New Books Network
Book of the Day/ Politics & Polemics

Outgrowing Capitalism

Rethinking Money to Reshape Society and Pursue Purpose

Marco Dondi

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
In Outgrowing Capitalism: Rethinking Money to Reshape Society and Pursue Purpose (Fast Company Press, 2021), Marco Dondi sheds light on the fact that most people do not have the economic security to focus on purpose and life fulfillment. He proposes that this is not the way things have to be; there is an alternative.  In a quest to change our economic system to cater for everyone, he identifies deep issues in how money …
Music

A Punkhouse in the Deep South

The Oral History Of 309

Aaron Cometbus and Scott Satterwhite

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Told in personal interviews, A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309 (University Press of Florida, 2021) is the collective story of a punk community in an unlikely …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Sign Language Linguistics

Carol Padden

Hosted by Howard Burton
Sign Language Linguistics is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and renowned researcher of sign languages Carol Padden, the Sanford I. Berman Chair in Language and Human …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

Troubled Water

What's Wrong with What We Drink

Seth M. Siegel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
There’s nothing more vital to survival than water. “Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”, said the Ancient Mariner, in the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Besides widespread …
Gender Studies

Queer Nightlife

Kemi Adeyemi, Kareem Khubchandani and Ramon H. Rivera-Servera

Hosted by Isabel Machado
The mass shooting at a queer Latin Night in Orlando in July 2016 sparked a public conversation about access to pleasure and selfhood within conditions of colonization, violence, and negation …
Military History

How the Few Became the Proud

Crafting the Marine Corps Mystique 1874-1918

Heather P. Venable

Hosted by Alex Beckstrand
For more than half of its existence, members of the Marine Corps largely self-identified as soldiers. It did not yet mean something distinct to be a Marine, either to themselves …
LGBTQ+ Studies

A Lesbian Belle Tells

OUTrageous Southern Stories of Family, Loss, and Love

Elizabeth McCain

Hosted by John Marszalek
Settle back for a wild ride through a Southern lesbian's life of soul-searching, rule-breaking, and truth-telling. This belle's kind of coming out was not what her traditional Mississippi family expected …
East Asian Studies

Knotting the Banner

Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice

David J. Mozina

Hosted by Noelle Guiffrida
Mozina’s Knotting the Banner: Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice (U Hawaii Press, 2021) weaves together ethnography, textual analysis, photography, and film, inviting readers into the religious world of Daoist …
African American Studies

The Colored Conventions Movement

Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century

P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey

Hosted by Adam McNeil
P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey's edited volume The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century (UNC Press, 2021) is the first to focus on the Colored Conventions movement …
Film

Lucasfilm

Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe

Cyrus R.K. Patell

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and …
General History

Rebirth of the English Comic Strip

A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870

David Kunzle

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Rebirth of the English Comic Strip: A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870 (UP of Mississippi, 2021) enters deep into an era of comic history that has been entirely neglected. This buried cache of mid-Victorian …
Politics & Polemics

Skirmishes

With Friends, Enemies, and Neutrals

Graham Harman

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
One of the fifty most influential living philosophers, a “self-promoting charlatan” (Brian Leiter), and the orchestrator of an “online orgy of stupidity” (Ray Brassier). In Skirmishes: With Friends, Enemies, and …
Critical Theory

Digital Black Feminism

Catherine Knight Steele

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How have Black women lead a digital revolution? In Digital Black Feminism (NYU Press, 2021), Catherine Knight Steele, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Maryland, places digital Black …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership

A Conversation with David Hieatt

Co-Founder Hiut Denim Co & The Do Lectures

David Hieatt

Hosted by Richard Lucas and Kimon Fountoukidis
David Hieatt explains the importance of telling stories in brand building and how he applied the skills he learned in advertising to build globally recognised brands. His life is so …
Political Science

How to Write a Better Book

The Minority-Serving Institution Virtual Book Workshop Project

Heath Brown and Niambi Carter

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Book workshops produce great books, but too few scholars have access to the resources needed to organize and execute one, especially scholars at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving …
The Future of Higher Education

