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Science, Technology, and Society
British Studies August 11, 2022

British Rail

A New History

Christian Wolmar

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
You think you know British Rail. But you don't know the whole story. Now, award-winning writer Christian Wolmar provides a new perspective on national loss in a time of privatisation …

Science, Technology, and Society

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Interviews with scholars of science, technology and society about their new books.

Darts & Letters August 11, 2022

Modifying Maize

How Genetically Modified Corn Changed Science, Academia and Indigenous Rights in Mexico (Part 1 of 2)

Hosted by Gordon Katic
This is part 1 of a 2-part series from Cited - the predecessor of Darts and Letters. When genetically modified corn was found in the highlands of Mexico, Indigenous campesino …
Environmental Studies August 10, 2022

The Great Acceleration

An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945

J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke

Hosted by Brady McCartney
The Earth has entered a new age—the Anthropocene—in which humans are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use, greenhouse gas …
How to Be Wrong August 10, 2022

Twitter, Intellectual Discourse, and Humility

A Conversation with Biochemist and Social Media Influencer George Styles

George Styles

Hosted by John Traphagan
For this episode of How To Be Wrong, I speak with George Styles, a biochemist and author of the book Contemplation. George is also what we describe these days as …
Music August 9, 2022

Sampling Politics

Music and the Geocultural

M. I. Franklin

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Music sampling has become a predominantly digitalized practice. It was popularized with the rise of Rap and Hip-Hop, as well as ambient music scenes, but it has a history stretching …
High Theory August 9, 2022

Environmental Catastrophe

A Conversation with John Yargo

John Yargo

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode John Yargo speaks with Kim about Environmental Catastrophe. In the episode John quotes Hannah Arendt and N.K. Jemisin, discusses a Shakespeare play and a 17th century Peruvian …
Environmental Studies August 9, 2022

Encountering Water in Early Modern Europe and Beyond

Redefining the Universe Through Natural Philosophy, Religious Reformations, and Sea Voyaging

Lindsay Starkey

Hosted by Aspen Brown
What is holding the oceans back from entirely flooding the earth? While a twenty-first century thinker may approach the answer to this question within a framework of gravity and geologic deep-time, Lindsay Starkey …
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 …
French Studies August 8, 2022

Toxique

Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie

Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
What happens when you bring together an important collection of previously secret archival documents dealing with France's nuclear detonations in the Pacific from 1966 to 1996, a nuclear scientist, and …
On Religion August 8, 2022

On Online Churches

A Discussion with Tim Hutchings

Tim Hutchings

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Dr. Tim Hutchings is a sociologist of digital religion. His Ph.D. (Durham University, 2010) was an ethnographic study of five online Christian churches. Dr. Hutchings is interested in the relationship …
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 …
Psychology August 4, 2022

The Mind and the Moon

My Brother's Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our Psyches

Daniel Bergner

Hosted by Steve Beitler
Why is our understanding of the mind so limited? How do cells become consciousness? What are the limitations of a biological model of the mind and its disorders? In The …
History of Science August 4, 2022

Minerva's French Sisters

Women of Science in Enlightenment France

Nina Rattner Gelbart

Hosted by Victor Monnin
In Minerva’s French Sisters: Women of Science in Enlightenment France (Yale University Press, 2021), Nina Gelbart, Professor of History and Anita Johnson Wand Professor of Women’s Studies at Occidental College …
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 …
Music August 3, 2022

DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media

Ellis Jones

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Since the 1970s, there has been a rich, global lineage of broadly guitar-based music scenes which have enacted a political critique of the commercial music industries under the banner of …
Darts & Letters August 3, 2022

The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed

The Intellectual Culture of Twitch Streamers

Hosted by Gordon Katic
It was billed as “the biggest event in the history of the terminally online.” A debate: socialism vs. capitalism. On your left side, the esteemed Marxist economist Richard Wolff. On …
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 …
Darts & Letters August 1, 2022

Lost Utopias

A History of World’s Fairs and the Nature of Technology

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Techno-utopianism is everywhere. It’s driven by a new tech-bro/crypto culture, supported by online hordes of true believers, and couched in philosophies of meritocracy and technocracy. But this thinking is not …
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 …