New Books Network

About Renee Garfinkel

Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network’s Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at r.garfinkel@yahoo.com.

NBN Episodes hosted by Renee:

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 16, 2021

Cultural Disjunctions

Post-Traditional Jewish Identities

Paul Mendes-Flohr

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The identity of contemporary Jews is multifaceted, no longer necessarily defined by an observance of the Torah and God’s commandments. Indeed, the Jews of modernity are no longer exclusively Jewish …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 2, 2021

Theological Stains

Art Music and the Zionist Project

Assaf Shelleg

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Theological Stains: Art Music and the Zionist Project (Oxford UP, 2020) offers the first in-depth study of the development of art music in Israel from the mid-twentieth century to the …
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 …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 14, 2021

Dedicated

The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing

Pete Davis

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Most of us have had this experience: browsing through countless options on Netflix, unable to commit to watching any given movie—and losing so much time skimming reviews and considering trailers …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 7, 2021

Friendship

The Evolution, Biology and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond

Lydia Denworth

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The phenomenon of friendship is universal and elemental. Friends, after all, are the family we choose. But what makes these bonds not just pleasant but essential, and how do they …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 28, 2021

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry

Randolph M. Nesse

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Why do I feel bad? There is real power in understanding our bad feelings. With his classic Why We Get Sick, Dr. Randolph Nesse helped to establish the field of …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 25, 2021

Not in Kansas Anymore

Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities

Cary Nelson

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
“Allying with a Hamas cell (on a Palestinian university campus) is not the same as joining the College Republicans at the University of Kansas...in the West Bank and Gaza, we …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 11, 2021

How Design Makes the World

Scott Berkun

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Everything you use, from your home to your smartphone, from highways to supermarkets, was designed by someone. What did they get right? Where did they go wrong? And what can …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 26, 2021

Believers

Faith in Human Nature

Melvin Konner

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Believers: Faith in Human Nature (Norton, 2019) is a scientist's answer to attacks on faith by some well-meaning scientists and philosophers. It is a firm rebuke of the "Four Horsemen"--Richard …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 16, 2021

The End of Love

A Sociology of Negative Relations

Eva Illouz

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Western culture has endlessly represented the ways in which love miraculously erupts in people's lives, the mythical moment in which one knows someone is destined for us; the feverish waiting …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 6, 2021

Suicide

The Social Causes of Self-Destruction

Jason Manning

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The conventional approach to suicide is psychiatric: ask the average person why people kill themselves, and they will likely cite depression. But this approach fails to recognize suicide’s social causes …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel March 8, 2021

Philanthropy

From Aristotle to Zuckerberg

Paul Vallely

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In this magnum opus, Paul Vallely guides the reader on a journey through the history and meaning of giving in religion and society. Vivid with anecdote and scholarly insight, this …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel March 1, 2021

Heirlooms

Memory and Cherished Objects

J. Jay Garfinkel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Everyone will lose someone they love at some point in their life; a spouse, a parent, or a child. Having to deal with the clothes or personal effects that remain …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel February 8, 2021

Harpoon

Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel M. Katz

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Covid-19 is the global threat that owns today’s headlines, but the threat of international and domestic terrorism is still very much with us. Specifically, the widespread upheaval, uncertainty and global …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 19, 2021

The Last Million

Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War

David Nasaw

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In May 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of global military conflict did not cease with …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 8, 2021

The Tyranny of Merit

What's Become of the Common Good?

Michael J. Sandel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favor of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 4, 2021

Till We Have Built Jerusalem

Architects of a New City

Adina Hoffman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
A remarkable view of one of the world's most beloved and troubled cities, Adina Hoffman's Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City (FSG, 2017) is a gripping …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel December 18, 2020

The Human Planet

How We Created the Anthropocene

Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Meteorites, mega-volcanoes, and plate tectonics--the old forces of nature--have transformed Earth for millions of years. They are now joined by a new geological force--humans. Our actions have driven Earth into …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel December 4, 2020

Ladders to Heaven

How Figs Shaped our History, Fed our Imaginations, and can Enrich our Future

Mike Shanahan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers … rainforest royalty … more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 23, 2020

History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200-2000

Sumit Guha

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In this far-ranging and erudite exploration of the South Asian past, Sumit Guha discusses the shaping of social and historical memory in world-historical context. He presents memory as the result …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 9, 2020

The Fascination with Death in Contemporary French Thought

A Longing for the Abyss

Betty Rojtman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The Fascination with Death in Contemporary French Thought: A Longing for the Abyss (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) analyses a cultural phenomenon that goes to the very roots of Western civilization: the …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 22, 2020

Blueprint

How DNA Makes Us Who We Are

Robert Plomin

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Have you ever felt, “Oh my God, I’m turning into my mother (or father)!” ? Robert Plomin explains why that happens in Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 14, 2020

Kinship, Law and Politics

An Anatomy of Belonging

Joseph E. David

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Why are we so concerned with belonging? In what ways does our belonging constitute our identity? Is belonging a universal concept or a culturally dependent value? How does belonging situate …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 7, 2020

The Geography of Genius

Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Places

Eric Weiner

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Living, as we do, in a time in which a U.S. president anoints himself “a very stable genius”, we are particularly appreciative of Eric Weiner, a former foreign correspondent for …