The Economics of Higher Education

A Discussion with David Finegold

David Finegold

Hosted by Daniel Peris
In this episode, Daniel Peris, the host of the “Keep Calm and Carry On Investing” podcast, and David Finegold have a wide-ranging discussion of economics and governance questions inherent in …
Book of the Day/ General History

The Darker Angels of Our Nature

Refuting the Pinker Theory of History & Violence

Philip Dwyer and Mark Micale

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In The Better Angels of Our Nature Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker argued that modern history has witnessed a dramatic decline in human violence of every kind, and that in the present we are experiencing the most peaceful time in human history. But what do top historians think about Pinker's reading of the past? Does his argument stand up to historical analysis? In Philip Dwyer and Mark Micale's book The Darker Angels …
Architecture

Echo's Chambers

Architecture and the Idea of Acoustic Space

Joseph L. Clarke

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
A room’s acoustic character seems at once the most technical and the most mystical of concerns. Since the early Enlightenment, European architects have systematically endeavored to represent and control the …
Film

Reclaiming Popular Documentary

Christie Milliken and Steve F. Anderson

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
The documentary has achieved rising popularity over the past two decades, thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Despite this fact, documentary studies still tends to favor works that appeal primarily to …
Science

Unmanning

How Humans, Machines and Media Perform Drone Warfare

Katherine Chandler

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Katherine Chandler's Unmanning: How Humans, Machines and Media Perform Drone Warfare (Rutgers UP, 2020) studies the conditions that create unmanned platforms in the United States through a genealogy of experimental, pilotless …
Australian and New Zealand Studies

Upheaval

The Great Digital Disruption in Journalism and Its Aftermath

Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson

Hosted by Bede Haines
Matthew Ricketson joins to discuss how newsrooms, the engine rooms of reporting, have shrunk. A generation of journalists has borne witness to seismic changes in the media and this book …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

The Cyclic Universe

Roger Penrose

Hosted by Howard Burton
In the last twenty years, cosmology has unexpectedly emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic fields of modern science. From astoundingly precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background …
Art

Investigative Aesthetics

Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

Matthew Fuller

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Today, journalists, legal professionals, activists, and artists challenge the state's monopoly on investigation and the production of narratives of truth. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes, and technological …
Irish Studies

The History of Marriage Equality in Ireland

A Social Revolution Begins

Sonja Tiernan

Hosted by Averill Earls
In 2015, the world witnessed an Irish social revolution. In a historic referendum vote, the Republic of Ireland voted to extend the constitutional right to marriage to same-sex couples. Thirty …
Chinese Studies

Newborn Socialist Things

Materiality in Maoist China

Laurence Coderre

Hosted by Julia Keblinska
Laurence Coderre’s Newborn Socialist Things: Materiality in Maoist China (Duke UP, 2021) is an exciting book that considers Chinese socialist culture seriously in terms of materiality and theory by tracing the contours …
African Studies

Global Nomads

An Ethnography of Migration, Islam, and Politics

Susanna Fioratta

Hosted by Sara Katz
Countering the traditional narrative of "migration as crisis," Global Nomads tells the story of a group of people for whom migration is not a symptom of a disordered world, but …
American West

History of Montana in 101 Objects

Artifacts & Essays from the Montana Historical Society

Montana Historical Society

Hosted by Troy Hallsell
A History of Montana in 101 Objects: Artifacts & Essays from the Montana Historical Society (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2021) showcases the remarkable collection of artifacts preserved at the Montana …
Japanese Studies

Counting Dreams

The Life and Writings of the Loyalist Nun Nomura Bōtō

Roger K. Thomas

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Counting Dreams: The Life and Writings of the Loyalist Nun Nomura Bōtō (Cornell UP, 2021) tells the story of Nomura Bōtō, a Buddhist nun, writer, poet, and activist who joined the …
Military History

On Contested Shores

The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare

Timothy Heck and B. A. Friedman

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Perhaps no prediction has been as consistently made—and as consistently wrong—as the imminent death of amphibious operations. Whatever the changes in warfare and technology, the necessity of amphibious force projection …
Performing Arts

