer Ted Bundy was executed thirty years ago, and ongoing fascination with his story has inspired two new accounts of his violent career. Conversations with a Killer is a Netflix docuseries, and a feature film starring Zac Efron debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Natalia recommended historian Paul M. Renfro’s forthcoming book, Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.    In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia commented on Thomas Simonetti’s Washington Post article, “A Photographer Documents the Heart-Wrenching Final Moments of Pet Owners with Their Dying Pets” and Bethan Bell’s BBC News article, “Taken From Life: The Unsettling Art of Death Photography.” Neil discussed Amy Chozick’s New York Times article, “You Know the Lorena Bobbitt Story. But Not All of It.” Niki shared Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth’s Bulwark article, “Why We Are Quitting RedState.”

Today's guest is one of the coolest chicks I know (and you too, soon!), and a conversation that's a LONG time coming: scholar/writer/teacher/activist Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Natalia is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and is currently writing a book on American fitness culture. She is the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, and the co-host of Past Present Podcast, a show that turns hindsight into foresight by examining what's going on in America today through a historical lens. Natalia is Associate Professor of History at The New School, a co-founder of wellness education program Healthclass 2.0 and a Premiere Leader of intenSati, a fitness class that combines cardio with positive affirmations to make the ultimate uplifting workout.  In this episode we talk about (and, we go there) gun violence and talking to kids about what's going on in an "appropriate" way, where a quest for happiness and "following your bliss" really came from and if it's actually serving us, making wokeness more than a gimmick, locker room talk (no, not in THAT way), feminism/activism's place in the wellness industry, and so, SO much more. Show Notes: Website Past Present Podcast Instagram Facebook Twitter Choose Love, Not Fear in 2013 How “Empowered” Speech About Your Body Might Mask The Same Old Issues Derek Beres (introduced us!) Gerren Liles (asked an awesome question!) Like this episode? I’m so glad! Sign up for The (Good) Word, WANT’s weekly email group, at womenagainstnegativetalk.com, leave a review on iTunes (the more reviews and five-stars, the more our message is spread), share it on Facebook, tweet it out on Twitter, or post it on Instagram (and tag Katie and I so we can send you love!). Be sure to use the hashtags #WANTcast, #womenagainstnegativetalk, and/or #WANTyourself!  

In today’s episode we hear a September 6, 2016 interview with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, assistant professor of History at the New School, podcast host, wellness expert, and the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture. Natalia talks about debates over education in America, and how they can shed light on our country’s shifting political landscape from the 1960s to the present.

This episode is going to be just a bit different from the others. We’re going to play for you a series of short presentations by three historians--Raymond Haberski, Paul Murphy, and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. These historians were on a panel at an April 16, 2016 summit, hosted by the Hauenstein Center, that entertained the possibility of common ground between progressives and conservatives, as we do. These three presentations were perfect for that summit—as well as for this podcast—because they took up certain relatively recent cultural debates that, in some cases, highlight the value of common ground between the left and right, but in others, reveal how such common ground might not always be possible or even valuable. For instance, in the first presentation, Raymond Haberski discusses what he calls America’s “civil religion of war,” and examines whether common ground between liberal and conservatives about war—particularly the Iraq War—is or has been all that valuable. Following that, Paul Murphy talks about key early 20th century American thinkers, together known as the New Humanists, who embodied the progressive/conservative split as we understand it today. Finally, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela talks about the culture wars, from the 60s to today, as they’ve played out in classrooms and at school board meetings across the nation.

