Folklore

Folklore

episodes

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

Jason Ramsey, "Reckoning with Change in Yucatán: Histories of Care and Threat on a Former Hacienda" (Routledge, 2023)

September 17, 2024

Reckoning with Change in Yucatán

Jason Ramsey
Hosted by Yadong Li

A perpetual tension exists between history and change, which is an issue long explored by historians and social scientists. Reckoning with Change in Y…

Greg Eghigian, "After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon" (Oxford UP, 2024)

September 11, 2024

After the Flying Saucers Came

Greg Eghigian
Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

Roswell, 1947. Washington, DC, 1952. Quarouble, 1954. New Hampshire, 1961. Pascagoula, 1973. Petrozavodsk, 1977. Copley Woods, 1983. Explore how sight…

David Zeitlyn, "Mambila Divination: Framing Questions, Constructing Answers" (Routledge, 2021)

September 7, 2024

Mambila Divination

David Zeitlyn

Professor David Zeitlyn’s book offers a major contribution to the study and analysis of divination, based on continuing fieldwork with the Mambila in …

In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic

September 5, 2024

In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic

Alexandra Chan

Alexandra Chan thinks she has life figured out until, in the Year of the Ram, the death of her father—her last parent—brings her to her knees, an even…

Julia Kindt, "The Trojan Horse and Other Stories: Ten Ancient Creatures That Make Us Human" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

September 4, 2024

The Trojan Horse and Other Stories

Julia Kindt

What makes us human? What, if anything, sets us apart from all other creatures? Ever since Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, the answer to these q…

Fabio Rambelli, "Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

September 2, 2024

Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan

Fabio Rambelli
Hosted by Daigengna Duoer

In Japan, a country popularly perceived as highly secularized and technologically advanced, ontological assumptions about spirits (tama or tamashii) s…

James P. Leary, "Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946" (U Wisconsin Press, 2015)

September 1, 2024

Folksongs of Another America

James P. Leary
Hosted by Rachel Hopkin

Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946 (University of Wisconsin Press) first appeared in 2015 when it compri…

The Dragon and the Nguzunguzu

August 19, 2024

The Dragon and the Nguzunguzu

Rodolfo Maggio

Nguzunguzu is the traditional figurehead which was formerly affixed to canoes in the Solomon Islands. In this episode, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to Rodo…

Tabitha Stanmore, "Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic" (Bloombury, 2024)

July 7, 2024

Cunning Folk

Tabitha Stanmore

Imagine: it's the year 1600 and you've lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they've been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you're facin…

Aaron Sherraden, "Śambūka's Death Toll: A History of Motives and Motifs in an Evolving Rāmāyaṇa Narrative" (Anthem Press, 2023)

July 4, 2024

Śambūka's Death Toll: a History of Motives and Motifs in an Evolving Rāmāyaṇa Narrative

Aaron Sherraden
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

According to Vālmīki's Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa (early centuries CE), Śambūka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these a…

Thersa Matsuura, "The Book of Japanese Folklore: An Encyclopedia of the Spirits, Monsters, and Yokai of Japanese Myth" (Adams Media, 2024)

June 1, 2024

The Book of Japanese Folklore

Thersa Matsuura

Discover everything you’ve ever wondered about the legendary spirits, creatures, and figures of Japanese folklore including how they have found their …

Sohini Pillai, "Krishna's Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 30, 2024

Krishna's Mahabharatas

Sohini Pillai
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Between 800 and 1700 CE, a plethora of Mahabharatas were created in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, T…

Cathy Yue Wang, "Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters: Feminist Adaptations of Traditional Tales in Chinese Fantasy" (Wayne State UP, 2023)

April 17, 2024

Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters

Cathy Yue Wang
Hosted by Linshan Jiang

Contemporary Chinese film and literature often draw on time-honored fantastical texts and tales which were founded in the milieu of patriarchy, parent…

Shakuntala Gawde, "Narrative Analysis of Bhagavata Purana: Selected Episodes from the Tenth Skandha" (Dev Publishers, 2023)

March 21, 2024

Narrative Analysis of Bhagavata Purana

Shakuntala Gawde
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Shakuntala Gawde's book Narrative Analysis of Bhagavata Purana: Selected Episodes from the Tenth Skandha (Dev Publishers, 2023) presents an analytical…

John O’Connor, "The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster" (Sourcebooks, 2024)

March 16, 2024

The Secret History of Bigfoot

John O’Connor
Hosted by Daniel Moran

Bigfoot is an instantly recognizable figure. Through the decades, this elusive primate has been featured in movies and books, on coffee mugs, beer koo…

Imani D. Owens, "Turn the World Upside Down: Empire and Unruly Forms of Black Folk Culture in the U.S. and Caribbean" (Columbia UP, 2023)

February 23, 2024

Turn the World Upside Down

Imani D. Owens

In the first half of the twentieth century, Black hemispheric culture grappled with the legacies of colonialism, U.S. empire, and Jim Crow. As writers…

Suzanne Oakdale, "Amazonian Cosmopolitans: Navigating a Shamanic Cosmos, Shifting Indigenous Policies, and Other Modern Projects" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

January 28, 2024

Amazonian Cosmopolitans

Suzanne Oakdale
Hosted by Yadong Li

In Amazonian Cosmopolitans: Navigating a Shamanic Cosmos, Shifting Indigenous Policies, and Other Modern Projects (U Nebraska Press, 2022), Suzanne Oa…

Joseph C. Russo, "Hard Luck and Heavy Rain: The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas" (Duke UP, 2022)

January 21, 2024

Hard Luck and Heavy Rain

Joseph C. Russo
Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

In Hard Luck and Heavy Rain: The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas (Duke UP, 2023), Joseph C. Russo takes readers into the everyday lives of the r…

Jakob Norberg, "The Brothers Grimm and the Making of German Nationalism" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

January 21, 2024

The Brothers Grimm and the Making of German Nationalism

Jakob Norberg
Hosted by Amir Engel

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are probably history’s most famous folklorists. Their collection of folk tales – the Children’s and Household Tales – is one o…

William G. Pooley, "Body and Tradition in 19th-Century France: Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914" (Oxford UP, 2019)

January 3, 2024

Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France

William G. Pooley
Hosted by Rachel Hopkin

The moorlands of Gascony are often considered one of the most dramatic examples of top-down rural modernization in nineteenth-century Europe. From an …