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Book of the Day/ Intellectual History

A New History of the Humanities

The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present

Rens Bod

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Many histories of science have been written, but A New History of the Humanities (Oxford UP, 2014) offers the first overarching history of the humanities from Antiquity to the present. There are already historical studies of musicology, logic, art history, linguistics, and historiography, but this volume gathers these, and many other humanities disciplines, into a single coherent account. Its central theme is the way in which scholars throughout the ages …
Ministry of Ideas

Climate of Denial

Why Do Americans Doubt Climate Change?

Tanya Luhrmann, Gary Aylesworth, and Lee McIntyre

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Human-caused climate change is real and growing in impact. Yet many Americans see climate change as a belief that they can opt out of. Two belief structures are to blame …
Middle Eastern Studies

Losing Istanbul

Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire

Mostafa Minawi

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Mostafa Minawi's Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire (Stanford University Press, 2022) offers an intimate history of empire, following the rise and fall of a generation of Arab-Ottoman imperialists living …
Shakespeare For All

Shakespeare’s Life, World and Works 4: Shakespeare’s Work

A Discussion with Emma Smith

Emma Smith

Hosted by Zachary Davis
William Shakespeare, who lived in England from 1564 to 1616, is one of the world’s most popular and most captivating authors. Even four hundred years after his death, his plays …
Finance

The Intelligent Fund Investor

Practical Steps for Better Results in Active and Passive Funds

Joe Wiggins

Hosted by John Emrich
Investing in funds is not straightforward. We are faced with a countless range of options and constantly distracted by meaningless noise and turbulent markets. To make matters worse, our flawed …
Peoples & Things

How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

A Discussion with Davarian Baldwin

Davarian Baldwin

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Davarian L. Baldwin is a professor of American studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. His latest book, In the Shadow of …
Almost Good Catholics

Catholic in Karachi

Living as a Christian in an Islamic Country

Ayyaz Gulzar

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Ayyaz Gulzar, journalist and Catholic youth leader in Pakistan, describes the challenges and persecutions the Church faces in the Islamic Republic, which includes the county’s blasphemy laws. He also talks …
Biblical Studies

Divine Shepherd Christology in the Gospel of Matthew

Wayne Baxter

Hosted by Michael Morales
The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as ‘Shepherd. ’ Is this theme part of the Gospel’s divine Christology? Wayne Baxter, by exploring shepherd imagery in the Hebrew Bible and the …
How to Be Wrong

The Editor and Humility

A Conversation with the NYT's Peter Catapano

Peter Catapano

Hosted by John Kaag and John Traphagan
In this episode we talk with New York Times Opinion Section Editor Peter Catapano, who has edited and published more than 1,000 pieces in The Times and worked with thinkers …
International Horizons

Contextualizing the Iranian Protests

The Role of Women in Leading the Change

Mahnaz Afkhami and Kelly Shannon

Hosted by International Horizons
Western sanctions have slowed Iran's economy, causing protests against the absence of freedom and opportunities -- teachers their lack of pay; farmers their lack of water; retirees their fear of …
High Theory

Near Death Experience

A Discussion with Laura Wittman

Laura Wittman

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Laura Wittman tells us about near death experiences. The central feature of these experiences is a vision and a story, which it turns out …
Book of the Day/ Popular Culture

Finding Jackie

The Second Act of America's First Lady

Oline Eaton

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her new book, Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented (Diversion Books, 2023), scholar and writer Oline Eaton examines the story of an era's biggest "star of life," Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as she coped with trauma and built a new existence in an unstable world during the time between JFK's murder in 1963 and the death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, in 1975. Jackie Kennedy was universally loved and to this …
Economics

Power and Prediction

The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines describe what you can do to prepare. Banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology …
Women's History

"Fame Is Not Just for the Fellas"

Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Gregory M. Pfitzer

Hosted by Rebecca Turkington
In “Fame is Not Just for the Fellas”: Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), Gregory Pfitzer examines the editorial and production choices …
Literature

The Kudzu Queen

Mimi Herman

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Kudzu salesman James T. Cullowee arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in the spring of 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu. It can apparently feed cattle, improve soil, grow …
Nomads, Past and Present

Pastures of Change

Contemporary Adaptations and Transformations among Nomadic Pastoralists of Eastern Tibet

Gillian G. Tan

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
Tibetan nomads have developed a way of life that is dependent in multiple ways on their animals and shaped by the phenomenological experience of mobility. These pastoralists have adapted to …
Burned by Books

The Sense of Wonder

A Novel

Matthew Salesses

Hosted by Chris Holmes
MATTHEW SALESSES is the author of eight books, including The Sense of Wonder, which comes out in January 2023 from Little, Brown. Most recent are the national bestseller Craft in …
Ministry of Ideas

Stealing the Canon

Who Should Be In and Who Should Be Out?