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Star Wars, marriage and income inequality, and Tamir Rice.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Force Awakens is the latest entry in the Star Wars franchise. Niki argued that the optimistic Star Wars movies are a departure from the dystopian anxieties apparent in earlier science fiction films such as Godzilla and Them! which were responding to the nuclear age. Natalia remarked this Star Wars moment is taking place within our culture’s current love affair with Wonder Woman, a topic she has written about.A recent New York Times article by the economist Tyler Cowen argued that “assertive mating” – where people of similar class and educational backgrounds marry – is contributing to income inequality. Natalia pointed to Nancy Cott’s Public Vows as an indispensable guide to the history of marriage and Christine Whelan’s Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women for understanding more about the phenomenon Cowen describes. Neil mentioned the “Princeton mom” who gained notoriety by encouraging Princeton undergraduate women to use their college years to find their husbands. Niki suggested the “opt-out” phenomenon of highly-educated women who choose to be stay-at-home mothers revealed another way income inequality shapes marriage and family choices.The murder of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy gunned down by police while playing with a toy gun in a Cleveland park, has drawn comparisons to Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy killed by a white mob in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Natalia recommended the historian Edward Baptist’s recent essay, “Ferguson and Fatherhood,” which discusses “The Talk” African-American families have with their sons about how they must protect themselves in public. Natalia also noted that Stacey Patton’s tweet comparing Tamir Rice to Ralphie, the white Cleveland boy of the movie “A Christmas Story” who famously plays with his toy guy, became an internet sensation and inspired virulent racist backlash. Neil argued Rice’s fate ought to be seen in contrast to the story of Ethan Crouch, the white Texas teenager who killed four people in a drunk driving accident but was found not guilty after his lawyers presented an “affluenza” defense. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “The Selfish Side of Gratitude” and the web series, “Namaste, Bitches.”Neil commented on the absence of Hitler’s name in the current national road tour of The Sound of Music.Niki recommended the Amicus podcast, particularly its recent “Judging Tribal Courts” episode.

On this week’s Past Present bonus episode, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss life coaches.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:Life coaching is big business these days, but there’s still some confusion about what life coaches actually do. Natalia drew from the sociologist Arlie Hochschild’s work on the outsourcing of intimate labor to argue that life coaches are often stand-ins for a reliable friend or professional mentor. Niki noted this was most visible in new services like “Rent-a-Mom.”Niki cited Julie Golia’s research on the rise of advice columns as a helpful way for understanding life coaches. Like Golia’s advice columnists, life coaches fulfill and professionalize social functions that once played out in close-knit communities. Neil noted that in a “Bowling Alone” era, life coaches provided an individualized experience of professional authority within a larger culture of community breakdown and anti-institutional sentiments.Natalia recommended Susan Faludi’s Stiffed for thinking more about the gendered politics of self-help and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided for a critical take on the life coaching industry. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the war on Christmas, food politics, and political spouses. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The “war on Christmas” has become a regular part of the holiday season. The conservative website Newsmax has catalogued the big offenders of 2015. Neil argued the “war on Christmas” is largely a media phenomenon, noting that many religious leaders have chosen to ignore the controversy or to argue that the real war on Christmas is the holiday’s over-commercialization.  Neil also observed that the Puritans outlawed Christmas because the holiday had such decadent celebrations. To read more about the controversial history of Christmas, see Stephen Nissenbaum’s The Battle for Christmas.A new grocery store venture, Daily Table, seeks to provide low-income consumers with more affordable food by selling about-to-expire foods from farmers and wholesalers. Natalia noted that dates used for food expiration are largely made up and contribute to high rates of food waste. Natalia recommended the book, We the Eaters, and the documentary, A Place at the Table, for thinking more about the politics of food.The New York Times’ profile of Marco Rubio’s wife, Jeanette, is the latest example of our culture’s fascination with political spouses. America’s First Ladies have played a unique role in national politics, often using their ceremonial functions to extend their husbands’ political objectives. Neil noted that spouses play particularly important roles in political campaigns, but that women like Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan were also sometimes seen as liabilities for their husbands. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed the history of why American Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas day.Neil commented on GQ’s profile of the international megachurch, Hillsong.Niki explained how in Soviet Russia the Christmas tree became the New Year’s tree.

