New Books Network
Book of the Day/ History

All the Nations Under Heaven

Immigrants, Migrants, and the Making of New York

Frederick M. Binder, David M. Reimers, and Robert W. Snyder

Hosted by Peter Aigner
All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants, and the Making of New York by Frederick M. Binder, David M. Reimers, and Robert W. Snyder (Columbia University Press, 2019) covers almost 500 years of New York City’s still unfolding story of cultural diversity and political conflict, economic dynamism and unmatched human diversity. This briskly paced volume – which updates a first edition originally published in the mid-1990s – reminds us that …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Men Out of Focus

The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties

Marko Dumancic

Hosted by Jill Massino
Marko Dumancic's book Men Out of Focus: The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties (University of Toronto Press, 2021) charts conversations and polemics about masculinity in Soviet cinema and popular …
History

Rebel Cinderella

From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes

Adam Hochschild

Hosted by Robert Snyder
In the political ferment of early twentieth century New York City, when socialists and reformers battled sweatshops, and writers and artists thought a new world was being born, an immigrant …
Historical Fiction

Three Locks

A Sherlock Holmes Adventure

Bonnie Macbird

Hosted by C. P. Lesley
Sherlock Holmes is one of the rare literary characters who has achieved a kind of cultural immortality. As Bonnie MacBird notes in this interview, display an image of a deerstalker hat …
History

Give Me Liberty

A History of America's Exceptional Idea

Richard Brookhiser

Hosted by Ian Drake
In Give Me Liberty: A History of America's Exceptional Idea (Basic Books, 2019), Richard Brookhiser has written a history of an idea, liberty, using an unconventional format of a review of …
Communications

How Non-Being Haunts Being

On Possibilities, Morality, and Death Acceptance

Corey Anton

Hosted by Lee Pierce
How Non-being Haunts Being reveals how the human world is not reducible to “what is.” Human life is an open expanse of “what was” and “what will be,” “what might …
Archaeology

Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent

A History of Local Archaeological Knowledge and Labor

Allison Mickel

Hosted by Samuel Pfister
Since the beginnings of organized archaeology in the Middle East in the 19th century, western archaeologists have typically employed large “gangs” or “teams” of locals to perform the manual labor …
History

American Writers and World War I

David A. Rennie

Hosted by Ryan Tripp
In American Writers and World War I (Oxford University Press, 2020), David A. Rennie argues that authors' war writing continuously evolved in response to developments in their professional and personal lives. He examines …
Central Asian Studies

Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes

Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia

Rustamjon Urinboyev

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia (University of California Press, 2020), Dr. Rustam Urinboyev presents rich ethnographic material to reconceptualize how migrants adapt to …
Public Policy

The Other Side of the Coin

Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures

Christopher G. Faricy and Christopher Ellis

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
In The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021), political scientists Christopher Ellis and Christopher Faricy examine public opinion towards social tax …
Music

Black Diamond Queens

African American Women and Rock and Roll

Maureen Mahon

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Maureen Mahon’s book, Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll (Duke University Press, 2020), focuses on the contributions to rock and roll by African American women from …
Cover Story

The Work of Editing a Magazine

A Discussion with Chris Lehmann

Chris Lehmann

Hosted by Agata Popeda
In this episode, we are talking to writer and editor Chris Lehmann, an editor of The Baffler, a former managing editor of The New Republic and a former editor of …
Landscape Architecture

Teaching Landscape

The Studio Experience

Karsten Jørgensen et al.

Hosted by Tricia Keffer
Teaching Landscape: The Studio Experience (Routledge, 2019) gathers a range of expert contributions from across the world to collect best-practice examples of teaching landscape architecture studios. This is the companion volume …
Book of the Day/ Critical Theory

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet

Domenico Losurdo

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche stands among the canon’s most-cited figures, with aphorisms dotting texts on a variety of topics, and his name evokes strong responses from almost anyone who has ever heard of him. His aphoristic and poetic writing style have made it difficult at times to understand what he meant, although the wealth of commentaries pulling him in a variety of different directions points to the …
Middle Eastern Studies

Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life

The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World

Jörg Matthias Determann

Hosted by Asad Dandia
The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the …
Jewish Studies

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex

The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution

Lila Corwin Berman

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish …
Jewish Studies

Songs in Dark Times

Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine

Amelia M. Glaser

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Between the world wars, a generation of Jewish leftist poets reached out to other embattled peoples of the earth--Palestinian Arabs, African Americans, Spanish Republicans--in Yiddish verse. Songs in Dark Times …
History

