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New Books Network
Book of the Day/ Food

Spoiled

The Myth of Milk as Superfood

Anne Mendelson

Hosted by Melek Firat Altay
Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the population is lactose-intolerant? Why are gigantic new dairy farms permitted to deplete the sparse water resources of desert ecosystems? Why do thousands of U.S. dairy farmers every year give up after struggling to recoup production costs against plummeting wholesale prices? Exploring these questions and many more, Spoiled …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

The Sea in Russian Strategy

Andrew Monaghan and Richard Connolly

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
The common perception of Russia's status as a great power is often portrayed as being based largely on land power. Being the largest country in the world and fielding massively …
High Theory

Economic Enchantments

A Discussion with Anat Rosenberg, Kristof Smeyers, and Astrid Van den Bossche

Anat Rosenberg

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Anat Rosenberg, Kristof Smeyers, and Astrid Van den Bossche discuss the fresh historiographies of capitalism offered by studies of enchantment and magical thinking. They talk about their research network for …
British Studies

Living in Houses

A Personal History English Domestic Architecture

Ruth Dalton

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Living in Houses: A Personal History of English Domestic Architecture (Lund Humphries, 2022), Dr. Ruth Dalton presents a rich and rewarding history of houses in England through the stories …
Middle Eastern Studies

Sustainable Prosperity in the Arab Gulf

From Miracle to Method

Jarmo T. Kotilaine

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Tracing the development journey of the Arabian Gulf region with a forward-looking perspective, Sustainable Prosperity in the Arab Gulf: From Miracle to Method (Routledge, 2023) describes how a combination of good fortune, creative …
General History

Ensnared Between Hitler and Stalin

Refugee Scientists in the USSR

David K. Zimmerman

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In the 1930s, hundreds of scientists and scholars fled Hitler’s Germany. Many found safety, but some made the disastrous decision to seek refuge in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The vast majority …
Indian Religions

Gāyatrī

Mantra and Mother of the Vedas

Dominik A. Haas

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
The mantra known as Gāyatrī or Sāvitrī (Ṛgveda III 62.10) is one of the most frequently recited texts of mankind. Over the course of time it has not only been …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

The Enlightened Donor

How to Give Charity Wisely

Arnie Draiman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Motivated by compassion and hope, and the shared desire to make the world a better place, the immense amount of charitable giving stands as a testament to the humanity's collective …
African American Studies

Phenomenology of Black Spirit

Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson

Hosted by Adam McNeil
In Phenomenology of Black Spirit (Edinburgh UP, 2023), Ryan Johnson and Biko Mandela Gray study the relationship between Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Black Thought from Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis …
International Horizons

Israel, Hamas, and American Jews in a Time of War

A Discussion with Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of "Forward"

Jodi Rudoren

Hosted by International Horizons
On today’s episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey speaks with Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of the Forward magazine, about the situation in Israel and Gaza. She notes that Hamas’s …
Book of the Day/ Critical Theory

The Accidental Equalizer

How Luck Determines Pay After College

Jessi Streib

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Are jobs fair? In The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay after College (U Chicago Press, 2023), Jessi Streib, an associate Professor of Sociology at Duke University, uncovers the remarkable story of the way luck shapes the hiring process for a key strata of business jobs in America. Offering a thesis that is initially counterintuitive but clearly argued, empirically grounded, and ultimately compelling, the book introduces the idea of ‘luckocracy’. ‘Luckocracy’ …
Indian Religions

The Brahmavaivarta Purana (Ganesa Khanda)

Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology

Greg Bailey

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Greg Bailey discusses his new translation of the Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa of the Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa, one of the few texts dedicated solely to the popular elephant-headed Indian god Gaṇeśa. About the …
Almost Good Catholics

Darwinian Accident or Divine Architect?

The Debate between Natural Selection and Intelligent Design

Jay Richards

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Jay Richards PhD, OP discusses the new book to which he contributed a chapter, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design (Sophia Institute Press, 2023), edited by Ann Gauger …
Political Science

National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics

The Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1912-2016

Boris Heersink

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Scientist Boris Heersink’s new book guides the reader through over a century of politics and national parties in the United States. Heersink’s work is both qualitative and quantitative and …
Library Science

Land in Libraries

Toward a Materialist Conception of Education

Lydia Zvyagintseva and Mary Greenshields

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
The question of land is largely absent in libraries. Deeply committed to the neoliberal project as a guiding ideology of the profession, libraries exist at once as ahistorical, atheoretical, and …
Higher Education

When Will the Joy Come?