 On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropic gift, the history of baby names, and “prayer shaming.” Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced they would donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charity, totaling some $45 billion. Some observers have been critical of the couple's decision. Niki pointed to Napster founder Sean Parker’s manifesto, “Philanthropy for Hackers” as a precursor to this debate. Natalia mentioned that books like Matthew Bishop’s Philanthrocapitalism have applauded the way billionaires are devoting themselves more to charitable giving and thereby reshaping the world. We recommend reading the history of philanthropy blog, HistPhil, for more. As a starting point, check out Benjamin Soskis’s essay on the Ford Foundation and the Gospel of Wealth.The most popular baby names of 2015 have been released, and gender-neutral options and names inspired by Instagram filters have made the list. Natalia reminded us that the bestseller Freakonomics has a chapter devoted to the economic consequences of what parents name their children. Niki shared the baby name generator that allows you to see what your name would be if you had been born at different points in history.In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, the New York Daily News devoted its cover page to attacking Republican politicians who offered “thoughts and prayers” instead of political solutions to the nation’s gun crisis. Conservatives lashed back, decrying the rise of liberal “prayer shaming.” But Neil argued against the false dichotomy of a religious right and secular left in this debate, pointing out many liberals had offered their prayers while several Christian conservatives had criticized the thoughtless habit of extending “thoughts and prayers” on social media. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:Natalia discussed Witness Against Torture’s viral video, Thanksgiving at Guantanamo.Neil recommended the hit BBC television show, The Great British Bake Off. Niki shared Mason B. Williams’s essay in the Atlantic, “The Crumbling Monuments of the Age of Marble.”  

