Garrett Eisler
@garretteisler.bsky.social
Theatre & Film Historian. My new book: "Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest" from @RutgersUPress. Formerly of the blog "The Playgoer." Cohost of "1049 Park Ave: An Odd Couple Podcast."
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Garrett Eisler
@garretteisler.bsky.social
· Jan 28
I'm proud to announce the publication of "Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest" from @rutgersupress.bsky.social, available now. A critical study of Hecht's four dramatic works from the 1940s about the Holocaust and the struggle for a Jewish state, as those events were happening. 1/5
Yes happy #OddCoupleDay to all who celebrate! ("On November 13, Felix Unger....") To relive your favorite episodes check out our archive of "1049 Park Ave: An Odd Couple Podcast," ep-by-ep recaps plus interviews with some of the writers and cast&crew family members: odd1049parkavenue.podbean.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Yes happy #OddCoupleDay to all who celebrate! ("On November 13, Felix Unger....") To relive your favorite episodes check out our archive of "1049 Park Ave: An Odd Couple Podcast," ep-by-ep recaps plus interviews with some of the writers and cast&crew family members: odd1049parkavenue.podbean.com
Worst Woody movie EVER!
Jeffrey Epstein was developing a series, moderated by @lkrauss1.bsky.social, to bring scientists and celebrities together. The first season would include an episode where "Woody Allen talks about the human condition with Linguist Noam Chomsky."
drive.google.com/file/d/14Sla...
drive.google.com/file/d/14Sla...
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023123.txt
drive.google.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Worst Woody movie EVER!
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
Director: Alan Crosland
Director: Alan Crosland
November 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
Director: Alan Crosland
Director: Alan Crosland
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
My kids have measles and my SNAP benefits were cut. But at least those cashiers at Walmart aren’t writing “they/them” on their name tags anymore.
November 8, 2025 at 2:53 AM
My kids have measles and my SNAP benefits were cut. But at least those cashiers at Walmart aren’t writing “they/them” on their name tags anymore.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
In the name of protecting Jews, Jews have their funding cancelled, get kicked out of seminars, and are removed from leadership positions in Jewish Studies to be replaced by non-Jews.
Latest write-up about outrageous administrative over reach at IU. www.jta.org/2025/11/07/u...
In Indiana, a vaunted Jewish studies program is upended by red-state politics over Israel and speech - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A leadership shakeup, a defunded graduate student and political pressure from above have turned a storied program into a flashpoint for Trump-era campus politics.
www.jta.org
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 AM
In the name of protecting Jews, Jews have their funding cancelled, get kicked out of seminars, and are removed from leadership positions in Jewish Studies to be replaced by non-Jews.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
If Mamdani wins I will leave New York. I will go live in one of the other 5 houses I have, perhaps the one in South Florida, or the one in Paris, or Napa, or Cabo, but I will definitely leave New York. I will keep my apartment, though, because it's awesome and New York is great. But I will leave.
November 4, 2025 at 1:59 AM
If Mamdani wins I will leave New York. I will go live in one of the other 5 houses I have, perhaps the one in South Florida, or the one in Paris, or Napa, or Cabo, but I will definitely leave New York. I will keep my apartment, though, because it's awesome and New York is great. But I will leave.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
“And we at The Washington Post love it!”
With large portraits of himself, 24-karat golden adornments and a triumphal arch, President Trump is asserting his power through what might be called an imperial aesthetic, or visual cues designed to project personal command and grandeur.
The imperial aesthetic at the heart of Donald Trump’s presidency
In addition to his accumulation of political power, Trump has embraced visual cues designed to project personal command and grandeur.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:39 PM
“And we at The Washington Post love it!”
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
People aren't struggling, they are experimenting with frugality! 🧑🔬🔬🧪
October 28, 2025 at 1:13 PM
People aren't struggling, they are experimenting with frugality! 🧑🔬🔬🧪
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
it’s kind of funny that the New York Times, which is probably at least 50% Ivy League on the editorial side, is one of the primary drivers of contemporary anti-intellectualism, but not really funny in a good way
What Zohran Mamdani Learned as an Africana Studies Major at Bowdoin
www.nytimes.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:55 PM
it’s kind of funny that the New York Times, which is probably at least 50% Ivy League on the editorial side, is one of the primary drivers of contemporary anti-intellectualism, but not really funny in a good way
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
There is a full-on push in NYC right now to use "Mamdani doesn't make Jews 'feel safe'" as a cudgel to get Cuomo into office, and it is utterly disgusting. You know what makes me feel unsafe? People who casually characterize us as a trembling single-issue monolith scared of the big bad Muslim.
October 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
There is a full-on push in NYC right now to use "Mamdani doesn't make Jews 'feel safe'" as a cudgel to get Cuomo into office, and it is utterly disgusting. You know what makes me feel unsafe? People who casually characterize us as a trembling single-issue monolith scared of the big bad Muslim.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.