Stephen Greenblatt, Oskar Eustis, John Ray Proctor, and Rory Loughnane

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Literary canons have come under fire for perpetuating privilege and exclusion. But some artists — including William Shakespeare and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda — show us how canons can actually build …
Anthropology

Undocumented Motherhood

Conversations on Love, Trauma, and Border Crossing

Elizabeth Farfán-Santos

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
Claudia Garcia crossed the border because her toddler, Natalia, could not hear. Leaving behind everything she knew in Mexico, Claudia recounts the terror of migrating alone with her toddler and …
Peoples & Things

The History of Temp Work

A Discussion with Louis Hyman

Louis Hyman

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Historian Louis Hyman, professor and director of the Institute of Workplace Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, talks about his book, Temp: How American Work, American …
Scholarly Communication

Unsaid

Analyzing Harmful Silences

Lois Presser

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Harm takes shape in and through what is suppressed, left out, or taken for granted. Unsaid: Analyzing Harmful Silences (U California Press, 2022) is a guide to understanding and uncovering what …
Almost Good Catholics

Faithful Frontiers

A Turkish Scholar Describes How She Became a Catholic Apologist

Derya Little

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Derya Little has been a Muslim, an atheist, and a Protestant; today she is a Catholic writer and apologist. She tells the story of her conversion, talks about faith, family …
Book of the Day/ Eastern European Studies

In the Shadow of the Holocaust

Poland, the United Nations War Crimes Commission, and the Search for Justice

Michael Fleming

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In the midst of the Second World War, Central and East European governments-in-exile struggled to make their voices heard as they reported back to the Allies and sought to reach mass Allied publics with eyewitness testimony of German atrocities committed in their respective homelands. The most striking case is that of Poland, whose wartime exile government served as the principal conduit for first-hand testimony (much of which was initially ignored …
Intellectual History

The Battle of the Classics

How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today

Eric Adler

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
These are troubling days for the humanities. In response, a recent proliferation of works defending the humanities has emerged. But, taken together, what are these works really saying, and how …
Sports

Break Point

Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX

Sheri Brenden

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), Sheri Brenden examines how two teenage girls in Minnesota jump-started a revolution in high school …
Geography

Just One Rain Away

The Ethnography of River-City Flood Control

Stephanie C. Kane

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Not long ago it seemed flood control experts were close to mastering the unruly flows funnelling toward Hudson Bay and the Prairie city of Winnipeg. But as more intense and …
Jewish Studies

Yiddish Revolutionaries in Migration

The Transnational History of the Jewish Labour Bund

Frank Wolff

Hosted by Miriam Schulz
Frank Wolff's ground-breaking Yiddish Revolutionaries in Migration: The Transnational History of the Jewish Labour Bund (Haymarket Books, 2021) investigates how this social movement transformed itself from one of the most important revolutionary protagonists in …
Ministry of Ideas

Welcome to Valhalla

On a Progressive Paganism

Robert Schreiwer, Michael Strmiska, Lauren Crow, Ben Waggoner, and Thomas Engelmann

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Heathenry, a modern movement drawing on pre-Christian pagan religions, has become associated with the violent, racialized politics of the alt-right. Less well known is the fight to make heathenry — …
American Studies

Generation Gap

Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture

Kevin Munger

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
In Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture (Columbia UP, 2022), Kevin Munger marshals novel data and survey evidence to argue that generational conflict will define the politics …
Peoples & Things

Engineering and Social Justice

A Discussion with Donna Riley

Donna Riley

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Donna Riley, professor and head of the school of engineering education at Purdue University, talks about her path, her work, and her 2008 book, Engineering and Social Justice, with Peoples …
Almost Good Catholics

