Help Support the NBN on Patreon | Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network
Biology and Evolution
Science, Technology, and Society May 29, 2023

The Possibility of Life

Science, Imagination and Our Vision of the Cosmos

Jaime Green

Hosted by John Traphagan
In this episode we talk to Jaime Green about her superb cultural and scientific exploration of alien life and the cosmos. It examines how the possibility of life on other planets shapes our understanding …

Biology and Evolution

Subscribe:

Interviews with biologists and evolutionary scientists about their new books.

History of Science May 20, 2023

Split and Splice

A Phenomenology of Experimentation

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

Hosted by Victor Monnin
In Split & Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, investigates …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 19, 2023

The Future of the Human Heart

A Discussion with Vincent M. Figueredo

Vincent M. Figueredo

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Long considered the most important of all organs, the human heart has fascinated artists and scientists alike. Listen to cardiologist Vincent Figueredo discuss knowledge of and attitudes towards the heart …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast May 15, 2023

Period

The Real Story of Menstruation

Kate Clancy

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual's …
MIT Press Podcast May 9, 2023

Mikkael A. Sekeres on the Drugs Fighting Leukemia

Pharmacological Histories Ep. 2

Mikkael A. Sekeres

Hosted by MIT Press
This episode offers an insight into the work of leading cancer specialist and author of When Blood Breaks Down, Mikkael A. Sekeres. 1 in 2 people will develop cancer in …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones April 28, 2023

The Future of Germs

A Discussion with Jonathan Kennedy

Jonathan Kennedy

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Have germs or humans done the most to shape the world’s history? Did Homo Sapiens get the better of the Neanderthals because of superior brainpower or because of better resistance …
Academic Life April 13, 2023

What Do Bees, Ants, and Dragonflies Get up to All Day?

A Discussion with Jessica L. Ware

Jessica L. Ware

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Bugs are everywhere: in every corner of the world, even the Artic. But of the estimated 10 million species of bugs worldwide, only a million have been studied or described …
Animal Studies April 8, 2023

Tenacious Beasts

Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals

Christopher J. Preston

Hosted by Callie Smith
The news about wildlife is dire—more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial …
Biology and Evolution April 4, 2023

Whale Music

Thousand Mile Songs in a Sea of Sound

David Rothenberg

Hosted by Frances Sacks
Whale song is an astonishing world of sound whose existence no one suspected before the 1960s. Its discovery has forced us to confront the possibility of alien intelligence--not in outer …
Physics and Chemistry April 3, 2023

The Evolution of Everything

The Patterns and Causes of Big History

Brian Villmoare

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Big History seeks to retell the human story in light of scientific advances by such methods as radiocarbon dating and genetic analysis. Brian Villmoare's book The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns …
Darts & Letters March 29, 2023

Life Extension Therapies

Do You Want to Live Forever? Could You Live Forever? Should You Live Forever?

Hosted by Jay Cockburn
The story of the Fountain of Youth is as old as history itself. Herodotus, the father of ancient Greek history, wrote of a mythical spring that extended the life of …
Biology and Evolution March 25, 2023

Mushroom

Sara Rich

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. They are grouped with plants, but …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones March 22, 2023

The Future of Genes and Equality

A Discussion with Kathryn Paige Harden

Kathryn Paige Harden

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
If your genes make you better suited to succeed, is that fair? And if not, can anything be done about it? Kathryn Paige Harden – professor psychology at University of …
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 …
Ministry of Ideas March 1, 2023

Birds or, How Should We Classifying Them?

Measure for Measure Episode 0

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Could you pick a white-breasted nuthatch out of a lineup? We explore the value - and limits - of birdwatching, categorization, and measurement. This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel February 26, 2023

Time and Beauty

Why Time Flies and Beauty Never Dies

Adrian Bejan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Poets and philosophers are fascinated by time and beauty. They are two of our most visceral perceptions. In Time and Beauty: Why Time Flies and Beauty Never Dies (World Scientific …
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 …
Medicine February 17, 2023

Capitalizing a Cure

How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines

Victor Roy

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines (U California Press, 2023) takes readers into the struggle over a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of …
Recall This Book February 16, 2023

Gael McGill Visualizes Intracellular Data (JP, GT)

Gael McGill

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
What’s actually going on in a cell–or on the spiky outside of an invading virus? Gael McGill, Director of Molecular Visualization at the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics at …
How to Be Wrong February 13, 2023

Bioethics, Humility, and Responsibility

A Conversation with Arthur Caplan

Arthur Caplan

Hosted by John Kaag and John Traphagan
For this episode we welcome Dr. Arthur Caplan, who is currently the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at …