Black Women in the Ivory Tower

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine, Abena Ampofoa Asare, and Michelle Dionne Thompson

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
How do Black women in higher education create, experience, and understand joy? What sustains them? While scholars have long documented sexism, racism, and classism in the academy, one topic has …
Historical Materialism

Lenin

Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution

Paul Le Blanc

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Returning to the New Books Network today is Paul Le Blanc, here to discuss his new book Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution (Pluto Press, 2023). The book deals with …
American West

Illusions of Empire

The Civil War and Reconstruction in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

William S. Kiser

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The 19th-century Mexican-American borderlands were a complicated place. By the 1860s, Confederates, Americans, Mexicans, French, and various Native societies were all scheming and vying for control of the region bifurcated by …
Scholarly Communication

How to Write Up Research

A Discussion with Yang Zhang

Yang Zhang

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Yang Zhang, faculty at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security. We talk about the centrality of text to the research process. Yang Zhang …
Asian Review of Books

Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again

The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama

Shigeru Kayama

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Earlier this month, Toho Studios released “Godzilla Minus One”—the 37th film in the now almost seven-decade-old franchise. Godzilla has gone through many phases over the past 70 years: symbol of …
Self-Control Through Torah

Jacob, Leah, Rachel and the "Middah" of Patience

On Genesis 28:10-32:3

Hosted by Modya Silver and David Gottlieb
In this week's episode, Modya and David discuss parshat Va-Yetzei (Gen. 28:10-32:3) and its lessons for the middah (character trait) of patience. Is the patriarch Jacob a model of patience …
SSEAC Stories

Disability and Work

SSEAC Timor Leste Field School

Hosted by Natali Pearson
In the fourth of five special podcasts about from the recent SSEAC field schools to Southeast Asia, we will be hearing from students and staff from the field school to …
Book of the Day/ Early Modern History

Love Spells and Lost Treasure

Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era

Tabitha Stanmore

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Magic is ubiquitous across the world and throughout history. Yet if witchcraft is acknowledged as a persistent presence in the medieval and early modern eras, practical magic by contrast – performed to a useful end for payment, and actually more common than malign spellcasting – has been overlooked. In Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era (Cambridge University …
Sociology

Trailer Park America

Reimagining Working-Class Communities

Leontina Hormel

Hosted by Michael Johnston
In rural northern Idaho in the winter of 2013-2014, Syringa Mobile Home Park’s water system was contaminated by sewage, resulting in residents’ water being shut off for 93 days. By …
Psychoanalysis

Twins in Session

Case Histories in Treating Twinship Issues

Joan A. Friedman

Hosted by Judith Tanen
Why would a twin sacrifice her own needs to make sure her same-age sibling is always cared for? What would cause a twin to have panic attacks when he and …
British Studies

Inventing the Working Parent

Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain

Sarah E. Stoller

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Sarah E. Stoller, Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain (MIT Press, 2023) is the first historical examination of working parenthood in the late twentieth century--and …
Political Science

The Rural Voter

The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America

Daniel Shea and Nicholas F. Jacobs

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The widening gulf between rural and urban America is becoming the most serious political divide of our day. Support for Democrats, up and down the ballot, has plummeted throughout the …
European Politics

Russia and Ukraine

Entangled Histories, Diverging States

Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel

Hosted by Tim Jones
Russia and Ukraine have alternative histories and alternative destinies. After the Soviet Union collapsed - depending on who you spoke to – they were either a single people artificially divided …
Literary Studies

Black Shakespeare

Reading and Misreading Race

Ian Smith

Hosted by John Yargo
In Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Ian Smith urges readers of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet to develop “racial literacy.” Through both wide …
American West

Black Rodeo

A History of the African American Western

Mia Mask

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Did you know Sidney Poitier was a western icon? In a genre best known for John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, African American actors and directors have played an important role in both …
Medieval History