Calvin, the Bible, and History

Barbara Pitkin

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
John Calvin was known foremost for his powerful impact on the fundamental doctrines of Protestantism, and his biblical interpretation continues to attract interest and inquiry. Calvin, the Bible, and History …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Visual Thought in Russian Religious Philosophy

Pavel Florensky's Theory of the Icon

Clemena Antonova

Hosted by Diana Dukhanova
Often referred to as “the Russian Leonardo”, religious philosopher and Orthodox parish priest Pavel Florensky was a pivotal figure in the Russian religious renaissance at the turn of the 20th …
Christian Studies

Who Is an Evangelical?

Thomas S. Kidd

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
News and media outlets have become especially attentive to the political leanings of a particular subset of American Protestants: the Evangelicals. Leading historian of American Christianity, Thomas S. Kidd, wrote Who …
Medicine

Examining Tuskegee

The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy

Susan M. Reverby

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Some books are new, others are newly relevant – and so worth looking at from a new, contemporary perspective. Such is the case with Susan Reverby’s book Examining Tuskegee: The …
Literary Studies

Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul

Mykola (Nik) Bazhan's Early Experimental Poetry

Mykola Bazhan

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry (Academic Studies Press, 2020) presents a collection of early works by Mykola Bazhan, one of the most enigmatic …
Anthropology

Wade Davis Discusses His Life and Work

Wade Davis

Hosted by Keith Krueger
"… I am an axe; And my son a handle, soon; To be shaping again, model; And tool, craft of culture; How we go on." - Gary Snyder, Axe Handles (1983) "… wisdom …
The Future of Higher Education

An Interview with Jerry Cohon and Mark Kamlet

Former President and Former Provost of Carnegie Mellon University

Hosted by David Finegold
This features our first tag team on the podcast, with an engaging discussion with Jared “Jerry” Cohon, who served as President of CMU from 1997-2013, and Dr. Mark Kamlet, who …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Ideologies of Race

Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union in Global Context

David Rainbow

Hosted by Diana Dukhanova
Conflicting notions about the dynamics of race in Russia and the Soviet Union have made it difficult for both scholars and other observers of the region to understand rising racial …
Geography

Nuclear Suburbs

Cold War Technoscience and the Pittsburgh Renaissance

Patrick Vitale

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
From submarines to the suburbs--the remaking of Pittsburgh during the Cold War During the early Cold War, research facilities became ubiquitous features of suburbs across the United States. Pittsburgh's eastern …
Life Wisdom

Brian Carwana on World Religions

Executive Director of Encounter World Religions

Brian Carwana

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Why study World Religions? This podcast features words of wisdom from Dr. Brian Carawana, Executive Director of Encounter World Religions who advocates for widespread religious literacy. We learn core insights Dr …
Book of the Day/ Communications

Twitter

A Biography

Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
As Twitter enters its own adolescence, both the users and the creators of this famous social media platform find themselves engaging with a tool that certainly could not have been imagined at its inception. In their engaging book Twitter: A Biography (NYU Press, 2020), Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym (@nancybaym) tell the fascinating and surprising story of how this platform developed from a quirky SMS tool for publicly sharing intimate details of personal …
Political Science

Homeschooling the Right

How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State

Heath Brown

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Scientist Heath Brown’s new book, Homeschooling the Right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State (Columbia UP, 2021) is an excellent overview of the homeschooling movement in the United States, but …
Latin American Studies

The Spirit of Hispanism

Commerce, Culture, and Identity Across the Atlantic, 1875-1936

Diana Arbaiza

Hosted by Ethan Fredrick
In the late nineteenth century, Spanish intellectuals and entrepreneurs became captivated with Hispanism, a movement of transatlantic rapprochement between Spain and Latin America. Not only was this movement envisioned as …
Communications

Silicon Values

The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism

Jillian C. York

Hosted by Marci Mazzarotto
What is the impact of surveillance capitalism on our right to free speech? The Internet once promised to be a place of extraordinary freedom beyond the control of money or …
Academic Life

Inside Look at "Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education"

A Conversation with Bradley Shreve

Bradley Shreve

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts …
National Security

The Frontlines of Peace

An Insider's Guide to Changing the World

Séverine Autesserre

Hosted by Beth Windisch
The word "peacebuilding" evokes a story we've all heard over and over: violence breaks out, foreign nations are scandalized, peacekeepers and million-dollar donors come rushing in, warring parties sign a …
Sociology

