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American Studies
Higher Education May 30, 2023

Unequal Choices

How Social Class Shapes Where High-Achieving Students Apply to College

Yang Va Lor

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
High-achieving students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to end up at less selective institutions compared to their socioeconomically advantaged peers with similar academic qualifications. A key reason for …

American Studies

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Interviews with scholars of America about their new books.

Madison's Notes May 29, 2023

Assessing Affirmative Action

A Conversation with Jason Riley

Jason Riley

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
With the Supreme Court poised to potentially outlaw race-conscious admissions, Affirmative Action may soon be on the chopping block. What will be the legacy of this half-century-old policy? Jason Riley …
LGBTQ+ Studies May 28, 2023

With Hawks and Angels

Episodes from a Southern Life

Joel Lafayette Fletcher, III

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
In this episode of Queer Voices I talk to Joel Lafayette Fletcher III about his book With Hawks and Angels: Episodes from a Southern Life (UP of Mississippi, 2023) About the …
American Studies May 28, 2023

The War is Here

Newark 1967

Chris Campion and Bud Lee

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
July 1967. After the arrest, beating, and imprisonment of cab driver John Smith by local police, the city of Newark--already a tinderbox, became a hotbed of protest and retaliation. Over …
MIT Press Podcast May 28, 2023

Appendix N

The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons

Peter Bebergal

Hosted by MIT Press
Dungeons and Dragons expert Jon Peterson (The Elusive Shift, Game Wizards) speaks with Peter Bebergal (Season of the Witch, Too Much to Dream) about his new book Appendix N, an anthology …
Military History May 28, 2023

Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin

The Glider Pilots of World War II

Scott McGaugh

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
This book distills war down to individual young men climbing into defenseless gliders made of plywood, ready to trust the towing aircraft that would pull them into enemy territory by …
Religion May 28, 2023

The Women’s Mosque of America

Authority and Community in US Islam

Tazeen M. Ali

Hosted by Joseph Stuart
The Women’s Mosque of America (WMA), a multiracial, women-only mosque in Los Angeles, is the first of its kind in the United States. Since 2015, the WMA has provided a …
General History May 27, 2023

The West

A New History of an Old Idea

Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney presents a radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives in her …
Madison's Notes May 27, 2023

Strategy and Saratoga

A Conversation with Kevin Weddle

Kevin Weddle

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
At the Battle of Saratoga, the tide of the Revolutionary War turned in favor of unlikely victors: the American patriots. What were the major strategy elements at play in the …
General History May 26, 2023

On Time

A History of Western Timekeeping

Kenneth Mondschein

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping (Johns Hopkins UP …
Madison's Notes May 26, 2023

Missing: Men at Work

A Conversation with Nick Eberstadt

Nick Eberstadt

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our …
Islamic Studies May 26, 2023

Broken

The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion

Evelyn Alsultany

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion (NYU Press, 2022), Evelyn Alsultany, Professor at the University of Southern California, argues that, even amid challenges to institutionalized Islamophobia, diversity initiatives …
Jewish Studies May 25, 2023

A Brilliant Commodity

Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting

Saskia Coenen Snyder

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the late nineteenth century, tens of thousands of diggers, prospectors, merchants, and dealers extracted and shipped over 50 million carats of diamonds from South Africa to London. The primary …
Madison's Notes May 25, 2023

The Hundred Year War for the American Right

A Conversation with Matthew Continetti

Matthew Continetti

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
What is the American Right, where does it come from, and how has it changed over time? Journalist and author Matthew Continetti discusses his recent book: The Right: The Hundred …
High Theory May 23, 2023

Party

A Discussion with Sheila Liming

Sheila Liming

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Sheila Liming talks about the party, social gatherings that occasion joy and dread and various emotions in between. The party is both a pause and an acceleration in the life-work …
Madison's Notes May 23, 2023

Money or Meaning?

A Discussion on Choice, Restlessness, and Higher Education with Ben and Jenna Storey

Ben Storey and Jenna Storey

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a disservice by occupying them …
American West May 23, 2023

Resisting Change in Suburbia

Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.

James Zarsadiaz

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The myth of the frontier West found its home in America's late twentieth century suburbs, argues University of San Francisco associate professor James Zarsadiaz in Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and …
Political Science May 22, 2023

Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood

White Women, Class, and Segregation

Rebecca Brückmann

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood: White Women, Class, and Segregation (U Georgia Press, 2021) offers a comparative sociocultural and spatial history of white supremacist women involved in massive resistance. The …
Madison's Notes May 22, 2023

Truth, Fiction, and Student Loan Forgiveness

A Conversation with Beth Akers

Beth Akers

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
With the Biden Administration's student loan relief coming down the pike, Annika sits down with Dr. Beth Akers, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in higher …
Women's History May 21, 2023

From Back Alley to the Border

Criminal Abortion in California, 1920-1969

Alicia Gutierrez-Romine

Hosted by Jeannette Cockroft
In From Back Alley to the Border: Criminal Abortion in California, 1920-1969 (U Nebraska Press, 2020), Alicia Gutierrez-Romine examines the history of criminal abortion in California and the role abortion providers …