Combat Trauma

Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America

Nadia Abu El-Haj

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman

One of the most recognizable tropes in American society in the past few decades is the scarred war veteran, returning from foreign lands with wounds both visible and invisible. His experiences are incomprehensible to those who’ve not served, but we owe him everything, and it is our duty as American citizens to honor him with nonjudgmental empathy so that he might eventually heal and reintegrate into the national community …

Disability Studies

Families We Need

Disability, Abandonment, and Foster Care's Resistance in Contemporary China

Erin Raffety

Hosted by Shu Wan

Set in the remote, mountainous Guangxi Autonomous Region and based on ethnographic fieldwork, Families We Need: Disability, Abandonment, and Foster Care's Resistance in Contemporary China (Rutgers UP, 2022) traces the …

Catholic Studies

Bede the Theologian

History, Rhetoric, and Spirituality

John P. Bequette

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt

Revered by contemporaries and posterity for both his sanctity and his scholarship, Bede (672-735) is a pivotal figure in the history of the Church. Known primarily as an historian for …

Historical Fiction

The White Lady

Jacqueline Winspear

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

It’s just after World War II, and Elinor White (born Elinor de Witt, which also means “white”), a single woman in her mid-forties, lives as a recluse in a village …

Military History

Liberty Is Sweet

The Hidden History of the American Revolution

Woody Holton

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

A “deeply researched and bracing retelling” (Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian) of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious …

African American Studies

Driving the Green Book

A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Alvin Hall

Hosted by Nicole Trujillo-Pagan

For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent …

Sociology

Forbidden Intimacies

Polygamies at the Limits of Western Tolerance

Melanie Heath

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

In the past thirty years, polygamy has become a flashpoint of conflict as Western governments attempt to regulate certain cultural and religious practices that challenge seemingly central principles of family …

Policing, Incarceration, and Reform

Injustice, Inc.

How America's Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor

Daniel L. Hatcher

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Injustice, Inc.: How America's Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor (U California Press, 2023) exposes the ways in which justice systems exploit America's history of racial and economic inequality to …

Jewish Studies

Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism

Max Kaiser

Hosted by Miriam Schulz

Max Kaiser's book Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022) takes a timely look at histories of radical Jewish movements, their modes of Holocaust memorialisation, and …

Critical Theory

The Politics of Precarity

Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering

Gediminas Lesutis

Hosted by Shraddha Chatterjee

Based on critical theory and ethnographic research, Gediminas Lesutis' book The Politics of Precarity: Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering (Routledge, 2021) explores how intensifying geographies of extractive capitalism shape human …

General History

Christendom

The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300

Peter Heather

Hosted by Charles Coutinho

In the fourth century AD, a new faith grew out of Palestine, overwhelming the paganism of Rome and resoundingly defeating a host of other rival belief systems. Almost a thousand …

Burned by Books

American Mermaid

A Novel

Julia Langbein

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Broke English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her feminist novel American Mermaid becomes a best-seller. Lured by the promise of a big payday, she quits teaching …

Literature

The Field

Victoria Garza

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Victoria Garza begins her poetic memoir with her ten-year-old self learning that her little sister and cousin have died in a car accident. She painstakingly recalls lovely moments with her …

Book of the Day/ Critical Theory

Imperfect Victims

Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism

Leigh Goodmark

Hosted by Kendall Dinniene

Leigh Goodmark’s new book, Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism (U California Press, 2023), uses the stories of individual criminalized survivors of gender based violence to illuminate the ways that the criminal legal system perpetuates violence against the very women, transgender people, and gender non-conforming people it claims to protect. Leigh argues that reform is not the answer to this problem, and that instead of limiting …

Art

Visual Culture and the Forensic

Culture, Memory, Ethics

David Houston Jones

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez

The relationship between images and truth has a complicated history. In the Western tradition, the Kantian settlement on aesthetic judgment as detached from external interests gave rise to artistic production …