Stabat Mater

A Sandy Hook Mom Stands with Mary at the Foot of the Cross

Laura Phelps

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
One morning in December of 2012, Laura Phelps’s little children went to school and lived through an attack by a madman who shot 20 of their classmates. Laura’s community was …
Jewish Studies

Jewish Flavours of Italy

A Family Cookbook

Silvia Nacamulli

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Jewish Flavours of Italy: A Family Cookbook (Green Bean Books, 2022) is a culinary journey through Italy and a deep dive into family culinary heritage. With more than 100 kosher …
Book of the Day/ Animal Studies

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity

Justin Gregg

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
What if human intelligence is actually more of a liability than a gift? After all, the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without it. At first glance, human history is full of remarkable feats of intelligence, yet human exceptionalism can be a double-edged sword. With our unique cognitive prowess comes severe consequences, including existential angst, violence, discrimination, and the creation of a world teetering towards climate …
Asian Review of Books

Anglo-India and the End of Empire

Uther Charlton-Stevens

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
It can be easy to think of colonies as having two populations: colonial subjects, and colonial overlords from Europe. It’s an easy narrative: one has power, status and privilege, the …
Postscript

Postscript: Narrative and Influence Activities in the Russo-Ukraine War

Jordan Miller

Hosted by Lilly Goren
For almost a year now, we have been absorbing news and information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are a variety of different, or competing, narratives to explain and …
Academic Life

The Connected PhD, Part One

A Discussion with Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli and Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria

Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli and Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Why do PhD programs assume students will become professors, when most people find careers outside academia? How can we better prepare graduate students for the post-grad career path? This episode …
Indian Religions

Opening Kailasanatha

The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space

Padma Kaimal

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space (U Washington Press, 2020), Padma Kaimal deciphers the intentions of the monument’s makers, reaching back across centuries to …
Ministry of Ideas

Virtually Violent

Are Online Attacks "Violence?"

Erica Chenoweth, Joan Donovan, Oren Segal

Hosted by Zachary Davis
During the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable communities have been hit especially hard by disruptive online attacks. But calling these attacks "violent" could jeopardize the future of disruptive protests designed to protest …
Peoples & Things

The Archaeology of Innovation

A Discussion with Catherine Frieman

Catherine Frieman

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Catherine Frieman, an associate professor of European Archaeology at the School of Archaeology, talks about her recent book, An Archaeology of Innovation: Approaching Social and Technological Change in Human Society …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Between Us

How Cultures Create Emotions

Batja Mesquita

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Batja Mesquita about her book Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions (Norton, 2022). To a degree sometimes not realized, we discuss emotions through the lens of what have been …
Almost Good Catholics

In the Swiss Guards

Reflections on Two Years Guarding the Pope

David Geisser

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
David Geisser was a Swiss Guard protecting Pope Francis and the Apostolic Palace between 2013 and 2015. He was following the footsteps of his father who had been in the …
SSEAC Stories

Shaping Civilisations

The Sea in Asian History

Eric Tagliocozzo

Hosted by Natali Pearson
The ocean is more connective device than barrier, bringing together diverse topics, time-periods and geographies. It has linked and connected the various littorals of Asia into a segmented, yet at …
Why We Argue

Seeing Truth in Museums

A Conversation about the Legacy and Future of Museums with Chris Newell

Chris Newell

Hosted by Alexis Boylan
Feeling down about museums? We have so many reasons to, but Chris Newell, Tribal Community Member-in-Residence at UConn and Director of Education at the Akomawt Educational Initiative, gives a dose …
Literature

Charles Street Trio

A Novel in Three Voices

Anthony Valerio, Kate Farrell, and Pamela Manché Pearce

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Charles Street Trio: A Novel in Three Voices (2022) is a series of books that collectively form a tapestry of life in the form of a sprawling epic of a …
Book of the Day/ Medicine

Habit Forming

Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914

Elizabeth Kelly Gray

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Elizabeth Kelly Gray's book Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914 (Oxford UP, 2023) traces the history of unregulated drug use and dependency before 1914, when the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act limited sales of opiates and cocaine under US law. Many Americans used opiates and other drugs medically and became addicted. Some tried ‘Hasheesh Candy’, injected …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