International Law in Europe, 700–1200

Jenny Benham

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Was there international law in the Middle Ages? Using treaties as its main source, International Law in Europe, 700-1200 (Manchester University Press, 2022) by Dr. Jenny Benham examines the extent …
Arguing History

The Idea of "Central Europe" from Naumann to Kundera

A Discussion with Martyn Rady and Alexander Watson

Martyn Rady and Alexander Watson

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where empires clashed and world wars began. In The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe …
Book of the Day/ Critical Theory

The Moral Foundations of Public Funding for the Arts

Michael Rushton

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Should governments fund the arts? In The Moral Foundations of Public Funding for the Arts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), Michael Rushton, Co-Director of the Center for Cultural Affairs and a Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, explores a variety of frameworks for thinking about this question, from liberal and egalitarian justifications, through to communitarian, conservative, and multiculturalist ideas. The book outlines the economic method for thinking …
Asian American Studies

Nisei Radicals

The Feminist Poetics and Transformative Ministry of Mitsuye Yamada and Michael Yasutake

Diane Carol Fujino

Hosted by Donna Anderson
This episode, which is co-hosted with Michael Nishimura, features a conversation with Dr. Diane C. Fujino, the author of Nisei Radicals: The Feminist Poetics and Transformative Ministry of Mitsuye Yamada …
Education

Each One Teach One

Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica's Education System

Saran Stewart, Sharline Cole, and Yewande Lewis-Fokum

Hosted by Madden Gilhooly
Each One Teach One: Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica’s Education System (University of the West Indies Press, 2022) is a collection of research studies and essays across multiple …
Indian Ocean World

Africanism

Blacks in the Medieval Arab Imaginary

Nader Kadhem

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Anti-blackness has until recently been a taboo topic within Arab society. This began to change when Nader Kadhem, a prominent Arab and Muslim thinker from Bahrain, published the first in-depth …
Psychoanalysis

The Analyst's Torment

Unbearable Mental States in Countertransference

Dhwani Shah

Hosted by Christopher Russell
Today I spoke with Dr. Dhwani Shah about his new book The Analyst’s Torment: Unbearable Mental States in Countertransference (Karnac Books, 2022). The son of a sculptor mother and an …
Military History

American Visions

The United States, 1800-1860

Edward L. Ayers

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 (Norton, 2023) is a revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant …
Digital Humanities

Voidopolis

Kat Mustatea

Hosted by Nathan Moore
Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize, Kat Mustatea's Voidopolis (MIT Press, 2023) is a hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book, which retells Dante's …
Literary Studies

The Feeling of Letting Die

Necroeconomics and Victorian Fiction

Jennifer Maclure

Hosted by Kendall Dinniene
In The Feeling of Letting Die: Necroeconomics and Victorian Fiction (Ohio State UP, 2023), Jennifer MacLure explores how Victorian novels depict the feelings that both fuel and are produced by …
Children's Literature

Donating Books to Children

A Chat with Alex Zabolotsky of PJ Library

Alex Zabolotsky

Hosted by Mel Rosenberg
Alex Zablotsky is the Managing Director of PJ Library, a philanthropy that donates millions of books on Jewish themes to children around the world every year. We talk about the …
General History

A Brief History of History

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
In A Brief History of History (Indiana UP, 2023), acclaimed historian Jeremy Black seeks to reinvigorate and redefine our ideas about history. The stories we tell about the past are …
Book of the Day/ Law

Intersex Embodiment

Legal Frameworks Beyond Identity and Disorder

Fae Garland and Mitchell Travis

Hosted by Jane Richards
What is intersex and why does it matter? What is the power of law to disrupt dominant narratives? I had a fascinating conversation with authors Dr Fae Garland and Dr Mitchell Travis about their book, Intersex Embodiment: Legal Frameworks Beyond Identity and Disorder (Bristol UP, 2023). We got into detail about these groundbreaking human rights issues. We spoke about the very real challenges faced in conducting legal research that has meaningful impact for social …
Technology

Lifelines of Our Society

A Global History of Infrastructure

Dirk Van Laak

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Infrastructure is essential to defining how the public functions, yet there is little public knowledge regarding why and how it became today's strongest global force over government and individual lives …
Library Science