Food

Italy on a Plate

Travels, Memories, Menus

Susan Gravely

Hosted by Laura Goldberg

In her debut memoir and cookbook, Susan Gravely celebrates 40 years as Founder and Creative Director of VIETRI. In Italy on a Plate: Travels, Memories, Menus (Vietri Publishing, 2023), she …

American West

Rim to River

Looking Into the Heart of Arizona

Tom Zoellner

Hosted by Daniel Moran

Tom Zoellner walked across the length of Arizona to come to terms with his home state. But the trip revealed more mountains behind the mountains. Rim to River: Looking …

Christian Studies

Corporeal Theology

The Nature of Theological Understanding in Light of Embodied Cognition

Tobias Tanton

Hosted by Frazer MacDiarmid

Appropriating insights from empirical findings and theoretical constructs of 'embodied cognition', Corporeal Theology: The Nature of Theological Understanding in Light of Embodied Cognition (Oxford UP, 2023) explores how theological understanding is …

Ukrainian Studies

How Patronal Networks Shape Opportunities for Local Citizen Participation in a Hybrid Regime

A Comparative Analysis of Five Cities in Ukraine

Oleksandra Keudel

Hosted by John Vsetecka

In How Patronal Networks Shape Opportunities for Local Citizen Participation in a Hybrid Regime: A Comparative Analysis of Five Cities in Ukraine (Ibidem, 2022), Oleksandra Keudel proposes a novel explanation for why some …

Buddhist Studies

Until Nirvana's Time

Buddhist Songs from Cambodia

Trent Walker

Hosted by Jessica Zu

A unique Buddhist tradition, accessible in English for the first time—translations of forty-five Cambodian Dharma songs, with contextualizing essays and a link to audio of stunning vocal performances. Trent Walker's …

MIT Press Podcast

Present at the Creation

Edward Mead Earle and the Depression-Era Origins of Security Studies

Sean Lynn-Jones and David Ekbladh

Hosted by MIT Press

Edward Mead Earle was a historian, scholar, professor, and international relations expert; he was also a founding father of the field we know as Security Studies. Listen as David Ekbladh …

Sociology

Counseling Women

Kinship Against Violence in India

Julia Kowalski

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

Women’s rights activists around the world have commonly understood gendered violence as the product of so-called traditional family structures, from which women must be liberated. Counseling Women: Kinship Against Violence …

Folklore

Oral Traditions in Contemporary China

Healing a Nation

Juwen Zhang

Hosted by Timothy Thurston

Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation (Lexington Books, 2022) is the newest monograph from Professor Juwen Zhang of Willamette College. Through a historical survey and analyses of oral traditions like …

African Studies

Five Hundred African Voices

A Catalog of Published Accounts by Africans Enslaved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1586-1936

Aaron Spencer Fogleman and Robert Hanserd

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The importance of published accounts by African slave ship survivors is well-known but not their existence in large numbers. Fogleman and Hanserd catalog nearly five hundred discrete accounts and more …

Big Ideas

Time Patterns in Big History

Cycles, Fractals, Waves, Transitions, and Singularities

David LePoire

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz

There is the common saying, “history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Are there any discernible patterns in history, and if so, what are these patterns? These are the …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones

The Future of Genes and Equality

A Discussion with Kathryn Paige Harden

Kathryn Paige Harden

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

If your genes make you better suited to succeed, is that fair? And if not, can anything be done about it? Kathryn Paige Harden – professor psychology at University of …

Book of the Day/ Psychology

Capitalism and Desire

The Psychic Cost of Free Markets

Todd McGowan

Hosted by Eugenio Duarte

If you have ever gotten excited over buying a new object only to feel let down once you acquire it, then today’s discussion will be relevant to you. My guest is Todd McGowan, author of the book Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets (2016, Columbia University Press). We discuss his critique of capitalism as a system that encourages us to forever chase satisfactions that never come. And …

