Recall This Book

Recall This Book

episodes

Free-ranging discussion of books from the past that cast a sideways light on today's world. Recall This Book is hosted by Elizabeth Ferry, Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University and John Plotz, Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University and co-founder of the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative.

The Reeducation of Race with Sonali Thakkar (JP)

March 7, 2024

The Reeducation of Race

Sonali Thakkar

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar’s brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanf…

Sheila Heti Speaks About Awe with Sunny Yudkoff (JP)

February 16, 2024

Sheila Heti Speaks About Awe with Sunny Yudkoff (JP)

Sheila Heti

In this fantastic recent episode from our colleagues at Novel Dialogue, Sheila Heti sits down with Sunny Yudkoff and John to discuss her incredibly va…

The Culture Trap, with Sociologist Derron Wallace (EF, JP)

February 1, 2024

The Culture Trap

Derron Wallace

In this episode, Elizabeth and John talk with Derron Wallace, sociologist of education and Brandeis colleague, about his new book The Culture Trap: Et…

Ajantha Subramanian on the Caste of Merit

January 18, 2024

Ajantha Subramanian on "The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India"

Ajantha Subramanian

Before she became the host and star of Violent Majorities, the RTB series on Israeli and Indian ethnonationalism, Ajantha Subramanian sat down with El…

A Roundup Conversation About Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism with Ajantha Subramanian, Lori Allen (JP)

January 4, 2024

Violent Majorities: Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism (Episode 3 of 3)

Ajantha Subramanian and Lori Allen

Ajantha Subramanian and Lori Allen turn from hosts to interlocutors in an episode that ties a bow on our Violent Majorities conversations about Indian…

Violent Majorities: Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism. Natasha Roth-Rowland (with Lori, Ajantha)

December 14, 2023

Violent Majorities: Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism (Episode 2 of 3)

Natasha Roth-Rowland, Lori Allen, and Ajantha Subramanian

Natasha Roth-Rowland is a writer and researcher at Diaspora Alliance, a former editor at +972 Magazine, and an expert on the Jewish far right. She j…

Violent Majorities, Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism

December 7, 2023

Violent Majorities: Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism (Episode 1 of 3)

Balmurli Natrajan, Lori Allen, and Ajantha Subramanian

"The Slippery Slope to a Multiculturalism of Caste" Professor Balmurli Natrajan has long studied questions of caste, nationalism and fascism in the I…

Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)

November 16, 2023

Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)

Laurence Ralph
Listen:

In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Letters…

"We are all latecomers": Martin Puchner's "Culture" (JP, EF)

November 2, 2023

"We are all latecomers": Martin Puchner's "Culture"

Martin Puchner
Listen:

Recall This Book listeners already know the inimitable Martin Puchner (Professor of English and Theater at Harvard, editor of more than one Norton Ant…

Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)

October 19, 2023

Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul

Sanjay Krishnan
Listen:

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book…

John Guillory Professes Criticism (JP, Nick Dames)

October 5, 2023

John Guillory Professes Criticism (JP, Nick Dames)

John Guillory
Listen:

John Guillory (NYU English author of the pathbreaking Cultural Capital) is here to discuss his amazing new Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organiz…

David Cunningham, January 6th and Asymmetrical Policing (JP, EF)

September 21, 2023

January 6th and Asymmetrical Policing (JP, EF)

David Cunningham
Listen:

Recall This Book first heard from the sociologist of American racism David Cunningham in Episode 36 Policing and White Power. Less than a week after t…

Earthsea, and Other Realms: Ursula Le Guin as Social Inactivist (EF, JP, [UKL])

September 7, 2023

Earthsea, and Other Realms

John Plotz and Elizabeth Ferry
Listen:

To mark the publication of John's book Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea (My Reading), with Oxford University Press (2023), John and Elizabeth take to the a…

Samuel R. Delany, Neveryon and Beyond (JP)

August 17, 2023

Neveryon and Beyond (JP)

Samuel R. Delany
Listen:

John Plotz talked with Samuel Delany, living legend of science fiction and fantasy back in 2019. You probably know him best for breakthrough novels li…

Joshua Cohen’s "The Netanyahus" (JP, Eugene Sheppard)

August 3, 2023

Joshua Cohen’s "The Netanyahus" (JP, Eugene Sheppard)

Joshua Cohen
Listen:

In this episode (originally aired by our partner Novel Dialogue) John and his Brandeis colleague Eugene Sheppard speak with Joshua Cohen about The Ne…

Thomas Piketty on Capitalism and Inequality (Adaner Usmani, JP)

July 20, 2023

Thomas Piketty On Capitalism and Inequality (Adaner Usmani, JP)

Thomas Piketty
Listen:

Is Thomas Piketty the world’s most famous economic historian ? A superstar enemy of plutocratic capitalism who wrote a pathbreaking bestseller, Capita…

Chris Desan on Making Money (Recall This Buck)

July 5, 2023

Making Money

Christine Desan
Listen:

Our Recall this Buck series, back in 2020 and 2021, explored the history of money, ranging from the earliest forms of labor IOUs to the modern world o…

The Electro-Library with Jared Green (EF, JP)

June 15, 2023

The Electro-Library

Jared Green
Listen:

Way back in 2019, Elizabeth and John were already thinking about collaboration. Here they speak with Jared Green and explore The Electro-Library, a p…

Musical Collaboration: Francisco del Pino (JP)

June 1, 2023

Musical Collaboration

Francisco del Pino
Listen:

Francisco del Pino is a widely celebrated composer from Buenos Aires, and currently a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University. J…

David Plotz: Books in Dark Times (JP)

May 18, 2023

David Plotz: Books in Dark Times (JP)

David Plotz

Aside from being John’s (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gab…