New Books Network
Book of the Day/ LGBTQ+ Studies

Stand by Me

The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation

Jim Downs

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. The 1970s represented a moment of triumph -- both political and sexual -- before the AIDS crisis in the subsequent decade, which, in the view of many, exposed the problems inherent in …
Animal Studies

Animal Traffic

Lively Capital in the Global Exotic Pet Trade

Rosemary-Claire Collard

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Parrots and snakes, wild cats and monkeys---exotic pets can now be found everywhere from skyscraper apartments and fenced suburban backyards to roadside petting zoos. In Animal Traffic: Lively Capital in …
Sociology

Essential Dads

The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering

Jennifer M. Randles

Hosted by Michael Johnston
In Essential Dads: The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering (University of California Press, 2020), sociologist Jennifer Randles shares the stories of more than 60 marginalized men as they sought to …
History

The English Republican Exiles in Europe during the Restoration

Gaby Mahlberg

Hosted by Ryan Tripp
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 changed the lives of English republicans for good. Despite the Declaration of Breda, where Charles II promised to forgive those who had …
Sports

Our Last Season

A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship

Harvey Araton

Hosted by Paul Knepper
Harvey Araton’s new book Our Last Season: A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship (Penguin, 2020), reads like a mix between Tuesdays with Morrie and a sequel to his book When …
Eastern European Studies

The Women of the Arrow Cross Party

Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War

Andrea Pető

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Andrea Pető's book The Women of the Arrow Cross Party: Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) analyses the actions, background, connections and the eventual trials of …
Communications

Irony and Outrage

The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young

Hosted by Lee Pierce
On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) Dr. Dannagal Goldthwaite Young (s/h) about why liberals love satire and conservative love outrage and how the two …
Islamic Studies

Muslim Women's Rights

Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada

Tabassum Fahim Ruby

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Muslim Women’s Rights: Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada (Routledge 2019) By Tabassum Fahim Ruby follows the legal debates and public discussions that surrounded the proposed shari‘ah tribunals in Canada from …
Hindu Studies

The Bhagavad-Gītā

A Critical Introduction

Ithamar Theodor

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Ithamar Theodor's The Bhagavad-Gītā: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2020) is a systematic and comprehensive introduction to one of the most read texts in South Asia. The Bhagavad-gītā is at its …
Architecture

Making Architecture Through Being Human

A Handbook of Design Ideas

Philip D. Plowright

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Architecture can seem complicated, mysterious or even ill-defined, especially to a student being introduced to architectural ideas for the first time. One way to approach architecture is simply as the …
South Asian Studies

Citizenship in a Caste Polity

Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa

Jason Keith Fernandes

Hosted by Ali Mohsin
In the mid-1980s, Goa witnessed mass demonstrations, violent protests and political mobilising, following which Konkani was declared the official language of the Goan territory. However, Konkani was recognised only in …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Engaged

Designing for Behavior Change

Amy Bucher

Hosted by Dan Hill
In her new book Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change (Rosenfeld Media, 2020), Amy Bucher analyzes both the barriers and levers to achieving behavioral change. Among the barriers are cognitive biases, like a …
Book of the Day/ History

All Against All

The Long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World War

Paul Jankowski

Hosted by Steven Rodriguez
In his latest monograph, All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and The Origins of the Second World War (Harper, 2020), Professor Paul Jankowski (Brandeis University) provides a wide-angled account of a critical period of world history, the interwar years, in which the world transitioned from postwar to the prewar and saw the disintegration of collective security and international institutions created after the First World War. Drawing on international …
Education

Digital Divisions

How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era

Matthew H. Rafalow

Hosted by Trevor Mattea
In this episode, I speak with Matt Rafalow, about his book, Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era (University of Chicago Press, 2020). This book provides an …
Jewish Studies

Yeshiva Days

Learning on the Lower East Side

Jonathan Boyarin

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
New York City's Lower East Side has witnessed a severe decline in its Jewish population in recent decades, yet every morning in the big room of the city's oldest yeshiva …
German Studies

