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Bob Dylan and Nostalgia (with Court Carney)

June 8, 2026 · 1 h 9 min

Show notes

In this episode, Laura talks to history professor Court Carney about Bob Dylan and Nostalgia – Dylan’s relationship to the past and the future, The Odyssey, and Don Draper.

Here are a few things we reference that you might want to check out:

Eric Lott’s book, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, from which Dylan took the title of his 2001 album.

Mad Men - Carousel pitch

Mad Men - Don’t Think Twice scene

You can buy The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: “Play a Song for Me”, edited by Court and Erin C Callahan here.

You can read my essay in this collection, “Today and Tomorrow and Yesterday Too”, about Bob Dylan and Time in the 2020s –which I think is highly relevant in the context of this conversation– for free over on Patreon.

And you can watch the talk I gave in Miami about film, painting, and making time stand still over here:

Court’s Substack and website: https://www.courtcarney.com/

You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.

Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.

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