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About Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

John Plotz is Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University. His books include The Crowd: British Literature and Public Politics, Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move, and Semi-Detached: The Aesthetics of Virtual Experience since Dickens; he is at work on My Earthsea, a book about Ursula Le Guin. He is editor of the Public Books B-Sides and a collection from Columbia University Press, B-Sides Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites. He co-founded the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative and co-hosts the podcasts Novel Dialogue and Recall This Book.

Free-ranging discussion of books from the past that cast a sideways light on today's world. Recall This Book is hosted by Elizabeth Ferry, Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University and John Plotz, Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University and co-founder of the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative.

Elizabeth Ferry's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Elizabeth Ferry:

Recall This Book May 18, 2023

David Plotz: Books in Dark Times (JP)

David Plotz

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Aside from being John’s (younger, suaver and beardier) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and …
Recall This Book May 4, 2023

Journalistic Collaboration (JP)

A Conversation Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Steve Fainaru and his brother Mark Fainaru-Wada wrote a bestselling and award-winning book (and accompanying PBS documentary series) about the NFL coverup of concussion trauma, League of Denial. This conversation …
Recall This Book April 20, 2023

Elizabeth Bradfield in Dark Times (JP)

Elizabeth Bradfield

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
For the RtB Books in Dark Times series back in 2021, John spoke with Elizabeth Bradfied, editor of Broadsided Press, poet, professor of creative writing at Brandeis, naturalist, photographer. Her …
Recall This Book April 6, 2023

Poetry, Observation, and Form

A Discussion with Sassan Tabatabai

Sassan Tabatabai

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
"For me, there is something so solid and comforting in stone" says Sassan Tabatabai in our conversation, and in his poem "Firestones" the words roll, weigh and satisfyingly click together …
Recall This Book March 9, 2023

Chris Walley on Deindustrialization (EF, JP)

Christine J. Walley

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
On a blustery fall morning back in 2019, RTB welcomed Christine Walley, anthropologist and author of Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago. In the early 1980s Chris’s father …
Recall This Book March 2, 2023

Nuclear Ghosts

A Discussion with Ryo Morimoto

Ryo Morimoto

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
John and Elizabeth, in this special Centennial episode of Recall this Book, explore spectral radiation with Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His new book Nuclear Ghost …
Recall This Book February 16, 2023

Gael McGill Visualizes Intracellular Data (JP, GT)

Gael McGill

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
What’s actually going on in a cell–or on the spiky outside of an invading virus? Gael McGill, Director of Molecular Visualization at the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics at …
Recall This Book February 2, 2023

Horton's Cosmic Zoom

A Discussion with Zachary Horton

Zachary Horton

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Today Recall this Book welcomes Zachary Horton, Associate Professor of Literature and director of the Vibrant Media Lab at University of Pittsburgh; game designer, filmmaker and camera designer. Out of …
Recall This Book January 19, 2023

Lorraine Daston Books In Dark Times (JP)

Lorraine Daston

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Our Books in Dark Times series offered John this 2021 chance to speak with Lorraine Daston of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Her list of publications …
Recall This Book January 5, 2023

Lorraine Daston Rules the World (EF, JP)

A Discussion of Rules and Where they Come From

Lorraine Daston

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Historian of science Lorraine Daston's wonderful new book, Rules: A Short History of What We Live by (Princeton UP, 2022). is just out. Daston's earlier pathbreaking works include Against Nature, Classical …
Recall This Book December 15, 2022

Books in Dark Times

A Discussion with Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is …
Recall This Book December 1, 2022

The Nature of the Future

A Discussion with Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
How should humans respond to our ongoing human-made climate catastrophe? To answer that question, Recall this Book turned to prize-winning climate reporter Elizabeth Kolbert, who visited Brandeis this Fall. The …
Recall This Book November 17, 2022

Ethnonationalism since 1973

A Discussion with Quinn Slobodian

Quinn Slobodian

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
What’s the relationship between immigration, globalization and demographics? And what is woke particularism? John and Elizabeth turn for answers to Quinn Slobodian, professor of history at Wellesley College and author …
Recall This Book November 3, 2022

"Let's Go Brandon," QAnon and Alt-Right Language (EF, JP)

A Discussion with Janet McIntosh

Janet McIntosh

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Elizabeth and John talk with Brandeis linguistic anthropologist Janet McIntosh about the language of US alt-right movements. Janet's current book project on language in the military has prompted thoughts about …
Recall This Book October 20, 2022

Leah Price on Children’s Books

Turning Back the Clock on “Adulting” (EF, JP)

Leah Price

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
What do children love most about books? Leaving their mark on inviting white spaces? Or that enchanting feeling when a book marks them as its own, taking them off to …
Recall This Book October 6, 2022

Virtual Reality as Immersive Enclosure, with Paul Roquet (EF, JP)

A Discussion with Paul Roquet (EF, JP)

Paul Roquet

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Paul Roquet is an MIT associate professor in media studies and Japan studies; his earlier work includes Ambient Media. It was his recent mind-bending The Immersive Enclosure that prompted John …
Recall This Book September 15, 2022

The Work of Inhabiting a Role

Novel Dialogue Crossover, JP

Charles Yu and Chris Fan

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Charles Yu won the 2020 National Book Award for Interior Chinatown but some of us became fans a decade earlier, with How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe …
Recall This Book September 1, 2022

Underwater Eye

Margaret Cohen Explores the Film Aquatic

Margaret Cohen

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Margaret Cohen joins John to discuss The Underwater Eye, which explores "How the Movie Camera Opened the Depths and Unleashed New Realms of Fantasy." Margaret's earlier prizewinning books include The …
Recall This Book August 18, 2022

Mike Leigh In Focus (JP)

Mike Leigh

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
In nearly 50 years of filmmaking, British director Mike Leigh has ranged from comic portrayals of ordinary life amid the social breakdowns of Thatcher’s Britain (Life is Sweet, High Hopes) …
Recall This Book August 4, 2022

Dana Stevens on Buster Keaton (JP EF)

Dana Stevens

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Dana Stevens joins Elizabeth and John to discuss Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Her fantastic new book serves as occasion …
Recall This Book July 21, 2022

Pu Wang and John Plotz Look Back on their Cixin Liu Interview

Pu Wang and John Plotz

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Our first August rebroadcast was John and Pu's 2019 interview with SF superstar Cixin Liu (you may want to re-listen to that episode before this one!). Here, they reflect on …
Recall This Book July 7, 2022

Cixin Liu Talks about Science Fiction

Cixin Liu

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
John and Pu Wang, a Brandeis professor of Chinese literature, spoke with science-fiction genius Cixin Liu back in 2019. His most celebrated works include The Three Body Problem, The Dark …
Recall This Book June 16, 2022

Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz on Zadie Smith

Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
John and Elizabeth look back at Recall This Book’s 2019 conversation with Zadie Smith, so you may want to listen to that again before proceeding. Elizabeth and John try their …
Recall This Book June 2, 2022

Zadie Smith in Focus (JP)

Zadie Smith

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
In this 2019 episode, John interviews the celebrated British writer Zadie Smith. The conversation quickly moves through Brexit (oh, the inhumanity!) and what it means to be a London–no, a …