Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

episodes

Interviews with authors of Princeton University Press books.

Toni Alimi, "Slaves of God: Augustine and Other Romans on Religion and Politics" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 28, 2024

Slaves of God

Toni Alimi
Hosted by Michael Motia

Augustine believed that slavery is permissible, but to understand why, we must situate him in his late antique Roman intellectual context. Slaves of G…

Corey Ross, "Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 17, 2024

Liquid Empire

Corey Ross
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These…

Marietje Schaake, "The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 15, 2024

The Tech Coup

Marietje Schaake
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Over the past decades, under the cover of "innovation," technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power …

Norman Naimark, "Stalin's Genocides" (Princeton UP, 2010)

October 9, 2024

Stalin's Genocides

Norman Naimark
Hosted by Marshall Poe

Absolutely no one doubts that Stalin murdered millions of people in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. His ruthless campaign of "dekulakization," his pitiles…

Jeffrey Ding, "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 5, 2024

Technology and the Rise of Great Powers

Jeffrey Ding

When scholars and policymakers consider how technological advances affect the rise and fall of great powers, they draw on theories that center the mom…

Alexandre Lefebvre, "Liberalism as a Way of Life" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 4, 2024

Liberalism as a Way of Life

Alexandre Lefebvre

Why liberalism is all you need to lead a good, fun, worthy, and rewarding life—and how you can become a better and happier person by taking your liber…

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 …

Mary Bridges, "Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower" (Princeton UP, 2024)

October 1, 2024

Dollars and Dominion

Mary Bridges
Hosted by Meghan Cochran

There was nothing inevitable or natural about the rise of US finance capitalism in the early twentieth century. In Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers …

Leonard Cassuto, "Academic Writing as if Readers Matter" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 29, 2024

Academic Writing as if Readers Matter

Leonard Cassuto
Hosted by Steven Rodriguez

Academic writing isn’t known for its clarity. While graduate students might see reading and writing turgid academic prose as a badge of honor—a sign o…

Behind the Mic: How Danielle D’Orlando is Transforming Academic Audiobooks at Princeton UP

September 20, 2024

Behind the Mic

Danielle D’Orlando
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Princeton University Press publishes some of the best books every year, racking up accolades and launching the careers of thousands of scholars. As an…

Camilla Nord, "The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 20, 2024

The Balanced Brain

Camilla Nord

There are many routes to mental well-being. In this groundbreaking book, neuroscientist Camilla Nord offers a fascinating tour of the scientific devel…

Karl Marx, "Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 16, 2024

Capital

Karl Marx
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was living in exile in England when he embarked on an ambitious, multivolume critique of the capitalist system of production. Th…

Isaac Nakhimovsky, "The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 12, 2024

The Holy Alliance

Isaac Nakhimovsky
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Holy Alliance is now most familiar as a label for conspiratorial reaction. In The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation (Prince…

Yaacob Dweck, "Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas" (Princeton UP, 2019)

September 8, 2024

Dissident Rabbi

Yaacob Dweck
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

In 1665, Sabbetai Zevi, a self-proclaimed Messiah with a mass following throughout the Ottoman Empire and Europe, announced that the redemption of the…

David Lay Williams, "The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 3, 2024

The Greatest of All Plagues

David Lay Williams
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political Theorist David Lay Williams has a new book that traces the problem of economic inequality through the thought of many of the canonical think…

Christine Folch, "The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 1, 2024

The Book of Yerba Mate

Christine Folch
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Brewed from the dried leaves and tender shoots of an evergreen tree native to South America, yerba mate gives its drinkers the jolt of liquid efferves…

Sarah Miller-Davenport, "Gateway State: Hawai’i and the Cultural Transformation of American Empire" (Princeton UP, 2019)

September 1, 2024

Gateway State

Sarah Miller-Davenport
Hosted by Zeb Larson

One of my talking points when hanging out with my fellow diplomatic historians is the painful absence of scholarship on Hawaii. Too many political his…

Ronnie Grinberg, "Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals" (Princeton UP, 2024)

August 30, 2024

Write like a Man

Ronnie Grinberg
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the years following World War II, the New York intellectuals became some of the most renowned critics and writers in the country. Although mostly m…

Nick Haddad, "The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature" (Princeton UP, 2019)

August 23, 2024

The Last Butterflies

Nick Haddad
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Butterflies have long captivated the imagination of humans, from naturalists to children to poets. Indeed it would be hard to imagine a world without …

Victoria Smolkin, "A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism" (Princeton UP, 2018)

August 18, 2024

A Sacred Space Is Never Empty

Victoria Smolkin

The specter of the “Godless” Soviet Union haunted the United States and continental Western Europe throughout the Cold War, but what did atheism mean …