Women's History

Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women

Gender, Georgia, and the Growth of the New Right

Robin M. Morris

Hosted by Jane Scimeca

Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women: Gender, Georgia, and the Growth of the New Right (U Georgia Press, 2022) is a statewide study of women’s part in the history of conservatism …

Academic Life

The Top Ten Struggles in Writing A Book Manuscript (and What to Do About It)

A Discussion with Laura Portwood-Stacer

Laura Portwood-Stacer

Hosted by Christina Gessler

Is writing a nonfiction book harder than you thought it would be? This episode explores: What your reader needs from you, and why.Which writing struggles are the most common, and …

Indian Religions

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia

Texts, Practices, and Practitioners from the Margins

Andrea Acri and Paolo Eugenio Rosati

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia: Texts, Practices, and Practitioners from the Margins (Routledge, 2022) explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting 'magical' and …

Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

The Art of Grace

On Moving Well Through Life

Sarah L. Kaufman

Hosted by Dan Hill

Today I talked to Sarah L Kaufman about her book The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life (Norton, 2016). Grace as a word comes from Greek, conveying a sense of …

Political Science

Making Sense of Diseases and Disasters

Reflections of Political Theory from Antiquity to the Age of COVID

Lee Trepanier

Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political Theorist Lee Trepanier has a new edited volume focusing on thinking about human responses to disasters and diseases. Making Sense of Diseases and Disasters: Reflections of Political Theory from …

East Asian Studies

China’s Cold War Science Diplomacy

Gordon Barrett

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos

During the early decades of the Cold War, the People’s Republic of China remained far outside mainstream international science — right? Gordon Barrett’s new book, China’s Cold War Science Diplomacy …

Ukrainian Studies

Dam Duchess

Svetlana Lavochkina

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Svetlana Lavochkina's book Dam Duchess (Whiskey Tit, 2018) invites readers to take a surreal journey into the past: the construction of Dnipro Dam, the Stalinist regime, the fate of the aristocrats of …

Why We Argue

Seeing Truth in the Climate Crisis

A Conversation with Artist Alexis Rockman about Art and the Environment

Alexis Rockman

Hosted by Alexis Boylan

Feeling bad about the environment? You should. Artist Alexis Rockman talks about his art, the potential for real change, and his ongoing relationship with the American Museum of Natural History …

MIT Press Podcast

The Revolutionary Worlds of Lexington and Concord Compared

Mary Babson Fuhrer

Hosted by MIT Press

Bill Fowler, member of the editorial board of The New England Quarterly, Mary Babson Fuhrer, and Robert A. Gross discuss Fuhrer's recent NEQ article, “The Revolutionary Worlds of Lexington and …

Almost Good Catholics

Education in the World not of the World

A Catholic School Director and Father Talks about Forming the Whole Child

Rich Meyer

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec

Rich Meyer, president of JSerra High School—named for St. Junípero Serra, the ‘Apostle of California’—in Southern California, discusses what is working in Catholic education today. He and I are both …

Asian Review of Books

Money Machine

A Trailblazing American Venture in China

Weijian Shan

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 2010, Ping An took over Shenzhen Development Bank, ending an experiment that had never been tried before, and not been tried since: a foreign company owning and managing a …

High Theory

ACLA 2023

How Will Critique Save the World?: Popular Theory and Public Humanities

Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu

This episode of High Theory is based upon a conference paper Saronik and Kim wrote for the American Comparative Literature Association Conference in 2023. It departs from our usual conversational …

Book of the Day/ Religion

Intimate Alien

The Hidden Story of the UFO

David J. Halperin

Hosted by David Kunsman

In his book Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO (Stanford University Press, 2020), David J. Halperin explores the phenomena of UFO's through a psychological lense. UFOs became part of our cultural landscape in 1947, and they've been with us ever since. Debunked innumerable times, they refuse to go away. Made the subject of great expectations by their believers, they invariably disappoint. They've been called a myth, both in disparagement and …

