Public Policy

Public Policy

episodes

Interviews with scholars of public policy about their new books.

Lennard J. Davis, "Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It" (Duke UP, 2024)

October 30, 2024

Poor Things

Lennard J. Davis
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dicken…

Simon Kuznets and the Invention of the Economy

October 27, 2024

Simon Kuznets and the Invention of the Economy

Hosted by Gordon Katic

Economics sometimes feels like a physics–so sturdy, so objective, and so immutable. Yet, behind every clean number or eye-popping graph, there is usua…

Johanna Hedva, "How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom" (Zando-Hillman Grad Books, 2024)

October 27, 2024

How to Tell When We Will Die

Johanna Hedva
Hosted by Clayton Jarrard

The long-awaited essay collection from one of the most influential voices in disability activism that detonates a bomb in our collective understanding…

Kathleen McGoey and Lindsey Pointer, "Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools for Online Learning: Games and Activities for Restorative Justice Practitioners" (Good Books, 2024)

October 26, 2024

Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools for Online Learning

Kathleen McGoey and Lindsey Pointer
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Teaching, training, and gathering online has become a global norm since 2020. Restorative practitioners have risen to the challenge to shift restorati…

Sarah Ball, "Behavioural Public Policy in Australia: How an Idea Became Practice" (Routledge, 2022)

October 22, 2024

Behavioural Public Policy in Australia

Sarah Ball
Hosted by Nick Cheesman

Max Weber once remarked that bureaucracy’s power comes from its massing of expert and factual knowledges. It amasses this power, in part, by keeping m…

René Boer, "Smooth City: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives" (Valiz, 2023)

October 22, 2024

Smooth City

René Boer
Hosted by Timi Koyejo

In cities across the world, a new urban condition is spreading rapidly: an ever-increasing push toward efficiency, sanitization, surveillance and the …

Adam Greenfield, "Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire" (Verso, 2024)

October 22, 2024

Lifehouse

Adam Greenfield
Hosted by Nick Pozek

In Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire (Verso, 2024), Adam Greenfield presents a compelling vision for collective resilience in an …

Anna Lora-Wainwright, "Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China" (MIT Press, 2021)

October 20, 2024

Resigned Activism

Anna Lora-Wainwright
Hosted by Elena Sobrino

Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China (MIT Press, 2021) by Dr. Anna Lora-Wainwright digs deep into the paradoxes, ambivalences, and …

Jennifer Chudy, "Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Sympathy, Suffering, and Solidarity" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

October 18, 2024

Some White Folks

Jennifer Chudy
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

There is racial inequality in America, and some people are distressed over it while others are not. Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Symp…

Amanda Shoaf Vincent, "Constructing Gardens, Cultivating the City: Paris's New Parks, 1977-1995" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

October 18, 2024

Constructing Gardens, Cultivating the City

Amanda Shoaf Vincent
Hosted by Sarah Miles

In the space of about two decades, five major parks were proposed, designed, and created in Paris. Some emerged from competitions between professional…

Keith E. Whittington, "You Can't Teach That!: The Battle over University Classrooms" (Polity Press, 2024)

October 17, 2024

You Can't Teach That!

Keith E. Whittington
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Who controls what is taught in American universities – professors or politicians? The answer is far from clear but suddenly urgent. Unprecedented effo…

Wes Marshall, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion That Science Underlies Our Transportation System" (Island Press, 2024)

October 12, 2024

Killed by a Traffic Engineer

Wes Marshall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the US we are nearing four million road deaths since we began counting them in 1899. The numbers are getting worse in recent years, yet we continue…

Gretchen Sisson, "Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood" (St. Martin's Press, 2024)

October 12, 2024

Relinquished

Gretchen Sisson
Hosted by Sharon Yam

Adoption has always been viewed as a beloved institution for building families, as well as a mutually agreeable common ground in the otherwise partisa…

Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor, "Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future" (The New Press, 2024)

October 9, 2024

Charging Forward

Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

A clarion call for justice in the quest for clean energy. California’s Salton Sea region is home to some of the worst environmental health condition…

Frank R. Baumgartner, "Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us about Policing and Race" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

October 8, 2024

Suspect Citizens

Frank R. Baumgartner, Derek A. Epp, and Kelsey Shoub
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

We recently marked the 50th Anniversary of Terry vs. Ohio, the US Supreme Court case that dramatically expanded the scope under which agents of the st…

Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, "The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places" (MIT Press, 2024)

October 2, 2024

The Cities We Need

Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

An expressive book of prose and photographs that reveals the powerful ways our everyday places support our shared belonging. Where would you take some…

Brianna Nofil, "The Migrant's Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 2, 2024

The Migrant's Jail

Brianna Nofil
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Today, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains an average of 37,000 migrants each night. To do so, they rely on, and pay for, the use of …

Lynne B. Sagalyn, "Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change" (MIT Press, 2023)

September 30, 2024

Times Square Remade

Lynne B. Sagalyn
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What is it about Times Square that has inspired such attention for well over a century? And how is it that, despite its many changes of character, the…

Emily M. Farris and Mirya R. Holman, "The Power of the Badge: Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

September 30, 2024

The Power of the Badge

Emily M. Farris and Mirya R. Holman
Hosted by Susan Liebell

The image of the sheriff is deeply embedded in American culture – from pacifist Jimmy Stewart in Destry Rides Again and gun averse Roy Scheider in Jaw…

Jonathan Maskit, "Bicycle" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

September 29, 2024

Bicycle

Jonathan Maskit
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

These days the bicycle often appears as an interloper in a world constructed for cars. An almost miraculous 19th-century contraption, the bicycle prom…