Chartist Drama

Gregory Vargo

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Greg Vargo's Chartist Drama (Manchester UP, 2021) opens a window into a fascinating aspect of working-class radical drama. This book includes scripts of four dramas performed or published by members …
Literature

Beneficence

Meredith Hall

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to Meredith Hall about her new novel Beneficence (Godine, 2020). A beautiful family is torn apart by a shocking loss, and three of its members blame themselves. It’s …
Book of the Day/ Drugs, Addiction and Recovery

The Opioid Epidemic in the United States

Missed Opportunities and Policy Failures

Kant Patel and Mark E. Rushefsky

Hosted by Geert Slabbekoorn
The current opioid epidemic in the United States began in the mid-1990s with the introduction of a new drug, OxyContin, viewed as a safer and more effective opiate for chronic pain management. By 2017, the opioid epidemic had become a full-blown crisis as over two million Americans had become dependent on and abused prescription pain pills and street drugs. The Opioid Epidemic in the United States: Missed Opportunities and Policy …
Politics & Polemics

America Transformed

The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism

Ronald J. Pestritto

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
What’s a “progressive?” We hear constantly about the rift in the Democratic Party between its “progressive” wing and its “moderate” one. But what exactly was “Progressivism?” And why do we …
Eastern European Studies

Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles

The Future of Europe's Last Primeval Forest

Eunice Blavascunas

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles: The Future of Europe’s Last Primeval Forest (Indiana University Press, 2020), Eunice Blavascunas provides an intimate ethnographic account of Białowieża, Europe's last primeval forest …
Buddhist Studies

Be the Refuge

Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists

Chenxing Han

Hosted by Victoria Montrose
Despite the fact that two thirds of U.S. Buddhists identify as Asian American, mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often whitewash and invisibilize the diverse …
Anthropology

Screen Shots

State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine

Rebecca L. Stein

Hosted by Mathew Gagné
In the last two decades, amid the global spread of smartphones, state killings of civilians have increasingly been captured on the cameras of both bystanders and police. Screen Shots: State …
Historical Fiction

The Artist Colony

Joanna Fitzpatrick

Hosted by C. P. Lesley
By 1924, Sarah Cunningham has spent years in France establishing her own artistic style, more contemporary than the landscapes that have made her older sister, Ada Belle Davenport, famous. She …
General History

Piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean

Maritime Marauders in the Greek and Ottoman Aegean

Leonidas Mylonakis

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Dr. Leonidas Mylonakis (PhD in History from the University of California, San Diego) is the author of Piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Maritime Marauders in the Greek and Ottoman Aegean (Bloomsbury …
South Asian Studies

A Passage North

Anuk Arudpragasam

Hosted by Selva Swetha
A Passage North (Granta, 2021) is a novel set in contemporary post-war Sri Lanka. A young, privileged Tamil man takes a train journey from the capital Colombo to former war-torn Kilinochchi to attend …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

All Future Plunges to the Past

James Joyce in Russian Literature

José Vergara

Hosted by Steven Seegel
All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature (Cornell UP, 2021) explores how Russian writers from the mid-1920s on have read and responded to Joyce's work …
Psychoanalysis

Bodies and Social Rhythms

Navigating Unconscious Vulnerability and Emotional Fluidity

Steven Knoblauch

Hosted by Roy Barsness
Steven Knoblauch's Bodies and Social Rhythms: Navigating Unconscious Vulnerability and Emotional Fluidity (Routledge, 2020) traces the development of an unfolding challenge for psychoanalytic attention, which augments contemporary theoretical lenses focusing …
Scholarly Communication

Hilary Glasman-Deal and Andrew Northern on STEMM Communications

Centre for Academic English, Imperial College London

Hilary Glasman-Deal and Andrew Northern

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Hilary Glasman-Deal and Andrew Northern, teachers of STEMM communication at the Centre for Academic English, Imperial College London. We talk about what's so special about …
Psychology

Hold on

The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting

Peter Toohey

Hosted by Reyes Bertolin
What do you do when you're not asleep and when you're not eating? You're most likely waiting--to finish work, to get home, or maybe even to be seen by your …
Science

