New Books Network
History of Science
Medicine January 13, 2022

The First Shots

The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine

Brendan Borrell

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against …

History of Science

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Interviews with historians of science about their new books.

Indian Religions January 11, 2022

Hindu Theology and Biology

The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory

Jonathan B. Edelmann

Hosted by Shruti Dixit
In Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020), Professor Jonathan B. Edelmann develops a constructive and comparative theological dialogue between Hinduism and Western …
History of Science January 11, 2022

Flashes of Creation

George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate

Paul Halpern

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation: George …
Psychology January 4, 2022

Havana Syndrome

Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria

Robert W. Baloh and Robert E. Bartholomew

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
It is one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science: the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic …
Neuroscience January 3, 2022

How Not to Study a Disease

The Story of Alzheimer's

Karl Herrup

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
For decades, some of our best and brightest medical scientists have dedicated themselves to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. What happened? Where is the cure? The biggest breakthroughs occurred …
Science December 28, 2021

Pump

A Natural History of the Heart

Bill Schutt

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals—from fish to bats to humans—American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific …
General History December 22, 2021

Mapping, Connectivity, and the Making of European Empires

Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Laura Lo Presti, and Filipe Dos Reis

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Luis Lobo-Guerrero is one of the three editors of this volume—Mapping, Connectivity, and the Making of European Empires (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021)—and one of the six contributing authors. He wrote the …
Gender Studies December 21, 2021

The Maternal Imprint

The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects

Sarah S. Richardson

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee
The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific intrigue, but the form …
Science, Technology, and Society December 9, 2021

Fugitive Science

Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture

Britt Rusert

Hosted by Laura Stark
Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture (NYU Press, 2017), by Professor Britt Rusert (UMass-Amherst), has already earned accolades from the American Studies Association and the MLA …
Intellectual History December 8, 2021

Crafting Enlightenment

Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks

Jennifer Ferng and Lauren R. Cannady

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
A ground-breaking volume examining the transnational conditions of the European Enlightenment, Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks (Voltaire Foundation, 2021) argues that artisans of the long eighteenth-century on four different …
African Studies December 6, 2021

Etre mère en situation coloniale

Gold Coast (années 1910-1950)

Anne Hugon

Hosted by Thomas Zuber
For a majority of African women, the “colonial encounter” occurred at the maternity ward, the health centre, or Maternal and Infant Welfare Centres. In Être mère en situation coloniale: Gold …
Architecture January 18, 2022

Savage Mind to Savage Machine

Racial Science and Twentieth-Century Design

Ginger Nolan

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Attempting to derive aesthetic systems from natural structures of human cognition, designers looked toward the “savage mind”—a way of thinking they associated with a racialized subaltern. In Savage Mind to …
African Studies January 17, 2022

Health, Healing and Illness in African History

Rebekah Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Health, Healing and Illness in African History (Bloomsbury, 2021), Rebekah Lee makes an overall assessment of the history and historiography and health, healing and illness in the African context. This …
Mathematics January 17, 2022

Bits and Bugs

A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures in Computational Science

Thomas Huckle and Tobias Neckel

Hosted by Cory Brunson
A true understanding of the pervasive role of software in the world demands an awareness of the volume and variety of real-world software failures and their consequences. No more thorough …
Medicine January 14, 2022

Mad by the Millions

Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization

Harry Yi-Jui Wu

Hosted by Kelvin Chan
In 1948, the World Health Organization began to prepare its social psychiatry project, which aimed to discover the epidemiology and arrive at a classification of mental disorders. In Mad by …
French Studies December 31, 2021

Pasteur's Empire

Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World

Aro Velmet

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Aro Velmet's Pasteur's Empire: Bacteriology in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Oxford UP, 2020) is a complex history of the Pasteur Institutes, a network of scientific laboratories established in France and throughout the French empire …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast December 28, 2021

Inflated Expectations

A Cosmological Tale

Paul Steinhardt

Hosted by Howard Burton
We have developed two distinct books, Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals, and Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale, based on Howard Burton’s in-depth, filmed conversations with Paul Steinhardt, the …
History of Science December 28, 2021

The Astronomer's Chair

A Visual and Cultural History

Omar W. Nasim

Hosted by Corinne Doria
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of sources. Nineteenth-century stargazers in particular seemed eager …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast December 24, 2021

The Pull of the Stars

Claudia de Rham

Hosted by Howard Burton
The Pull of the Stars is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Claudia de Rham, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London. After inspiring insights …
Scholarly Communication December 24, 2021

Making "Nature"

The History of a Scientific Journal

Melinda Baldwin

Hosted by Daniel Shea
Listen to this interview of Melinda Baldwin about her book Making 'Nature': The History of a Scientific Journal (U Chicago Press, 2015). Melinda is AIP Endowed Professor in History of Natural Sciences at …