Gentrification Down the Shore

Molly Vollman Makris and Mary Gatta

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In Gentrification Down the Shore (Rutgers University Press, 2020), Molly Vollman Makris and Mary Gatta engage in a rich ethnographic investigation of Asbury Park to better understand the connection between …
SSEAC Stories

Of Rice and Men

How Food Production is Driving Antimicrobial Resistance amongst Fungi in Vietnam

Justin Beardsley

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Fungal infections are amongst the leading infectious disease killers globally. They result in more deaths than malaria, and almost as many as tuberculosis. However, they are often overlooked, and receive …
Asian Review of Books

Finding the Raga

An Improvisation on Indian Music

Amit Chaudhuri

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Dismissal, in fact, is the default response to khayal (the preeminent genre of North Indian classical music), well before we get to know what khayal is, and vaguely term its …
History

Losing Hearts and Minds

American-Iranian Relations and International Education during the Cold War

Matthew K. Shannon

Hosted by Steven Rodriguez
In Losing Hearts and Minds: American Iranian Relations and International Education During the Cold War (Cornell UP, 2017), Matthew K. Shannon, an associate professor of history at Emory & Henry College …
Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work

Nothing About Us Without Us

Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research

Dilara Yarbrough

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Today I talked to Dilara Yarbrough about her article "Nothing About Us Without Us: Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research," published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (2019). Dilara …
American Studies

The Common School Awakening

Religion and the Transatlantic Roots of American Public Education

David Komline

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The origins of American public schools can help shed light on continued contemporary discussions around religion and education in American discourse. In The Common School Awakening: Religion and the Transatlantic Roots of American …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Men to Avoid in Art and Life

Nicole Tersigni

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Nicole Tersigni about her book Men to Avoid in Art and Life" (Chronicle Books, 2020). Nicole Tersigni is a comedic writer experienced in improve comedy and women’s …
Critical Theory

Creative Control

The Ambivalence of Work in the Culture Industries

Michael L. Siciliano

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How should we understand creative work? In Creative Control: The Ambivalence of Work in the Culture Industries (Columbia UP, 2021), Michael Siciliano, an assistant professor of sociology at Queen's University …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

You're Invited

The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence

Jon Levy

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Jon Levy about his new book You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence (Harper Business, 2021). Jon Levy is a behavioral scientist who over a decade …
Book of the Day/ Economics

Post Growth

Life after Capitalism

Tim Jackson

Hosted by Andrea Bernardi
I spoke with Prof. Tim Jackson about his latest book: Post Growth, Life after Capitalism, published by Polity Books in 2021. The book starts with a reflection on the event of the past few months. The success in 2019 of the school strikes for climate, the attention that Greta Thunberg received even in Davos, and the arrival of the pandemic that changed our priorities. Even the 2009 crisis challenged the …
Middle Eastern Studies

Turkey, Egypt, and Syria

A Travelogue

Shibli Numani

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Turkey, Egypt, and Syria: A Travelogue (Syracuse UP, 2019) vividly captures the experiences of prominent Indian intellectual and scholar Shibli Nu'mani (1857-1914) as he journeyed across the Ottoman Empire and Egypt in …
Middle Eastern Studies

Between Muslims

Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan

J. Andrew Bush

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Between Muslims Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan (Stanford UP, 2020) by J. Andrew Bush asks what it means to be Muslim, yet not pious, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though Islam is …
Islamic Studies

Words of Experience

Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst

Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst and Brannon M. Wheeler

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
For more than three decades now, Carl Ernst, through his scholarship and his public engagement on the study of Islam and Muslim societies, has modeled the finest form of intellectual …
European Studies

European Studies

Past, Present, and Future

Erik Jones

Hosted by Tim Jones
“It is no secret that European studies has suffered a setback in the academy”, write William Collins Donahue and Martin Kagel in their contribution to European Studies: Past, Present and …
American West

Writing Kit Carson

Fallen Heroes in a Changing West

Susan Lee Johnson

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The only constant in Western history is change. Susan Lee Johnson, Harry Reid Endowed Chair in the History of the Intermountain West at UNLV, knows this better than most. Author of …
East Asian Studies

Empire and Righteous Nation

600 Years of China-Korea Relations

Odd Arne Westad

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Being arguably each side’s most enduring international bond, the China-Korea relationship has long been of great practical and symbolic importance to both. Moreover, as Odd Arne Westad observes in his …
Japanese Studies

Women and Networks in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Bettina Gramlich-Oka and Anne Walthall