Medicine

Dr. Nurse

Science, Politics, and the Transformation of American Nursing

Dominique A. Tobbell

Hosted by Claire Clark

An analysis of the efforts of American nurses to establish nursing as an academic discipline and nurses as valued researchers in the decades after World War II. Nurses represent the …

South Asian Studies

Migrants and Machine Politics

How India's Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness

Adam Michael Auerbach and Tariq Thachil

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu

How poor migrants shape city politics during urbanization As the Global South rapidly urbanizes, millions of people have migrated from the countryside to urban slums, which now house one billion …

Latin American Studies

Catholic Women and Mexican Politics, 1750–1940

Margaret Chowning

Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

Historians have long looked to networks of elite liberal and anti-clerical men as the driving forces in Mexican history over the course of the long nineteenth century. This traditional view …

African Studies

Breakup

A Marriage in Wartime

Anjan Sundaram

Hosted by Susan Thomson

Anjan Sundaram is an award-winning journalist who has written three books on African people and places: Democratic Republic of Congo in Stringer, Rwanda in Bad News and now Central African …

Burned by Books

Flux

Jinwoo Chong

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a …

South Asian Studies

Merchants of Virtue

Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia

Divya Cherian

Hosted by Sanjukta Poddar

Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia (U California Press, 2023) explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya …

Archaeology

Unseen Art

Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica

Claudia Brittenham

Hosted by Sarah Newman

In Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica (U Texas Press, 2023), Claudia Brittenham unravels one of the most puzzling phenomena in Mesoamerican art history: why many of …

American West

Making America's Public Lands

The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands

Adam Sowards

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Over one quarter - some 640 million acres - of the United States consists of public land owned, not privately, but by the federal government, much of it in the …

Irish Studies

Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland

Religion and Urbanism at Clonmacnoise

John Soderberg

Hosted by Danica Ramsey-Brimberg

Clonmacnoise was among the busiest, most economically complex, and intensely sacred places in early medieval Ireland. In Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland: Religion and Urbanism at Clonmacnoise (Lexington …

MIT Press Podcast

Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks

A Discussion with Maximilian Schich, Isabel Meirelles, and Roger Malina

Maximilian Schich, Isabel Meirelles, and Roger Malina

Hosted by MIT Press

Maximilian Schich, Isabel Meirelles, and Roger Malina discuss the contents and creation of the new article collection, Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks, which explores the application of the science of …

Children's Literature

Pew!

The Stinky and Legen-Dairy Gift from Colonel Thomas S. Meacham

Cathy Stefanec Ogren

Hosted by Mel Rosenberg

In this interview with third time author Cathy Stefanec Ogren, we celebrate the launch of her new picture book, Pew! The Stinky and Legen-Dairy Gift from Colonel Thomas S. Meacham …

Nordic Asia Podcast

The Great Goa Land Grab

A Discussion with Heather Plumridge Bedi, Solano da Silva, Fredrick Noronha, and Kenneth Bo Nielsen

Heather Plumridge Bedi, Solano da Silva, Fredrick Noronha, and Kenneth Bo Nielsen

Hosted by Arve Hansen

The small Indian state of Goa has witnessed a veritable land rush over many decades, with shifting state governments, leading politicians, and private investors moving in to acquire large tracts …

Book of the Day/ Economics

Moving the Needle

What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor

Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S Jacobs

Hosted by John Emrich

Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S Jacobs' book Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor (U California Press, 2023) is a timely investigation reveals how sustained tight labor markets improve the job prospects and life chances of America’s most vulnerable households. Most research on poverty focuses on the damage caused by persistent unemployment. But what happens when jobs are plentiful, and workers are hard to come by …

Buddhist Studies

Toward a New Image of Paramartha

Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha Buddhism Revisited

Ching Keng

Hosted by Jessica Zu

Today I talked to Ching Keng about his book Toward a New Image of Paramartha: Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha Buddhism Revisited (Bloomsbury, 2022). Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha are often regarded as antagonistic Indian Buddhist …

