In this episode, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Dr. Michael Zeitler for an expansive conversation about John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat — its mythic structure, its treatment of poverty, the nature of friendship and communal codes, and how Steinbeck used the Monterey landscape to explore deep questions about history and identity. Together they examine the novel’s tragic undercurrents, its echoes of World War I trauma, its links to Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and Cannery Row, and why Steinbeck’s early works continue to provoke debate about caricature, class, and representation. Dr. Zeitler also reflects on Hardy, Haney’s Beowulf, the anthropology of place, car mechanics in Steinbeck, and the philosophical lineage running from Emerson to Ellison. A wide-ranging, insightful discussion for Steinbeck fans and California history enthusiasts alike.
Today, we have Dr. Stephen Aron on the program. He is the President and CEO of the Autry Autry Museum of the American West....
Today's episode is the first in a series of episodes on the history of Chinese Americans in California. We are beginning the series by...
Today, we have an interview with Boris Dralyuk. Dralyuk is a literary translator, poet, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books....