New Books Network
Book of the Day/ Sports

Our Team

The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball

Luke Epplin

Hosted by Paul Knepper
In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Exploring Spinoza

Susan James

Hosted by Howard Burton
Exploring Spinoza is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. Susan James is an internationally-renowned Spinoza scholar …
Science

The Plant-Based Athlete

A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance

Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance (HarperOne, 2021) by Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke reveals the incontrovertible proof that the human body does not need meat, eggs, or …
Sociology

Where Misfits Fit

Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks

Thomas Michael Kersen

Hosted by Michael Johnston
All regions and places are unique in their own way, but the Ozarks have an enduring place in American culture. Studying the Ozarks offers the ability to explore American life …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

The Star and the Scepter

A Diplomatic History of Israel

Emmanuel Navon

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The first all-encompassing book on Israel’s foreign policy and the diplomatic history of the Jewish people, The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel (Jewish Publication Society, 2020) retraces …
Political Science

Rhetoric, Politics, and Hamilton: an American Musical

Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury and Sara A. Mehltretter Drury

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Hamilton: An American Musical made its record-breaking Broadway debut in 2015—but the musical has reached far beyond typical Broadway audiences to pave a path into political discourse, pop culture, classroom …
Academic Life

Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism

A Discussion with Ginetta Candelario

Ginetta Candelario

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 are reaching across our mentor network to bring you …
Indian Religions

Performing the Ramayana Tradition

Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments

Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha's book Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments (Oxford UP, 2021) examines diverse retellings of the Ramayana narrative as interpreted and embodied through a spectrum of …
Asian Review of Books

The Tale of the Horse

A History of India on Horseback

Yashaswini Chandra

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The horse is an important symbol in India’s culture, as shown by the many stories and works we see of Indian royalty and adventurers on horseback. As noted by Mughal …
SSEAC Stories

Preserving Local Languages to Protect Cultural and Environmental Rights in Laos

Human Rights and Research in Southeast Asia Series

Nick Enfield

Hosted by Thushara Dibley
In September-October 2021, SSEAC Stories will be hosting a mini-series of podcasts exploring the role that research plays in understanding and advocating for human rights in Southeast Asia. In the …
Book of the Day/ Environmental Studies

The Gospel of Climate Skepticism

Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change

Robin Globus Veldman

Hosted by Brady McCartney
Why are white evangelicals the most skeptical major religious group in America regarding climate change? Previous scholarship has pointed to cognitive factors such as conservative politics, anti-science attitudes, aversion to big government, and theology. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, Robin Veldman's book The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change (U California Press, 2019) reveals the extent to which climate skepticism and anti-environmentalism have in fact become …
Architecture

The Speculative City

Art, Real Estate, and the Making of Global Los Angeles

Susanna Phillips Newbury

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Underlying every great city is a rich and vibrant culture that shapes the texture of life within. In The Speculative City: Art, Real Estate, and the Making of Global Los …
Systems and Cybernetics

Gaian Systems

Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene

Bruce Clarke

Hosted by Tom Scholte
Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis …
American West

Black Towns, Black Futures

The Enduring Allure of a Black Place in the American West

Karla Slocum

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Oklahoma's Black towns aren't just places of the past - they maintain an enduring allure, and look toward the future, argues Karla Slocum in her new book, Black Towns, Black Futures: The …
East Asian Studies

The Global White Snake

Liang Luo

Hosted by Huiying Chen
Liang Luo's book The Global White Snake (U Michigan Press, 2021) examines the Chinese White Snake legends and their extensive, multidirectional travels within Asia and across the globe. Such travels across …
Politics & Polemics

Sensuous Knowledge

A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone

Minna Salami

Hosted by Lee Pierce
Minna Salami's book Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2021) is a collection of thought provoking essays that explore questions central to how we see ourselves, our history, and …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

