New Books Network
Big Ideas
Australian and New Zealand Studies July 29, 2021

Creating God

The Birth and Growth of Major Religions

Robin Derricourt

Hosted by Bede Haines
What do we really know about how and where religions began, and how they spread?  Robin Derricourt considers the birth and growth of several major religions, using history and archaeology …

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Science July 12, 2021

The Social Instinct

How Cooperation Shaped the World

Nichola Raihani

Hosted by Matthew Jordan
Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It’s how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material, to nation states. But …
Literature July 5, 2021

A Glossary of Urban Voids

Sergio Lopez-Pineiro

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Hello, this is Eric LeMay, a host on the New Books Network. Today I interview Sergio Lopez-Pineiro about his new book, A Glossary of Urban Voids (2020). It's one of …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 28, 2021

War

How Conflict Shaped Us

Margaret MacMillan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
“…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” -Isaiah …
Politics & Polemics June 28, 2021

Open Democracy

Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century

Hélène Landemore

Hosted by Jack Petranker
Students of American history know that the framers of the Constitution were deeply concerned that the United States would founder on the shoals of mob rule. They designed a system …
General History June 23, 2021

Nothing Happened

A History

Susan Crane

Hosted by Jana Byars
The past is what happened. History is what we remember and write about that past, the narratives we craft to make sense out of our memories and their sources. But …
Systems and Cybernetics June 17, 2021

Sand Talk

How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World

Tyson Yunkaporta

Hosted by Kevin Lindsay
Although it is not described as such anywhere in the book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (HarperOne, 2021) is indeed a systems-thinking book—one that offers a much-needed fresh …
Education June 15, 2021

Generous Thinking

A Radical Approach to Saving the University

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

Hosted by Kai Wortmann
In an age characterized by rampant anti-intellectualism, Kathleen Fitzpatrick in her Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021) charges the academy with thinking constructively rather …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership June 8, 2021

Why Startups Fail

A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success

Tom Eisenmann

Hosted by Richard Lucas and Kimon Fountoukidis
Why do many startups fail? Tom Eisenmann, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School realised that even he didn’t really know the answer, despite a lifetime teaching entrepreneurship, and decided …
General History June 7, 2021

The Constitution of Knowledge

A Defense of Truth

Jonathan Rauch

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In recent years Americans have experienced a range of assaults upon the truth. In The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth (Brookings Institution Press, 2021), Jonathan Rauch describes the …
General History June 4, 2021

The Ever-Changing Past

Why All History Is Revisionist History

James M. Banner, Jr.

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In recent years the phrase “revisionist history” has emerged as a label for politically-correct reexaminations of an unalterable understanding of our past. As James M. Banner, Jr. demonstrates in his …
Philosophy June 1, 2021

Rejecting Retributivism

Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice

Gregg D. Caruso

Hosted by Robert Talisse
According to an intuitive view, those who commit crimes are justifiably subject to punishment. Depending on the severity of the wrongdoing constitutive of the crime, punishment can be severe: incarceration …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast June 1, 2021

Things Fall Together

A Guide to the New Materials Revolution

Skylar Tibbits

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Things in life tend to fall apart. Cars break down. Buildings fall into disrepair. Personal items deteriorate. Yet today’s researchers are exploiting newly understood properties of matter to program materials …
The Future of Higher Education May 31, 2021

An Interview with Shai Reshef

Founding President, University of the People

Hosted by David Finegold
Shai Reshef shares the remarkable story of the creation of the University of the People, which has grown from an initial small class of students in 2008 to over 55,00 …
General History May 26, 2021

The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen

Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World

Linda Colley

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Linda Colley is a luminary in the fields of British and imperial history, and the Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University. Her captivating new book The …
Finance May 24, 2021

The Spirit of Green

The Economics of Collisions and Contagions in a Crowded World

William D. Nordhaus

Hosted by Daniel Peris
Can classical economics help figure out climate change and support policies that slow global warming?  Yale Sterling Professor of Economics William Nordhaus thinks so. In his new book, The Spirit of Green: The …
Economics May 18, 2021

The Promise of Bitcoin

The Future of Money and How It Can Work for You

Bobby C. Lee

Hosted by Andrea Bernardi
I spoke with Bobby Lee about his book The Promise of Bitcoin: The Future of Money and How It Can Work for You (McGraw-Hill, 2021). Bobby Lee is a very interesting …
Performing Arts May 14, 2021

Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us

Simon Critchley

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Simon Critchley's Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us (Vintage, 2020) does not offer a comprehensive theory of tragedy. Instead, it takes issue with the bland simplifications that philosophers have offered in place of a …
Economics May 7, 2021

Post Growth

Life after Capitalism

Tim Jackson

Hosted by Andrea Bernardi
I spoke with Prof. Tim Jackson about his latest book: Post Growth, Life after Capitalism, published by Polity Books in 2021. The book starts with a reflection on the event …
Animal Studies May 3, 2021

Metazoa

Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, and serpulid worms …