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Although scholars have emphasized the importance of women’s networks for civil society in twentieth-century Japan, Women and Networks in Nineteenth-Century Japan (University of Michigan Press, 2020) is the first book to …
Law

A Pattern of Violence

How the Law Classifies Crimes and What It Means for Justice

David Alan Sklansky

Hosted by Samuel Newton
In the wake of the George Floyd killing, many Americans are engaging in a renewed debate about the role violence and especially police violence, plays in American society. In A …
Kurdish Studies

Insurgent Women

Female Combatants in Civil Wars

Jessica Trisko Darden, Alexis Henshaw, and Ora Szekely

Hosted by Dilan Okcuoglu
Today I talked to Ora Szekely about Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (Georgetown UP, 2019), which she co-edited with Jessica Trisko Darden and Alexis Henshaw. Why do women go to war in …
Scholarly Communication

Book Wars

The Digital Revolution in Publishing

John B. Thompson

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Today I talked to John Thompson, Emeritus Professor, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, about his new book Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing (Polity, 2021). We discuss crowdfunding, audio books, distribution chains …
Gender Studies

Hear #metoo in India

News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism

Pallavi Guha

Hosted by Jana Byars
Hello Everyone, and welcome to New Books in Gender and Sexuality, a channel on the New Books Network. I’m your host, Jana Byars, and I’m here today with Pallavi Guha …
The Common Magazine

You Like to Have Some Cup of Tea?’ and Other Questions About Complicity and Place

Deborah Lindsay Williams

Hosted by Emily Everett
Deborah Lindsay Williams speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her “‘You Like to Have Some Cup of Tea?’ and Other Questions About Complicity and Place,” which appears in Issue …
Food

Why We Cook

Women on Food, Identity, and Connection

Lindsay Gardner

Hosted by Daniela Gutierrez
Why We Cook: Women on Food, Identity, and Connection (Workman, 2021) includes essays, recipes, interviews and profiles of more than 100 women in the world of food; from restaurateurs and …
Architecture

Parks and Recreation System Planning

A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities

David Barth

Hosted by Tricia Keffer
Parks and recreation systems have evolved in remarkable ways over the past two decades. No longer just playgrounds and ballfields, parks and open spaces have become recognized as essential green …
Book of the Day/ Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work

Paying for Sex in a Digital Age

US and UK Perspectives

Teela Sanders, Barbara G. Brents, and Chris Wakefield

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Providing one of the first comprehensive, cross-cultural examinations of the dynamic market for sexual services, this book presents an evidence-based look at the multiple factors related to purchasing patterns and demand among clients who have used the internet. The data is drawn from two large surveys of sex workers' clients in the US and UK. The book presents descriptive baseline data on client engagement with online platforms, demographics and patterns …
Food

American Advertising Cookbooks

How Corporations Taught Us to Love Bananas, Spam, and Jell-O

Christina Ward

Hosted by Carrie Helms Tippen
Christina Ward’s newest book American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O (Process Media, 2019) examines a familiar but understudied sub-genre of commercially published cookbooks …
Latin American Studies

The Conquered

Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity

Eleni Kefala

Hosted by Ethan Fredrick
Eleni Kefala's book The Conquered: Byzantium and America on the Cusp of Modernity (Dumbarton Oaks, 2021) probes issues of collective memory and cultural trauma in three sorrowful poems composed soon after the conquest of …
Fantasy

The Bone Shard Daughter

The Drowning Empire Book One

Andrea Stewart

Hosted by Gabrielle Mathieu
Today I talked to Andrea Stewart about The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One (Hachette UK, 2020). In a world of floating islands, various narrators try to achieve or avoid …
Political Science

Unceasing Militant

The Life of Mary Church Terrell

Alison M. Parker

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Dr. Alison M. Parker’s new book Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell (University of North Carolina Press, 2020) explores the life of civil rights activist and feminist, Mary …
Science

The Beauty of Chemistry

Art, Wonder, and Science

Philip Ball

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Chemistry is not just about microscopic atoms doing inscrutable things; it is the process that makes flowers and galaxies. We rely on it for bread-baking, vegetable-growing, and producing the materials …
Academic Life

Pandemic Perspectives: Working Remotely

A Discussion with Raj Balkaran

Raj Balkaran

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership

Vasco Pedro

CEO and Entrepreneur

Hosted by Richard Lucas
Vasco Pedro talks about growing up in Portugal, the lessons learned in military boarding school from the age of 10, his love of coding and building things, and how he …
Medicine

