New Books Network
Language
Anthropology August 3, 2021

Signs of Difference

Language and Ideology in Social Life

Susan Gal and Judith T. Irvine

Hosted by Amir Lehman
How are peoples' ideas about languages, ways of speaking and expressive styles shaped by their social positions and values? How is difference, in language and in social life, made - …

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Neuroscience August 2, 2021

The Blind Storyteller

How We Reason about Human Nature

Iris Berent

Hosted by Joseph Fridman
Do newborns think-do they know that 'three' is greater than 'two'? Do they prefer 'right' to 'wrong'? What about emotions--do newborns recognize happiness or anger? If they do, then how …
Language July 26, 2021

No Future in This Country

The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner

Andre E. Johnson

Hosted by Lee Pierce
No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (U Mississippi Press, 2020) is a history of the career of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (1834–1915), specifically focusing …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast July 21, 2021

The Psychology of Bilingualism

Ellen Bialystok

Hosted by Howard Burton
The Psychology of Bilingualism is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Ellen Bialystok, Professor of Psychology at York University. Ellen Bialystok is a world-leading expert on …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast July 15, 2021

Émigrés

French Words That Turned English

Richard Scholar

Hosted by Marshall Poe
English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases—such as à la mode, ennui, naïveté and caprice—lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi …
East Asian Studies July 15, 2021

Chinese Grammatology

Script Revolution and Literary Modernity, 1916-1958

Yurou Zhong

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos
In 1928 linguist Yuen Ren Chao had reason to celebrate. The Nationalist government had just recognized his system for writing Chinese, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, so he gleefully wrote (using the system) in …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast July 15, 2021

Babbling Barbarians

How Translators Keep Us Civilized

David Bellos

Hosted by Howard Burton
Babbling Barbarians: How Translators Keep Us Civilized is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Princeton University Professor David Bellos, author of the bestselling book, Is That …
Jewish Studies July 9, 2021

Jewish Bible Translations

Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress

Leonard Greenspoon

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In his book Jewish Bible Translations: Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress (Jewish Publication Society, 2020), Leonard Greenspoon is the first to examine thoroughly Jewish Bible translations from the third century BCE to …
Communications July 6, 2021

Architects of Memory

Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age

Nathan R. Johnson

Hosted by Lee Pierce
We are now living in the richest age of public memory. From museums and memorials to the vast digital infrastructure of the internet, access to the past is only a …
Indian Religions July 1, 2021

Yogavataranam: The Translation of Yoga

A New Approach to Sanskrit, Integrating Traditional and Academic Methods and Based on Classic Yoga Texts, for University Courses, Yoga Programs, and Self Study

Zoë Slatoff

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
The traditional Indian method of learning Sanskrit is through oral transmission, by first memorizing texts and then learning their meaning. The Western academic approach methodically teaches the alphabet, declensions, grammar …
Popular Culture June 25, 2021

Typical Girls

The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips

Susan E. Kirtley

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her new book Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips (Ohio State Press, 2021) Susan Kirtley examines female-created comics that were nationally syndicated starting in the late 1970s-2010. Kirtley uncovers …
Scholarly Communication June 15, 2021

The Ethics of Persuasion

Derrida's Rhetorical Legacies

Brooke Rollins

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Brooke Rollins, Assistant Professor of English at Lehigh University. We talk about lots of Greeks and about one Frenchman and (if you write) also about …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast June 15, 2021

Taken for Granted

The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable

Eviatar Zerubavel

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Why is the term "openly gay" so widely used but "openly straight" is not? What are the unspoken assumptions behind terms like "male nurse," "working mom," and "white trash"? Offering …
Political Science June 10, 2021

Against Demagogues

What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy

Robert C. Bartlett

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Theorist Robert Bartlett spoke with the New Books in Political Science podcast about two of his recent publications, which take on translating the work of two distinct classical thinkers …
Philosophy June 10, 2021

Shifty Speech and Independent Thought

Epistemic Normativity in Context

Mona Simion

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
At the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of language is a puzzle. First, it seems we don’t need less evidence for a claim that we know something if the practical …
Scholarly Communication June 8, 2021

Understanding the Paragraph and Paragraphing

Iain McGee

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Iain McGee (PhD, Cardiff University) a PhD student in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of Bristol (UK), and an EAP teacher …
Education May 31, 2021

The Enthymeme

Syllogism, Reasoning, and Narrative in Ancient Greek Rhetoric

James Fredal

Hosted by Thomas Discenna
James Fredal is Associate Professor in the Department of English at The Ohio State University. The recipient of multiple awards for his work in rhetorical theory and history, Fredal is …
Scholarly Communication May 18, 2021

Second Language Writing

Ken Hyland

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Ken Hyland, Professor of Applied Linguistics in Education at the University of East Anglia, UK. We talked about his book Second Language Writing (Cambridge UP, 2019), the …
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 …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast April 15, 2021

The Hidden History of Coined Words

Ralph Keyes

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Successful word-coinages--those that stay in currency for a good long time--tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted …