New Books Network
General History July 23, 2021

Devil's Historians

How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past

Amy Kaufman and Paul Sturtevant

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In The Devil's Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past (University of Toronto Press, 2020), Amy S. Kaufman and Paul B. Sturtevant examine the many ways in which the …

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Science July 23, 2021

Pay Attention

Sex, Death, and Science

John Horgan

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
What would it feel like to wake up inside the head of someone who writes about science for a living? John Horgan, acclaimed author of the bestseller The End of …
Science, Technology, and Society July 23, 2021

Radiant Infrastructures

Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty

Rahul Mukherjee

Hosted by Noopur Raval
In Radiant Infrastructures: Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty (Duke UP, 2020), Rahul Mukherjee explores how the media coverage of nuclear power plants and cellular phone antennas in India—what he …
Architecture July 23, 2021

Visual Delight in Architecture

Daylight, Vision and View

Lisa Heschong

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Lisa Heschong's book Visual Delight in Architecture: Visual Delight in Architecture (Routledge, 2021) examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight and window views …
Islamic Studies July 23, 2021

Narrative Pasts

The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, C. 1400-1650

Jyoti Gulati Balachandran

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Jyoti Gulati Balachandran's Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650 (Oxford University Press, 2020) explores the complex power of Sufi texts in creating Muslim communities in …
Irish Studies July 23, 2021

Derry City

Memory and Political Struggle in Northern Ireland

Margo Shea

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The city that sits on the River Foyle on the North side of the Irish isle in many ways has stood as a microcosm of the conflicts in Northern Ireland …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 23, 2021

Popular Protests in the Age of #MilkTeaAlliance

A Discussion with Wasana Wongsurawat and Mai Corlin Fredriksen

Wasana Wongsurawat and Mai Corlin Fredriksen

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
What influence can online and visual activism have on protest movements? With a wave of anti-establishment protests sweeping over East and Southeast Asia over the past couple of years, the …
Interpretive Political and Social Science July 23, 2021

Gendered Citizenship

Understanding Gendered Violence in Democratic India

Natasha Behl

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
Why do we find pervasive gender-based discrimination, exclusion and violence in India when the Indian constitution builds an inclusive democracy committed to gender equality? This is the puzzle that animates …
Film July 23, 2021

Beyond Bias

Conservative Media, Documentary Form, and the Politics of Hysteria

Scott Krzych

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Scott Krzych's book Beyond Bias: Conservative Media, Documentary Form, and the Politics of Hysteria (Oxford University Press, 2021) offers the first scholarly study of contemporary right-wing documentary film and video. Drawing from …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast July 23, 2021

Embracing Complexity

David Cannadine

Hosted by Howard Burton
Embracing Complexity is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and eminent historian David Cannadine, Princeton University. This thoughtful conversation includes an examination of different aspects of the …
Medicine July 23, 2021

Distributing Condoms and Hope

The Racialized Politics of Youth Sexual Health

Chris A. Barcelos

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Distributing Condoms and Hope: The Racialized Politics of Youth Sexual Health (U California Press, 2020) is a feminist ethnographic account of how youth sexual health programs in the racially and …
Gender Studies July 23, 2021

Beauvoir in Time

Meryl Altman

Hosted by Lilian Calles Barger
Meryl Altman's new book Beauvoir in Time, published by Brill Rodopi Press (2020), situates Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) in its historical context and responds to criticism that …
Political Science July 22, 2021

Executive Policymaking

The Role of the OMB in the Presidency

Meena Bose and Andrew Rudalevige

Hosted by Lilly Goren
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is sometimes described as “the most important governmental office no one has ever heard of” and it certainly occupies a very important position …
Science Fiction July 22, 2021

The Wall

Gautam Bhatia

Hosted by Rob Wolf
Gautam Bhatia’s debut novel The Wall (Harper Collins, 2020) is set in Sumer, a city enclosed in an impenetrable, unscalable barrier that seems sky high. To its inhabitants, whose ancestors have lived …
Film July 22, 2021

Cinema of Exploration

Essays on an Adventurous Film Practice

James Leo Cahill and Luca Caminati

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Drawing together 18 contributions from leading international scholars, Cinema of Exploration: Essays on an Adventurous Film Practice (Routledge, 2021) conceptualizes the history and theory of cinema’s century-long relationship to modes of …
Academic Life July 22, 2021

Reclaiming Lost Voices and Recovering History

A Discussion with Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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 …
Indian Religions July 22, 2021

A Conversation with Greg Bailey

Sanskrit Scholar and Novelist

Greg Bailey

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This interview features a candid conversation with Greg Bailey, seasoned scholar of Sanskrit narrative Literature, on his multi-decade work on the Purāṇas and Mahābhārata, and on his new novel In Search of Bliss …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast July 22, 2021

Plato’s Heaven

A User’s Guide

James Robert Brown

Hosted by Howard Burton
Plato’s Heaven: A User’s Guide is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and James Robert Brown, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. This wide-ranging …
General History July 22, 2021

Slave Revolt on Screen

The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games

Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

Hosted by Michael Vann
Michel-Rolph Trouillot wrote that “the silencing of the Haitian Revolution is only a chapter within a narrative of global domination. It is part of the history of the West and …
Asian Review of Books July 22, 2021

The Last Embassy

The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China

Tonio Andrade

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
On January 10th, 1795, a very tired caravan arrives in Beijing. The travelers have journeyed from Canton on an accelerated schedule through harsh terrain in order to make it to …