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About Nathan Abrams

I trained as a historian of Modern US History but have branched out into Jewish Studies and Film Studies. I'm currently a professor of film studies at Bangor University in north Wales. I broadcast and write regularly on transatlantic Jewish culture. I've written a biography of Norman Podhoretz and since 2012 have been focussing on Stanley Kubrick with a bio of him forthcoming in 2023. I'm also interested in food.

Nathan Abrams is a professor of film at Bangor University in Wales. His most recent work is on film director Stanley Kubrick. To discuss and propose a book for interview you can reach him at n.abrams@bangor.ac.uk. Twitter: @ndabrams

NBN Episodes hosted by Nathan:

Jewish Studies September 4, 2023

Escape to Gwrych Castle

A Jewish Refugee Story

Andrew Hesketh

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
In 1939, a number of German Jewish refugee children, brought over on the Kindertransport, found themselves in Abergele, North Wales. Their temporary new home? Gwrych Castle, where a Hachshara was …
Jewish Studies September 2, 2023

Jewish Women in Comics

Bodies and Borders

Heike Bauer, Andrea Greenbaum, and Sarah Lightman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
Listen:
In Jewish Women in Comics: Bodies and Borders (Syracuse UP, 2022), contributors draw upon a rich treasure trove of Jewish women’s comics to explore the representation of Jewish women’s bodies …
Jewish Studies April 4, 2023

Finding Refuge

Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Fled to Wales to Escape the Nazis

Andrea Hammel

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
A popular history telling the stories of people who found refuge in Wales from Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s. Finding Refuge will resonate with those who have personal experience …
Film February 6, 2023

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

J. W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
In 1966 Stanley Kubrick told a friend that he wanted to make “the world’s scariest movie.” A decade later Stephen King’s The Shining landed on the director’s desk, and a …
Film December 3, 2022

The Shining

A Visual and Cultural Haunting

Craig Oldham

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
The Shining: A Visual and Cultural Haunting (Rough Trade Books, 2022) is an immersive, multi-dimensional examination of one of the most famous films in cinematic history. This loose-leafed and beautifully …
Film October 28, 2022

The Whole Durn Human Comedy

Life According to the Coen Brothers

Joseph McBride

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
The Coen Bros. have attracted a wide following and have been rewarded with Oscars and other honors. Some of their films such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country …
Film April 8, 2022

Hollywood and Israel

A History

Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
From Frank Sinatra’s early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg’s present-day peacemaking, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. This book offers a groundbreaking account of this relationship, both …
Film April 6, 2022

Citizen Spielberg

Lester D. Friedman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
Steven Spielberg's extraordinary career redefined Hollywood, but his achievement goes far beyond shattered box office records. Rejecting the view of Spielberg as a Barnumesque purveyor of spectacle, Lester D. Friedman …
Film March 25, 2022

Triumph Over Containment

American Film in the 1950s

Robert P. Kolker

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
The long 1950s, which extend back to the early postwar period and forward into the early 1960s, were a period of “containment culture” in America, as the media worked to …
Jewish Studies March 11, 2022

Movie-Made Jews

An American Tradition

Helene Meyers

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition (Rutgers University Press, 2021) focuses on a rich, usable American Jewish cinematic tradition. This tradition includes fiction and documentary films that make Jews through antisemitism …
Film February 24, 2022

David Cronenberg

Interviews

David Schwartz

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
From his early horror movies, including Scanners, Videodrome, Rabid, and The Fly—with their exploding heads, mutating sex organs, rampaging parasites, and scientists turning into insects—to his inventive adaptations of books …
Jewish Studies February 1, 2022

Holocaust Cinema Complete

A History and Analysis of 400 Films, with a Teaching Guide

Rich Brownstein

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
Holocaust movies have become an important segment of world cinema and the de-facto Holocaust education for many. One quarter of all American-produced Holocaust-related feature films have won or been nominated …
Language January 7, 2022

The Babel Message

A Love Letter to Language

Keith Kahn-Harris

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
A thrilling journey deep into the heart of language, from a rather unexpected starting point. Keith Kahn-Harris is a man obsessed with something seemingly trivial – the warning message found …