Empire of Law

Nazi Germany, Exile Scholars and the Battle for the Future of Europe

Kaius Tuori

Hosted by Craig Sorvillo
In his new book Empire of Law: Nazi Germany, Exile Scholars, and the Battle for the Future of Europe (Cambridge UP, 2020),  Kaius Tuori examines the inherent unity of European legal traditions that …
Indian Ocean World

Painter and Patron

The Maritime Silk Road in the Códice Casanatense

Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales

Hosted by Jenny Peruski
Today I talked to Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales about their book Painter and Patron: The Maritime Silk Road in the Códice Casanatense (Abbreviated Press, 2020). The Códice Casanatense …
South Asian Studies

The Truth Machines

Policing, Violence, and Scientific Interrogations in India

Jinee Lokaneeta

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Using case studies and the results of extensive fieldwork, this book considers the nature of state power and legal violence in liberal democracies by focusing on the interaction between law …
Performing Arts

Lot Six

A Memoir

David Adjmi

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lot Six (Harper 2020) is a moving and hilarious memoir from playwright David Adjmi. The book traces Adjmi’s search for his identity, during which he becomes an observant yeshiva student …
Hindu Studies

Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Suzanne Newcombe and Karen O'Brien-Kop

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (Routledge, 2020) is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book …
LGBTQ+ Studies

Confessions of a Gay Priest

A Memoir of Sex, Love, Abuse, and Scandal in the Catholic Seminary

Tom Rastrelli

Hosted by John Marszalek
Tom Rastrelli is a survivor of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse who then became a priest in the early days of the Catholic Church’s ongoing scandals. Confessions of a Gay Priest: A …
Malcolm X and Black Nationalism

Malcolm X

The FBI File

Clayborne Carson

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
This is a Special Series on Malcolm X and Black Nationalism. We delve into the background of Malcolm X's action and thought in the context of Black Nationalism, correcting the …
Critical Theory

The Empire Strikes Back

BFI Classics Series

Rebecca Harrison

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why does The Empire Strikes Back matter? In BFI Classics Series's The Empire Strikes Back (Bloomsbury, 2020), Rebecca Harrison, a lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, tells the …
History

Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance

Jeremy M. Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the …
Political Science

The Black Cabinet

The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt

Jill Watts

Hosted by Susan Liebell
When did Black Americans move from stalwart Lincoln Republicans to dedicated New Deal Democrats? How did a group of self-organized Black economists, lawyers, sociologists, and journalists call out inequality in …
Book of the Day/ Chinese Studies

Mao's Third Front

The Militarization of Cold War China

Covell F. Meyskens

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In 1964, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a momentous policy decision. In response to rising tensions with the United States and Soviet Union, a top-secret massive military industrial complex in the mountains of inland China was built, which the CCP hoped to keep hidden from enemy bombers. Mao named this the Third Front. The Third Front received more government investment than any other developmental initiative of the Mao era …
Mathematics

Supermath

The Power of Numbers for Good and Evil

Anna Weltman

Hosted by Cory Brunson
Mathematics as a subject is distinctive in its symbolic abstraction and its potential for logical and computational rigor. But mathematicians tend to impute other qualities to our subject that set …
Sociology

A Detroit Story

Urban Decline and the Rise of Property Informality

Claire Herbert

Hosted by Michael Johnston
Bringing to the fore a wealth of original research, A Detroit Story: Urban Decline and the Rise of Property Informality (University of California Press, 2021) examines how the informal reclamation of abandoned …
Medicine

Exploiting Hope

How the Promise of New Medical Interventions Sustains Us--and Makes Us Vulnerable

Jeremy Snyder

Hosted by Claire Clark
We often hear stories of people in terrible and seemingly intractable situations who are preyed upon by someone offering promises of help. Frequently these cases are condemned in terms of …
Biography

The Life of William Faulkner

This Alarming Paradox, 1935-1962

Carl Rollyson

Hosted by Mark Klobas
By 1935 William Faulkner was well established as an author of critically praised novels, yet the low volume of his sales forced him to seek work in Hollywood. As Carl …
History

