New Books Network
Science, Technology, and Society
Anthropology January 14, 2022

Being a Human

Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness

Charles Foster

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
How did humans come to be who we are? In his marvelous, eccentric, and widely lauded book Being a Beast, legal scholar, veterinary surgeon, and naturalist extraordinaire Charles Foster set …

Science, Technology, and Society

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

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 …
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 …
Nordic Asia Podcast January 7, 2022

COVID-19 and Vaccine Hesitancy in Japan

Kamila Szczepanska and Yoko Demelius

Hosted by Satoko Naito
Anti-vaccination movements pose an increasing threat to global public health, but what of vaccine hesitancy? Join us for a discussion on the effects of vaccine hesitancy in Japan during the …
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 29, 2021

Sticky

The Secret Science of Surfaces

Laurie Winkless

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces (Bloomsbury, 2022), physicist Laurie Winkless brings the amazing world of surface science to the popular science market for the first time. Atoms and …
Critical Theory December 24, 2021

The Interfact

On Structure and Compatibility in Object-Oriented Ontology

Gabriel Yoran

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Objects in object-oriented ontology (OOO) are mysterious and inexhaustible entities. But since OOO grants ontological priority to objects, it should have an easy time referring to objects. But this is …
Science December 22, 2021

Joseph Reagle on H. G. Wells's "World Brain" (1937)

Joseph Reagle

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a World Brain, as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repository of scientifically established …
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 …
Literary Studies December 20, 2021

Infrastructures of Apocalypse

American Literature and the Nuclear Complex

Jessica Hurley

Hosted by Christian Long
Since 1945, America has spent more resources on nuclear technology than any other national project. Although it requires a massive infrastructure that touches society on myriad levels, nuclear technology has …
Digital Humanities December 14, 2021

Can We Be Wrong?

The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data

Andrew Piper

Hosted by Katherine McDonough
Can We Be Wrong? The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data (Cambridge UP, 2020) by Andrew Piper tackles the problem of generalization with respect to text-based evidence in the …
Science, Technology, and Society December 9, 2021

Edges of Exposure

Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal

Noémi Tousignant

Hosted by Laura Stark
What is “capacity”? In science research and health interventions, it typically refers to the relative availability of equipment, infrastructure, personnel, and skills needed to get a job done. Noémi Tousignant’s …
National Security December 9, 2021

The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East

James Shires

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
How has “cybersecurity” become a catch-all for everything that touches our digital world? In his new book, The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East (Hurst, 2021), Dr. James Shires …
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 …
Architecture December 9, 2021

Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms

Archi-Tectonics

Winka Dubbeldam

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The object as solid, having three dimensions, is not just a different formal trend, but a paradigm shift; a reconceiving of how the architectural object is produced and experienced, changing …
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 …
Burned by Books December 7, 2021

When We Cease to Understand the World

Benjamin Labatut

Hosted by Chris Holmes
An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and I cover an …
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 …