Special Series

Special Series

episodes
AI, Algocracy, and Democracy's Challenging Road Ahead with Andrew Sorota

June 12, 2026

AI, Algocracy, and Democracy's Challenging Road Ahead

Andrew Sorota
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Like many people, I've been following the developments of AI, testing out new models and following the deluge of news stories about the fight for supr…

How Does the Second-Hand Book Business Really Work? with WeBuyBooks Co-Founder Mike Lane

June 12, 2026

How Does the Second-Hand Book Business Really Work?

Mike Lane
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Today I’m speaking with Mike Lane, Managing Director and co-founder of WeBuyBooks about the economics of the second-hand book business. WeBuyBooks is …

Michael Dillon, "Shanghai: The Story of China's Most Dynamic City" (Yale UP, 2026)

June 9, 2026

Shanghai

Michael Dillon
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Home to 25 million people, Shanghai is the most populous and wealthiest city in China. A meeting point between China and the wider world, the city …

Javier Arbona-Homar, "Explosivity: Following What Remains" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

June 8, 2026

Explosivity

Javier Arbona-Homar
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Offering a novel approach to contemporary landscape studies,⁠ ⁠⁠Explosivity: Following What Remains⁠ (U Minnesota Press, 2025) unearths the hidden leg…

Stephen C.E. Hopkins, "⁠Translating hell: Vernacular theology and apocrypha in the medieval North Sea"⁠ (Manchester UP, 2026)

June 8, 2026

Translating hell

Stephen C. E. Hopkins
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the Middle Ages, hell was useful because it was vaguely defined. Canonical scriptures scarcely mention hell, leaving much to the imaginations of …

Eileen Otis, "Walmart: Made in China" (Stanford UP, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Walmart

Eileen Otis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Walmart: Made in China⁠ (Stanford University Press, 2026) by Dr. Eileen Otis tells the story of Walmart's expansion in China, making the case that…

Ann Carlson, "Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air" (U California Press, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Smog and Sunshine

Ann Carlson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Los Angeles and smog have been synonymous for decades. From the 1940s through the 1980s, children breathed air so heavy with lead that their blood…

Courtney Rickert McCaffrey et al., "Geostrategy By Design: How to Manage Geopolitical Risk in The New Era of Globalization" (Disruption Books, 2024)

June 5, 2026

Geostrategy By Design:

Courtney Rickert McCaffrey, Witold J. Henisz and Oliver Jones
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

How should executives position a company for growth when the geopolitical future is so uncertain? Recent events in Ukraine and the Middle East and tig…

Ralph Jones, "Microphone" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

June 5, 2026

Microphone

Ralph Jones
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Since its invention more than 150 years ago, the microphone transformed the world in an instant. Yet its evolution and integration into our daily li…

8.	Lewis Ryder, "Connoisseurs and conmen: The contest for cultural authority in early twentieth-century Britain" (Manchester UP, 2026)

June 5, 2026

Connoisseurs and Conmen

Lewis Ryder
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Connoisseurs and conmen: The contest for cultural authority in early twentieth-century Britain⁠ (Manchester University Press, 2026) by Dr. Lewis Ryder…

Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 3, 2026

The Meaning of It All

Rivka Weinberg
Hosted by Blain Neufeld

You can stock your life with important work, relationships, activities, and art, and yet, you can still ask: what's the point of it all? Almost every …

Kati Curts, "Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America" (NYU Press, 2025)

June 2, 2026

Assembling Religion

Kati Curts
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Henry Ford did not just mass produce cars. As a member of the Episcopal Church, reader of New Thought texts, believer in the "gospel of reincarnation,…

Helen Veit, "Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History" (St Martin's Press, 2026)

June 1, 2026

Picky

Helen Zoe Veit
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the 20th century, Americans s…

Kenna Neitch, "A Praxis of Persistence: Central American Feminist Testimony and Sustainable Activism" (SUNY Press, 2026)

June 1, 2026

A Praxis of Persistence

Kenna Neitch
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A Praxis of Persistence: Central American Feminist Testimony and Sustainable Activism (SUNY Press, 2026) by Dr. Kenna Neitch establishes persistence a…

Jonatan Leer and Stinne Gunder Strøm Krogager, "Food Porn: Food Aesthetics in a Digital Age" (Bristol UP, 2026)

May 31, 2026

Food Porn

Jonatan Leer and Stinne Gunder Strøm Krogager
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Is food porn a vibrant and democratic new expression of modern food culture or a superficial addition to an image-saturated world? Tracing its o…

David Petruccelli, "A Scourge of Humanity: The Origins of Interpol and the End of Empire in Central and Eastern Europe" (Oxford UP, 2025)

May 31, 2026

A Scourge of Humanity

David Petruccelli
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As the First World War came to a chaotic end, Europeans feared that a wave of crime and anarchy would sweep across their continent. The upheavals …

Charlie Qiuli Xue and Arwen Yingting Chen, "American-Designed Shopping Malls in China" (Hong Kong UP, 2026)

May 30, 2026

American-Designed Shopping Malls in China

Charlie Qiuli Xue and Arwen Yingting Chen
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

China’s remarkable journey from poverty to becoming the world’s second-largest economic power is marked by extraordinary urban growth and consumpt…

Christos Lynteris, "How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)

May 30, 2026

How Plague Got Rats

Christos Lynteris
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Today, rats are nearly synonymous with plague, but this association is surprisingly recent. For centuries, plague devastated populations without b…

Kevin Warsh: "What did you have to say in order to get this job?"

May 30, 2026

Kevin Warsh: "What did you have to say in order to get this job?"

Claire Jones, Michael Redmond and Catarina Saraiva
Hosted by Tim Jones

More than any single institution, the US Federal Reserve drives global financial markets with its decisions and communications. While its interest rat…

Ashley Rose Young, "Nourishing Networks: The Public Culture of Food in New Orleans" (Oxford UP, 2025)

May 29, 2026

Nourishing Networks

Ashley Rose Young
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For much of the Crescent City's history, days began with the cries of roaming street vendors and the percussive thwack of butchers' meat cleavers echo…