Isolationism

A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself from the World

Charles A. Kupchan

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In the past few years isolationism, which had long been derided in the national discourse, has been making a comeback as a political force. In Isolationism: A History of America’s …
Literature

Lecture

Mary Cappello

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Mary Cappello about her new book, Lecture (Transit Books, 2020). Although I almost hesitate to call it a book. It’s much more—like all great lectures are—a performance …
Literature

Heirlooms

Stories

Rachel Hall

Hosted by Lee Pierce
“It turns out there are things that cannot be left. The very nature of secrets, for instance, insists that they be kept.” On this episode of the New Books Network …
Intellectual History

The Color of Creatorship

Intellectual Property, Race, and the Making of Americans

Anjali Vats

Hosted by Hettie V. Williams
The Color of Creatorship: Intellectual Property, Race, and the Making of Americans (Stanford University Press, 2020) by Anjali Vats is an intricate and meticulously researched text on intellectual property history, race, and …
Third World Nationalism

Naoroji

Pioneer of Indian Nationalism

Dinyar Patel

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
In the wake of a rise in nationalism around the world, and its general condemnation by liberals and the left, we have put together this series on Third World Nationalism …
Philosophy

Unconscionable Crimes

How Norms Explain and Constrain Mass Atrocities

Paul C. Morrow

Hosted by Robert Talisse
The moral horrors of genocide and mass atrocity lead us to wonder how such things are even possible. A common and understandable reaction is to see events of this kind …
Literature

The Maverick

Jennifer Valenti

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
In The Maverick (Broken Arrow Books, 2020), author Jennifer Valenti plugs into the current zeitgeist of young women who struggle to defy the casual sexism of men in power. Jane …
Book of the Day/ National Security

Hate in the Homeland

The New Global Far Right

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across America and around the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being radicalized and why they are increasingly attracted to violent movements. Hate in the Homeland shows how tomorrow’s far-right nationalists are being recruited in surprising places, from college campuses and mixed martial arts gyms …
Eastern European Studies

The Fiume Crisis

Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire

Dominique Kirchner Reill

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire (Harvard UP, 2020) recasts what we know about the birth of fascism, the rise of nationalism, and the fall …
National Security

One Belt One Road

Chinese Power Meets the World

Eyck Freymann

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
China’s One Belt One Road policy, or OBOR, represents the largest infrastructure program in history. Yet little is known about it with any certainty. How can something so large be …
Christian Studies

The Glass Church

Robert H. Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral, and the Strain of Megachurch Ministry

Mark T. Mulder and Gerardo Marti

Hosted by Lane Davis
In The Glass Church: Robert H. Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral, and the Strain of Megachurch Ministry (Rutgers UP, 2020), Mark Mulder and Gerardo Marti offer a compelling look at the …
Science, Technology, and Society

Points of Contact

Science, Religion, and the Search for Truth

Glenn Sauer

Hosted by John Traphagan
As a scientist and practicing Catholic, Dr. Sauer brings a unique perspective to several of the important issues related to finding a space for dialogue between the at times opposing …
Poetry

Catrachos

Poems

Roy G. Guzmán

Hosted by Andrea Blythe
Roy G. Guzmán’s Catrachos (Graywolf Press, 2020) is a stunning debut collection of poetry that immerses the reader in rich, vibrant language. Described as being “part immigration narrative, part elegy …
Performing Arts

Perpetual Motion

Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common

Harmony Bench

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Harmony Bench's Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common (Minnesota UP, 2020) traces the changing ways dance is distributed and created on the internet from the heady early internet …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Conspiracy Culture

Post-Soviet Paranoia and the Russian Imagination

Keith A. Livers

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Conspiracy theories prove to be popular and widely-spread. As a rule, we do not tend to take them seriously, but it would be wrong to suggest that audiences are not …
Hindu Studies

The Truth of Yoga

A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga's History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices

