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Anthropology
Anthropology June 3, 2023

Health in Ruins

The Capitalist Destruction of Medical Care at a Colombian Maternity Hospital

César Ernesto Abadía-Barrero

Hosted by María Camila Núñez Gómez
In Health in Ruins: The Capitalist Destruction of Medical Care at a Colombian Maternity Hospital (Duke UP, 2022), César Ernesto Abadía-Barrero chronicles the story of El Materno—Colombia’s oldest maternity and …

Anthropology

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Interviews with anthropologists about their new books.

Southeast Asian Studies June 2, 2023

A History of Manners and Civility in Thailand

Patrick Jory

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
Listen:
If you’ve visited Thailand even for a short time you’ve probably been given, or have come across, some basic instructions on dos and don’ts — where to put, or not …
Anthropology June 2, 2023

¡Alerta!

Engineering on Shaky Ground

Elizabeth Reddy

Hosted by Liliana Gil
Listen:
The Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano is the world’s oldest public earthquake early warning system. Given the unpredictability of earthquakes, the technology was designed to give the people of Mexico …
Anthropology May 31, 2023

Friendship

Michael Jackson

Hosted by Latoya Johnson
Listen:
In Friendship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), renowned anthropologist Michael Jackson draws on philosophy, biography, ethnography, and literature to explore the meanings and affordances of friendship—a relationship just as significant …
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 …
Psychoanalysis May 26, 2023

"Don't Be Sad When I'm Gone"

A Memoir of Loss and Healing in Buenos Aires

Beatriz Dujovne

Hosted by Lexa Rosean
The monumental sense of dislocation we experience after losing a loved one can be life-altering. There is no script for grieving–each individual passes through their own phases of mourning. In …
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 …
Geography May 24, 2023

Over Researched Places

Towards a Critical and Reflexive Approach

Cat Button and Gerald Taylor Aiken

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Cat Button and Gerald Taylor Aiken's Over Researched Places: Towards a Critical and Reflexive Approach (Routledge, 2022) explores the implications that research-density has on the people and places researched, on …
Indian Ocean World May 23, 2023

Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf

Daniel Martin Varisco

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) is the first in English to survey indigenous knowledge of seasonal, astronomical, and agricultural information in Arab Gulf almanacs …
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 …
Anthropology May 22, 2023

Afro-Brazilians in Telenovelas

Social, Political, and Economic Realities

Samantha Nogueira Joyce

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
In Afro-Brazilians in Telenovelas: Social, Political, and Economic Realities (Lexington Books, 2022), Samantha Nogueira Joyce examines representations of Blackness on Brazilian TV, interrogating the role of mass media in developing …
Nomads, Past and Present May 22, 2023

Embracing Landscape

Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia

Selcen Küçüküstel

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
Examining human-animal relations among the reindeer hunting and herding Dukha community in northern Mongolia, Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia (Berghahn Books, 2021), focuses …
Anthropology May 21, 2023

Life Beyond Waste

Work and Infrastructure in Urban Pakistan

Waqas Butt

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Over the last several decades, life in Lahore has been undergoing profound transformations, from rapid and uneven urbanization to expanding state institutions and informal economies. What do these transformations look …
Science, Technology, and Society May 21, 2023

We Have Always Been Cyborgs

Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

Hosted by Frances Sacks
The concept of transhumanism emerged in the middle of the 20th century, and has influenced discussions around AI, brain–computer interfaces, genetic technologies and life extension. Despite its enduring influence in …
Anthropology May 19, 2023

Istanbul Appearances

Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey

Claudia Liebelt

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
In the past two decades, the consumption of beauty services and cosmetic surgery in Turkey has developed from an elite phenomenon to an increasingly common practice, especially among younger and …
South Asian Studies May 14, 2023

Choral Voices

Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality

Sebanti Chatterjee

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
Sebanti Chatterjee's book Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality (Bloomsbury, 2023) is about sacred and secular choirs in Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV …
Genocide Studies May 14, 2023

The Entanglements of Ethnographic Fieldwork in a Violent World

Nerina Weiss. Erella Grassiani, and Linda Green

Hosted by Christopher Davey
Nerina Weiss. Erella Grassiani, and Linda Green's book The Entanglements of Ethnographic Fieldwork in a Violent World (Routledge, 2022) focuses on the emotional hazards of conducting fieldwork about or within contexts …
Urban Studies May 14, 2023

Grave

Allison Christine Meier

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Grave (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Allison C. Meier takes a ground-level view of how burial sites have transformed over time and how they continue to change. As a cemetery tour guide …
Anthropology May 13, 2023

When Forests Run Amok

War and Its Afterlives in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Territories

Daniel Ruiz-Serna

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
In When Forests Run Amok: War and Its Afterlives in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Territories (Duke University Press, 2023) Daniel Ruiz-Serna follows the afterlives of war, showing how they affect the variety …
Islamic Studies May 12, 2023

Among the Eunuchs

A Muslim Transgender Journey

Leyla Jagiella

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
In the powerful book Among the Eunuchs: A Muslim Transgender Journey (Hurst Publishers, 2022), Leyla Jagiella reflects on her story as a trans Muslim living among a third-gender community known as Khwajasira in …