The Derveni Papyrus

Richard Janko

Hosted by Howard Burton
The Derveni Papyrus is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Richard Janko, Gerald F. Else Distinguished University Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan …
Intellectual History

Aesthetic Science

Representing Nature in the Royal Society of London, 1650-1720

Alexander Wragge-Morley

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
The scientists affiliated with the early Royal Society of London have long been regarded as forerunners of modern empiricism, rejecting the symbolic and moral goals of Renaissance natural history in …
Critical Theory

Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony

Political Practice and Theory in the Class Struggle

Alan Shandro

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Few figures stand as prominently in Marxist theory and history as V.I. Lenin. The revolutionary who played a pivotal role in one of the most important events in world …
Psychology

Shameless Parenting

Everything You Need to Raise Shame-free Confident Kids & Heal Your Shame Too!

Tina Schermer Sellers

Hosted by Meg Gambino
Shameless Parenting: Everything You Need to Raise Shame-free Confident Kids & Heal Your Shame Too! (2021) is the 21st-century book parents have been asking for! It highlights the trickiest parts …
Anthropology

Margaret Mead

Paul Shankman

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Tracing Mead’s career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written biography links the professional and personal sides of her …
Nordic Asia Podcast

Salafism and the State

Islamic Activism and National Identity in Contemporary Indonesia

Chris Chaplin

Hosted by Petra Desatova
How important is Islam to Indonesia’s identity? How different is Salafism from a more mainstream Sunni Islam? Why is it popular with mostly young Indonesian Muslims? And what effect does …
Islamic Studies

Muslims in the Movies

A Global Anthology

Kristian Petersen

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Kristian Petersen’s new edited volume Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology (Ilex Foundation and Harvard University Press, 2021), introduces the subject of Muslims and film. The volume contains nineteen …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

Princeton UP's Pedia Series

Beautiful, Short Books About Big, Important Subjects

Robert Kirk

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked to Robert Kirk, the publisher of Princeton University Press's "Pedia" book series. Encyclopedic in nature and miniature in form, these books explore the wonders of the natural world, from …
Book of the Day/ Popular Culture

A Very Nervous Person's Guide to Horror Movies

Mathias Clasen

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Horror fans are attracted to movies designed to scare us, but others shudder already at the thought of the sweat-drenched nightmares that terrifying movies often trigger. The fear of sleepless nights and the widespread beliefs that horror movies can have negative psychological effects and display immorality make some of us very, very nervous about them. In A Very Nervous Person's Guide To Horror Movies (Oxford University Press, 2021) horror expert Mathias Clasen examines the …
Philosophy

Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology

A Complete and Annotated Translation of the Tattva-cintā-maṇi

Stephen Phillips (trans.)

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In the first complete English translation of a monumental 14th century Sanskrit philosophical text, the Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology (Bloomsbury 2020), Stephen Phillips introduces modern readers to …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery

Treating Heroin Addiction in Norway

The Pharmaceutical Other

Aleksandra Bartoszko

Hosted by Geert Slabbekoorn
Focusing on the world of Norwegian Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in the aftermath of significant reforms, Aleksandra Bartoszko's book Treating Heroin Addiction in Norway: The Pharmaceutical Other (Routledge, 2021) casts a critical light …
Medieval History

Cross-cultural Interaction Between Byzantium and the West, 1204-1669

Whose Mediterranean Is It Anyway?