Planet Ocean

Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean

Patricia Newman and Annie Crawley

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
A little more than 70 percent of Planet Earth is ocean. So wouldn’t a better name for our global home be Planet Ocean? You may be surprised at just how …
Philosophy

The Politics of Black Joy

Zora Neale Hurston and Neo-Abolitionism

Lindsey Stewart

Hosted by Sarah Tyson
What can southern Black joy teach us about agency? What role does refusal have in liberation? What more might there be to root work than resistance? In The Politics of …
Book of the Day/ Political Science

Hot Pants and Spandex Suits

Gender Representation in American Superhero Comic

Esther De Dauw

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Iron Man are names that are often connected to the expansive superhero genre, including the multi-billion-dollar film and television franchises. But these characters are older and have been woven into American popular culture since their inception in the early days of comic books. The history of these comic book heroes are histories that include bulging muscles, flashy fight scenes, four-color panels, and heroic rescues of …
Critical Theory

The Care Crisis

What Caused It and How Can We End It?

Emma Dowling

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the future of care? In The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? (Verso, 2021),  Emma Dowling, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, University …
Performing Arts

(Re:) Claiming Ballet

Adesola Akinleye

Hosted by Renee Garris
(Re:) Claiming Ballet (Intellect Books, 2021) by Dr. Adesola Akinleye explores the history of movement through ballet, representation, and the future of dance. Though ballet is often seen as a white …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

Why Learn History (When It's Already on Your Phone)

Sam Wineburg

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
We are surrounded by more readily available information than ever before. And a huge percentage of it is inaccurate. Some of the bad info is well-meaning but ignorant. Some of …
Intellectual History

On Borders

Territories, Legitimacy, and the Rights of Place

Paulina Ochoa Espejo

Hosted by Tejas Parasher
When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn? Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as beaches delimit a …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Criminal Justice

An Examination

Julian Roberts

Hosted by Howard Burton
Criminal Justice: An Examination is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Julian Roberts, Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford. Julian Roberts is an international …
Academic Life

Long Road to the Dream Job in Academia

A Conversation with Liz W. Faber

Liz W. Faber

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Liz Faber’s long road from completed PhD to dream jobWhy academia said she was a failureThe financial reasons …
African Studies

The Muridiyya on the Move

Islam, Migration, and Place Making

Cheikh Anta Babou

Hosted by Sara Katz
The construction of collective identity among the Muridiyya abroad is a communal but contested endeavor. Differing conceptions of what should be the mission of Muridiyya institutions in the diaspora reveal …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Belonging

The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusions and Equality at Work

Sue Unerman, Kathryn Jacob, and Mark Edwards

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Sue Unerman about her new book Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusions and Equality at Work (Bloomsbury, 2020) How is it that $8 billion …
Asian Review of Books

Horse Girls

Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond

Halimah Marcus

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We’re celebrating our one-year anniversary with this interview, and so I wanted to introduce a special guest for today: Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, talented writer, journalist and dear friend. We’re going …
American West

South to Freedom

Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

Alice L Baumgartner

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
For some enslaved Americans, the path to freedom led not north, but south, argues Dr. Alice Baumgardner, an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California. In South to …
Public Policy

The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans

For Union Organizers and Employees

James W. Russell

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
James Russell’s The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees (Monthly Review Press, 2021) is a helpful how-to for workers navigating their retirement and pension options, from …
Latino Studies

Sounds of Crossing

Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño

Alex E. Chávez

Hosted by David-James Gonzales
In Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño (Duke UP, 2017), Alex E. Chávez explores the contemporary politics of Mexican migrant cultural expression manifest in the …
Scholarly Communication

Editing Scholarly Writing

A Discussion with Avi Staiman of "Academic Language Experts"

Avi Staiman

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Avi Staiman, who is CEO, founder, and director of Academic Language Experts. We talk about how complex and how simple editing is. Avi Staiman …
Indian Religions

Turbulent Transformations

Non-Brahmin Śrīvaiṣṇavas on Religion, Caste and Politics in Tamil Nadu

Katherine Young

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Katherine Young, Turbulent Transformations: Non-Brahmin Śrīvaiṣṇavas on Religion, Caste and Politics in Tamil Nadu (Orient Blackswan, 2021) studies the interlinking of religious, social and political identities in modern Tamil Nadu …
Recall This Book

