Author, researcher, and University of Chicago Associate Professor of English Tina Post joins us for a discussion on coziness. If you ask someone to conjure the ideal American cozy scene — that is, not necessarily the scene of their own coziest desires, but the one you're both likely to understand to be the cultural ideal — it would probably involve a small and warmly lit home or cabin, very likely in the woods or countryside. It is probably snowing or otherwise blustery outside, but the home they imagine probably comes complete with a merry, wood-burning fireplace or stove, some throw blankets, perhaps a cat. And if you ask them to complete the cultural ideal with a person, that person would likely be in flannels or knitwear, likely holding a hand-thrown mug of cocoa or tea. And — and this, Post argues, is important — the hands holding that mug are probably white. Tina Post's next monograph project, On Coziness, explores coziness as an aesthetic category. It’s interested both in how U.S. Americans come to delineate the contours of coziness, and in why minoritized subjects seem so readily excluded from the hegemonic imaginary of this aesthetic category.

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