LGBTQ+ Studies

Violent Inheritance

Sexuality, Land, and Energy in Making the North American West

E. Cram

Hosted by Clayton Jarrard

Violent Inheritance: Sexuality, Land, and Energy in Making the North American West (U California Press, 2022) deepens the analysis of settler colonialism's endurance in the North American West and how …

Architecture

Out of Architecture

The Value of Architects Beyond Traditional Practice

Jake Rudin and Erin Pellegrino

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer

Jake Rudin and Erin Pellegrino's book Out of Architecture: The Value of Architects Beyond Traditional Practice (Routledge, 2022) is both a call to reassess the architecture profession and its education, and a toolkit …

Native American Studies

Lakhota

An Indigenous History

Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus

Hosted by Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez

The Lakȟóta are among the best-known Native American peoples. In popular culture and even many scholarly works, they were once lumped together with others and called the Sioux. This book …

Middle Eastern Studies

The Lives and Deaths of Jubrail Dabdoub

Or, How the Bethlehemites Discovered Amerka

Jacob Norris

Hosted by Roberto Mazza

This is the fantastical, yet real, story of the merchants of Bethlehem, the young men who traveled to every corner of the globe in the nineteenth century. These men set …

Biology and Evolution

Mushroom

Sara Rich

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. They are grouped with plants, but …

Finance

Does the FOMC Have a Viable Strategy for Controlling Inflation?

Robert L. Hetzel

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Robert L. Hetzel presented a paper at the Dallas Fed conference on February 9th, 2023 titled, “Does the Federal Open Market Committee Have a Viable Strategy for Controlling Inflation?” The Federal Open …

Medicine

Photos from the Front Lines

A Year on the Streets of Alameda County

Derek Hanley

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Photos from the Front Lines follows medics from Falck Alameda County ambulance during one of the most tumultuous years in recent collective memory - 2020. From a global pandemic to demonstrations …

How to Be Wrong

War, Optimism, Humility

A Conversation with Literary Critic Mariia Shuvalova

Mariia Shuvalova

Hosted by John Traphagan

This episode of How To Be Wrong is a conversation with Mariia Shuvalova, a lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Fulbright Scholar (Harriman Institute, Columbia University in the …

Book of the Day/ Scholarly Communication

Blunt Instruments

Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices

Kristin Hass

Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Blunt Instruments: Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices (Beacon Press, 2022) provides a field guide to the memorials, museums, and practices that commemorate white supremacy in the United States—and how to reimagine a more deeply shared cultural infrastructure for the future. Cultural infrastructure has been designed to maintain structures of inequality, and while it doesn’t seem to be explicitly about race, it often is. Blunt Instruments …

Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness

Home Is Within You

A Memoir of Recovery and Redemption

Nadia Davis

Hosted by Elizabeth Cronin

Home Is Within You As a young Latina and Native American lawyer and former wife of California’s attorney general and treasurer, Nadia Davis has long been subjected to public scrutiny …

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast

Healing Hearts and Minds

A Holistic Approach to Coping Well with Congenital Heart Disease

Tracy Livecchi and Liza Morton

Hosted by Mark Klobas

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is the most commonly diagnosed birth abnormality in the US. With great advances in surgery and medicine, however, survival rates have improved by 75% since the …

Military History

Black Cloud Rising

A Novel

David Wright Faladé

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and …

Sociology

Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries

Marginality, Masculinity, and Feminist Agency

Uddipana Goswami

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries: Marginality, Masculinity, and Feminist Agency (Routledge, 2022) forward Assam (and Northeast India) as a specific location for studying operations of gendered power in multi-ethnic, conflict-habituated geopolitical …

Fantasy

The Crane Husband

Kelly Barnhill

Hosted by Gabrielle Martin

Today I talked to Kelly Barnhill about her book The Crane Husband (Tordotcom, 2023). Our unnamed narrator, a fifteen-year-old girl, manages to care for her six-year-old brother and creative but irresponsible mother …

