New Books Network Podcast

Media December 1, 2023

The Gutenberg Parenthesis

The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet

Jeff Jarvis

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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The age of print is a grand exception in history. For five centuries it fostered what some call print culture – a worldview shaped by the completeness, permanence, and authority …

Science, Technology, and Society December 1, 2023

Transparency

The Material History of an Idea

Daniel Jütte

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political institutions, corporations, and the media …

Science, Technology, and Society November 28, 2023

The SAGE Handbook of Human–Machine Communication

Rhonda McEwen, Andrea L. Guzman and Steve Jones (eds.)

Hosted by Pamela Fuentes

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The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication has been designed to serve as the touchstone text for researchers and scholars engaging in new research in this fast-developing field. Chapters provide a …

General History November 27, 2023

The Globemakers

The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft

Peter Bellerby

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Peter Bellerby is the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, the world's only truly bespoke makers of globes. His team of skilled craftspeople make exquisite terrestrial, celestial and planetary globes …

Military History November 26, 2023

IS-2

Development, Design & Production of Stalin's Warhammer

Peter Samsonov

Hosted by Boris Karpa

The IS-2 is the quintessential Soviet heavy tank from World War 2. Heavily armored and boasting a fearsome 122mm gun, this tank matched the German panzers on the Eastern front …

Technology November 26, 2023

Lifelines of Our Society

A Global History of Infrastructure

Dirk Van Laak

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Infrastructure is essential to defining how the public functions, yet there is little public knowledge regarding why and how it became today's strongest global force over government and individual lives …

Japanese Studies November 18, 2023

Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance

Florentine Koppenborg

Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Florentine Koppenborg’s Japan’s Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance (Cornell UP, 2023) begins with the understated observation that the triple disaster of March 2011 “exposed severe deficiencies …

Science, Technology, and Society November 18, 2023

The Switch

An Off and On History of Digital Humans

Jason Puskar

Hosted by Nathan Moore

From the telegraph to the touchscreen, how the development of binary switching transformed everyday life and changed the shape of human agency. The Switch: An Off and On History of …

Technology November 17, 2023

Danger Sound Klaxon!

The Horn That Changed History

Matthew F. Jordan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Danger Sound Klaxon!:The Horn That Changed History (University of Virginia Press, 2023) reveals the untold story of the Klaxon automobile horn, one of the first great electrical consumer technologies of …

Food November 10, 2023

From Label to Table

Regulating Food in America in the Information Age

Xaq Frohlich

Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Xaq Frohlich’s From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age (U California Press, 2023) is a biography of the Nutrition Facts label that adorns millions of food …

UConn PopCast November 10, 2023

Can You Fall in Love with ChatGPT?

Hosted by UConn PopCast

The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute recently sponsored a panel discussion on the topic, “Can you fall in love with ChatGPT?” and we recorded this discussion as a live podcast …

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast November 10, 2023

A.I. and Practice

A Discussion with Stuart Baldwin

Stuart Baldwin

Hosted by Matthew O'Connell

The technological revolution we are facing today is artificial intelligence. At least this is what we are told. Those doing the telling include tech experts such as Elon Musk, linguist …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones November 9, 2023

The Future of Crucial Materials

A Discussion with Ed Conway

Ed Conway

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

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Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world …

Technology November 7, 2023

Barcode

Jordan Frith

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Barcodes are about as ordinary as an object can be. Billions of them are scanned each day and they impact everything from how we shop to how we travel to …

Political Science November 2, 2023

We, the Data

Human Rights in the Digital Age

Wendy H. Wong

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

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Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data: Human …

Military History October 29, 2023

F-35

The Inside Story of the Lightning II

Tom Burbage, Betsy Clark, Adrian Pitman, and and David Poyer

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

The inside story of the most expensive and controversial military program in history, as told by those who lived it. The F-35 has changed allied combat warfare. But by the …

Higher Education October 26, 2023

Leveling the Learning Curve

Creating a More Inclusive and Connected University

William B. Eimicke, Soulaymane Kachani, and Adam Stepan

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

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Will the COVID-19 pandemic be remembered as a turning point in how universities deliver teaching and learning? How might the widespread use of digital tools change higher education? Leveling the …

Library Science October 25, 2023

Picture-Work

How Libraries, Museums, and Stock Agencies Launched a New Image Economy

Diana Kamin

Hosted by Hallel Yadin

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How the image collection, organized and made available for public consumption, came to define a key feature of contemporary visual culture. The origins of today’s kaleidoscopic digital visual culture are …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones October 24, 2023

The Future of Paying Attention

A Discussion with Carolyn Dicey Jennings

Carolyn Dicey Jennings

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

Is it really harder to pay attention to something than it used to be? No doubt the world is getting faster, and social media platforms are so good at grabbing …

Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century October 23, 2023

Technology, AI, Political Economy, and Economic Development

A conversation with Simon Johnson

Simon Johnson

Hosted by Jon Hartley

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Simon Johnson (MIT Sloan Economics Professor and Former IMF Chief Economist) joins the podcast to discuss his new book "Power and Progress", co-authored with his MIT colleague Daron Acemoglu, on …