From Handwriting to Footprinting

Text and Heritage in the Age of Climate Crisis

Anne Baillot

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
How do we currently preserve and access texts, and will our current methods be sustainable in the future? In From Handwriting to Footprinting: Text and Heritage in the Age of …
Sports

Suds Series

Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of '82

J. Daniel

Hosted by Rob Heaton
On this episode, J. Daniel takes readers back more than forty years, telling a story that is part baseball history, part urban history, and part U.S. cultural history, with a …
Diplomatic History

The Burden-Sharing Dilemma

Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics

Brian D. Blankenship

Hosted by Nathan Moore
The Burden-Sharing Dilemma: Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics (Cornell UP, 2023) examines the conditions under which the United States is willing and able to pressure its allies to assume …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

The Genius of Israel

The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World

Dan Senor and Saul Singer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
How has a small nation of 9 million people, forced to fight for its existence and security since its founding and riven by ethnic, religious, and economic divides, proven resistant …
Medieval History

Radegund

The Trials and Triumphs of a Merovingian Queen

E. T. Dailey

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
A princess born to the Thuringian royal house. A captive in war, forced to marry the Frankish king who killed her family. A queen, who renounced her position, received consecration …
Jewish Studies

The Fourth of August Regime and Greek Jewry, 1936-1941

Katerina Lagos

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Delving into a traditionally underexplored period, this book focuses on the treatment of Greek Jews under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas in the years leading up to the Second World …
Military History

IS-2

Development, Design & Production of Stalin's Warhammer

Peter Samsonov

Hosted by Boris Karpa
The IS-2 is the quintessential Soviet heavy tank from World War 2. Heavily armored and boasting a fearsome 122mm gun, this tank matched the German panzers on the Eastern front …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones

The Future of Innovation

A Discussion with Min W. Jung

Min W. Jung

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Humans have been so dominant on Earth in large part because of their capacity to innovate – but how does that work exactly? Why can they innovate so much? That …
Book of the Day/ Japanese Studies

Nuclear Minds

Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Ran Zwigenberg

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Ran Zwigenberg’s Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (U Chicago Press, 2023) explores early efforts by the American military, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social scientists to understand the effects of the atomic bombings on the minds of those who had survived. In positioning the book as “a prehistory of PTSD,” Zwigenberg draws attention to the historicity of the idea of psychological “trauma” before the concept …
Military History

The War for England's Shores

S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys

G. H. Bennett

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys (US Naval Institute Press, 2023) by Dr. G. H. Bennett examines the Kriegsmarine's S-Boat offensive along the …
Jewish Studies

Hasdai Crescas: Collected Writings

Roslyn Weiss

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Today I talked to Roslyn Weiss, editor of Hasdai Crescas: Collected Writings (Library of the Jewish People, 2023). Hasdai Crescas spent his life in public service - as a rabbi and …
Sociology

Performing Memories and Weaving Archives

Creolized Cultures across the Indian Ocean

Sayan Dey

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri
Usually, discourses on the planetary evolution and the movements of slaves remain restricted within the narratives and scholarships of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and hardly engage with the evolution, movements …
Critical Theory

A Queer Theory of the State

Samuel Clowes Huneke

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
Queer theory has often been hesitant to align itself with a politics of the state, approaching it with a negative or pragmatic framework. A Queer Theory of the State (Floating …
Sports

After the Count

The Death of Davey Browne

Stephanie Convery

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Stephanie Convery, inequality editor at Guardian Australia, and author of After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne (Penguin Australia, 2020). In our conversation, we …
Anthropology

‘Ritual Litter' Redressed

Ceri Houlbrook

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Ritual deposition is not an activity that many people in the Western world would consider themselves participants of. The enigmatic beliefs and magical thinking that led to the deposition of …
General History

The Globemakers

The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft

Peter Bellerby

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Peter Bellerby is the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, the world's only truly bespoke makers of globes. His team of skilled craftspeople make exquisite terrestrial, celestial and planetary globes …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

I Know Where I’m Going!