Angeliki Lymberopoulou

Hosted by Evan Zarkadas
The early modern Mediterranean was an area where many different rich cultural traditions came in contact with each other, and were often forced to co-exist, frequently learning to reap the …
Israel Studies

Yiddish in Israel

A History

Rachel Rojanski

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Yiddish in Israel: A History (Indiana UP, 2020) challenges the commonly held view that Yiddish was suppressed or even banned by Israeli authorities for ideological reasons, offering instead a radical …
South Asian Studies

Love and Reparation

A Theatrical Response to the Section 377 Litigation in India

Danish Sheikh

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
Two plays about the legal battle to decriminalize homosexuality in India. On September 6, 2018, a decades-long battle to decriminalize queer intimacy in India came to an end. The Supreme …
Political Science

Life after Privacy

Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society

Firmin DeBrabander

Hosted by Susan Liebell
As governments and corporations mine our “entrenched culture of sharing” to invade privacy (down to Target creating an algorithm to figure out which shoppers are in the 2nd trimester of …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Pants on Fire

On Lying in Politics

Martin Jay

Hosted by Howard Burton
Pants on Fire: On Lying in Politics is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and renowned intellectual historian Martin Jay, UC Berkeley. A thought-provoking book in dialogue …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Writing Resistance

Revolutionary Memoirs of Shlissel’burg Prison

Sarah J. Young

Hosted by Steven Seegel
In 1884, sixty-eight prisoners convicted of terrorism and revolutionary activity were transferred to a new maximum-security prison at Shlissel'burg Fortress near St. Petersburg. Inhuman conditions in the prison caused severe …
Christian Studies

The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland

Chris R. Langley, Catherine E. McMillan, and Russell Newton

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland (Boydell Press, 2021), edited by  Chris R. Langley, Catherine E. McMillan and Russell Newton, is an outstanding and agenda-setting volume that puts the experience …
American West

American Prophet

The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams

Peter Richardson

Hosted by Barbara Berglund Sokolov
Historian Kevin Starr described Carey McWilliams as "the finest nonfiction writer on California—ever" and "the state's most astute political observer." But as Peter Richardson argues in American Prophet: The Life and …
The Future of Higher Education

A Discussion with Ben Nelson (Part 2)

Founder of the Minerva Project and Minerva University

Ben Nelson

Hosted by David Finegold
In Part II of our discussion with Ben Nelson, he shares information on the outcomes for the first Minerva graduates and how Minerva has diversified its business model with new …
Nordic Asia Podcast

Outgoing Prime Minister Suga and Japan's Liberal Democratic Party

Giulio Pugliese

Hosted by Satoko Naito
On September 3, 2021, Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide announced that he would not seek reelection as the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), effectively declaring his resignation …
Book of the Day/ Architecture

Open Plan

A Design History of the American Office

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler

Hosted by Nushelle de Silva
Albeit inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has come to be associated with some of the most dehumanizing and alienating aspects of the modern office. Jennifer Kaufman-Buhler's fascinating new book Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office (Bloomsbury, 2021) examines the history of the open plan office concept from its early development in the late 1960s and 1970s …
Literature

One Two Three

A Novel

Laurie Frankel

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to Laurie Frankel about her new novel One, Two, Three (Henry Holt, 2021). The little town of Bourne made national news seventeen years before when its water turned …
East Asian Studies

Taiwan's Green Parties

Alternative Politics in Taiwan

Dafydd Fell

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen
Examining the Green Party Taiwan (GPT) since its establishment through the aftermath of the most recent national elections in January 2020, Dafydd Fell’s Taiwan’s Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan …
Digital Humanities

Artefacts, Archives, and Documentation in the Relational Museum

Mike Jones

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
Artefacts, Archives, and Documentation in the Relational Museum (Routledge, 2021) provides the first interdisciplinary study of the digital documentation of artefacts and archives in contemporary museums, while also exploring the implications of …
Religion

A Most Peculiar Book

The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

Kristin Swenson

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
The Bible is not only a book but also a collection of books. It has many authors but also at the same time many editors. It has not only been …
Science

Living with Robots

What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know

Ruth Aylett and Patricia A. Vargas

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
There's a lot of hype about robots; some of it is scary and some of it utopian. In this accessible book, two robotics experts reveal the truth about what robots …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Cosmological Conundrums

Justin Khoury

Hosted by Howard Burton
Cosmological Conundrums is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Justin Khoury, Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania. This thoughtful, extensive conversation gives a window …
Christian Studies