The Aryan Jesus

Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany

Susannah Heschel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment …
European Politics

Central Banks and Supervisory Architecture in Europe

Lessons from Crises in the 21st Century

Robert Holzmann and Fernando Restoy

Hosted by Tim Jones
Since 2020, Europe's financial sector has been severely stress-tested by a global pandemic and a major land war yet, compared to the period between 2007 and 2012, the impact has …
Islamic Studies

In and Out of This World

Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam

Stephen C. Finley

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
With In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam (Duke University Press, 2022), Stephen C. Finley, Inaugural Chair, Department of African and African …
Ministry of Ideas

Dissecting Morality

What do Scientists Have To Say About Ethics? (Part 1)

Diane Paul, Ben Allen, and Steven Pinker

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to …
British Studies

Black Oot Here

Black Lives in Scotland

Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important to archive and understand Black …
Peoples & Things

The History of Electricity in Mexico

A Discussion with Diana Montaño

Diana Montaño

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
In her detailed cultural history of technological change, Electrifying Mexico, Diana Montaño argues that ordinary Mexicans became electrifying agents who actively negotiated the extent and manner electricity entered their lives …
Almost Good Catholics

What if You're Gay?

Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics

Father James Martin, SJ

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Since 2016, and with the blessing of Pope Francis, Father Jim Martin has been talking with LGBT Catholics about their relationship with their church. That’s the subject of his book …
Nomads, Past and Present

Words Like Daggers: The Political Poetry of the Negev Bedouin

Kobi Peled

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
For generations, the composition and recitation of poetry has been a key mode of expression among Bedouin populations in the Middle East, reflecting social norms, religious practices, relationships with the …
Jewish Studies

Rewriting Maimonides

Early Commentaries on the Guide of the Perplexed

Igor H. De Souza

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Maimonideanism, the intellectual culture inspired by Maimonides’ writings, has received much recent attention. Yet a central aspect of Maimonideanism has been overlooked: the formal reception of the Guide of the …
African American Studies

The Black Athlete Revolt

The Sport Justice Movement in the Age Of #BlackLivesMatter

Shaun M. Anderson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In the age of social media, athletes have a powerful influence like never before. Many Black athletes have used that power in positive ways, galvanizing their platforms to create impactful …
Nordic Asia Podcast

Myanmar Jewellers in China

A Discussion with Juliet Zhu

Juliet Zhu

Hosted by Julie Yu-Wen Chen
China re-opened border in a final farewell to its strict zero-COVID policy on the 8th of January, 2023. But in the first few weeks of January, the Myanmar side of …
Book of the Day/ Law

The China Nexus

Thirty Years in and Around the Chinese Communist Party's Tyranny

Benedict Rogers

Hosted by Jane Richards
The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party's Tyranny (Optimum Publishing, 2022) brings together Benedict Rogers' 30 years of advocacy, research and work in and around China. Opening with his rollicking adventures as an 18 year old teaching English in Qingdao in 1992, the human element of this monograph, the real people and their lives are foregrounded. Rogers takes the reader through a nexus of the CCP's tyranny; from China's …
Diplomatic History

The Struggle for Iran

Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951-1954

David S. Painter and Gregory Brew

Hosted by Grant Golub
Beginning with the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in spring 1951 and ending with its reversal following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in August 1953, the Iranian …
Animal Studies

Animals in Irish Society

Interspecies Oppression and Vegan Liberation in Britain's First Colony

Corey Lee Wrenn

Hosted by Kyle Johannsen
Irish vegan studies are poised for increasing relevance as climate change threatens the legitimacy and longevity of animal agriculture and widespread health problems related to animal product consumption disrupt long …
Catholic Studies

Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States

A History

Michael T. Rizzi

Hosted by Allison Isidore
Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) provides a comprehensive history of Jesuit higher education in the United States, weaving together the stories …
Ministry of Ideas

Dissecting Morality

What do Scientists Have To Say About Ethics? (Part 2)

Diane Paul, Ben Allen, and Steven Pinker

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to …
South Asian Studies

The Vulgarity of Caste

Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India

Shailaja Paik

Hosted by Niharika Yadav
The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India (Stanford UP, 2022) offers the first social and intellectual history of Dalit performance of Tamasha—a popular form of public, secular …
Peoples & Things