A Film by Emeric Powell and Michael Pressburger

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Samuel Johnson once asked, “What enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got?” He must never have seen I Know Where I’m Going (1945). In their fifth …
General History

British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925

Empire, Loyalties and Democratic Deficit

Andrekos Varnava

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Most of the Cypriot population, especially the lower classes, remained loyal to the British cause during the Great War and the island contributed significantly to the First World War, with …
Book of the Day/ General History

What the Greeks Did for Us

Tony Spawforth

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Listen:
Our contemporary world is inescapably Greek. Whether in a word like “pandemic,” a Freudian state of mind like the “Oedipus complex,” or a replica of the Parthenon in a Chinese theme park, ancient Greek culture shapes the contours of our lives. Ever since the first Roman imitators, we have been continually falling under the Greeks’ spell. But how did ancient Greece spread its influence so far and wide? And how …
Critical Theory

The Age of Insecurity

Coming Together as Things Fall Apart

Astra Taylor

Hosted by Louisa Hann
Listen:
These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn’t working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going …
East Asian Studies

The Perils of Interpreting

The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire

Henrietta Harrison

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos
The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire (Princeton UP, 2021) is a fascinating history of China's relations with the West--told through …
Science, Technology, and Society

The SAGE Handbook of Human–Machine Communication

Rhonda McEwen, Andrea L. Guzman and Steve Jones (eds.)

Hosted by Pamela Fuentes
Listen:
The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication has been designed to serve as the touchstone text for researchers and scholars engaging in new research in this fast-developing field. Chapters provide a …
Literature

The Lost Archive

Lynn Miller

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Listen:
The Lost Archive (U Wisconsin Press, 2023) is comprised of a cast of characters who are mostly dealing with, or in the aftermath of a crisis of some kind. Or …
American Studies

Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord

The United States since 1945

Salim Yaqub

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Listen:
Salim Yaqub's Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord: The United States since 1945 (Cambridge UP, 2022) explores how Americans from all walks of life – political leaders, businesspeople, public intellectuals …
General History

The Pirates’ Code

Laws and Life Aboard Ship

Rebecca Simon

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Listen:
In The Pirate's Code: Laws and Life Aboard Ship (Reaktion, 2023), Dr. Rebecca Simon presents a rollicking account of pirates’ codes, the strict rules essential for survival at sea. Pirates …
Middle Eastern Studies

Waiting for the Revolution to End

Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity

Charlotte Al-Khalili

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Listen:
Waiting for the Revolution to End: Syrian Displacement, Time and Subjectivity (UCL Press, 2023) by Dr. Charlotte Al-Khalili explores the Syrian revolution through the experiences of citizens in exile. Based on …
Sociology

When We Walk By

Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America

Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Listen:
Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or …
High Theory

Plagiarism

A Discussion with Geoffrey Sanborn

Geoffrey Sanborn

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Listen:
In this episode of High Theory, Geoffrey Sanborn tells us about Plagiarism. A concept emerged with the idea of originality, plagiarism challenges some of our most deeply held notions of …
Book of the Day/ World Affairs

The Project-State and Its Rivals

A New History of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Charles S. Maier

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
We thought we knew the story of the twentieth century. For many in the West, after the two world conflicts and the long cold war, the verdict was clear: democratic values had prevailed over dictatorship. But if the twentieth century meant the triumph of liberalism, as many intellectuals proclaimed, why have the era’s darker impulses—ethnic nationalism, racist violence, and populist authoritarianism—revived? The Project-State and Its Rivals: A New History of …
Buddhist Studies

Chinese Cosmopolitanism

The History and Philosophy of an Idea

Shuchen Xiang

Hosted by Jessica Zu
A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference. Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic …
British Studies

Shakespeare’s House

A Window onto his Life and Legacy

Richard Schoch

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 – known colloquially as the 'Birthplace' – remains the chief shrine. It's …
German Studies

Memory Wars

New German Historical Consciousness

Jürgen Zimmerer

Hosted by Miriam Schulz
Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Ditzingen: Reclam, 2023) is a new, provocative  volume on German memory cultures and politics edited by Jürgen Zimmerer. What can be loosely translated as Memory Wars: New German Historical …
Psychology

Resilience

The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges

Steven M. Southwick, Dennis S. Charney, and Jonathan M. Depierro

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Life presents us all with challenges. Most of us at some point will be struck by major traumas such as the sudden death of a loved one, a debilitating disease …
Art

Artists Remake the World

A Contemporary Art Manifesto

Vid Simoniti

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Artists Remake the World: A Contemporary Art Manifesto (Yale UP, 2023) puts forward an account of contemporary art’s political ambitions and potential. Surveying such innovations as evidence-driven art, socially engaged …
Jewish Studies

Centuries Encircle Me with Fire

Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam. A Bilingual English–Russian Edition

Ian Probstein, trans.

