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American Politics
Science, Technology, and Society December 8, 2022

Democracy's Data

The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them

Dan Bouk

Hosted by Laura Stark
Dan Bouk is a writer, professor, and cultural historian of quantification, or as Bouk puts it, the history all fascinating things “shrouded in the cloak of borningness.” In Bouk’s book …

American Politics

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Interviews with scholars of American politics about their new books.

General History December 8, 2022

Realigners

Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy

Timothy Shenk

Hosted by Sean Byrnes
These days it seems that nobody is satisfied with American democracy. Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe but also complain that nothing seems …
Economics December 8, 2022

The Federal Reserve

A New History

Robert L. Hetzel

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
In The Federal Reserve: A New History (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Robert Hetzel draws on a 43-year career as an economist in the central bank to trace the influence of …
American West December 7, 2022

Cheap Land Colorado

Off-Gridders at America's Edge

Ted Conover

Hosted by Daniel Moran
Today I talked to Ted Conover, author of Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge (Knopf, 2022) In May 2017, Conover went to Colorado to explore firsthand a rural way of …
Politics & Polemics December 5, 2022

Conservatism

A Rediscovery

Yoram Hazony

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
Conservatism needs to be rediscovered. That is, it needs to be differentiated from the post WWII concept of liberal democracy and return to its traditional three pillars of religion, nationalism …
Education December 4, 2022

Indentured Students

How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

Hosted by Thomas Discenna
It didn't always take thirty years to pay off the cost of a bachelor's degree.  In Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt (Harvard UP, 2021), Elizabeth Tandy …
American West December 2, 2022

West Side Rising

How San Antonio's 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement

Char Miller

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
On September 9, 1921, a tropical storm raged above San Antonio, Texas. The rain that night flooded the city's many waterways, distributing unequal destruction throughout its many neighborhoods. For the whiter …
Philosophy December 1, 2022

Legitimate Opposition

Alexander Kirshner

Hosted by Robert Talisse
The idea of legitimate political opposition is familiar. A decent political order permits citizens, parties, and coalitions to challenge those in power. Under such conditions, there is an ongoing nonviolent …
Catholic Studies November 29, 2022

Christian Anarchist

Ammon Hennacy, A Life on the Catholic Left

William Marling

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt
Ammon Hennacy was arrested over thirty times for opposing US entry in World War 1. Later, when he refused to pay taxes that support war, he lost his wife and …
World Affairs November 29, 2022

Backfire

How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests

Agathe Demarais

Hosted by Mathias Fuelling
Sanctions have become the go-to foreign policy tool for the United States. Coercive economic measures such as trade tariffs, financial penalties, and export controls affect large numbers of companies and …
Political Science November 28, 2022

Pandemic Politics

The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID

Shana Kushner Gadarian, Sara Wallace Goodman, and Thomas B. Pepinsky

Hosted by Lilly Goren
None of us really want to relive our first encounters with COVID-19 and the disruptions to our lives, to say nothing of the anxiety and concern about the life-threatening nature …
Military History November 25, 2022

The Military and the Market

Jennifer Mittelstadt and Mark R. Wilson

Hosted by Alex Beckstrand
Throughout its history, the U.S. military has worked in close connection to market-based institutions and structures. It has run systems of free and unfree labor, taken over private sector firms …
African American Studies November 25, 2022

Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Tara T. Green

Hosted by Adam McNeil
Born in New Orleans in 1875 to a mother who was formerly enslaved and a father of questionable identity, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a pioneering activist, writer, suffragist, and educator. Until …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones November 25, 2022

The Future of Multiculturalism

A Discussion with Patti Tamara Lenard and Peter Balint

Patti Tamara Lenard and Peter Balint

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
What is the best way to achieve societal harmony in a place in which groups of people with different identities are living together. Should minority groups be given exemptions from …
Gender Studies November 24, 2022

Gendering the GOP

Intraparty Politics and Republican Women's Representation in Congress

Catherine N. Wineinger

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
In Gendering the GOP: Intraparty Politics and Republican Women's Representation in Congress (Oxford UP, 2022), Catherine N. Wineinger argues that to truly understand the evolution of women's congressional representation, it …
Intellectual History November 23, 2022

Liberal Freedom

Pluralism, Polarization, and Politics

Eric MacGilvray

Hosted by Keith Krueger
The liberalism that is defended here is therefore itself an object of political contestation, and not just the background against which such contestation takes place. If we can look to …
Film November 23, 2022

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Jeanne Theoharis

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Beacon Press, 2015) is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks and the basis for a 2022 documentary, Theoharis's book examines Park's six decades …
Political Science November 22, 2022

The Modern Presidency

Six Debates That Define the Institution

Michael Genovese

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution (Columbia University Press, 2022) is a concisely written book that helps makes sense of the most powerful office in America. Michael frames …
American Studies November 22, 2022

Tree Thieves

Crime and Survival in North America's Woods

Lyndsie Bourgon

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves: Crime And Survival In North America's Woods (Little, Brown Spark, 2022), Lyndsie …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 22, 2022

Seek and Hide

The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy

Amy Gajda

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Should everyone have privacy in their personal lives? Can privacy exist in a public place? Is there a right to be left alone, even in the United States? The battle …