On Multi-Species Community

A Critical Conversation with Patricia Alvarez Astacio

Patricia Alvarez Astacio

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Octopus month has morphed seamlessly into Multispecies month here at RtB, bringing with it not only last week's piece on chimpanzees, but also this sparkling conversation about all sorts of …
Book of the Day/ British Studies

Shakespearean

On Life and Language in Times of Disruption

Robert McCrum

Hosted by Joseph Krulder
When inspiration struck Robert McCrum to write a book about the Bard, it came while watching one of the playwright’s plays in Central Park, New York. Here, McCrum realized that we, today, are undoubtedly living in Shakespearean times. Joe Krulder, a British Historian, interviews Robert about his latest book, Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption (Pegasus Books, 2021) Current events such as the Covid-19 Pandemic, the election …
Islamic Studies

The Beauty of the Houri

Heavenly Virgins and Feminine Ideals

Nerina Rustomji

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category …
Media

Politics for the Love of Fandom

Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World

Ashley Hinck

Hosted by Lee Pierce
Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World (Louisiana State Press, 2019) examines what Ashley Hinck calls “fan-based citizenship”: civic action that blends with and arises from …
Architecture

Sandfuture

Justin Beal

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Sandfuture (MIT Press, 2021) is a book about the life of the architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986), who remains on the margins of history despite the enormous influence of his work on American …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Apocalypse Then

The First Crusade

Jay Rubenstein

Hosted by Howard Burton
Apocalypse Then: The First Crusade is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jay Rubenstein, Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Premodern World …
Latin American Studies

Disruptive Archives

Feminist Memories of Resistance in Latin America's Dirty Wars

Viviana Beatriz MacManus

Hosted by Minni Sawhney
Today I talked to Viviana MacManus, author of Disruptive Archives: Feminist Memories of Resistance in Latin America’s Dirty Wars published by the University of Illinois Press in 2020. It has …
Gender Studies

Portraits of Wollstonecraft

Eileen Hunt Botting

Hosted by Lilian Calles Barger
Eileen Hunt Botting is a Professor political science at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Botting is a widely published and cited scholar on the thought of Mary Wollstonecraft, the …
Religion

Jesus and Addiction to Origins

Toward an Anthropocentric Study of Religion

Willi Braun

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
Willi Braun's Jesus and Addiction to Origins: Towards an Anthropocentric Study of Religion (Equinox, 2020)  constitutes an extended argument for an anthropocentric, human-focused study of religious practices. Part I presents the basic …
Education

Surviving Emotional Work for Teachers

Improving Wellbeing and Professional Learning Through Reflexive Practice

Jean Hopman

Hosted by Alice Garner
Jean Hopman’s book Surviving Emotional Work for Teachers: Improving Wellbeing and Professional Learning Through Reflexive Practice (Routledge, 2020), is a guide to improving teachers' wellbeing and practice through support of …
Chinese Studies

The End of the Village

Planning the Urbanization of Rural China

Nick R. Smith

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke to Nick R. Smith to talk about how China's expansive new era of urbanization threatens to undermine the foundations of rural life, which he writes about in …
General History

The Last Liberal Republican

An Insider's Perspective on Nixon's Surprising Social Policy

John Roy Price

Hosted by Daniel Peris
History is told, it is said, by the victors. And so it is in regard to Richard Nixon. We all know how his presidency ended. What too few of us recall …
Music

Major Labels

A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

Kelefa Sanneh

Hosted by Franz Nicolay
Kelefa Sanneh was born in England, and lived in Ghana and Scotland before moving with his parents to the United States in the early 1980s. He was a pop music …
The Common Magazine

Arabic Translations from Morocco

Nariman Youssef

Hosted by Emily Everett
Nariman Youssef speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her work translating three short stories from Arabic for The Common’s portfolio of fiction from Morocco, in the spring issue. In …
Film

The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai

Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance

Gary Bettinson

Hosted by Gustavo Gutiérrez Suárez
The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine …
Science