The Didache

Shawn J. Wilhite

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Shawn Wilhite is author of this outstanding new commentary on one of the most important early Christian documents. We don't know who wrote the Didache, when it was written, or …
British Studies

Sensitive Negotiations

Indigenous Diplomacy and British Romantic Poetry

Nikki Hessell

Hosted by Charles Prior
Diplomatic relationships between Indigenous sovereigns and colonial and settler governments were defined by language. In some cases, cultural divides were narrowed using common metaphors. In others, objects such as wampum …
General History

Hidden Laws

How State Constitutions Stabilize American Politics

Robinson Woodward-Burns

Hosted by Derek Litvak
Robinson Woodward-Burns is the author of Hidden Laws: How the State Constitutions Stabilize American Politics, published by Yale University Press in 2021. Hidden Laws explores the relationship between both state …
General History

Insurance Era

Risk, Governance, and the Privatization of Security in Postwar America

Caley Horan

Hosted by Ashton Merck
Actuarial thinking is everywhere in contemporary America, an often unnoticed byproduct of the postwar insurance industry’s political and economic influence. Calculations of risk permeate our institutions, influencing how we understand …
Book of the Day/ Politics & Polemics

Western Jihadism

A Thirty Year History

Jytte Klausen

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Western Jihadism: A Thirty Year History (Oxford University Press, 2021) tells the story of how Al Qaeda grew in the West.In forensic and compelling detail, Jytte Klausen traces how Islamist revolutionaries exiled in Europe and North America in the 1990s helped create and control one of the world's most impactful terrorist movements--and how, after the near-obliteration of the organization during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, they helped build it again …
History of Science

The Cheating Cell

How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer

Athena Aktipis

Hosted by Hussein Mohsen
When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the historical processes that created life also created …
Genocide Studies

Comrades Betrayed

Jewish World War I Veterans under Hitler

Michael Geheran

Hosted by Kelly McFall
What claims could Jewish veterans make on the Nazi state by virtue of their having fought for Germany?  How often did Germans treat Jewish veterans differently from Jewish men without …
Geography

Unnatural Disasters

Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed

Gonzalo Lizarralde

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed (Columbia UP, 2021) offers a new perspective on our most pressing environmental and social challenges, revealing …
Geography

Cities in the Anthropocene

New Ecology and Urban Politics

Ihnji Jon

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Climate change is real, and extreme weather events are its physical manifestations. These extreme events affect how we live and work in cities, and subsequently the way we design, plan …
Indian Religions

The Philosophy of Sri Chinmoy

Love and Transformation

Kusumita P. Pedersen

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This podcast interviews Kusumita Pedersen on the first book-length study of the thought of Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) and his teaching of a dynamic spirituality of integral transformation. The Philosophy of Sri …
African Studies

Pentecostal Republic

Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria

Ebenezer Obadare

Hosted by Sara Katz
Throughout its history, Nigeria has been plagued by religious divisions. Tensions have only intensified since the restoration of democracy in 1999, with the divide between Christian south and Muslim north …
Japanese Studies

The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan

Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo

M.W. Shores

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Rakugo, a popular form of comic storytelling, has played a major role in Japanese culture and society. Developed during the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, it is still popular …
Poetry

Make Room for the Rain

Shahar-Mario Mordechai

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The poet Shachar-Mario Mordechai was born 1975 in Haifa and he currently lives in Tel Aviv. He has published four volumes of poetry, all of which attracted critical attention. Mordechai is …
Science

A Tattoo on my Brain

A Neurologist's Personal Battle against Alzheimer's Disease

Daniel Gibbs

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Dr Daniel Gibbs is one of 50 million people worldwide with an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. Unlike most patients with Alzheimer's, however, Dr Gibbs worked as a neurologist for twenty-five years …
Scholarly Communication