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the history of refugees, the legacy of Woodrow Wilson, and Instamoms.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: President Obama tied the Syrian refugee crisis to the story of the Pilgrims in a recent radio address to move Americans to support their entry to the US. The Washington Post’s image of a young refugee, Niki argued, was meant in part to elicit American sympathy, but throughout history Americans have seldom welcomed refugees into the nation. Natalia noted the lowest point of this history may have been when the US rejected the admission of European Jews in the years leading up to World War II. Neil pointed out that moment has been humanized by the account of Anne Frank’s family being denied entry as refugees.Princeton students have demanded the university remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from campus sites because of his racist acts as president. Natalia agreed with historian Nathan Connolly’s request that we “write segregation and race into the story, not to write the racists out of it.” She also recommended the historian Jonathan Zimmerman’s Politico article that encouraged Princeton students to reckon more with Wilson’s complicated example.“Instamoms,” like @Taylensmom, are the newest social media phenomena. But are these digital parents just the latest version of the stage mom? Natalia suggested Viviana Zelizer’s classic, Pricing the Priceless Child, provided a useful way for thinking about the changing social value of children in America. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Sarah Hepola’s memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget.Neil discussed why Americans spoke with the accent they did in the 1930s and what 100 years of photographs reveal about the history of smiling.Niki shared the new Amazon series The Man in the High Castle as a way of thinking about the meaning of fascism in American politics. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Thanksgiving food, the controversial history of football, and Black Friday. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:At the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621, the colonists and Native Americans probably didn’t eat turkey, but food has always been important to the holiday. Niki noted that the CBS documentary, Harvest of Shame, broadcast the day after Thanksgiving in 1960, showed the political dimensions of food as it highlighted the plight of America’s migrant farm workers. Natalia observed that contemporary conversations about food politics have been shaped in large part by the writings of Michael Pollan.Football has been played on Thanksgiving Day almost as long as the holiday has been observed. Neil pointed out football has always been controversial because of the violent nature of the game, resulting in the death of 18 players in 1905 alone. Natalia suggested Gail Bederman’s book, Manliness and Civilization, for thinking about football historically, but also recommended Ariel Levy’s New Yorker article about Steubenville and Malcolm Gladwell’s essay comparing football to dogfighting for grappling with the game’s current controversies.“Black Friday” didn’t always refer to a day of excessive shopping following Thanksgiving. But now that it does, some stores are opting out of the day’s frenzy or at least refusing to open on Thanksgiving. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:Natalia discussed the cancellation of free yoga classes at the University of Ottawa because of fears over “cultural appropriation.”Neil explored the unexpected history of the Thanksgiving hymn, “We Gather Together.”Niki educated us on the cranberry scare of 1959. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the campus protests at Mizzou and Yale, Tinder and online dating, and the politics of immigration.    Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Protests at the University of Missouri, Yale, and other schools have erupted over issues regarding racism on college campuses today. At Mizzou, the university’s troubled history of racism has shaped the most recent events. Niki mentioned that classic works like Alan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind and Dinesh D’Souza’s Illiberal Education made the idea of “political correctness” the prevailing conservative interpretation of university politics and has shaped the current conversation regarding free speech on campus.The dating app Tinder has updated its features to allow users to add job and education information to their profiles. Dating in the internet age has occasioned all sorts of worries about how technology is changing modern romance, but Natalia pointed out there are many continuities with courtship practices across the twentieth century. Natalia noted the works of scholars like Paula Fass and Mary McComb show some of the same practices we think of as created by the internet, such as rating your date, go back to the 1920s.Immigration has emerged as one of the biggest issues in the 2016 presidential race. Niki has recently written about how immigration has become the most important issue in the Republican race for the nomination, and she cited Mae Ngai’s history of illegal aliens, Impossible Subjects, as an important work that has shaped her thinking regarding the history of immigration in America. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix show, Master of None, in part for how it portrays race in America today.Neil suggested two readings on Charles Schulz and his famous comic strip to accompany the new Peanuts movie. Neil recommended David Michaelis’ 2007 biography Schulz and Peanuts and Sarah Boxer’s recent Atlantic article, “The Exemplary Narcissism of Snoopy.”Niki discussed Jill Lepore’s New Yorker article on the history of polling. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Jeb Bush and the history of frontrunners, the modern period, and trigger warnings.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Jeb Bush was the presumed frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, but he’s quickly lost the top spot in the campaign. Frontrunners have often been unable to secure their party’s nomination. Neil tracked “frontrunner” on Google’s Ngram Viewer and found it was first used in 1924, but until 1960 it was mostly used in the context of horseracing. Niki noted that the jump of “frontrunner” language from horseracing to politics after 1960 was in keeping with what a 2012 Atlantic article had called the “Sports Center-ization” of political journalism.Menstruation has a long history. Some women are practicing “free bleeding” as a feminist project to reclaim the period from its history of shame and taboo. Natalia recommended Lara Freidenfelds’ history of menstruation in the twentieth century and an Atlantic article about the history of the tampon. The marketing of tampons and other feminine hygiene products have changed remarkably in recent years, perhaps most clearly in the humorous Camp Gyno ads for the tampon subscription service, HelloFlo.   The controversy over “trigger warnings” on college campuses today has become a hot media topic, but is it a real phenomenon? A recent Atlantic article by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt lamenting the “coddling of the American mind” certainly seemed to think so.  While liberal students in the 1960s protested for greater free speech on campus, liberal students today have called on universities to limit and publish offensive speech for the purposes of ensuring a “safe space.” Natalia noted this had also transformed how college students are dealing with sexual assault on campus, holding universities more accountable for these crimes than the perpetrators, a development Natalia has written about for the Notches blog.  In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed SeaWorld San Diego’s decision to end its killer whale performances after protests following the release of the 2013 documentary “Black Fish.”Neil commented on the defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) last week, a nondiscrimination measure that opponents termed the “bathroom bill.” Neil wrote for Slate last week that conservative activists have used fears over public restrooms to defeat equal rights measures since the 1970s. Niki shared an article that asserted the ballpoint pen, rather than the computer, was what killed cursive writing.  

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Benghazi and the history of Congressional hearings, Ben Carson and black Republicans, and the state of reality TV today. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the Congressional committee on Benghazi is just the latest event in a Congressional investigation that has lasted 72 months, inviting comparison to other Congressional hearings, including the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, Watergate, and the Iran-Contra affair. Natalia remarked that liberal media outlets, like the New Yorker, have concluded Clinton emerged triumphant from the hearings, while Neil noted that Fox News had cut away from its broadcast of the hearings once the Republicans appeared to have bungled their case against Clinton.Ben Carson has emerged as a frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, but African-American Republicans are an increasingly rare group. Niki recommended Leah Wright Rigueur’s book, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, as an excellent recent history of black conservatives and the party of Lincoln.American Idol and Survivor are slumping in the ratings, but is reality TV dead? Neil argued no, pointing to the proliferation of reality TV shows that continue to blanket the airwaves. The history of reality TV is a complicated one, however, in part because no one seems to agree on what exactly defines the genre. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia commented on the controversy at the University of Louisville where the school’s president and other administrators wore stereotypical Mexican costumes to a staff Halloween party.Neil noted the record established on October 28 that the U.S. had gone 18,967 days without a president dying in office since John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. The previous record of 18,966 lasted between George Washington’s inauguration in 1789 and William Henry Harrison’s death in 1841.Niki discussed Paul Ryan’s ascension to the speakership and explained why Speakers of the House almost never make it to the Oval Office.

