New Books Network Podcast

Middle Eastern Studies June 3, 2023

Red Star over the Black Sea

Nazim Hikmet and His Generation

James H. Meyer

Hosted by Reuben Silverman

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Nâzım Hikmet (1902-1963) is best known as a poet and communist whose daring flight by motorboat from Turkey to the Eastern Bloc captured international headlines in 1951. One of the …

Biography June 2, 2023

Money and Empire

Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System

Perry Mehrling

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

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Charles Kindleberger ranks as one of the twentieth century's best known and most influential international economists. This book traces the evolution of his thinking in the context of a 'key-currency' …

Asian Review of Books June 1, 2023

Black Girl from Pyongyang

In Search of My Identity

Monica Macias

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

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Monica Macias, the youngest daughter of Equatorial Guinea’s first president at just seven years old, lands in Pyongyang, North Korea in 1979. Her father had sent her to the country …

South Asian Studies May 30, 2023

A Part Apart

The Life and Thought of B. R. Ambedkar

Ashok Gopal

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri

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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) is perhaps the most iconised historical figure in India. Born into a caste deemed ‘unfit for human association’, he came to define what it means to …

Darts & Letters May 29, 2023

Learning for Liberation: The Life and Legacy of Paulo Freire

The Life and Legacy of Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire

Hosted by Ren Bangert

Paulo Freire offers activists and academics everywhere a lesson in what it means to be a radical intellectual. He is known as the founder of critical pedagogy, which asks teachers …

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 …

MIT Press Podcast May 22, 2023

Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

A Girl's Life in the Incredible String Band

Rose Simpson

Hosted by MIT Press

Damon Kruskowski, author of Ways of Hearing and The New Analog, previously member of Galaxie 500 and currently a member of Damon & Naomi interviews Rose Simpson about her book …

Women's History May 21, 2023

Do Everything

The Biography of Frances Willard

Christopher H. Evans

Hosted by Jane Scimeca

Frances Willard (1839-1898) was one of the most prominent American social reformers of the late nineteenth century. As the long-time president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Willard built …

MIT Press Podcast May 19, 2023

Ithell Colquhoun

Genius of The Fern Loved Gully

Amy Hale

Hosted by MIT Press

Tai Shani (Turner Prize winning artist, educator and author of Our Fatal Magic) and Amy Hale (anthropologist, folklorist, and writer) discuss the work of artist, occultist and writer Ithell Colquhoun …

Film May 17, 2023

The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck

Twenty-Six Short Essays on a Working Star

Catherine Russell

Hosted by Daniel Moran

From The Lady Eve, to The Big Valley, Barbara Stanwyck played parts that showcased her multidimensional talents but also illustrated the limits imposed on women in film and television …

MIT Press Podcast May 16, 2023

Brandon Terry on MLK

America & Democracy Ep. 5

Brandon Terry

Hosted by MIT Press

In the final episode of this series, Brandon Terry, political theorist and African American Studies scholar at Harvard discusses the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. Terry is …

General History May 15, 2023

Khmer Nationalist

Sơn Ngc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia

Matthew Jagel

Hosted by Michael Vann

Khmer Nationalist: Sơn Ngc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia (Northern Illinois UP, 2023) is a political history of Cambodia from World War II until 1975, examining the …

Disability Studies May 14, 2023

Money, Marriage, and Madness

The Life of Anna Ott

Kim E. Nielsen

Hosted by Shu Wan

Anna Ott died in the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane in 1893. She had enjoyed status and financial success first as a physician's wife and then as the only …

American South May 13, 2023

30 Days a Black Man

The Forgotten Story That Exposed the Jim Crow South

Bill Steigerwald

Hosted by Boris Karpa

The dangerous, trailblazing work of a white journalist and black leader who struck a shocking early blow against legal segregation In 1948, most white people in the North had no …

MIT Press Podcast May 11, 2023

Andy Roberts on LSD's Cosmic Courier

Pharmacological Histories Ep. 4

Andy Roberts

Hosted by MIT Press

Michael Hollingshead, the man who turned Timothy Leary onto LSD, managed to fundamentally influenced modern drug culture whilst remaining virtually anonymous in popular culture at large. In this episode, biographer …

Madison's Notes May 11, 2023

The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Lee

A Conversation with Allen C. Guelzo

Allen C. Guelzo

Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Why should we study Robert E. Lee? Why did he make the fateful decision to betray his country? How should we judge Robert E. Lee? Allen C. Guelzo, Director of …

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 10, 2023

Bruno Schulz

An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

The twentieth-century artist Bruno Schulz was born an Austrian, lived as a Pole, and died a Jew. First a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy, he would, without moving, become the …

Madison's Notes May 9, 2023

Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America: A Conversation with Glenn Ellmers

A Conversation with Glenn Ellmers

Glenn Ellmers

Hosted by Annika Nordquist

What did Aristotle and Shakespeare mean to Harry Jaffa, and what might they mean to America? Can extremism be prudent? What is the nature of the crisis facing the West …

Biography May 7, 2023

King: A Life

Jonathan Eig

Hosted by Thomas Discenna

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life (FSG, 2023) is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first …

African American Studies May 5, 2023

The Wounded World

W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War

Chad Williams

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

When W. E. B. Du Bois, believing in the possibility of full citizenship and democratic change, encouraged African Americans to "close ranks" and support the Allied cause in World War …