Writing Science

How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded

Joshua Schimel

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Joshua Schimel, Professor of soil ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and …
Life Wisdom

Mark Van Buren on Meditation and Mindfulness Training

Mark Van Buren

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This podcast features the wisdom and work of Mark Van Buren, Bergen County's go-to guide for all meditation and mindfulness-based training. With well over a decade of experience in the …
Literature

A Generation's Worth

Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns

Stephen Jenkinson

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Stephen Jenkinson. Jenkinson has a new book. It's entitled A Generation's Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (Orphan Wisdom, 2021) and it's a rarity among books …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Chinese-Inspired Architecture

Dang Qun

Hosted by Howard Burton
Howard chats with Dang Qun, one of the three founding partners of Beijing-based MAD architects, about aesthetics, history, cultural distinctiveness and architecture's unique balance of the concrete and ethereal. Howard …
Book of the Day/ Science

Delicious

The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human

Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez

Hosted by Hussein Mohsen
Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a supremely entertaining foray into the heart of such questions. With generous helpings of warmth and wit, Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez offer bold new perspectives on why food is enjoyable and how the pursuit of delicious flavors …
Literature

On Wandering Beaches

Rawya Jarjoura Burbara

Hosted by Yakir Englander
On Wandering Beaches (Pardes, 2020) is a novel of journeys, a novel of migration that conceals contradictions that summarize a whole world. Along the shores of Tel Aviv- Haifa-Acre-Nahariyya, all the …
Mobilities and Methods

Set Adrift

Capitalist Transformations and Community Politics Along Mumbai's Shores

Gayatri Nair

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
The Koli community in Mumbai-which has been practicing fishing for centuries-has experienced rapid changes over the last few decades, in the forms of increased mechanization, export of fish to global …
Science Fiction

No Gods, No Monsters

Cadwell Turnbull

Hosted by Rob Wolf
Cadwell Turnbull appeared on New Books in Science Fiction two years ago to discuss his debut novel, The Lesson, about an alien invasion and colonization of Earth, centered around Turnbull's …
Political Science

Political Mourning

Identity and Responsibility in the Wake of Tragedy

Heather Pool

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Mourning: Identity and Responsibility in the Wake of Tragedy (Temple UP, 2021) moves us, as readers, beyond the stages of grief to consider the effects of mourning. While grief …
Academic Life

Get Real and Get In

How to Get Into the College of Your Dreams by Being Your Authentic Self

Aviva Legatt

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Aviva Legatt’s journey into and through college Why she became an Ivy League college admissions officer What that job …
Asian Review of Books

Ancient Egypt and Early China

State, Society, and Culture

Anthony J Barbieri-Low

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
One would think that comparing civilizations as far removed in time and space as Ancient Egypt and Ancient China might not reveal much. Yet Professor Tony Barbieri’s Ancient Egypt and …
Sports

Spartakiads

The Politics of Physical Culture in Communist Czechoslovakia

Petr Roubal

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Petr Roubal, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History in the Czech Academy of Sciences, and author of Spartakiads: The Politics of Physical Culture …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

Applied Psychology

Thinking Critically

Stephen Kosslyn

Hosted by Howard Burton
Applied Psychology: Thinking Critically is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Stephen Kosslyn, a renowned psychologist and Founder, President and Chief Academic Officer of Foundry College.This …
Environmental Studies

At the Precipice

New Mexico's Changing Climate

Laura Paskus

Hosted by Brady McCartney
At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate (U New Mexico Press, 2020) explores the question many of us have asked ourselves: What kind of world are we leaving to our …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Saving Face

How to Preserve Dignity and Build Trust

Maya Hu-Chan

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Maya Hu-Chan about her new book Saving Face: How to Preserve Dignity and Build Trust (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2020) There are so many sayings that involve the face …
SSEAC Stories