More Than Medicine

Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State

LaTonya J. Trotter

Hosted by Claire Clark
In More Than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State (Cornell UP, 2020), LaTonya J. Trotter chronicles the everyday work of …
Performing Arts

Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal

Kate Dossett

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Kate Dossett's book Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal (UNC Press, 2020) turns conventional understandings of the Federal Theatre Project on its head. This book shines a light on the …
Sports

Singled Out

The True Story of Glenn Burke

Andrew Maraniss

Hosted by Paul Knepper
On October 2nd, 1977, Glenn Burke, outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, made history without even swinging a bat. When his teammate Dusty Baker hit a historic home run, Glenn …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Beyond the Protest Square

Digital Media and Augmented Dissent

Tetyana Lokot

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Tetyana Lokot's new book Beyond the Protest Square: Digital Media and Augmented Dissent (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) examines how citizens use digital social media to engage in public discontent and offers …
Philosophy

Cassirer

Samantha Matherne

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) was a leading neo-Kantian who developed a systematic view of how we construct and experience culture, widely construed to include mathematics, science, religion, myth, art, politics, ethics …
Nordic Asia Podcast

Making Sense of the West Bengal Elections

A Discussion with Niladri Chatterjee, Zaad Mahmoud and Arild Engelsen Ruud

Niladri Chatterjee, Zaad Mahmoud and Arild Engelsen Ruud

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode Kennth Bo Nielsen of Asianettverket at the University of Oslo is joined by Niladri Chatterjee (University of Oslo), Zaad Mahmoud (Presidency University) and Arild Engelsen Ruud (University …
Book of the Day/ Cover Story

Can we Disagree Online Respectfully?

A Discussion with Ian Leslie

Ian Leslie

Hosted by Agata Popeda
In this episode, we are talking to a British writer Ian Leslie, a journalist and author of acclaimed books on human behavior. His latest book, Conflicted: How Productive Disagreements Lead to Better Outcomes (Harper Business, 2021), is about how to disagree better. Ian regularly publishes in The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Economist. He co-hosted the podcast series Polarized and created a BBC radio comedy series. The piece we …
Systems and Cybernetics

Cybernetic-Existentialism

Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others in Contemporary Arts and Performance

Steve Dixon

Hosted by Tom Scholte
Like the transdiscipline of cybernetics, the philosophical movement known as Existentialism rose to prominence in the decade following World War II, was communicated to the general public by a handful …
Sociology

Capable Women, Incapable States

Negotiating Violence and Rights in India

Poulami Roychowdhury

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How do women claim rights against violence in India and with what consequences? By observing how survivors navigate the Indian criminal justice system, Roychowdhury provides a unique lens on rights …
Literature

All Sorrows Can Be Borne

Loren Stephens

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
In All Sorrows Can Be Borne (Rare Bird Books, 2021), Loren Stephens tells the story, inspired by true events, of a Japanese woman who survives the bombing of Hiroshima, joins her half-sister …
Science

Exhale

Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant

David Weill

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant (Post Hill Press, 2021) is the riveting memoir of a top transplant doctor who rode the emotional rollercoaster of saving and …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

How Design Makes the World

Scott Berkun

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Everything you use, from your home to your smartphone, from highways to supermarkets, was designed by someone. What did they get right? Where did they go wrong? And what can …
Economics

The Great Crash 1929

John Kenneth Galbraith

Hosted by Tim Jones
"A good knowledge of what happened in 1929 remains our best safeguard against the recurrence of the more unhappy events of those days", wrote John Kenneth Galbraith in The Great …
Public Policy

How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness

Innovations That Work

Linda Gibbs, Jay Bainbridge, Muzzy Rosenblatt, and Tamiru Mammo

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness: Innovations That Work (U California Press, 2021) provides a first-hand account of the challenges of homelessness and how cities have used innovation and …
Psychoanalysis

A People's History of Psychoanalysis

From Freud to Liberation Psychology

Daniel Jose Gaztambide

Hosted by J.J. Mull
In this episode, host J.J. Mull interviews Daniel José Gaztambide about his book, A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology (Lexington Books, 2021). The project traces a …
Medicine

The Problem of Alzheimer's

How Science, Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It

Jason Karlawish

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In 2020, an estimated 5.8 million Americans had Alzheimer’s, and more than half a million died because of the disease and its devastating complications. 16 million caregivers are responsible for …
Christian Studies

