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Public Policy
Public Health August 11, 2022

Big Vape

The Incendiary Rise of Juul

Jamie Ducharme

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
It began with a smoke break. James Monsees and Adam Bowen were two ambitious graduate students at Stanford, and in between puffs after class they dreamed of a way to …

Public Policy

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Interviews with scholars of public policy about their new books.

Sociology August 11, 2022

Generally Speaking

An Invitation to Concept-Driven Sociology

Eviatar Zerubavel

Hosted by Rituparna Patgiri
Defying the conventional split between “theory” and “methodology,” Eviatar Zerubavel's Generally Speaking: An Invitation to Concept-Driven Sociology (Oxford UP, 2020) introduces a yet unarticulated and thus far never systematised method of …
Law August 10, 2022

Who Decides?

States As Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation

Jeffrey S. Sutton

Hosted by William Domnarski
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of the day often turns on …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 10, 2022

Heroin

An Illustrated History

Susan C. Boyd

Hosted by Jay Shifman
Dr. Susan Boyd is a scholar/activist and Distinguished Professor emerita at the University of Victoria. Her research examines a variety of topics related to the history of drug prohibition and …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones August 9, 2022

The Future of Political Anger

A Conversation with Mark Blyth

Mark Blyth

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Trump’s voters. The yellow jackets in France. Putin’s base in Russia. The Brexiteers. One thing all these groups have in common is anger – anger at being left behind, anger …
Mathematics August 9, 2022

Probability and Forensic Evidence

Theory, Philosophy, and Applications

Ronald Meester and Klaas Slooten

Hosted by Marc Goulet
In Probability and Forensic Evidence: Theory, Philosophy, and Applications (Cambridge UP, 2021), Ronald Meester and Klaas Slooten address the role of statistics and probability in the evaluation of forensic evidence, including …
Critical Theory August 8, 2022

The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice

Nasar Meer

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Race, Identity and Citizenship in the School of …
Darts & Letters August 5, 2022

American Chernobyl, Part 2

The Most Poisonous Place in the USA

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Hanford is the most-polluted place in America. In our last episode, you heard about the nuclear plant's largely-forgotten history--how it poisoned the people living downwind. On our season finale: a …
Economics August 4, 2022

The Effect

An Introduction to Research Design and Causality

Nick Huntington-Klein

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality (Routledge, 2021) is about methods for using observational data to make causal inferences. It provides an extensive discussion of causality and …
Darts & Letters August 4, 2022

America's Chernobyl, Part 1

Living in a Poison Town

Hosted by Gordon Katic
In this episode of Cited: What it means to live in a place where your home can give you cancer. Richland, Washington is a company town that sprang up almost …
Education August 3, 2022

Other People's Colleges

The Origins of American Higher Education Reform

Ethan W. Ris

Hosted by Joao Souto-Maior
For well over one hundred years, people have been attempting to make American colleges and universities more efficient and more accountable. Indeed, Ethan Ris argues in Other People's Colleges: The …
Politics & Polemics August 3, 2022

Goliath

The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy

Matt Stoller

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
In Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time …
Popular Culture August 3, 2022

Teenage Dreams

Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture Wars

Charlie Jeffries

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Utilizing a breadth of archival sources from activists, artists, and policymakers, Charlie Jeffries' Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture Wars (Rutgers UP, 2022) examines the race- and class-inflected battles over …
Darts & Letters August 2, 2022

Socialise the Series of Tubes

Toward a Democratic Internet

Ben Tarnoff

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Recently a major outage took nearly a third of Canada offline. No phone, no internet… even access to 911 got shut down in some places. So why does one company …
Intellectual History August 1, 2022

Social Science for What? (Part 2 of 2)

Battles over Public Funding for the “Other Sciences” at the National Science Foundation

Mark Solovey

Hosted by Keith Krueger
This is part two of a two part interview. Mark Solovey’s Social Science for What? is essential reading for anyone in either the history of science policy or the history of …
African American Studies August 1, 2022

My Seven Black Fathers

A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole

Will Jawando

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside …
Gender Studies July 29, 2022

Sex Is as Sex Does

Governing Transgender Identity

Paisley Currah

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee
Every government agency in the United States, from Homeland Security to Departments of Motor Vehicles, has the authority to make its own rules for sex classification. Many transgender people find …
Environmental Studies July 29, 2022

Water Always Wins

Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge

Erica Gies

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Trouble with water – increasingly frequent, extreme floods and droughts – is one of the first obvious signs of climate change. Meanwhile, urban sprawl, industrial agriculture and engineered water infrastructure …
Education July 28, 2022

The Privileged Poor

How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students

Anthony Abraham Jack

Hosted by Joao Souto-Maior
The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a more diverse student body. But is it …
Political Science July 28, 2022

Ugly Freedoms

Elisabeth R. Anker

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Freedom is often considered the cornerstone of the American political project. The 1776 revolutionaries declared it an inalienable right that could neither be taken nor granted, a sacred concept upon …