MIT Press Podcast

China's Fear of Contagion

Tiananmen Square and the Power of the European Example

Mary Sarotte

Hosted by MIT Press

As Mary Sarotte reveals in her Fall 2012 article in International Security, the actions of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests nearly split the Communist Party of China …

Literary Studies

Decolonizing Memory

Algeria and the Politics of Testimony

Jill Jarvis

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds

In Decolonizing Memory: Algeria and the Politics of Testimony (Duke UP, 2021), Jill Jarvis examines the crucial role that writers and artists have played in cultivating historical memory and nurturing political resistance …

Literature

A Tempest at Sea

Sherry Thomas

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Sherry Thomas' latest book in her Lady Sherlock Series, A Tempest at Sea (Berkley, 2023), finds Charlotte Holmes in a dangerous investigation at set in the seventh book in this bestselling …

Game Studies

Virtual Realities

Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games

Felix Zimmermann

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst

Today I talked to Felix Zimmermann about his book Virtual Realities: Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games (Virtuelle Wirklichkeiten: Atmosphärisches Vergangenheitserleben im Digitalen Spiel (Büchner-Verlag, 2023) Atmospheres are everywhere …

Literary Studies

Endless Flight

The Life of Joseph Roth

Kieron Pim

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth (Granta Books, 2022) travels with Roth from his childhood in the town of Brody on the eastern edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to …

Children's Literature

Talk to the Children's Lit Agent

A Discussion with Melissa Edwards

Melissa Edwards

Hosted by Mel Rosenberg

In our interview, Melissa Edwards provides an insightful look at children's publishing from the viewpoint of a successful agent who left her legal career in order to pursue her passion …

Book of the Day/ Medieval History

The Fantasy of the Middle Ages

An Epic Journey through Imaginary Medieval Worlds

Larisa Grollemond and Bryan C. Keene

Hosted by Evan Zarkadas

This abundantly illustrated book is an illuminating exploration of the impact of medieval imagery on three hundred years of visual culture. From the soaring castles of Sleeping Beauty to the bloody battles of Game of Thrones, from Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings to mythical beasts in Dungeons & Dragons, and from Medieval Times to the Renaissance Faire, the Middle Ages have inspired artists, playwrights, filmmakers, gamers, and writers …

American South

Southern Beauty

Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South

Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd

Hosted by Brandon Jett

Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd's book Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South (U Georgia Press, 2022) explains a curiosity: why a feminine ideal rooted in the nineteenth century continues …

Irish Studies

Safety As We Watch

Anaesthesia in Ireland 1847-1998

Declan Warde, Joseph Tracey, and John Cahill

Hosted by Bridget English

The discovery of anaesthesia which could be administered safely to eliminate the pain of surgery and other medical and dental procedures is widely considered to be one of the greatest …

Military History

The Last Letter

A Father's Struggle, a Daughter's Quest, and the Long Shadow of the Holocaust

Karen Baum Gordon

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

Born a German Jew in 1915, Rudy Baum was eighty-six years old when he sealed the garage door of his Dallas home, turned on the car ignition, and tried to …

Women's History

Edith

The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick

Andrea Friederici Ross

Hosted by Jeannette Cockroft

Young Edith and her siblings had access to the best educators in the world, but the girls were not taught how to handle the family money; that responsibility was reserved …

Public Health

Stuck

How Vaccine Rumors Start - and why They Don't Go Away

Heidi J. Larson

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

Vaccine reluctance and refusal are no longer limited to the margins of society. Debates around vaccines' necessity -- along with questions around their side effects -- have gone mainstream, blending …

Shakespeare For All

Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Part 2: Characters and Questions

A Discussion with Emma Smith

Emma Smith

Hosted by Zachary Davis

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most concentrated and thrilling tragedies. Macbeth is a warrior lord living in medieval Scotland who starts the play by saving his king — only to …

Christian Studies

The Necessity of Christ's Satisfaction

A Study of the Reformed Scholastic Theologians William Twisse (1578-1646) and John Owen (1616-1683)

