From the Square: An NYU Press Podcast

From the Square: An NYU Press Podcast

episodes

Interviews with authors of NYU Press books.

Samiha Rahman, "Black Muslim Freedom Dreams: Islamic Education, Pan-Africanism, and Collective Care" (NYU Press, 2026)

May 11, 2026

Black Muslim Freedom Dreams

Samiha Rahman
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

Samiha Rahman’s Black Muslim Freedom Dreams: Islamic Education, Pan-Africanism, and Collective Care (New York University Press, 2026) follows three ge…

Danielle Bainbridge, "Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive" (NYU Press, 2026)

April 3, 2026

Currencies of Cruelty

Danielle Bainbridge
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive (NYU Press, 2026) is a bold and incisive reconsideration of the relationship …

Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán, "Detroit Never Left: Black Space, White Borders, Latino Crossings" (NYU Press, 2025)

March 3, 2026

Detroit Never Left

Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Detroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wiped…

Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, "Lincoln and the Jews: A History" (NYU Press, 2025)

February 28, 2026

Lincoln and the Jews

Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell
Hosted by Drora Arussy

In this expanded edition to a groundbreaking work, now in paperback, Lincoln and the Jews: A History (NYU Press, 2025), Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin…

Ashlyn Hand, "Prioritizing Faith: International Religious Freedom and U.S. Foreign Policy" (NYU Press, 2025)

February 8, 2026

Prioritizing Faith

Ashlyn W. Hand
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 formally established the promotion of religious freedom as a U.S. foreign policy and national security…

LiLi Johnson, "Technologies of Kinship: Asian American Racialization and the Making of Family" (NYU Press, 2025)

January 28, 2026

Technologies of Kinship

LiLi Johnson
Hosted by Ailin Zhou

Delving into the complex interplay of race, kinship, and technology, Technologies of Kinship: Asian American Racialization and the Making of Family (N…

Lauren D. Sawyer, "Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture" (NYU Press, 2025)

January 22, 2026

Growing Up Pure

Lauren D. Sawyer
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conse…

Tomer Persico, "In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea" (NYU Press, 2025)

January 8, 2026

In God's Image

Tomer Persico
Hosted by Ilana Maymind

Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Rubinstein Fellow at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at t…

Peter Mancina, "On the Side of ICE: Policing Immigrants in a Sanctuary State" (NYU Press, 2025)

December 17, 2025

On the Side of ICE

Peter Mancina
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

In the United States, local law enforcement agencies are legally and organizationally independent entities from federal law enforcement agencies like …

Curtis Marez, "Producing Precarity: The Costs of Making TV in Poor Places" (NYU Press, 2025)

December 15, 2025

Producing Precarity

Curtis Marez
Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

In Producing Precarity (NYU Press, 2025) Curtis Marez examines the television industry’s practice of “offshoring” production to impoverished sites wit…

Jack Wertheimer, "Jewish Giving: Philanthropy and the Shaping of American Jewish Life" (NYU Press, 2025)

December 10, 2025

Jewish Giving

Jack Wertheimer
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

The American Jewish philanthropic enterprise is unparalleled in scope, dynamism, and the diversity of funders and the causes they support. Yet even as…

Grace Kessler Overbeke, "First Lady of Laughs: The Forgotten Story of Jean Carroll" (NYU Press, 2024)

December 5, 2025

First Lady of Laughs

Grace Kessler Overbeke
Hosted by Jane Scimeca

Before Hacks and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, there was the comedienne who started it all. First Lady of Laughs: The Forgotten Story of Jean Carroll (…

Julie Dobrow, "Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage" (NYU Press, 2025)

November 22, 2025

Love and Loss After Wounded Knee

Julie Dobrow
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Like any set of star-crossed lovers, Elaine and Charles came from different worlds. Elaine, an acclaimed childhood poet from a remote corner of the Ma…

David Kieran, "Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military's Mental Health Crisis" (NYU Press, 2019)

November 14, 2025

Signature Wounds

David Kieran
Hosted by Shu Wan

The surprising story of the Army's efforts to combat PTSD and traumatic brain injury The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a tremendous toll on…

Shaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)

November 2, 2025

A Cold War Exodus

Shaul Kelner
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: Amer­i­can Jew­ish Studies Cel­e­brate 350 Award Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped fre…

Elissa Bemporad, "Jews in the Soviet Union: A History: Revolution, Civil War, and New Ways of Life, 1917–1930, Vol. 1" (NYU Press, 2025)

October 29, 2025

Jews in the Soviet Union: A History

Elissa Bemporad
Hosted by Jenna Pittman

Chronicles the encounter of one of the largest Jewish communities in the world with war, revolution, and Soviet power from 1917 through 1930 At the b…

Aram G. Sarkisian, "Orthodoxy on the Line: Russian Orthodox Christians and Labor Migration in the Progressive Era" (NYU Press, 2025)

October 8, 2025

Orthodoxy on the Line

Aram G. Sarkisian
Hosted by Jenna Pittman

Orthodoxy on the Line: Russian Orthodox Christians and Labor Migration in the Progressive Era (NYU Press, 2025) is an Immigration and labor history of…

Bernadette Barton et al., "Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century" (NYU Press, 2024)

October 5, 2025

Sex Work Today

Bernadette Barton, Angela Jones, and Barbara G. Brents
Hosted by Michael Johnston

A cutting-edge volume on current trends in sex work, from sugar relationships and cyber brothels to financial domination, sex worker activism, and fem…

Deborah Willis, "The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship" (NYU Press, 2025)

September 24, 2025

The Black Civil War Soldier

Deborah Willis
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

A stunning collection of stoic portraits and intimate ephemera from the lives of Black Civil War soldiers Though both the Union and Confederate armie…

Kenja McCray, "Essential Soldiers: Women Activists and Black Power Movement Leadership" (NYU Press, 2025)

September 22, 2025

Essential Soldiers

Kenja McCray
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

Academics and popular commentors have expressed common sentiments about the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s—that it was male dominated and…