New Books Network Podcast

Animal Studies December 6, 2023

How to Count Animals, More Or Less

Shelly Kagan

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

Most people agree that animals count morally, but how exactly should we take animals into account? A prominent stance in contemporary ethical discussions is that animals have the same moral …

Animal Studies December 2, 2023

Meat, Mercy, Morality

Animals and Humanitarianism in Colonial Bengal, 1850-1920

Samiparna Samanta

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Meat, Mercy, and Morality: Animals and Humanitarianism in Colonial Bengal, 1850-1920 (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Samiparna Samanta disentangles complex discourses around humanitarianism to understand the nature of British …

Food November 22, 2023

Spoiled

The Myth of Milk as Superfood

Anne Mendelson

Hosted by Melek Firat Altay

Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the population is lactose-intolerant? Why are gigantic new …

Music November 14, 2023

The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning

Gary Tomlinson

Hosted by Nathan Smith

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What is meaning? How does it arise? Where is it found in the world? In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered these questions in different ways. Some see meaning …

Animal Studies November 3, 2023

How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict

James K. Beggan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For the last twenty-thousand years, dogs and people have shared a unique bond in the animal kingdom. In How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict (Lexington Books, 2022), Dr …

Academic Life October 26, 2023

Shark Sciences

A Conversation with Carlee Jackson

Carlee Jackson

Hosted by Christina Gessler

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Today’s book is Minorities in Shark Sciences: Diverse Voices in Shark Research (CRC Press, 2022), edited by Jasmin Graham, Camila Caceres and Deborah Santos de Azevedo Menna, which showcases the work …

Peoples & Things October 9, 2023

Oil Beach - How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life

A Conversation with Christina Dunbar-Hester

Christina Dunbar-Hester

Hosted by Lee Vinsel

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Christina Dunbar-Hester, professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, talks about her recent book, Oil Beach: How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Port …

Animal Studies October 8, 2023

Defending Animals

Finding Hope on the Front Lines of Animal Protection

Kendra Coulter

Hosted by Kyle Johannsen

Beloved dogs and cats. Magnificent horses and mountain gorillas. Curious chickens. What do we actually do to protect animals from harm—and is it enough? This engaging book provides a unique …

Animal Studies October 7, 2023

an other

a black feminist consideration of animal life

Sharon Patricia Holland

Hosted by Callie Smith

In an other: a black feminist examination of animal life (Duke UP, 2023), Sharon Patricia Holland offers a new theorization of the human animal/divide by shifting focus from distinction toward …

Anthropology October 3, 2023

Indifference

On the Praxis of Interspecies Being

Naisargi N. Davé

Hosted by Shraddha Chatterjee

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In Indifference: On the Praxis of Interspecies Being (Duke UP, 2023), Naisargi N. Davé examines the complex worlds of animalists and animalism in India. Through ethnographic fieldwork with animal healers, animal …

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast October 1, 2023

Free Agents

How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

Kevin J. Mitchell

Hosted by Mark Klobas

Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of …

American West September 26, 2023

Cow Talk

Work, Ecology, and Range Cattle Ranchers in the Postwar Mountain West

Michelle K. Berry

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

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How did ranching become an identity? University of Arizona historian Michelle Berry explains in Cow Talk: Work, Ecology, and Western Ranchers in the Postwar Mountain West (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). During the …

Geography September 26, 2023

Rendered Obsolete

Energy Culture and the Afterlife of US Whaling

Jamie L. Jones

Hosted by Stentor Danielson

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Through the mid-nineteenth century, the US whaling industry helped drive industrialization and urbanization, providing whale oil to lubricate and illuminate the country. The Pennsylvania petroleum boom of the 1860s brought …

Russian and Eurasian Studies September 9, 2023

Red Leviathan

The Secret History of Soviet Whaling

Ryan Tucker Jones

Hosted by Erika Monahan

The Soviet Union killed over six hundred thousand whales in the twentieth century, many of them illegally and secretly. That catch helped bring many whale species to near extinction by …

Folklore September 2, 2023

Women's Lore

4,000 Years of Sirens, Serpents and Succubi

Sarah Clegg

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Creatures like Lilith, the seductive first wife of Adam, and mermaids, who lured sailors to their death, are familiar figures in the genre of monstrous temptresses who use their charms …

Environmental Studies August 20, 2023

Routledge Handbook of Rewilding

Sally Hawkins, Ian Convery, Steve Carver, and Rene Beyers

Hosted by Isobel Akerman

Routledge Handbook of Rewilding (Routledge, 2022) provides a comprehensive overview of the history, theory and current practices of ‘rewilding’. Rewilding offers a transformational paradigm shift in conservation thinking, and as …

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast August 15, 2023

Alien Worlds

How Insects Conquered the Earth, and Why Their Fate Will Determine Our Future

Steve Nicholls

Hosted by Mark Klobas

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Life on Earth depends on the busy activities of insects, but global populations of these teeming creatures are currently under threat, with grave consequences for us all. Steve Nicholls' book Alien …

World Affairs August 11, 2023

From the Pandemic to Utopia

The Future Begins Now

Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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The coronavirus pandemic forces us to rethink our contemporaneity. It has brought to the surface dimensions of human fragility that partially contradict the euphoria and human hubris of the fourth …

Medieval History August 7, 2023

The Catch

An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries

Richard C. Hoffmann

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

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The Catch: An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries (Cambridge UP, 2023) provides a comprehensive examination of European engagement with aquatic systems between c. 500 and 1500 CE. Using textual …

High Theory August 7, 2023

Horses

Sillies Series

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu

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In our new summer series of “Sillies,” Saronik and Kim ask each other how simple things will achieve the grandiose task of saving the world. In this episode, Kim asks …