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Bernie Sanders and the history of socialism in America, Fitbit, and why adults are now celebrating Halloween.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  Bernie Sanders’ bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination has raised the old question, “Why is there no socialism in America?” That question served as the title of Werner Sombart’s 1906 classic. Natalia mentioned the historian Eric Foner’s advice that Sanders should use moral language to defend socialism as Eugene Debs did in the early 20th century. Natalia also noted that Larry David’s portrayal of Sanders on Saturday Night Live could make the senator’s Jewishness more well-known among American voters.Some Wall Street banks have ordered Fitbit activity trackers for their employees, a decision they explained for improving workers’ health. But many see dangerous possibilities when companies track their employees’ personal lives. Niki recommended Sarah Igo’s book, The Averaged American, for thinking more about the history of data in Americans’ lives. Natalia noted the recent book The Wellness Syndrome discusses how Americans’ obsession with health and fitness may be becoming an unhealthy obsession. Natalia, our fitness history expert, has written about wellness culture in America for the Huffington Post.Once a holiday for children, Halloween has become a popular event for many American adults in part because of the dangers associated with it for children. Steven Mintz’s Huck’s Raft and Paula Fass’ Kidnapped were recommended as two books that historicize American fears about child welfare and safety. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Michelle Miller’s The Underwriting as a page-turning thriller about a Silicon Valley dating website’s IPO. Natalia noted the novel had originally been published online in downloadable installments, harkening back the older publishing traditional of serializing literature.Neil commented on the discovery that Mike Huckabee’s 1998 book Kids Who Kill was found to have contained numerous false and misattributed historical quotations from figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Neil presented this as another cautionary tale in how politicians use and misuse history for their political advantage.  Niki discussed the Slate article, “French Tadpoles and Persian Pickles,” an excerpt from Jude Stewart’s book, Patternalia. The article presented a fascinating history of paisley, but Niki noted it also demonstrated how the history of a pattern was also a way of understanding the history of society and culture. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Playboy magazine’s decision to stop publishing nude photos, the strength and stability of the nation’s political parties, and the whitening of American cities.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Many commentators attributed Playboy’s decision to stop publishing nude photos as the inevitable result for a print magazine caught in a culture awash in Internet pornography. Neil pointed out that in addition to its famous centerfolds, the magazine has a long history of publishing serious articles, including interviews with leading cultural and political figures like, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jimmy Carter.There’s been lots of talk about the brokenness of the Republican Party, but others are beginning to suggest the Democrats aren’t in great shape either. Niki contended that political polarization and party hostility have contributed to the instability of the parties.The Washington Post recently reported that the white population is growing in 45 of the nation’s 50 biggest cities. Neil argued it wasn’t right to see this development as the “reversal of white flight.” (For an excellent history of “white flight,” see Kevin Kruse’s 2005 study of Atlanta.) Natalia suggested that Thomas Frank’s book, The Conquest of Cool, provided a useful way to think about why cities have become so attractive to white professionals again. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed the New York Times article, “The Lonely Death of George Bell.” Natalia contrasted the detached manner with which readers have seemed to respond to this story of an old man’s isolated death as compared to the outrage Americans felt about reports in 1964 that Kitty Genovese had been stabbed to death over several hours while her neighbors did nothing. (See the New York Times’ original article about Genovese’s murder here.)Neil commented on the controversy regarding Mark Juergensmeyer’s decision to boycott a conference at Brigham Young University in protest of the school’s policy of expelling LDS students who lose their Mormon faith or convert to another religion. Juergensmeyer had been alerted to this policy by the student group Free BYU which is pressuring the university to reverse its policy.Niki recommended Pamela Newkirk’s book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, which tells the story of the Congolese man put on display in a monkey cage at the New York Zoological Gardens in 1906. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Confederate history and memorialization, selfie shaming, and Carly Fiorina and conservative feminism.  Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Students at Yale have petitioned the university to rename the residential college named for John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina politician and ardent defender of slavery. (You can read the formal petition: here.) Neil noted the recent book, Ebony and Ivy, by MIT historian Craig Steven Wilder explores the connection between northern universities and the institution of slavery.A group of sorority sisters being mocked for taking selfies at a recent Arizona Diamondbacks game quickly became a viral media sensation. Natalia referenced Christopher Lasch’s 1979 classic, The Culture of Narcissism, as one way to understand the “selfie” phenomenon, but suggested we might also recognize selfies as an act of female self-empowerment and self-expression in a culture with such demanding expectations regarding women’s appearance.With her recent essay calling for “redefining feminism,” Carly Fiorina has joined the small ranks of conservative women who call themselves feminists. Other examples included the women of Feminists for Life, a pro-life organization founded in 1972 that believed it was a feminist duty to protect women from the atrocity of abortion. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia shared an article about the history of leftover food as an example of how historical analysis can use the objects of everyday life to understand the bigger picture of American economic history.Neil recommended Gilbert King’s 2012 book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, which chronicles Marshall’s legal defense of four young African-American citrus workers in central Florida falsely accused of rape in 1949.Niki discussed the reappearance of Richard Nixon in the form of the Twitter account @dick_nixon and how Nixon's funeral became a culture touchstone. Read Hunter S. Thompson's obituary of Nixon here.