Joshua D. Schendel

Hosted by Crawford Gribben

The seventeenth century Reformed Orthodox discussions of the work of Christ and its various doctrinal constitutive elements were rich and multifaceted, ranging across biblical and exegetical, historical, philosophical, and theological …

Critical Theory

Fear of a Black Republic

Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States

Leslie M. Alexander

Hosted by Anna Lindner

The emergence of Haiti as a sovereign Black nation lit a beacon of hope for Black people throughout the African diaspora. Leslie M. Alexander's study reveals the untold story of …

MIT Press Podcast

Art and Atoms

A Roundtable Discussion

Hosted by MIT Press

Our contributors discuss the connections between science, specifically chemistry, and art, and talk about how materials traditionally identified with science can be used to create art. This conversation was recorded …

Scholarly Communication

The Science of Security

A Discussion with Cormac Herley, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research

Cormac Herley

Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Cormac Herley, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. We talk about the science of security and as well, about the communication of security science. Cormac Herley …

International Horizons

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right but...

US Lies and Media Reporting in the 2003 Iraq War

Louis Charbonneau

Hosted by International Horizons

In this episode of International Horizons, journalist and UN director of Human Rights Watch Louis Charbonneau describes the US's government misinformation campaign to justify its invasion of Iraq in 200 …

Book of the Day/ Science, Technology, and Society

Privacy's Blueprint

The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies

Woodrow Hartzog

Hosted by Jake Chanenson

Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. Social media apps, surveillance technologies, and the Internet of Things are all built in ways that make it hard to guard personal information. And the law says this is okay because it is up to users to protect themselves―even when the odds are deliberately stacked against them. In Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New …

Literature

The Woman Beyond the Sea

Sarit Yishai-Levi

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Today I talked to Sarit Yishai-Levi about The Woman Beyond the Sea (Amazon Crossing, 2023). The book was translated by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann. Eliyah is 25 when she travels from Tel Aviv to Paris …

Film

Mean...Moody...Magnificent!

Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend

Christina Rice

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo

By the early 1950s, Jane Russell (1921–2011) should have been forgotten. Her career was launched on what is arguably the most notorious advertising campaign in cinema history, which invited filmgoers …

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

A Review of "A Critique of Western Buddhism"

Matthew O'Connell

Hosted by Matthew O'Connell

Regular guest to the podcast Glenn Wallis wrote A Critique of Western Buddhism: Ruins of the Buddhist Real (Bloomsbury) back in 2018. Time has flown since and in honour of the non-Buddhism …

Anthropology

The Avatar Faculty

Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games (University of California Press, 2023) creatively examines the parallels between spiritual and digital activities to explore the roles that symbolic second selves—avatars—can …

MIT Press Podcast

The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution

Perils to Theory and Statecraft

Lucas Kello

Hosted by MIT Press

As Lucas Kello reveals, it is far easier to attack than to defend when it comes to cyber war. Listen as Kello and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss the dangers of cyber …

Biography

Class Warrior

The Selected Works of E. T. Kingsley

Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt, editors

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman

The socialist activist E. T. Kingsley occupies an odd place in the history of labor and the left. Often mentioned due to his prolific life of speaking, writing, traveling …

Jewish Studies

Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State

Holocaust Memory in South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy (1948-1994)

Roni Mikel-Arieli

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

The lens of apartheid-era Jewish commemorations of the Holocaust in South Africa reveals the fascinating transformation of a diasporic community. Through the prism of Holocaust memory, Roni Mikel-Arieli's Remembering the …

Scholarly Communication

The Many Kinds of Editing it Takes to Bring a Book to Print

A Discussion with Alessandra Anzani, Editorial Director, Academic Studies Press

Alessandra Anzani

Hosted by Avi Staiman

Alessandra Anzani, Editorial Director, Academic Studies Press, talks about the steps that authors need to take to bring their manuscripts to publication. The conversation includes a deep dive into the …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones

