Trip 43: Cool

What exactly is cool? Well, if it was that easy to describe, it obviously wouldn’t be cool. In this Trip, Keir, Jem and Nadia wonder if cool comes from within, if cool can ever be politically useful, and what happens when cool is used as a disciplining force.

With ideas from Pierre Bourdieu, Norman Mailer and Paul Gilroy, and music from OutKast, Gwen Stefani and Miles Davis, the gang adopt a blank expression to explore the mysterious rules of this singular modern concept.

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Books:
 Dick Pountain & David Robins – Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude / Pierre Bourdieu – Distinction: A Sociology of the Judgement of Taste / Sarah Thornton – Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital / Norman Mailer – The White Negro / Georg Simmel – The Metropolis and Mental Life / Paul Gilroy – The Black Atlantic / The New Spirit of Capitalism / Thomas Frank – The Conquest of Cool / Jean Genet – Prisoner of Love

Music:
 Gwen Stefani – Cool / Dua Lipa – Cool / OutKast – Take Off Your Cool / The Stooges – Real Cool Time / Miles Davis – Jeru / Ricardo Villalobos – Hireklon / New Order – Blue Monday

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481