Business in Socialist Hungary

A Discussion with Phil Scranton

Phil Scranton

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Philip Scranton, University Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of the history of industry and technology at Rutgers University-Camden, talks about his book, Business Practice In Socialist Hungary, Volume 1: Creating …
Ukrainian Studies

Wild Music

Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine

Maria Sonevytsky

Hosted by John Vsetecka
In Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine (Wesleyan UP, 2019), Maria Sonevytsky tracks vernacular Ukrainian discourses of “wildness” as they manifested in popular music during a volatile decade of …
Almost Good Catholics

Chatting with the Homeless

Looking for Jesus among the Least of Our Brothers

Brother John Vianney Russel, OP

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Dominican Friar John Vianney Russel has made a habit of talking with homeless people and shares what he has learned. He doesn’t have all the answers and, in fact, we …
Jewish Studies

The Holocaust in Romania

The Destruction of Jews and Roma Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944

Radu Ioanid

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Roma Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Radu Ioanid explores in great detail the physical destruction of Romania's …
African American Studies

Soundworks

Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production

Anthony Reed

Hosted by Henry Ivry
In Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production (Duke UP, 2020), Anthony Reed argues that studying sound requires conceiving it as process and as work. Since the long Black Arts …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones

The Future of Computer Chips

A Discussion with Julian Kamasa

Julian Kamasa

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Microchips are both important and in short supply. So how important? And what can be done to make them more plentiful? Also, what are the geopolitical implications of having the …
Book of the Day/ Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast

This Is Not Who We Are

America’s Struggle Between Vengeance and Virtue

Zachary Shore

Hosted by Mark Klobas
What kind of country is America? Zachary Shore tackles this polarizing question by spotlighting some of the most morally muddled matters of WWII. Should Japanese Americans be moved from the west coast to prevent sabotage? Should the German people be made to starve as punishment for launching the war? Should America drop atomic bombs to break Japan's will to fight? Surprisingly, despite wartime anger, most Americans and key officials favored …
Systems and Cybernetics

Design Journeys Through Complex Systems

Practice Tools for Systemic Design

Peter Jones and Kristel van Ael

Hosted by Kevin Lindsay
As I slowly settle into 2023 — reflecting on the blur that was 2022 — I can’t help but think about the complex problems (aka big messes!) we face at …
World Christianity

The Politics of Persecution

Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire

Mitri Raheb

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been a recurring theme since the middle of the nineteenth century. The topic has experienced a resurgence in the last few years …
Middle Eastern Studies

Water the Willow Tree

Memoirs of a Bethlehem Boyhood

George Anton Kiraz

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In Water the Willow Tree: Memoirs of a Bethlehem Boyhood (Gorgias Press, 2022), George A. Kiraz tells the story of a young Palestinian boy growing up in Bethlehem, fascinated with …
Ministry of Ideas

Above the Veil

Beyond Segregationism and Assimilationism

Ibram X. Kendi, Max Mueller, and Anika Prather

Hosted by Zachary Davis
The work of Ibram X. Kendi distinguishes between two forms of racism: segregationism and assimilationism. Segregationists argue that some groups are inferior by nature; assimilationists, on the other hand, argue …
South Asian Studies

Whole Numbers and Half Truths

What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India

Rukmini S.

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
How do you see India? Fuelled by a surge of migration to cities, the country's growth appears to be defined by urbanisation and by its growing, prosperous middle class. It …
Peoples & Things

Collaborations between Cold War Scientists and Artists

A Discussion with Patrick McCray

Patrick McCray

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Patrick McCray, Professor of History at University of California, Santa Barbara, talks about his book, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture, with …
Almost Good Catholics

Apocalypse Past, Present, and Future

Thinking about the End in History and Culture

John Jeffries Martin

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Historian John Jeffries Martin traces narratives of the Apocalypse over the last 500 years in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions in his new book, A Beautiful Ending. This discussion …
Poetry

Hereafter

The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara

Vona Groarke

Hosted by Hal Coase
Ellen O'Hara was a young immigrant from Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century who, with courage and resilience, made a life for herself in New York while financially …
Jewish Studies

