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Big Ideas
Education September 15, 2022

Where Research Begins

Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World)

Thomas S. Mullaney and Christopher Rea

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The hardest part of research isn't answering a question. It's knowing what to do before you know what your question is. Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to …

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Interviews with scholars promoting big ideas.

Psychoanalysis September 14, 2022

Psychoanalysis as a Subversive Phenomenon

Social Change, Virtue Ethics, and Analytic Theory

Amber M. Trotter

Hosted by Sebastian Thrul
“Perhaps psychoanalysis survives because it obstinately carries a torch of wild freedom and reverence for the unknowable in a world of rational epistemology and increasingly rigid sociopolitical control. Psychoanalysis does …
Art September 12, 2022

Art After Liberalism

Nicholas Gamso

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Art After Liberalism (Columbia UP, 2022) is an account of creative practice at a moment of converging political and social rifts – a moment that could be described as a …
Disability Studies September 9, 2022

The Life Worth Living

Disability, Pain, and Morality

Joel Michael Reynolds

Hosted by Autumn Wilke
The Life Worth Living: Disability, Pain, and Morality (U Minnesota Press, 2022) investigates the exclusion of and discrimination against disabled people across the history of Western moral philosophy. Building on …
Darts & Letters September 7, 2022

Survival of the Leftest

Should We Embrace Behavioural Genetics?

Paige Harden

Hosted by Marc Apollonio
Can genetics play a role in crafting left social policy? Or should we not touch those ideas ever again–even with a 10 foot pole? Paige Harden’s book, “The Genetic Lottery …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 26, 2022

Global China as Method

Ivan Franceschini and Nicholas Loubere

Hosted by Julie Yu-Wen Chen
Is China part of the world? Based on much of the political, media, and popular discourse in the West the answer is seemingly no. Even after four decades of integration …
Science, Technology, and Society August 24, 2022

Dream Lovers

The Gamification of Relationships

Alfie Bown

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
We are in the middle of a 'desirevolution' - a fundamental and political transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as always, new technologies - with their …
Environmental Studies August 23, 2022

Owning the Future

Power and Property in an Age of Crisis

Mathew Lawrence and Adrienne Buller

Hosted by Brian Hamilton
Adrienne Buller (The Value of a Whale) and Mathew Lawrence (Planet on Fire) have penned a radical manifesto for the transformation of post-pandemic politics: Owning the Future: Power and Property in an Age of …
Animal Studies August 16, 2022

Animal Revolution

Ron Broglio

Hosted by Callie Smith
Animals are staging a revolution—they’re just not telling us. From radioactive boar invading towns to jellyfish disarming battleships, Animal Revolution (U Minnesota Press, 2022) threads together news accounts and more …
Economics August 16, 2022

The Future of Money

How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance

Eswar S. Prasad

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021) provides a cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones August 16, 2022

The Future of Net Zero

A Discussion with Eric Lonergan

Eric Lonergan and Corrine Sawyers

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
There is no shortage of words written about climate change and the goal of reaching net zero - but there is a shortage of practical suggestions about to get to …
Psychoanalysis August 12, 2022

The Hidden Spring

A Journey to the Source of Consciousness

Mark Solms

Hosted by Philip Lance
If you have ever been skeptical about whether neuroscience has anything to teach psychoanalysis, or vice-versa, you will be stimulated by this book which engages the two disciplines in a …
Higher Education July 22, 2022

The Real World of College

What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be

Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
For The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be (MIT Press, 2022), Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner analyzed in-depth interviews with more than 2,00 …
Medicine July 20, 2022

Our Transgenic Future

Spider Goats, Genetic Modification, and the Will to Change Nature

Lisa Jean Moore

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
The process of manipulating the genetic material of one animal to include the DNA of another creates a new transgenic organism. Several animals, notably goats, mice, sheep, and cattle are …
Religion July 20, 2022

Postsecular History

Political Theology and the Politics of Time

Maxwell Kennel

Hosted by David Kunsman
In this thought provoking book entitled PostSecular History: Political Theology and The Politics of Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Max Kennel explores how contemporary approaches to the meaning of time and history follow …
Military History July 18, 2022

Why Humans Fight

The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence

Siniša Malešević

Hosted by Christian Nielsen
In his book Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence (2022, Cambridge University Press), Siniša Malešević emphasises the centrality of the social and historical contexts that make fighting …
American Studies July 13, 2022

The Future of Decline

Anglo-American Culture at Its Limits

Jed Esty

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
As the US becomes a second-place nation, can it shed the superpower nostalgia that still haunts the UK? The debate over the US's fading hegemony has raged and sputtered for …
Science, Technology, and Society July 11, 2022

The Digital Republic

On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century

Jamie Susskind

Hosted by Austin Clyde
From one of the leading intellectuals of the digital age, The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century (Pegasus Books, 2022) is the definitive guide to the great …
Environmental Studies July 5, 2022

A People's Green New Deal

Max Ajl

Hosted by Eyad Houssami
The idea of a Green New Deal was launched into popular consciousness by US Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. It has become a watchword in the current era of global …
Geography July 5, 2022

The Value of a Whale

On the Illusions of Green Capitalism

Adrienne Buller

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to climate and environmental breakdown, and asks: are the …