Moving Forward

Reflections on Autism, Neurodiversity, Brain Surgery, and Faith

Jacki Edry

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Jacki Edry's Moving Forward: Reflections on Autism, Neurodiversity, Brain Surgery, and Faith (2021) is a journey between the worlds of autism, neurodiversity, brain surgery recovery, and faith. It provides a …
Nordic Asia Podcast

The Modi Wave

Politics of the Pandemic in India

Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
At the start of 2021, a widespread belief held that India had escaped the Covid-19 pandemic relatively unscathed - this was evidenced, the story went, in the country's comparatively low …
Book of the Day/ General History

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe

Emily Greble

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Dr. Emily Greble, Associate Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, is the author of Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 2021). Focusing on the Muslim inhabitants of the Austro-Hungarian Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and later Yugoslavia, as they repeatedly adjusted to shifting borders and modern state building projects between the 1870s and the 1940s, Dr. Greble shows how Ottoman political, legal, economic, and social legacies shaped …
Sports

The War

Hagler-Hearns and Three Rounds for the Ages

Don Stradley

Hosted by Paul Knepper
The battle between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns is remembered as one of the greatest fights of all time. But in the months before the two finally collided on …
Jewish Studies

Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn

Philosophy and Jewish Thought

Ethan Kleinberg

Hosted by Britton Edelen
In this episode, I interview Ethan Kleinberg, professor of history and letters at Wesleyan University, about his new book, Emmanuel Levinas’s Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought, recently published by …
Political Science

Gendered Citizenship

The Original Conflict Over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963

Rebecca DeWolf

Hosted by Susan Liebell
In Political Science, we are very familiar with the work of scholars who try to unpack why the ERA failed to get the required states. But Gendered Citizenship: The Original …
Law

Human Choice in International Law

Anna Spain Bradley

Hosted by Jane Richards
Professor Anna Spain Bradley "wrote this book to be accessible to anyone, because international law is for everyone." In this accessible and concise monograph, Professor Spain Bradley asks how human choice influences …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Religion and Culture

A Historian’s Tale

Miri Rubin

Hosted by Howard Burton
Religion and Culture: A Historian’s Tale is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary University …
Latino Studies

My Book of the Dead

New Poems

Ana Castillo

Hosted by Jonathan Cortez
“My poetry captures a moment,” remarked Dr. Castillo when asked about the process of writing her most recent collection of poems My Book of the Dead: New Poems (University of …
Historical Materialism

Lukács

Praxis and the Absolute

Daniel Andrés López

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The Hungarian Marxist philosopher George Lukács has long occupied a complicated place in the Marxist canon of thinkers, both his lived and theoretical practice subject to much critical commentary …
Catholic Studies

America's Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself)

Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Stephanie N. Brehm

Hosted by Carlos Ruiz Martinez
For nine years, Stephen Colbert’s persona “Colbert”?—a Republican superhero and parody of conservative political pundits--informed audiences on current events, politics, social issues, and religion while lampooning conservative political policy, biblical …
Environmental Studies

Nomad's Land

Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World

Andrea E. Duffy

Hosted by Matthew Brown
Chronicling the retreat of mobile pastoralization from Mediterranean coastlines, Andrea Duffy's Nomad's Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World (U Nebraska Press, 2019) investigates a mystery: where …
Japanese Studies

Yamamba

In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch

Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich

Hosted by Matthew Hayes
Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable, the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that …
East Asian Studies

An Urban History of China

Toby Lincoln

Hosted by Zachary Lowell
In An Urban History of China (Cambridge UP, 2021), Toby Lincoln offers the first history of Chinese cities from their origins to the present. Despite being an agricultural society for …
Technology

Building the New Economy

Data As Capital

Alex Pentland and Alexander Lipton

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Data is now central to the economy, government, and health systems—so why are data and the AI systems that interpret the data in the hands of so few people? Alex …
The Future of Higher Education

Michael Alexander

President, Lasell University

Hosted by David Finegold
This episode feature an interview with Michael Alexander, one of the most innovative small university presidents in the U.S. He discusses a number of the innovations during his 15-year tenure …
Book of the Day/ Science, Technology, and Society