Daniel Simpson

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Succinct answers to nearly any question about yoga's origins, development, key texts, concepts, and practices. Much of what is said about yoga is misleading. To take two examples, it is …
Popular Culture

Monstrous Women in Comics

Samantha Langsdale and Elizabeth Rae Coody

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In their new collection, Monstrous Women in Comics (University Press of Mississippi, 2020), Samantha Langsdale and Elizabeth Rae Coody put together a critical volume on the ways women are made monstrous in …
History

The Basque Seroras

Local Religion, Gender, and Power in Northern Iberia, 1550–1800

Amanda L. Scott

Hosted by Jane Wickersham
Jane K. Wickersham (Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma) speaks with Amanda L. Scott (Assistant Professor, Penn State University) about her new book The Basque Seroras: Local Religion, Gender …
Politics & Polemics

China: Engage!

Avoid The New Cold War

Vince Cable

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Anyone doing business with China will have been shocked by the speed with which political and economic relations with Western, and some other, countries – like India – have deteriorated …
Fantasy

The Fires of Vengeance

Book Two of The Burning

Evan Winter

Hosted by Gabrielle Mathieu
In order to reclaim her throne and save her people, an ousted queen must join forces with a young warrior in the second book of this"relentlessly gripping, brilliant" epic fantasy …
Book of the Day/ Animal Studies

Why Vegan?

Eating Ethically

Peter Singer

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Even before the publication of his seminal Animal Liberation in 1975, Peter Singer, one of the greatest moral philosophers of our time, unflinchingly challenged the ethics of eating animals. Now, in Why Vegan?: Eating Ethically (Liveright, 2020), Singer brings together the most consequential essays of his career to make this devastating case against our failure to confront what we are doing to animals, to public health, and to our planet …
British Studies

American States of Nature

The Origins of Independence, 1761-1775

Mark Somos

Hosted by Charles Prior
In Federalist no. 2, John Jay considered the ‘wide spreading country’ of the American republic. It was, he argued, as if the land itself was fashioned by the hand of …
Indian Ocean World

Islamic Sufi Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (c.1880-1940)

Ripples of Reform

Anne K. Bang

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
In the period c. 1880-1940, organized Sufism spread rapidly in the western Indian Ocean. New communities turned to Islam, and Muslim communities turned to new texts, practices, and religious leaders …
Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness

Everyday Mindfulness

108 Simple Practices to Empower Yourself and Transform Your Life

Melissa Steginus

Hosted by Elizabeth Cronin
Everyday Mindfulness: 108 Simple Practices to Empower Yourself and Transform Your Life (TCK Publishing, 2020) guides you through the most powerful daily mindfulness practices that help you rewire your habits …
Asian Review of Books

Stealing from the Saracens

How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe

Diana Darke

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Visitors around the world have travelled to Europe to see the tall spires and stained glass windows of the continent’s Gothic cathedrals: in Cologne, Chartres, Milan, Florence, York and Paris …
History

For Might and Right

Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy

Michael Brenes

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Donald Trump campaigned on a great many things in 2016, but one of the issues he used to criticize Democrats was their role in supporting sequestration and cuts to …
Eastern European Studies

Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes

Essays in Honor of Marko Pavlyshyn

Alessandro Achilli, Serhy Yekelchyk and Dmytro Yesypenko

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes: Essays in honor of Marko Pavlyshyn (Academic Studies Press, 2020) is an impressive volume of essays on a variety of topics and issues …
Hindu Studies

The Indian Diaspora

Hindus and Sikhs in Australia

Purushottama Bilimoria and Philip Hughes

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Since the late 1990s, the Indian community in Australia has grown faster than any other immigrant community. The Indian Diaspora has made substantial contributions to the multi-ethnic and multi-religious diversity …
Academic Life

Dealing with the Fs (Fear and Failure)

A Discussion with Alice Connor

Alice Conner

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 …
Communications

The Twittering Machine

Richard Seymour

Hosted by Marci Mazzarotto
Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction-machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight

