Kathy Peiss & Chuck Palahnuik

From the late Depression era into the 1940s , a striking urban fashion became widespread among certain circles across America. The Zoot Suit was identified with the youth culture East Coast African American communities; the pachucos of Los Angeles and wherever jitterbugs and jive talkers could be found. But it was also a fashion that was considered unpatriotic by the War Production Board and the target for white racial hatred during the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. What kind of men’s fashion could cause such extreme reactions? Tune in tonight, when Inquiry talks with KATHY PEISS, writer and the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania and author of ZOOT SUIT: THE ENIGMATIC CAREER OF AN EXTREME STYLE.

Noted writer and novelist CHUCK PALAHNUIK returns to Inquiry to talk about his latest book DAMNED, the first volume in a three volume series. Damned is narrated by Madison, a prepubescent privileged daughter of classic Hollywood types who finds herself very much in the depths of hell wearing the right shoes. So what’s it like to create a detailed vision of the depths of eternal damnation? Tune in and find out. All I will say is avoid the popcorn balls.