I did it because the government isn’t.
This is what I found.
I did it because the government isn’t.
This is what I found.
October 18, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.
I did it because the government isn’t.
This is what I found.
I did it because the government isn’t.
This is what I found.
C.Bigsby's 2-volume bio of #BOTD Arthur Miller remains definitive but J.Lahr's new one is a valuable starting point for more concise reading. Was glad to review it for @americantheatre.org last year. Lahr has a great storyof visiting Miller in the 70s... 1/2
www.americantheatre.org/2023/01/30/t...
www.americantheatre.org/2023/01/30/t...
October 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM
C.Bigsby's 2-volume bio of #BOTD Arthur Miller remains definitive but J.Lahr's new one is a valuable starting point for more concise reading. Was glad to review it for @americantheatre.org last year. Lahr has a great storyof visiting Miller in the 70s... 1/2
www.americantheatre.org/2023/01/30/t...
www.americantheatre.org/2023/01/30/t...
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
NEW: The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did.
We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...
www.propublica.org
October 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM
NEW: The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did.
We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
I'm sure this is true in many fields of writing, but: The easiest way to write a big attention-getting piece on some area of culture is if you don't know enough about it to know how many of your impressive, sweeping statements about it are wrong
October 16, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I'm sure this is true in many fields of writing, but: The easiest way to write a big attention-getting piece on some area of culture is if you don't know enough about it to know how many of your impressive, sweeping statements about it are wrong
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
It's somehow both wildly underreported and just out in the open that the vice president is either a neo-Nazi or, at a bare minimum, a neo-Nazi fellow traveler.
Fascinating. Politico notes that when notified of the texts, many state-level Republicans fired or condemned these cretins. Now Vance emerges to excuse the racism, and calls the reaction to it "pearl clutching."
He seems determined to purge the party of its last enclaves of decency.
He seems determined to purge the party of its last enclaves of decency.
‘College Group Chat’: JD Vance Dismisses ‘Pearl Clutching’ Over Young Republicans Leak to Attack Jay Jones
Liberals hit back at Vance's blunt dismissal of racist, antisemitic and misogynistic messages leaked from a Young Republicans group chat.
www.mediaite.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:23 PM
It's somehow both wildly underreported and just out in the open that the vice president is either a neo-Nazi or, at a bare minimum, a neo-Nazi fellow traveler.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about Trump’s plan to purge Black people from the Ivy League.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda
A “compact” offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities.
www.theatlantic.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:32 PM
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about Trump’s plan to purge Black people from the Ivy League.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.
October 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM
the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
“the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”
October 9, 2025 at 2:29 AM
“the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”
Love the little "small print" joke from this 1949 historical mockup from The Onion...
October 2, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Love the little "small print" joke from this 1949 historical mockup from The Onion...
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!
September 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!
Maybe also explain's Musk's weird obsession with accusing others of being "pedos."
Being the son of a Nazi [alleged] repeated child rapist sure helps to explain Elon Musk's attraction to Donald Trump
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/w...
Elon Musk’s Father Accused of Child Sexual Abuse
www.nytimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Maybe also explain's Musk's weird obsession with accusing others of being "pedos."
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
One advantage I think pop culture critics have in covering Trump is that everybody else has forgotten how deeply, C-list used-to-be-famous he had become in between his Art of the Deal heyday and when The Apprentice launched.
September 9, 2025 at 7:41 PM
One advantage I think pop culture critics have in covering Trump is that everybody else has forgotten how deeply, C-list used-to-be-famous he had become in between his Art of the Deal heyday and when The Apprentice launched.
Reposted by Garrett Eisler
CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else.
#USAnotRFK
Lets gooooo
#USAnotRFK
Lets gooooo
August 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM
CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else.
#USAnotRFK
Lets gooooo
#USAnotRFK
Lets gooooo
Very blessed to have a favorable and thorough review of my Ben Hecht book by illustrious theater historian Samuel L. Leiter! Especially appreciate that he calls it "a vividly written, always accessible scholarly study that both specialists and general readers will appreciate."
shorturl.at/6WPMs
shorturl.at/6WPMs
Leiter Looks at Books: “Ben Hecht’s Theatre of Jewish Protest” - Theater Pizzazz
By Samuel L. Leiter... Casual Notes on show biz books, memoirs, and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses.
shorturl.at
August 28, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Very blessed to have a favorable and thorough review of my Ben Hecht book by illustrious theater historian Samuel L. Leiter! Especially appreciate that he calls it "a vividly written, always accessible scholarly study that both specialists and general readers will appreciate."
shorturl.at/6WPMs
shorturl.at/6WPMs