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About John Traphagan
J. W. Traphagan was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor emeritus in the Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin and has been a visiting professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. Currently, he teaches in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is also Visiting Research Scholar in the Interplanetary Initiative at Arizona State University. He received his BA in political science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, his MA in religion from Yale University, and his PhD in social anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh. Traphagan first visited Japan in the late 1980s, and in the 1990s he conducted research for almost two years there as a Fulbright scholar. He has returned annually and spent a total of almost five years in rural areas and Tokyo. After publishing numerous scientific papers and monographs describing and analyzing Japanese culture and society, Traphagan became disenchanted and bored with the jargon and theory-laden prose that typifies academic writing. He decided to explore ethnography by drawing on his fieldnotes as a basis for creating fiction intended to capture the richness and complexity of life in the rural area where he has lived and worked. His first novel, The Blood of Gutoku: A Jack Riddley Mystery in Japan (Balestier 2021), is a product of that endeavor. His two other most recent books are Cosmopolitan Rurality, Depopulation, and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in 21st Century Japan (Cambria Press, 2020) and Embracing Uncertainty: Future Jazz, That 13th Century Buddhist Monk, and the Invention of Cultures (Sumeru Press, 2021).J. W. Traphagan, Ph.D. teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of Pennsylvania, and is Visiting Research Scholar in the Interplanetary Initiative at Arizona State University. He is Professor Emeritus in the Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin.
NBN Episodes hosted by John:
May 29, 2023
The Possibility of Life
In this episode we talk to Jaime Green about her superb cultural and scientific exploration of alien life and the cosmos. It examines how the possibil…
March 25, 2023
War, Optimism, Humility
This episode of How To Be Wrong is a conversation with Mariia Shuvalova, a lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Fulbright Schol…
December 12, 2022
What Went Wrong in the 70s in the USA?
In this episode of How To Be Wrong we talk with author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of Third Act, an organization focused on…
December 2, 2022
Ryokan
Today I talked to Chris McMorran about his new book Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan (U Hawaii Press, 2022). Amid the decline of many of…
October 17, 2022
Radicalism, Humility, and Racism in America
Today’s episode focuses on the new book by Lydia Moland, who is a Professor of Philosophy at Colby College. Her book, Lydia Maria Child: A Radical Am…
September 14, 2022
History, Space, and Getting Things Wrong
In today’s episode of How To Be Wrong we welcome Dr. Steven Dick, retired Chief Historian at NASA and one of the leading historians of space explorati…
August 10, 2022
Twitter, Intellectual Discourse, and Humility
For this episode of How To Be Wrong, I speak with George Styles, a biochemist and author of the book Contemplation. George is also what we describe t…
July 29, 2022
Humility and the Academic Administrator
This episode of How To Be Wrong explores questions of leadership and humility with Dr. Bill Tsutsui, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ottawa Uni…
July 7, 2022
Japan Rearmed
Today I talked to Sheila A. Smith about her book Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power (Harvard UP, 2019). Modern Japan is not only respondin…
June 24, 2022
The Career of a Writer
In this episode of How To Be Wrong, we talk with novelist New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Douglas Richards, about his career as a writ…
June 10, 2022
Ethnography, Humility, Identity, and the Academy
In today’s episode of How To Be Wrong we welcome Dr. Khytie Brown, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the Univers…
May 17, 2022
Higher Education and the Humble Brag
In today’s episode of How To Be Wrong we welcome Adrian Lenardic, who is a professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences …
March 14, 2022
Leadership and Humility
For today’s episode of How To Be Wrong we welcome Dr. Ken Wisian, who is geophysicist and Associate Director in the Environmental Division of the Bure…
March 10, 2022
Intellectual Humility
Today’s episode of How To Be Wrong welcomes Glenn Sauer, who is Donald J. Ross Sr. Chair in Biology and Biochemistry and Professor of Biology at Fairf…
December 23, 2021
Sher Wells-Jensen on the Pitfalls of Linguistics
In this episode of How To Be Wrong we talk with Dr. Sher Wells-Jensen, a professor of linguistics at Bowling Green State University and an expert in x…
November 10, 2021
How to Be Wrong
"How To Be Wrong" is a podcast series hosted by John J. Kaag, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and John W. …
October 29, 2021
Contemplation
Although many of us move through life at a fast pace, do you ever stop to wonder why things are the way they are? More so, do you even know why you sh…
October 6, 2021
Urban Migrants in Rural Japan
Susanne Klien's book Urban Migrants in Rural Japan: Between Agency and Anomie in a Post-growth Society (SUNY Press, 2020) provides a fresh perspective…
September 29, 2021
Successful Aging in a Rural Community in Japan
Kimiko Tanaka and Nan E. Johnson's Successful Aging in a Rural Community in Japan (Carolina Academic Press, 2021) discusses population aging in rural …
September 13, 2021
More Than One Child
'I broke a law simply by being born.' In the late 1980s, Shen Yang was born during the fiercest years of China's One-Child Policy. As the second daugh…
August 11, 2021
Harvesting State Support
Agriculture has been among the toughest political battlegrounds in postwar Japan and represents an ideal case study in institutional stability and cha…
April 5, 2021
The Value of Science in Space Exploration
The Value of Science in Space Exploration (Oxford UP, 2020) provides a rigorous assessment of the value of scientific knowledge and understanding in t…
April 2, 2021
The Coevolution
Are humans defining technology, or is technology defining humans? In The Coevolution: The Entwined Futures of Humans and Machines (MIT Press, 2020), E…
January 22, 2021
Everyday Economic Survival in Myanmar
Reforms in Myanmar (formerly Burma) have eased restrictions on citizens' political activities. Yet for most Burmese, Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung shows in…