New Books Network
Folklore
Folklore July 13, 2021

Sacred Disobedience

A Jungian Analysis of the Saga of Pan and the Devil

Sharon L. Coggan

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Pan plays a central role in European mythology, originating as a figure who represented all that was impossible to tame in the world, something anyone who has ever worked with …

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Religion July 9, 2021

Ashkenazi Herbalism

Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel

Hosted by Diana Dukhanova
Until now, the herbal traditions of the Ashkenazi people have remained unexplored and shrouded in mystery. Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews (North Atlantic Books, 2021) …
Folklore July 6, 2021

Yo' Mama, Mary Mack, and Boudreaux and Thibodeaux

Louisiana Children's Folklore and Play

Jeanne Pitre Soileau

Hosted by Nancy Yan
Children’s folklore is simultaneously a conservator of tradition and a site for creativity and innovation. For over five decades, Dr. Jeanne Pitre Soileau documented and collected the jokes, chants, rhymes …
East Asian Studies June 22, 2021

A Time of Lost Gods

Mediumship, Madness, and the Ghost after Mao

Emily Ng

Hosted by Ed Pulford
If China’s Mao era is seen by many as a time of great upheaval and chaos, there are also people and places for whom things appear quite different. Writing from …
Life Wisdom June 16, 2021

Brian Collins on Indian Mythology

Professor, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, Ohio University

Brian Collins

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
What insights on the human experience can we find in ancient Indian mythology? Join us as we speak to Dr. Brian Collins (Associate Professor, Chair Department of Classics and Religious …
Intellectual History June 10, 2021

Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

Tae-Yeoun Keum

Hosted by Tejas Parasher
Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought (Harvard UP, 2020) is an ambitious reinterpretation and defense of Plato’s basic enterprise and influence, arguing that the power of his myths …
Indian Religions June 10, 2021

The Reluctant Family Man

Shiva in Everyday Life

Chitgopekar Nilima

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
He's the destroyer of evil, the pervasive one in whom all things lie. He is brilliant, terrifying, wild and beneficent. He is both an ascetic and a householder, both a …
Psychology June 8, 2021

Smoke Hole

Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

Martin Shaw

Hosted by Susan Grelock-Yusem
At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives—identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemic—celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin …
Folklore May 26, 2021

Balut

Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora

Margaret Magat

Hosted by Nancy Yan
Balut is a fertilized chicken or duck egg that is boiled at the seventeenth day and sold as a common street snack in the Philippines. While it is widely eaten …
Indian Religions May 21, 2021

Religion and Myth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Michael D. Nichols

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Breaking box office records, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has achieved an unparalleled level of success with fans across the world, raising the films to a higher level of narrative: myth …
Indian Religions April 30, 2021

Land of the Golden River

The Medieval Tamil Folk Epic of Poṉṉivaḷa Nāḍu

Brenda Beck

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
This podcast features Brenda Beck’s lifelong work on the Tamil folk epic Ponnivala. In addition to her forthcoming new English translation of the epic (“Land of the Golden River”), we …
Jewish Studies April 12, 2021

Salvage Poetics

Post-Holocaust American Jewish Folk Ethnographies

Sheila E. Jelen

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In Salvage Poetics: Post-Holocaust American Jewish Folk Ethnographies (Wayne State University Press, 2020), Sheila Jelen explores how American Jewish post-Holocaust writers, scholars, and editors adapted pre-Holocaust works, such as Yiddish …
Jewish Studies March 4, 2021

Honey on the Page

A Treasury of Yiddish Children's Literature

Miriam Udel

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
While there has been a recent boom in Jewish literacy and learning within the US, few resources exist to enable American Jews to experience the rich primary sources of Yiddish …
Popular Culture February 23, 2021

Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus!

Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community

Robert L. Stone

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Folklorist Robert L. Stone presents a rare collection of high-quality documentary photos of the sacred steel guitar musical tradition and the community that supports it. The introductory text and extended …
Folklore January 25, 2021

Pussy Hats, Politics, and Public Protest

Rachelle Hope Saltzman

Hosted by Nancy Yan
On January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, hundreds of cities in the U.S. and across the globe organized Women’s Marches in response to Trump’s misogynistic comments …
Folklore December 14, 2020

Life as a Folklorist and Folklore Studies

A Discussion with Jack Zipes

Jack Zipes

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Today I talked with Jack Zipes about a life in Folklore Studies, about some of his many publications, and about publishing fairy tales. Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German at the …
Folklore December 4, 2020

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 …
Folklore October 13, 2020

A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses

Tales of the Feminine Divine from India and Beyond

Michael Slouber

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Michael Slouber's new book A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses: Tales of the Feminine Divine from India and Beyond (University of California Press, 2021) surveys the diversity of India's feminine divine …
Folklore September 18, 2020

Quinceañera Style

Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities

Rachel Valentina González

Hosted by Nancy Yan
A quinceañera is a traditional fifteenth birthday celebration for young women (though in contemporary times, it can also be for young men) in many Latinx communities. While the celebration has …
Folklore September 17, 2020

Public Performances

Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque

Jack Santino

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque (University Press of Colorado) offers a deep and wide-ranging exploration of relationships among genres of public performance and of the underlying political …