In Search of Truth

Three Yeshiva Students on a Spiritual Journey

Menachem Brod

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Menachem Brod's In Search of Truth: Three Yeshiva Students on a Spiritual Journey (BSD Publishers, 2022) describes the struggle of yeshiva students searching for a path in serving Hashem. Examining …
Sociology

Stacked Decks

Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality

Robin Bartram

Hosted by Michael Johnston
Though we rarely see them at work, building inspectors have the power to significantly shape our lives through their discretionary decisions. The building inspectors of Chicago are at the heart …
Scholarly Communication

Think Bigger--How Researchers Can Use their Books to Make Real Breakthroughs

A Discussion with Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director at MIT Press

Gita Manaktala

Hosted by Avi Staiman
Avi and Gita Manaktala discuss how researchers should approach the book publishing process, including determining whether research should be published as an article or book, how to make an impact …
Book of the Day/ East Asian Studies

The Emergence of Global Maoism

China's Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979

Matthew Galway

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos
How do ideas manifest outside of their place of origin, and how do they change once they do? The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949–1979 (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Matthew Galway examines how ideological systems become localized, both in the indigenization of Marxism-Leninism by Mao Zedong and, more significantly, the indigenization of Maoism by the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Galway carefully investigates …
Almost Good Catholics

The Mesopotamian Connection

Comparing the Bible to Other Literature of the Ancient Near East

Cathleen Chopra-McGowan

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Professor Cathleen Chopra-McGowan examines some the incongruities of our Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East, showing how the stories and traditions of Israel resembled and borrowed from …
Jewish Studies

Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews

Mark A. Schneegurt

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
A century after being expelled from Portugal, cryptoJews in Mexico, false converts to Christianity, could not speak of their beliefs for fear of becoming embroiled in the imprisonment, torture, and …
General History

Epidemic Orientalism

Race, Capital, and the Governance of Infectious Disease

Alexandre I. R. White

Hosted by Nathan Moore
For many residents of Western nations, COVID-19 was the first time they experienced the effects of an uncontrolled epidemic. This is in part due to a series of little-known regulations …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership

Building an Interconnected Community

A Conversation with Cormac Russell

Cormac Russell

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Kimon and Richard speak with Cormac Russell, Managing Director at Nurture Development. Cormac focuses on helping institutions, NGOs, governmental organizations, and companies interested in improving their communities. The biggest issue …
Ministry of Ideas

Public Thinking

Social Media and the New 'Public Intellectual'

Cornel West and George Scialabba

Hosted by Zachary Davis
We have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speaking truth to power.” Today, however, online …
Shakespeare For All

Shakespeare's Life, World and Works 5: How to Read Shakespeare

A Discussion with Emma Smith

Emma Smith

Hosted by Zachary Davis
William Shakespeare, who lived in England from 1564 to 1616, is one of the world’s most popular and most captivating authors. Even four hundred years after his death, his plays …
Peoples & Things

The History of Teletherapy

A Conversation with Hannah Zeavin

Hannah Zeavin

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Hannah Zeavin, lecturer in the department of History and member of the executive committees of both the Center for New Media and the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society …
South Asian Studies

Last Among Equals

Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages

M. R. Sharan

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
M. R. Sharan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, studying questions centred around development economics and political economy. He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 202 …
Early Modern History

The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam

Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths

Angela Vanhaelen

Hosted by Jana Byars
Angela Vanhaelen's The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths (Penn State University Press, 2022) opens a window onto a fascinating and understudied aspect of the visual, material, intellectual, and cultural …
Psychology

Small Habits for a Big Life

Rebecca Ray

Hosted by Elizabeth Cronin
Change is not about grand statements and sweeping gestures. It is about chipping away, a bit at a time, at the habits that hold us back.Dr Rebecca Ray knows about …
Critical Theory

Adorno and the Ban on Images

Sebastian Truskolaski

Hosted by Lukas Hoffman
Adorno and the Ban on Images (Bloomsbury, 2022) upends some of the myths that have come to surround the work of the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno – not least amongst …
Think About It

Anne Fernald and Rajgopal Saikumar on Virginia Woolf's "Three Guineas" (1938)

