New Books Network
Folklore
Film October 18, 2021

Lucasfilm

Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe

Cyrus R.K. Patell

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and …

Folklore

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Interviews with folklorists and scholars of folklore about their new books.

Folklore October 12, 2021

Alabama Quilts

Wilderness Through World War II, 1682-1950

M. E. J. Huff and Carole Ann King

Hosted by Stephanie Khattak
Stephanie Khattak speaks with Carole Ann King, who, along with Mary Elizabeth “Sunshine” Johnson Huff, wrote Alabama Quilts: Wilderness Through World War II, 1682-1950 (UP of Mississippi, 2020). Alabama Quilts …
Indian Religions October 5, 2021

Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares

Horses in Indian Myth and History

Wendy Doniger

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran speaks with Wendy Doniger about her new book Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and History (University of Virginia Press, 2021), along with her translation of the final …
Japanese Studies September 22, 2021

The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan

Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo

M.W. Shores

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Rakugo, a popular form of comic storytelling, has played a major role in Japanese culture and society. Developed during the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, it is still popular …
East Asian Studies September 17, 2021

The Global White Snake

Liang Luo

Hosted by Huiying Chen
Liang Luo's book The Global White Snake (U Michigan Press, 2021) examines the Chinese White Snake legends and their extensive, multidirectional travels within Asia and across the globe. Such travels across …
Indian Religions September 16, 2021

Performing the Ramayana Tradition

Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments

Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha's book Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments (Oxford UP, 2021) examines diverse retellings of the Ramayana narrative as interpreted and embodied through a spectrum of …
Folklore August 20, 2021

Overthrowing the Queen

Telling Stories of Welfare in America

Tom Mould

Hosted by Nancy Yan
It is a familiar story: A recipient of public assistance funds is caught buying expensive steaks, seafood, or other luxury foods with food stamps at the grocery store. Or they …
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 …
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 …