The Future of Political Time and Space

A Discussion with Jan Zielonka

Jan Zielonka

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

What is the future of time and space in democracy? It's now widely accepted that Chinese politicians are advantaged by the lack of the short time horizons that come with …

Literary Studies

A Writing Studies Primer

Joyce Kinkead

Hosted by Julia Gossard

Dr. Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English at Utah State University discusses her recent book, A Writing Studies Primer (Broadview Press. 2022). A Carnegie Foundation/CASE US Professor of the Year, Professor …

Book of the Day/ Public Policy

The Poverty Paradox

Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity

Mark Robert Rank

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the nation's leading authorities provides the answer. In The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity (Oxford UP, 2023), Mark Robert Rank develops his unique perspective for …

South Asian Studies

Nehru's India

A History in Seven Myths

Taylor C. Sherman

Hosted by Anubha Anushree

Nehru's India: A History in Seven Myths (Princeton UP, 2022) brings a provocative but nuanced set of new interpretations to the history of early independent India. Drawing from her extensive …

Film

The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson

American Apocrypha

Ethan Warren

Hosted by Daniel Moran

Paul Thomas Anderson’s evolution from a brash, self-anointed “Indiewood” auteur to one of his generation’s most distinctive voices has been one of the most remarkable career trajectories in recent …

Latin American Studies

Cooperating with the Colossus

A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America

Rebecca Herman

Hosted by Rachel Newman

During the Second World War, the United States built over two hundred defense installations on sovereign soil in Latin America in the name of cooperation in hemisphere defense. Predictably, it …

Music

I Don't Belong Anywhere

Gyorgy Ligeti At 100

Wolfgang Marx

Hosted by David Kunsman

Wolfgang Marx's I Don't Belong Anywhere: Gyorgy Ligeti At 100 (Brepols Publishers, 2022) commemorates the centenary of Gyorgy Ligeti's birth. The volume consists of twelve contributions that consists of new investigations of many …

World Affairs

Critical Disaster Studies

Jacob A.C. Remes and Andy Horowitz

Hosted by Anna Levy

This book announces the new, interdisciplinary field of critical disaster studies. Unlike most existing approaches to disaster, critical disaster studies begins with the idea that disasters are not objective facts …

Irish Studies

Dindshenchas Érenn

Marie-Luise Theuerkauf

Hosted by Danica Ramsey-Brimberg

The purpose of the present volume, Dindshenchas Érenn (U College Cork, 2022), is to provide an accessible overview and entry into the complex literary creation known as Dindshenchas Érenn ‘History of …

Genocide Studies

Perpetrators

Encountering Humanity's Dark Side

Antonius C. G. M. Robben and Alex Hinton

Hosted by Jeff Bachman

Perpetrators of mass violence are commonly regarded as evil. Their violent nature is believed to make them commit heinous crimes as members of state agencies, insurgencies, terrorist organizations, or racist …

MIT Press Podcast

Sybil Ludington, Material Culture, and American Mythmaking

A Discussion with Marla R. Miller and Paula D. Hunt

Marla R. Miller and Paula D. Hunt

Hosted by MIT Press

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere... Marla R. Miller and Paula D. Hunt discuss Sybil Ludington, material culture, and American mythmaking. Although there …

Jewish Studies

Memory Is Our Home

Loss and Remembering--Three Generations in Poland and Russia 1917-1960s

Suzanna Eibuszyc

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

A courageous young woman escaping Nazi Germany, with no choice other than to leave her family behind... Roma Talasiewicz-Eibuszyc was born in Warsaw near the end of World War I …

Madison's Notes

Humble Beginnings

A Conversation with Robert P. George

Robert P. George

Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. In this inaugural episode of Madison's Notes …

Darts & Letters

Life Extension Therapies

Do You Want to Live Forever? Could You Live Forever? Should You Live Forever?

Hosted by Jay Cockburn

The story of the Fountain of Youth is as old as history itself. Herodotus, the father of ancient Greek history, wrote of a mythical spring that extended the life of …