On this week’s Past Present bonus episode, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the history of gun policy and debates over the Second Amendment. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:The mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon that left ten people dead has once again put the contentious issue of gun rights in the national conversation.Both gun rights and gun control advocates have used bad history about the Second Amendment and gun ownership to advance their particular causes. Natalia noted the book, Arming America, by Michael Bellesiles at first was embraced by liberal proponents of gun control until the work was thoroughly discredited for using falsified research. Conservatives argue the Constitution secured an individual right to gun ownership, but historians like Jill Lepore have shown the National Rifle Association has played the critical role in advancing this interpretation since the 1970s.This week, Niki wrote about American life in the “Age of the Gun” for U.S. News & World Report. 

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss Pope Francis’ visit to the US, the “quit lit” phenomenon, and Donald Trump. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The papal visit of Pope Francis marks the tenth time a pope has come to the United States. In his new book, We Gather Together, Neil writes about how Pope John Paul II’s papal visits in the 1980s strengthened the American pro-life movement and deepened evangelical-Catholic relations. The rise of “quit lit” from professors announcing their departure from academia in written form found its most recent example in an essay for the website Vox. But the fantasy of quitting one’s job has been a frequent theme in American pop culture, from Johnny Paycheck’s country hit, “Take This Job and Shove It,” to the twentieth-century novels Babbitt and Revolutionary Road. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign continues to intrigue and puzzle political commentators. Historians have looked for historical precedents for Trump, but it may be that Trump, particularly in terms of his views on immigration and his outrageous comments about Mexicans, is best understood in the historical currents of American populism and nativism. Niki has written frequently on the Trump phenomenon in her column for U.S. News.In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed the recent finding that more people in 2015 have died from “selfie-related deaths” than from shark attacks. Such news reminded Natalia of Christopher Lasch’s critique of American society in his 1979 classic, The Culture of Narcissism.Neil recommended Johnny Depp’s new movie, Black Mass, which depicts the career of James “Whitey” Bulger, the mafia kingpin and FBI informant who terrorized South Boston in the 1970s and early 1980s. ·Niki spoke about Erik Kirschbaum’s recent editorial, “Whatever Happened to German America?” Niki, our resident German American, waxed nostalgic about her love for kuchen, springerle, and the Schnitzelbank drinking song. While understanding the history of discrimination against German Americans, which David Kennedy outlined in his book Over Here, Niki suggested there are much stronger historical reasons why we won’t see an organized drive to reclaim German-American identity any time soon.   