Book Talk 57

Anne Fernald and Rajgopal Saikumar

Hosted by Uli Baer
Virginia Woolf’s 1938 provocative and polemical essay Three Guineas presents the iconic writer’s views on war, women, and the way the patriarchy at home oppresses women in ways that resemble …
International Horizons

A Left Turn? The Politics of Latin America Today

A Discussion with Enrique Desmond Arias

Enrique Desmond Arias

Hosted by International Horizons
This week, RBI director John Torpey interviews Prof. Enrique Desmond Arias, a professor of political science at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, about recent developments in Latin American politics …
Burned by Books

The Margot Affair

A Novel

Sanaë Lemoine

Hosted by Chris Holmes
Sanaë Lemoine is the author of The Margot Affair and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. She was born in Paris to a Japanese mother and …
High Theory

Queer Space

A Discussion with Jack Jen Gieseking

Jack Jen Gieseking

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Jack Jen Gieseking tells us about queer space. Queer geographies matter alongside queer temporalities. And it turns out that lesbian life in the 1950s …
Higher Education

Money or Meaning?

A Discussion on Choice, Restlessness, and Higher Education with Ben and Jenna Storey

Ben Storey and Jenna Storey

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a disservice by occupying them …
Book of the Day/ Secularism

The Varieties of Atheism

Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics (University of Chicago Press, 2022), edited by Professor David Newheiser reveals the diverse nonreligious experiences obscured by the combative intellectualism of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. In fact, contributors contend that narrowly defining atheism as the belief that there is no god misunderstands religious and nonreligious persons altogether. The essays gathered here show that, just as religion exceeds doctrine …
Almost Good Catholics

Walking the Via Dolorosa

An Archaeologist Follows Jesus from His Trial to His Crucifixion

Ilka Knüppel

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Archaeologist Ilka Knüppel discusses her master's thesis—The Search for Jesus's Final Steps: How Archaeological and Literary Evidence Reroutes the Via Dolorosa—and how she came to write it. To use both …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life in the Ancient World

Arthur Keefer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Is the search for meaning a luxury of the modern world or have human beings always struggled to find meaning in the human condition – in the face of suffering …
African American Studies

Dismal Freedom

A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp

J. Brent Morris

Hosted by Adam McNeil
The massive and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth century, the nearly impassable Dismal …
How to Be Wrong

Otherness, Disability, and Beauty

A Conversation with Pulitzer finalist Chloé Cooper Jones

Chloé Cooper Jones

Hosted by John Kaag and John Traphagan
This episode of How To Be Wrong is about humility, beauty and the ways in which our society dictates the nature and boundaries of what is deemed beautiful. We talk …
Ministry of Ideas

Out of TIme

Sacred Time and 'Time is Money'

Ahmed Ragab and Mary Gray

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Many of the earliest time technologies were used to mark sacred time -- time set apart for the divine. But with the Industrial Revolution, efficient time use became its own …
Jewish Studies

Gendering Modern Jewish Thought

Andrea Dara Cooper

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
The idea of brotherhood has been an important philosophical concept for understanding community, equality, and justice. In Gendering Modern Jewish Thought (Indiana UP, 2021), Andrea Dara Cooper offers a gendered …
Diplomatic History

Petroleum and Progress in Iran

Oil, Development, and the Cold War

Greg Brew

Hosted by Grant Golub
From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first “petro-state,” where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industrializing economy, expanding middle class, and powerful …
Peoples & Things

War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence

A Discussion with Nicole Archambeau

Nicole Archambeau

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Nicole Archambeau, associate professor of history at Colorado State University, talks about her book, Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence (Cornell University Press), with …
Jewish Studies

The Belzec Death Camp

History, Biographies, Remembrance

Chris Webb

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Chris Webb's The Belzec Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance (Ibidem, 2016) is a comprehensive account of the Belzec death camp in Poland, which was the first death camp to use …
Literature

Song of the Storyteller

Book 5 of 5: Songs of Steppe & Forest

C. P. Lesley

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to C. P. Lesley about Song of the Storyteller (Five Directions Press, 2023).  It’s 1546, and Ivan the Terrible is about to be coronated and married off. Government …
Gender Studies

Missing: Men at Work

A Conversation with Nick Eberstadt

Nick Eberstadt

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our …