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential poets. This collection, compiled, translated, and edited by poet and scholar Ian Probstein, provides Anglophone audiences …
Scholarly Communication

How Did Academic Monograph Publishing Evolve into the Field of Intellectual Trade Books?

A Chat with Chris Hart and Kim Walker of Manchester UP

Chris Hart and Kim Walker

Hosted by Avi Staiman
Chris Hart, Director of Sales and Marketing, and Kim Walker, Director of Trade Publishing at Manchester University Press join Avi to discuss how MUP and other university publishers have changed …
Children's Literature

Flat Cat

Tara Lazar

Hosted by Mel Rosenberg
In this, our second interview, I talk with award-winning children's author Tara Lazar about her new picture book, Flat Cat (Flamingo Books, 2023), illustrated by the also-illustrious Pete Oswald. We …
Book of the Day/ Psychology

Honesty

The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue

Christian B. Miller

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Honesty is an important virtue. Parents want to develop it in their children. Close relationships depend upon it. Employers value it in their employees. Surprisingly, however, philosophers have said very little about the virtue of honesty over the past fifty years. In Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (Oxford UP, 2021), Christian B. Miller aims to draw much greater attention to this neglected virtue. The first part …
Academic Life

Education Behind the Wall

Why and How We Teach College in Prison

Mneesha Gellman

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Why are college programs offered in some prisons? How are the students selected? Where do the professors come from? What are the logistics of preparing to teach, and to learn …
American Studies

American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability

Russ Castronovo

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
An incisive critique that examines the origins of contemporary American ideas about surveillance, terrorism, and white supremacy. For more than three centuries, Americans have pursued strategies of security that routinely …
French Studies

Creative Histories of Witchcraft

France, 1790–1940

Poppy Corbett, Anna Kisby Compton, and William G. Pooley

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
How can researchers study magic without destroying its mystery? Drawing on a collaborative project between the playwright Dr. Poppy Corbett, the poet Anna Kisby Compton, and the historian Dr. William …
World Affairs

Reluctance in World Politics

Why States Fail to Act Decisively

Sandra Destradi

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Why do international actors, including powerful states, often fail to develop clear foreign policies and instead adopt indecisive, ‘muddling-through’ approaches? In Reluctance in World Politics: Why States Fail to Act …
Medieval History

The Power of Protocol

Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400 – c.1600

D. L. d'Avray

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400 – c.1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. David d’Avray asks: How did the papacy govern European …
Indian Religions

Vedic Texts, Indus Script, Aryan Migration

A Conversation with Asko Parpola

Asko Parpola

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Seasoned scholar Asko Parpola discusses his Indological career, from how it began in the 1960s to what he’s working on now. Key themes include his longstanding work on Sāmaveda Jaiminīya …
Novel Dialogue

Attention is Love

A Discussion with Lauren Groff and Laura McGrath (SW)

Lauren Groff and Laura McGrath

Hosted by Novel Dialogue
Just days before the release of her latest novel, The Vaster Wilds (Riverhead Books, 2023), three-time National Book Award Finalist and The New York Times-bestselling author Lauren Groff sat down …
Asian Review of Books

Dethroned

The Downfall of India’s Princely States

John Zubrzycki

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Post-independence India had a big problem–about 40% of its land wasn’t, well, India. Instead, this land was in the hands of the princely states: Rulers who had signed agreements accepting …
Self-Control Through Torah

Loving Acts Through Patience

On the VaYishlach

Hosted by Modya Silver and David Gottlieb
David and Modya complete their four episode exploration of patience by looking at the Torah portion of VaYishlach. The focus in this episode is on the role of patience in …