Episode 2, September 21, 2015 Show NotesOn this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the Planned Parenthood video controversy, the IPO of SoulCycle, and the rise of corporate support for gay rights. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The release of undercover videos showing a Planned Parenthood official discussing the organization’s practice of donating fetal tissue have elicited outrage from conservative outlets. The videos stand in a long tradition of anti-abortion activism, but also demonstrate the increasing power of undercover videos as a form of political activism. SoulCycle’s initial public offering has attracted the attention of Wall Street investors, but the cycling brand has received steady criticism from cultural critics since its wheels first started spinning. For those interested in reading more about the history of fitness and wellness, be sure to check out Natalia’s essays on these topics.The Dorito’s Rainbow chips are raising money for the It Gets Better Project. Other recent gay-friendly marketing campaigns have included Chipotle’s “Homo Estas” ads and Ben & Jerry’s “I Dough, I Dough” ice cream. Aside from these marketing efforts, corporations have played a leading role in fighting for gay rights since the 1990s. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia responded to a recent New York Times editorial that parents rather than schools should have the ultimate say in their children’s lunches. While acknowledging the class and cultural dimensions of food, Natalia argued that food and nutrition experts needed to have the same educational authority in the classroom that math and history instructors also hold. Natalia has written about how school wellness programs may be the next frontier in the nation’s culture wars. Neil discussed Stacy Schiff’s New Yorker article, “The Witches of Salem.” (Schiff’s new book on the Salem Witch Trials comes out in late October.) Neil noted the rich historical literature on the Salem Witch Trials has included Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s Salem Possessed and Mary Beth Norton’s In the Devil’s Snare. Niki spoke about Ari Berman’s new book Give Us the Ballot which argues we are in the midst of a counterrevolution in voting rights. If you want to read more about the battle over the ballot while you are waiting for Ari’s book to arrive, Niki has written about the history of voting rights several times in her column at U.S. News. See here, here, and here.  

On this week’s Past Present podcast, Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Neil Young discuss the jailing of Kim Davis and the history of civil disobedience, the new online marketplace called TeachersPayTeachers, and the controversy over Taylor Swift’s new video for “Wildest Dreams.” Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:The jailing of Kim Davis had her conservative defenders arguing this was an act of civil disobedience while her critics responded Davis’ defiance would ultimately benefit the gay rights movement. The website TeachersPayTeachers received glowing coverage from the New York Times. Taylor Swift’s new music video for “Wildest Dreams” inspired a swift critique from two African writers. Swift’s production team rushed to the video’s defense, making their own case for historical accuracy. But plenty others have criticized “Wildest Dreams” as promoting a colonial nostalgia.In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:Neil cited Bernie Sanders’ speech at Liberty University and compared it to Mitt Romney’s controversial appearance at Liberty in 2012.Natalia discussed Germany’s response to the European refugee crisis in light of the country’s complicated national history.  Niki compared the stability of the American political system to that of Australia’s that, with the recent election of Malcolm Turnbull to prime minister in a leadership spill, has had five prime ministers in four years. 

The intersection between Spanish-bilingual education and sex education might not be immediately apparent. Yet, as Natalia Mehlman Petrzela shows in her new book, Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), the meeting between these two paradigms of education firmly connects in California during the 1960s and 70s. Under the backdrop of California during an era of the sexual revolution, a dramatic influx of Latinos, and awakened protest movements, Dr. Petrzela, assistant professor at The New School, explores this historical landscape of education and society. From well-known political icons like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, to lesser-known figures such as Ernesto Galarza, and even details from regular people who lived the moment, Classroom Wars provides an in-depth and nuanced look into this interesting intersection in American educational history. Dr. Petrzela joins New Books in Education for the interview and you can follow her on Twitter at @nataliapetrzela or find her website at nataliapetrzela.com. For questions or comments on the podcast, you can also find the host on Twitter at @PoliticsAndEd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices