Buddhist Studies

Buddhist Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Buddhism about their new books.

Andrew Demshuk, "The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany" (Cornell UP, 2026)

May 30, 2026

The Filthiest Village in Europe

Andrew Demshuk
Hosted by Jenna Pittman

The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany (Cornell University Press, 2026) traces how a community shrouded …

Charlie Qiuli Xue and Arwen Yingting Chen, "American-Designed Shopping Malls in China" (Hong Kong UP, 2026)

May 30, 2026

American-Designed Shopping Malls in China

Charlie Qiuli Xue and Arwen Yingting Chen
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

China’s remarkable journey from poverty to becoming the world’s second-largest economic power is marked by extraordinary urban growth and consumpt…

Chunmei Du, "Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Everyday Occupation

Chunmei Du
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Chunmei Du is an Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of modern China, specifical…

Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Narrowing Sea

Hannah Shepherd
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

In The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region (U California Press, 2025), Hannah Shepherd examines the shared hist…

David Faflik, "Segregation Games: Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation" (U Massachusetts Press, 2026)

May 27, 2026

Segregation Games

A cultural history of race, resistance, and representation in a city divided by politics and play When outfielder Bernie Carbo joined the Red Sox i…

Stuart Schrader, "Blue Power: How Police Organized to Serve and Protect Themselves" (Basic Books, 2026)

May 23, 2026

Blue Power

Stuart Schrader
Hosted by Michael Stauch

In America today, police enjoy unmatched power. On the streets, officers employ violence at their own discretion. Behind closed doors, they are ev…

An-Ting Yi, "From Erasmus to Maius: The History of Codex Vaticanus in New Testament Textual Scholarship" (de Gruyter, 2024)

May 21, 2026

From Erasmus to Maius

An-Ting Yi
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

Codex Vaticanus is often regarded as a pillar of New Testament scholarship, ancient, authoritative, and decisive. In From Erasmus to Maius: The Histor…

Mengqi Wang, "Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market" (Cornell UP, 2026)

May 19, 2026

Anxious Homes

Mengqi Wang
Hosted by Yadong Li

Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market (Cornell UP, 2026) is a study of the power that shapes the forms of the homes Chinese citi…

Kate Brown, "Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present and Future of the Self-Provisioning City" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

May 19, 2026

Tiny Gardens Everywhere

Kate Brown
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Kate Brown, Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at MIT joins Michael Stauch to discuss her new book Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, P…

Under the Tenement Rooftops: Immigrant and Migrant Families in New York

May 16, 2026

Under the Tenement Rooftops

Annie Polland
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The Tenement Museum preserves and interprets the personal stories of residents of two buildings on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Ninety-seven Orch…

Silvia Danielak, "Peace Infrastructures: How UN Peace Operations Build Roads, Bridges, and Solar Farms in the Pursuit of Sustainability" (MIT Press, 2026)

May 15, 2026

Peace Infrastructures

Silvia Danielak
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Roads, bridges, a renewable power plant, and an electricity grid: UN peacekeepers might be unusual infrastructure builders, but they’re certainly not …

Jue Liang, "Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Early Literary Lives of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 14, 2026

Conceiving the Mother of Tibet

Jue Liang

Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Early Literary Lives of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel (Oxford UP, 2026) is the first comprehensive study dedica…

Caste and Urbanization with Malini Ranganathan and Juned Shaikh

May 11, 2026

Caste and Urbanization

Malini Ranganathan and Juned Shaikh

This episode features a conversation with urban geographer, Malini Ranganathan, and historian, Juned Shaikh, on the centrality of caste to urbanizatio…

Peter S. Soppelsa, "Paris After Haussmann: Living with Infrastructure in the City of Light, 1870–1914" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2026)

May 10, 2026

Paris After Haussmann

Peter S. Soppelsa
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Modern Paris is often hailed as a capital of urban infrastructure. Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris in 1853–1870, branded “Haussma…

Extraordinary, Mysterious, and Impossible Experiences, with Jeffrey Kriple

May 8, 2026

Extraordinary, Mysterious, and Impossible Experiences

Jeffrey Kriple
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Today Pierce Salguero sit down with Prof. Jeff Kripal, noted scholar of religion at Rice University, to talk about extraordinary, mysterious, and “imp…

Sharon Zukin, "Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change" (Rutgers UP, 2014)

May 8, 2026

Loft Living

Sharon Zukin
Hosted by Alex Hallbom

Since its initial publication, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change (Rutgers UP, 2014) has become the classic analysis of the emergence of…

170 What Waltham Does When the Water Rises: Rachel McKane and Danielle Jacques (JP)

May 7, 2026

What Waltham Does When the Water Rises

Permafrost melts, desert cities boil, inland lakes dry up; but Waltham too in its own way has become one of the dark places of the earth. Adverse manm…

Sophie Rose, "Intimacy and Social (Dis)Order in Dutch Colonial Expansion: Regulating Sex, Marriage, and Family Life, 1600–1800" (Brill, 2025)

May 4, 2026

Intimacy and Social (Dis)Order in Dutch Colonial Expansion

Sophie Rose
Hosted by Lewis Wade

Explosive sexual scandals, bitter domestic conflicts, and dramatic changes in fortune. Sex, marriage, and family life were matters of enormous consequ…

Stephen B. Young, "Adam Smith and Modern Economics: Reclaiming the Moral High Ground" (de Gruyter, 2026)

May 3, 2026

Adam Smith and Modern Economics

Stephen B. Young
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

For more than two centuries, economists and researchers have struggled with the conundrum of reconciling Adam Smith’s views on economics and ethics. W…

Stephen B. Young ed., "Adam Smith and Modern Economics: Reclaiming the Moral High Ground" (de Gruyter, 2026)

April 29, 2026

Adam Smith and Modern Economics

Stephen B. Young ed.
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

For more than two centuries, economists and researchers have struggled with the conundrum of reconciling Adam Smith’s views on economics and ethics. W…