Defending Beef

The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat

Nicolette Hahn Niman

Hosted by Christopher Gambino
In Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat (Chelsea Green, 2021), Nicolette Hahn Niman makes the expanded case for large ruminants as part of the solution to the climate crisis. In our discussion, Hahn Niman does some myth-busting and presents a system for managing beef cattle that can enhance ecosystems rather than degrade them. Hahn Niman recognizes not all beef enterprises are equal in their impact and argues …
Popular Culture

Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire

Punk Rock in the 1990s United States

David Pearson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire (Oxford University Press, 2020), musicologist David Pearson explores the changing landscape of punk in the United States in the 1990s. Pearson examines how the 1990s underground …
Food

The Immigrant-Food Nexus

Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America

Julian Agyeman and Sydney Giacalone

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America (MIT Press, 2020) considers the intersection of food and immigration at both the macroscale of national policy and the microscale …
Scholarly Communication

How to Write a Scientific Paper

An Academic Self-Help Guide for PhD Students

Jari Saramäki

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Jari Saramäki, author of How to Write a Scientific Paper: An Academic Self-Help Guide for PhD Students (2018) and professor of computational science at Aalto University, Finland …
Jewish Studies

Is Superman Circumcised?

The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero

Roy Schwartz

Hosted by Amber Nickell
​Introduced in June 1938, the Man of Steel was created by two Jewish teens, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the sons of immigrants from Eastern Europe. They based their hero’s …
East Asian Studies

Decadence in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

A Comparative and Literary-Historical Reevaluation

Hongjian Wang

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu
European Decadence, a controversial artistic movement that flourished mainly in late-nineteenth-century France and Britain, has inspired several generations of Chinese writers and literary scholars since it was introduced to China …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

The Consolations of History

Teofilo Ruiz

Hosted by Howard Burton
The Consolations of History is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Teofilo Ruiz, Professor Emeritus of History at UCLA. Teo Ruiz is a scholar of the …
Literature

The Authenticity Project

A Novel

Clare Pooley

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to Clare Pooley about her novel The Authenticity Project (Penguin, 2020). In this chatty, very British story, a few personal lines written in a “pale-green exercise book like the …
Postscript

Postscript

The Supreme Court, Concealed Carry, and How Your Laws Might Change

Joseph Blocher and Jacob B. Charles

Hosted by Susan Liebell
The American media has been focused on the Supreme Court’s upcoming abortion cases but a decision in a critical Second Amendment case could overturn public safety laws for 25% of …
World Affairs

Marketing Global Justice

The Political Economy of International Criminal Law

Christine Schwöbel-Patel

Hosted by Margot Tudor
Christine Schwöbel-Patel's Marketing Global Justice: The Political Economy of International Criminal Law (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a critical study of efforts to 'sell' global justice. The book offers a new reading …
Anthropology

Connected

How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network

Roberto J. González

Hosted by Hussein Mohsen
Connected: How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network (U California Press, 2020) is the true story of how, against all odds, a remote Mexican pueblo built its own …
German Studies

Jewish Difference and the Arts in Vienna

Composing Compassion in Music and Biblical Theater

Caroline A. Kita

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
During the mid-19th century, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner sparked an impulse toward German cultural renewal and social change that drew on religious myth, metaphysics, and spiritualism …
Latin American Studies

La Güera Rodrígue

The Life and Legends of a Mexican Independence Heroine

Silvia Marina Arrom

Hosted by Rachel Newman
In La Guera Rodriguez: The Life and Legends of a Mexican Independence Heroine (U California Press, 2021), Silvia Marina Arrom traces the legends of María Ignacia Rodríguez de Velasco y …
Education

Making Games for Impact

Kurt Squire

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Digital games for learning are now commonplace, used in settings that range from K–12 education to advanced medical training. In Making Games for Impact (MIT Press, 2021), Kurt Squire examines …
African American Studies

Imani Perry on a Life in African American Studies

Imani Perry

Hosted by Adam McNeil
On today’s podcast, I am chopping it up with my dear friend and play cousin Dr. Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. Dr. Perry …