Negotiating the Sweet Spot

The Art of Leaving Nothing on the Table

Leigh Thompson

Hosted by Dan Hill
Leigh Thompson is a Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. An acclaimed researcher, author, and speaker, she has developed several online and in-person …
Political Science

The Inclusion Calculation

Why Men Appropriate Womens' Representation

Melody Ellis Valdini

Hosted by Lilly Goren
The thematic research question in The Inclusion Calculation: Why Men Appropriate Women’s Representation (Oxford UP, 2019) is whether there is a distinction between women’s power itself and the strategic value of having …
Medicine

OD

Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose

Nancy D. Campbell

Hosted by Laura Stark
Reducing harm or shrinking the likelihood of accidental death are remarkably contentions projects—in areas from sex education, to pandemic management, to drug use. Nancy Campbell’s important new book, OD: Naloxone …
SSEAC Stories

Transforming Breast Cancer Diagnosis in Vietnam

A Discussion with Professor Patrick Brennan

Patrick Brennan

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Globally, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, with over 1 million cases detected annually. The disease is particularly worrisome in Vietnam, where breast cancer incidence has …
Book of the Day/ Politics & Polemics

The Religion Clauses

The Case for Separating Church and State

Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Throughout American history, views on the proper relationship between the state and religion have been deeply divided. And, with recent changes in the composition of the Supreme Court, First Amendment law concerning religion is likely to change dramatically in the years ahead.In The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (Oxford University Press, 2020), Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman, two of America's leading constitutional scholars, begin by explaining how freedom …
Historical Fiction

Bronte's Mistress

A Novel

Finola Austin

Hosted by C. P. Lesley
It seems likely that most of our listeners have at least heard of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and her sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights. Many also know that Charlotte and Emily …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

Ladders to Heaven

How Figs Shaped our History, Fed our Imaginations, and can Enrich our Future

Mike Shanahan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers … rainforest royalty … more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity …
Asian American Studies

The Peculiar Afterlife of Slavery

The Chinese Worker and the Minstrel Form

Caroline H. Yang

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
The Peculiar Afterlife of Slavery: The Chinese Worker and the Minstrel Form (Stanford University Press, 2020) explores how antiblack racism lived on through the figure of the Chinese worker in US …
African Studies

Beauty Diplomacy

Embodying an Emerging Nation

Oluwakemi M. Balogun

Hosted by Lakshita Malik
Even as beauty pageants have been critiqued as misogynistic and dated cultural vestiges of the past in the US and elsewhere, the pageant industry is growing in popularity across the …
Language

Fiction

A Philosophical Analysis

Catharine Abell

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2020), Catharine Abell draws our attention to the character of Emma Woodhouse. She is handsome, clever, and rich. Or, at least, that's what …
History

Debauched, Desperate, Deranged

Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913

Carolyn A. Conley

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we speak to Carolyn Conley, Professor Emerita from the University of Alabama – Birmingham, about her new book Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913 (Oxford UP, 2020) …
Science

Brain Fables

The Hidden History of Neurodegenerative Diseases and a Blueprint to Conquer Them

Alberto Espay and Benjamin Stecher

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
An estimated 80 million people live with a neurodegenerative disease, with this number expected to double by 2050. Despite decades of research and billions in funding, there are no medications …
Folklore

When They Blew the Levee

Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri

David Todd Lawrence and Elaine J. Lawless

Hosted by Nancy Yan
The town of Pinhook in Missouri was founded in the 1940s by southern Black farmers who were looking for land that they could purchase and own in the face of …
The Common Magazine

Counsel

David Moloney

Hosted by Emily Everett
Writer David Moloney speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his story “Counsel,” which appears in Issue 19 of The Common magazine. “Counsel” is an excerpt from Moloney’s novel-in-stories, Barker …
African American Studies

Pauulu's Diaspora

Black Internationalism and Environmental Justice

Quito J. Swan

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall
Pauulu’s Diaspora: Black Internationalism and Environmental Justice (University Press of Florida, 2020) by Quito Swan is an enchanting, magisterial, broadly researched monograph that illuminates the social life of Black Power politics across …