New Books Network
NBN Book of the Day
Language April 21, 2021

Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can

Herbert S. Terrace

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Through discussion of his famous 1970s experiment alongside new research, in Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can (Columbia University Press, 2019), Herbert Terrace argues that, despite the failure of famous attempts to teach primates to speak, from these efforts we can learn something important: the missing link between non-linguistic and linguistic creatures is the ability to use words, not  to form sentences. Situating language-learning as a capacity …
Secularism April 20, 2021

Speak of the Devil

How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion

Joseph P. Laycock

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
In 2013, when the state of Oklahoma erected a statue of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol, a group calling themselves The Satanic Temple applied to …
Postscript April 19, 2021

Postscript

Biden's First 100 Days

Lilly J. Goren and Susan Liebell

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Much has long been made of the bold legislative action that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt marshalled forward in his first 100 days in office in the midst of the Great …
History April 16, 2021

The Golden Age of the American Essay

1945-1970

Phillip Lopate

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
The three decades that followed World War II were an exceptionally fertile period for American essays. The explosion of journals and magazines, the rise of public intellectuals, and breakthroughs in …
Public Policy April 15, 2021

Ungoverned and Out of Sight

Public Health and the Political Crisis of Homelessness in the United States

Charley E. Willison

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
If health policy truly seeks to improve population health and reduce health disparities, addressing homelessness must be a priority. Homelessness is a public health problem. Nearly a decade after the …
Sports April 14, 2021

The Fastest Game in the World

Hockey and the Globalization of Sports

Bruce Berglund

Hosted by Bob D'Angelo
Today we are joined by Bruce Berglund, author of The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports (University of California Press, 2020). In this sweeping look …
Public Policy April 13, 2021

Engine of Inequality

The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America

Karen Petrou

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got …
World Affairs April 12, 2021

Lie Machines

How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives

Philip N. Howard

Hosted by Medha Prasanna
Technology is breaking politics - what can be done about it? Artificially intelligent "bot" accounts attack politicians and public figures on social media. Conspiracy theorists publish junk news sites to …
American West April 9, 2021

Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion

Gender, Race, and Identity in the American Rodeo

Elyssa Ford

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Imagine a rodeo rider atop a bucking bronco, hat in hand, straining to remain astride. Is the rider in your mind's eye white? Is the person male? Popular imaginings and high …
Literary Studies April 8, 2021

Laughing to Keep from Dying

African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century

Danielle Fuentes Morgan

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
The election of Barack Obama propelled the idea of a post-racial United States, or that the country had moved beyond race as a defining feature of social difference and beyond …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery April 7, 2021

Operation White Rabbit

LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King

Dennis McDougal

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King (Simon and Schuster, 2020) traces the rise and fall—and rise and fall again—of the psychedelic community through the …
Journal of Asian American Studies Podcast April 6, 2021

Roundtable on Asian Migrant Sex Work

Alison Clancey, Kelly Go, Lily Wong, and Yuri Doolan

Hosted by Christopher Patterson
This episode features three interviews with organizers and scholars concerned with Asian migrant sex work: SWAN Vancouver (Alison Clancey and Kelly Go), Dr. Lily Wong, and Dr. Yuri Doolan. On …
Literature April 5, 2021

Darkness at Noon

A Novel

Arthur Koestler

Hosted by Ian Drake
Philip Boehm, who has translated over thirty books from German and Polish into English, has translated a recently discovered German manuscript Darkness at Noon (Scribner, 2019) by the late Arthur Koestler …
Popular Culture April 2, 2021

Warhol's Mother's Pantry

Art, America, and the Mom in Pop

M. I. Devine

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Warhol's Mother's Pantry: Art America and the Mom in Pop (Mad Creek Press, 2020), M.I. Devine introduces readers to a collection of 21st-century multi-genre essays inspired by Andy Warhol's mother …
Law April 1, 2021

The Art of Political Control in China

Daniel C. Mattingly

Hosted by Jane Richards
The Art of Political Control in China (Cambridge University Press, 2019) shows how China's authoritarian state ensures political control by non-violent mechanisms. Daniel C. Mattingly demonstrates how coercive control is achieved through …
Psychoanalysis March 31, 2021

Freud and Said

Contrapuntal Psychoanalysis as Liberation Praxis

Robert Beshara

Hosted by Vira Sachenko
Robert Beshara’s Freud and Said: Contrapuntal Psychoanalysis as Liberation Praxis (Palgrave, 2021) is a guide through the textual relationship between the work of Sigmund Freud and Edward Said. It is also a …
Finance March 30, 2021

Boom and Bust

A Global History of Financial Bubbles

William Quinn and John D. Turner

Hosted by Daniel Peris
Are we in the midst of a financial bubble? Do the current valuations of the electronic vehicle stocks or their SPACs make you raise an eyebrow?  The trouble with bubbles is that …
World Affairs March 29, 2021

Trouble of the World

Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital

Zach Sell

Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon
The middle decades of the 19th century witnessed the expansion of slavery and white settlement and dispossession of Indigenous lands west of the Mississippi River, the abolition of slavery in …
Public Policy March 26, 2021

The Wealth Hoarders

How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions

Chuck Collins

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These ‘agents of inequality’ are paid millions to hide …
Secularism March 25, 2021

Society without God, Second Edition

What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment

Phil Zuckerman

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
Phil Zuckerman's book, Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment (2nd ed.) (New York University Press, 2020), points out that religious conservatives around the …