New Books Network Podcast

MIT Press Podcast March 11, 2023

The Evolution of Language

A Discussion with Noam Chomsky and Samuel Jay Keyser

Noam Chomsky and Samuel Jay Keyser

Hosted by MIT Press

Samuel Jay Keyser, Editor-in-Chief of Linguistic Inquiry, has shared a campus with Noam Chomsky for 40-odd years via MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The two colleagues sat down in …

Scholarly Communication March 4, 2023

Decolonizing American Spanish

Eurocentrism and the Limits of Foreignness in the Imperial Ecosystem

Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera

Hosted by Avi Staiman

Jeffrey joins the podcast to discuss the prevalence of English in the academic ecosystem and in research publishing. Jeffrey critiques the lackadaisical approach US institutions take towards Spanish language content …

MIT Press Podcast March 1, 2023

The World Made Meme

Public Conversations and Participatory Media

Ryan Milner

Hosted by MIT Press

In this episode, author Ryan Milner talks to Chris Gondak about the rise of the internet meme, and the five logics that factor into the foundation, growth, and success of …

Philosophy March 1, 2023

Bias

A Philosophical Study

Thomas Kelly

Hosted by Robert Talisse

The concept of bias is familiar enough, partly because it is deployed frequently and in different contexts. For example, we talk about biased jurors, biased procedures, biased laws, biased decisions …

Language February 25, 2023

What It All Means

Semantics for (Almost) Everything

Philippe Schlenker

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

In What It All Means: Semantics for (Almost) Everything (MIT Press, 2022), Philippe Schlenker takes readers on tour of meaning, from the animal kingdom to human culture, arguing that semantics …

French Studies February 25, 2023

Code

From Information Theory to French Theory

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan

Hosted by Salvador Lopez Rivera

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan traces the shared intellectual and political history of computer scientists, cyberneticists, anthropologists, linguists, and theorists across the humanities as they developed a communication and computational-based theory that …

East Asian Studies February 21, 2023

The Culture of Language in Ming China

Sound, Script, and the Redefinition of Boundaries of Knowledge

Nathan Vedal

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos

What is the nature of language? This is the question that Nathan Vedal’s book, The Culture of Language in Ming China: Sound, Script, and the Redefinition of Boundaries of Knowledge …

Literary Studies February 11, 2023

Decolonial Conversations in Posthuman and New Material Rhetorics

Jennifer Clary-Lemon and David M. Grant

Hosted by Gargi Binju

Decolonial Conversations in Posthuman and New Material Rhetorics (Ohio State UP, 2022) brings together emerging and established voices at the nexus of new materialist and decolonial rhetorics to advance a …

Philosophy February 10, 2023

Beyond Words

Philosophy, Fiction, and the Unsayable

Timothy Cleveland

Hosted by Carrie Figdor

It seems undeniable that language has limits in what it can express – among other philosophers, Wittgenstein famously drew a line of this sort in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. But what …

Intellectual History February 7, 2023

Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Between Phenomenology and Dialectic

Robert J. Dostal

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis

In Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: Between Phenomenology and Dialectic (Northwestern University Press, 2022), Robert J. Dostal provides a comprehensive and critical account of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy, arguing that Gadamer’s enterprise is …

Scholarly Communication January 24, 2023

Unsaid

Analyzing Harmful Silences

Lois Presser

Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Harm takes shape in and through what is suppressed, left out, or taken for granted. Unsaid: Analyzing Harmful Silences (U California Press, 2022) is a guide to understanding and uncovering what …

Popular Culture January 18, 2023

Fish, Milk, Tamarind

A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions

Dalal Abo El Seoud

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

In Fish, Milk, Tamarind: A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), Dalal Abo El Seoud presents 100 commonly used Egyptian food expressions. Can you guess what Egyptians mean …

The Vault December 30, 2022

Edmund Leach on Roman Jakobson's Contributions to Linguistics

Edmund Leach

Hosted by New York Institute for the Humanities

In this episode from the Institute’s Vault, we hear the1982 Gallatin Lecture, in which Sir Edmund Leach discussed the work of Roman Jakobson, who he met in 1960, at Stanford’s …

Language December 25, 2022

Take My Word for It

A Dictionary of English Idioms

Anatoly Liberman

Hosted by Daniel Moran

Three centuries of English idioms—their unusual origins and unexpected interpretations. To pay through the nose. Raining cats and dogs. By hook or by crook. Curry favor. Drink like a fish …

Indian Religions December 16, 2022

The World Sanskrit Conference

A Discussion with McComas Taylor

McComas Taylor

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

McComas Taylor discusses the upcoming 18th World Sanskrit Conference January 9-13, 2023. The conference is held online. All are welcome to register here. Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit …

Scholarly Communication December 13, 2022

Becoming the Writer You Already Are

Michelle R. Boyd

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

Becoming the Writer You Already Are (Sage, 2022) helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. Author Michelle R. Boyd introduces the Writing …

On Religion December 12, 2022

Metamodernism

The Future of Theory

Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

Hosted by Gregory Soden

For decades, scholars have been calling into question the universality of disciplinary objects and categories. The coherence of defined autonomous categories—such as religion, science, and art—has collapsed under the weight …

Early Modern History December 10, 2022

Women and Latin in the Early Modern Period

Jane Stevenson

Hosted by Elspeth Currie

Jane Stevenson’s newest book, Women and Latin in the Early Modern Period (Brill, 2022), tracks the history and historiography of women Latinists in the early modern period. She relates how …

Critical Theory November 29, 2022

Indexicalism

The Metaphysics of Paradox

Hilan Bensusan

Hosted by Adam Bobeck

In Indexicalism: The Metaphysics of Paradox (Edinburgh UP, 2021), Hilan Bensusan clarifies the logic and structure of an essentially situated and indexical metaphysics that is paradoxical and can also be regarded …

Literary Studies November 17, 2022

Violent Phenomena

21 Essays on Translation

Kavita Bhanot and Jeremy Tiang

Hosted by Gargi Binju

Frantz Fanon wrote in 1961 that 'Decolonisation is always a violent phenomenon,' meaning that the violence of colonialism can only be counteracted in kind. As colonial legacies linger today, what …