History of Science

History of Science

episodes

Interviews with historians of science about their new books.

Ruth A. Morgan, "Climate Change and International History: Climate Diplomacy in the Global North and South Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Climate Change and International History

Ruth A. Morgan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, Climate Change and International History: Negotiating Science, Gl…

Lorraine Daston, "Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate" (Columbia Global Reports, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Rivals

Lorraine Daston
Hosted by Victor Monnin

In Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate (Columbia Global Reports, 2023), Lorraine Daston, Director Emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the …

Kenneth Miller, "Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep" (Hachette Books, 2023)

March 8, 2024

Mapping the Darkness

Kenneth Miller
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Why do we sleep? How can we improve our sleep? A century ago, sleep was considered a state of nothingness—even a primitive habit that we could learn …

Alan Bollard, "Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars" (Oxford UP, 2020)

March 6, 2024

Economists at War

Alan Bollard

Wartime is not just about military success. Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars (Oxford UP, 2020) tells …

Jennifer Evans, "Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England

Jennifer Evans
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

How did men cope with sexual health issues in early modern England? In Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England (Amsterdam University Press, 2023),…

Sara J. Grossman, "Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy" (Duke UP, 2023)

February 28, 2024

Immeasurable Weather

Sara J. Grossman

In Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy (Duke UP, 2023), Sara J. Grossman explores how envir…

Alison M. Downham Moore, "The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing" (Oxford UP, 2022)

February 14, 2024

The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing

Alison M. Downham Moore
Hosted by Jana Byars

In The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing (Oxford University Press, 2022), Alison Downham Moore discusses her cont…

Chen-Pang Yeang, "Transforming Noise. A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900-1955" (Oxford UP, 2023)

January 30, 2024

Transforming Noise

Chen-Pang Yeang
Hosted by Pamela Fuentes

Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant distur…

Elinor Cleghorn, "Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World" (Dutton, 2022)

January 28, 2024

Unwell Women

Elinor Cleghorn
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Medicine carries the burden of its own troubling history. Over centuries, women’s bodies have been demonised and demeaned until we feared them, felt a…

Camillo Leonardi, "Speculum Lapidum: A Renaissance Treatise on the Healing Properties of Gemstones" (Penn State UP, 2023)

January 23, 2024

Speculum Lapidum

Camillo Leonardi
Hosted by Jana Byars

First published in Venice in 1502, Camillo Leonardi’s Speculum Lapidum is an encyclopedic summary of all classical and medieval sources of lithotherap…

Catherine Powell-Warren, "Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

January 22, 2024

Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science

Catherine Powell-Warren
Hosted by Jana Byars

Jana Byars speaks with Catherine Powell-Warren about Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Netwo…

The Future of Images of Human Evolution

January 20, 2024

The Future of Images of Human Evolution

Gowan Dawson

We are all familiar with the “march of progress” image - the representation of evolution that depicts a series of apelike creatures becoming progressi…

Karen C. Pinto, "Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration" (U Chicago Press, 2016)

January 16, 2024

Medieval Islamic Maps

Karen C. Pinto
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The history of Islamic mapping is one of the new frontiers in the history of cartography. Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration (University of Chicago…

Mark Monmonier, "Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography" (ESRI Press, 2019)

January 10, 2024

Connections and Content

Mark Monmonier
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (ESRI Press, 2019), cartographic cogitator Mark Monmonier shares hi…

Jack Glazier, "Anthropology and Radical Humanism: Native and African American Narratives and the Myth of Race" (Michigan State UP, 2020)

January 4, 2024

Anthropology and Radical Humanism

Jack Glazier
Hosted by Alex Golub

Paul Radin was one of the founding generation of American cultural anthropologists: A student of Franz Boas, and famed ethnographer of the Winnebago.…

Lee McIntyre, "The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience" (MIT Press, 2019)

January 2, 2024

The Scientific Attitude

Lee McIntyre
Hosted by Jonathan Haber

What can explain the success of science as an endeavor for getting closer to truth? Does science simply represent a successful methodology, or is it s…

Lenny A. Ureña Valerio, "Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920" (Ohio UP, 2019)

January 2, 2024

Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities

Lenny A. Ureña Valerio
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920 (Ohio University P…

John Christopoulos, "Abortion in Early Modern Italy" (Harvard UP, 2021)

January 1, 2024

Abortion in Early Modern Italy

John Christopoulos
Hosted by Jana Byars

Today we have John Christopoulos, Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, to talk about his new book, Abortion in Early …

Erika Dyck, "Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2018)

December 30, 2023

Psychedelic Prophets

Erika Dyck
Hosted by Lucas Richert

Today I talked with historian Erika Dyck about Aldous Huxley, Humphry Osmond and their correspondence over a ten year period. Psychedelic Prophets: Th…

Douglas Hunter, "Beardmore: The Viking Hoax That Rewrote History" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2018)

December 30, 2023

Beardmore

Douglas Hunter
Hosted by Ryan Tripp

In 1936, long before the discovery of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, the Royal Ontario Museum made a sensational acquisition: the conten…