Mary Magdalene Revealed

The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet

Meggan Watterson

Hosted by Meg Gambino
In her rich book, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, The Feminist Gospel, and the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet (Hay House, 2019), Meggan Watterson takes us deep into the heart of Mary …
Jewish Studies

Borders and Belonging

A Memoir

Mira Sucharov

Hosted by Claire English
Mira Sucharov’s new book, Borders and Belonging: A Memoir (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), is a work that takes seriously the feminist adage that the “personal is political,” and vice versa. Through an …
Book of the Day/ Animal Studies

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

Michelle Nijhuis

Hosted by Jenny Splitter
In the late nineteenth century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction (Norton, 2021), acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement’s history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle …
Latin American Studies

Ganhadores

A greve negra de 1857 na Bahia

João José Reis

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Um retrato original da Bahia no século XIX, num livro cheio de movimento e vozes, sobretudo da gente negra. Em Ganhadores: A Greve Negra de 1857 na Bahia (Companhia das Letras, 2019) …
Law

The Un Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Practice

A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Courts

Lisa Waddington and Anna Lawson

Hosted by Jane Richards
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Practice: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Courts (Oxford UP, 2018) brings together an extraordinary collection of data and analysis which concerns …
Latin American Studies

Staging Frontiers

The Making of Modern Popular Culture in Argentina and Uruguay

William Garrett Acree

Hosted by Candela Marini
Swashbuckling tales of valiant gauchos roaming Argentina and Uruguay were nineteenth-century Latin American best sellers. But when these  stories jumped from the page to the circus stage and beyond, their cultural …
Art

The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader

Writings, Interviews, and Critical Responses

Jordana Moore Saggese

Hosted by Allison Leigh
In The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader (University of California Press, 2021), Jordana Moore Saggese provides the first comprehensive sourcebook on the artist, closing gaps that have until now limited the sustained …
Anthropology

Television and the Afghan Culture Wars

Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Local Activists

Wazhmah Osman

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era …
Middle Eastern Studies

Turkey

A Past Against History

Christine M. Philliou

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Christine M. Philliou's Turkey: A Past Against History (University of California Press, 2021) challenges conventional understandings about the transition from the Ottoman Empire to Republic of Turkey. From its earliest days, the dominant …
African Studies

Becoming Rwandan

Education, Reconciliation, and the Making of a Post-Genocide Citizen

S. Garnett Russell

Hosted by Susan Thomson
In Becoming Rwandan: Education, Reconciliation and the Making of a Post-Genocide Citizen (Rutgers UP, 2020), S. Garnett Russell argues that although the Rwandan government makes use of global discourses in national policy documents …
The Future of Higher Education

An Interview with Mary Marci

President of President of Dominican University and author of "The Small College Imperative"

Hosted by David Finegold
Mary Marcy discusses her influential new book, The Small College Imperative: Models for Sustainable Futures (Stylus, 2020) which lays out five different models that small colleges and universities can use to …
History

Stampede

Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike

Brian Castner

Hosted by Steven Seegel
In 1897, the United States was mired in the worst economic depression that the country had yet endured. So when all the newspapers announced gold was to be found in …
Science, Technology, and Society

Freezing Fertility

Oocyte Cryopreservation and the Gender Politics of Aging

Lucy van de Wiel

Hosted by Ann Choi
How does egg freezing reshape our conception of time, aging and fertility? In her new monograph, Freezing Fertility: Oocyte Cryopreservation and the Gender Politics of Aging (NYU Press, 2020) Dr. Lucy van …
History

That Most Precious Merchandise

The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500

Hannah Barker

Hosted by Jonathan Megerian
Before the Transatlantic slave trade ravaged the western coast of Africa, immense numbers of persons were taken from their homes and carried across the Black and Mediterranean Seas as involuntary …
Life Wisdom

Bhakti Marg Swami on Devotion

ISKON Leader

Bhaktimarga Swami

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
What does it mean to be a Swami? This podcast features words of wisdom from ISKCON Leader Bhakti Marg Swami. In drawing from his ISCON journey which began in 1973 …
Mormonism

50 Relics of the Restoration

Mary Jane Woodger and Casey Paul Griffiths

Hosted by Daniel Stone
Just as early Christians sought out pieces of the cross or searched for the location of Noah's Ark, it is natural for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of …
Education

The New PhD

How to Build a Better Graduate Education

Leonard Cassuto and Robert Weisbuch

Hosted by Amanda Jeanne Swain
Whether and how to reform, indeed to transform graduate education has been a matter for debate, discussion and experimentation over the past 30 years – at least. In The New …