Stepping in to Improve Women’s and Babies’ Lives in Southeast Asia

Human Rights and Research in Southeast Asia Series

Camille Raynes-Greenow

Hosted by Thushara Dibley
In September-October 2021, SSEAC Stories will be hosting a mini-series of podcasts exploring the role that research plays in understanding and advocating for human rights in Southeast Asia. Maternal and …
Book of the Day/ Science

DSM

A History of Psychiatry's Bible

Allan V. Horwitz

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Over the past seventy years, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, has evolved from a virtually unknown and little-used pamphlet to an imposing and comprehensive compendium of mental disorder. Its nearly 300 conditions have become the touchstones for the diagnoses that patients receive, students are taught, researchers study, insurers reimburse, and drug companies promote. Although the manual is portrayed as an authoritative corpus of psychiatric knowledge …
The Common Magazine

Home

Celeste Mohammed

Hosted by Emily Everett
Celeste Mohammed speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “Home,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this conversation, Celeste talks about her novel-in-stories, Pleasantview, and why …
French Studies

A History of Fascism in France

From the First World War to the National Front

Chris Millington

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
FASCISM...FRANCE. Two words/ideas that scholars have spent much time and energy debating in relationship to one another. Chris Millington's A History of Fascism in France: From the First World War to the …
Islamic Studies

Sculpting the Self

Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing

Muhammad Umar Faruque

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In his painstakingly researched and splendid new book Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing (U Michigan Press, 2021), Muhammad Faruque charts and examines the multiplicity of ways in …
African American Studies

Surviving Southampton

African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner's Community

Vanessa M. Holden

Hosted by Adam McNeil
The local community around the Nat Turner rebellion The 1831 Southampton Rebellion led by Nat Turner involved an entire community. Vanessa M. Holden rediscovers the women and children, free and …
Mobilities and Methods

A City Is Not a Computer

Other Urban Intelligences

Shannon Mattern

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know …
General History

Big and Little Histories

Sizing Up Ethics in Historiography

Marnie Hughes-Warrington and Anne Martin

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
Big and Little Histories: Sizing Up Ethics in Historiography (Routledge, 2021) introduces students to ethics in historiography through an exploration of how historians in different times and places have explained …
Chinese Studies

Chiang Kai-Shek's Politics of Shame

Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity in China

Grace C. Huang

Hosted by Dong Wang
Once a powerful figure who reversed the disintegration of China and steered the country to Allied victory in World War II, Chiang Kai-shek fled into exile following his 1949 defeat …
African Studies

Islamic Scholarship in Africa

New Directions and Global Contexts

Ousmane Oumar Kane

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
In 1937, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, travelling to Mecca to make his first hajj, encountered Egyptian scholars who couldn’t fathom that Niasse’s erudition was a product of his fully Senegalese education …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast

A Matter of Energy

Biology From First Principles

Nick Lane

Hosted by Howard Burton
A Matter of Energy: Biology From First Principles is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London and …
Sociology

Domestic Contradictions

Race and Gendered Citizenship from Reconstruction to Welfare Reform

Priya Kandaswamy

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
In Domestic Contradictions: Race and Gendered Citizenship from Reconstruction to Welfare Reform (Duke UP, 2021), Priya Kandaswamy analyzes how race, class, gender, and sexuality shaped welfare practices in the United …
Popular Culture

Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Nuanced Postnetwork Television

Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
The new collection, Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Nuanced Postnetwork Television (Syracuse University Press, 2021) by Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts explores the hit series with an off-putting title and a decidedly retrograde …
Eastern European Studies

Time of Changes

Mark Baker

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Mark Baker is an American journalist and travel writer. In the 1980s, he lived in Vienna and reported on the former Eastern bloc for Business International and The Economist Group …
Nordic Asia Podcast

The Turbulence and Controversies of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission

Sofie Schütte

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Indonesia’s corruption eradication commission, known as the KPK has widely been considered one of the most powerful and successful anti-corruption agencies in the region, if not in the entire world …