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Book of the Day/ East Asian Studies

The Emergence of Global Maoism

China's Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979

Matthew Galway

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos
How do ideas manifest outside of their place of origin, and how do they change once they do? The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949–1979 (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Matthew Galway examines how ideological systems become localized, both in the indigenization of Marxism-Leninism by Mao Zedong and, more significantly, the indigenization of Maoism by the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Galway carefully investigates …
Almost Good Catholics

The Mesopotamian Connection

Comparing the Bible to Other Literature of the Ancient Near East

Cathleen Chopra-McGowan

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Professor Cathleen Chopra-McGowan examines some the incongruities of our Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East, showing how the stories and traditions of Israel resembled and borrowed from …
Ministry of Ideas

Public Thinking

Social Media and the New 'Public Intellectual'

Cornel West and George Scialabba

Hosted by Zachary Davis
We have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speaking truth to power.” Today, however, online …
Jewish Studies

Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews

Mark A. Schneegurt

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
A century after being expelled from Portugal, cryptoJews in Mexico, false converts to Christianity, could not speak of their beliefs for fear of becoming embroiled in the imprisonment, torture, and …
General History

Epidemic Orientalism

Race, Capital, and the Governance of Infectious Disease

Alexandre I. R. White

Hosted by Nathan Moore
For many residents of Western nations, COVID-19 was the first time they experienced the effects of an uncontrolled epidemic. This is in part due to a series of little-known regulations …
Entrepreneurship and Leadership

Building an Interconnected Community

A Conversation with Cormac Russell

Cormac Russell

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Kimon and Richard speak with Cormac Russell, Managing Director at Nurture Development. Cormac focuses on helping institutions, NGOs, governmental organizations, and companies interested in improving their communities. The biggest issue …
Shakespeare For All

Shakespeare's Life, World and Works 5: How to Read Shakespeare

A Discussion with Emma Smith

Emma Smith

Hosted by Zachary Davis
William Shakespeare, who lived in England from 1564 to 1616, is one of the world’s most popular and most captivating authors. Even four hundred years after his death, his plays …
Peoples & Things

The History of Teletherapy

A Conversation with Hannah Zeavin

Hannah Zeavin

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Hannah Zeavin, lecturer in the department of History and member of the executive committees of both the Center for New Media and the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society …
South Asian Studies

Last Among Equals

Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages

M. R. Sharan

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
M. R. Sharan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, studying questions centred around development economics and political economy. He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 202 …
Early Modern History

The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam

Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths

Angela Vanhaelen

Hosted by Jana Byars
Angela Vanhaelen's The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths (Penn State University Press, 2022) opens a window onto a fascinating and understudied aspect of the visual, material, intellectual, and cultural …
Psychology

Small Habits for a Big Life

Rebecca Ray

Hosted by Elizabeth Cronin
Change is not about grand statements and sweeping gestures. It is about chipping away, a bit at a time, at the habits that hold us back.Dr Rebecca Ray knows about …
Critical Theory

Adorno and the Ban on Images

Sebastian Truskolaski

Hosted by Lukas Hoffman
Adorno and the Ban on Images (Bloomsbury, 2022) upends some of the myths that have come to surround the work of the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno – not least amongst …
Think About It

Anne Fernald and Rajgopal Saikumar on Virginia Woolf's "Three Guineas" (1938)

Book Talk 57

Anne Fernald and Rajgopal Saikumar

Hosted by Uli Baer
Virginia Woolf’s 1938 provocative and polemical essay Three Guineas presents the iconic writer’s views on war, women, and the way the patriarchy at home oppresses women in ways that resemble …
International Horizons

A Left Turn? The Politics of Latin America Today

A Discussion with Enrique Desmond Arias

Enrique Desmond Arias

Hosted by International Horizons
This week, RBI director John Torpey interviews Prof. Enrique Desmond Arias, a professor of political science at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, about recent developments in Latin American politics …
Burned by Books

The Margot Affair

A Novel

Sanaë Lemoine

Hosted by Chris Holmes
Sanaë Lemoine is the author of The Margot Affair and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. She was born in Paris to a Japanese mother and …
High Theory

Queer Space

A Discussion with Jack Jen Gieseking

Jack Jen Gieseking

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Jack Jen Gieseking tells us about queer space. Queer geographies matter alongside queer temporalities. And it turns out that lesbian life in the 1950s …
Higher Education

Money or Meaning?

A Discussion on Choice, Restlessness, and Higher Education with Ben and Jenna Storey

Ben Storey and Jenna Storey

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a disservice by occupying them …
Book of the Day/ Secularism

The Varieties of Atheism

Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics (University of Chicago Press, 2022), edited by Professor David Newheiser reveals the diverse nonreligious experiences obscured by the combative intellectualism of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. In fact, contributors contend that narrowly defining atheism as the belief that there is no god misunderstands religious and nonreligious persons altogether. The essays gathered here show that, just as religion exceeds doctrine …
Almost Good Catholics

Walking the Via Dolorosa

An Archaeologist Follows Jesus from His Trial to His Crucifixion

Ilka Knüppel

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Archaeologist Ilka Knüppel discusses her master's thesis—The Search for Jesus's Final Steps: How Archaeological and Literary Evidence Reroutes the Via Dolorosa—and how she came to write it. To use both …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel

Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life in the Ancient World

Arthur Keefer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Is the search for meaning a luxury of the modern world or have human beings always struggled to find meaning in the human condition – in the face of suffering …
African American Studies

Dismal Freedom

A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp

J. Brent Morris

Hosted by Adam McNeil
The massive and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth century, the nearly impassable Dismal …
How to Be Wrong

Otherness, Disability, and Beauty

A Conversation with Pulitzer finalist Chloé Cooper Jones

Chloé Cooper Jones

Hosted by John Kaag and John Traphagan
This episode of How To Be Wrong is about humility, beauty and the ways in which our society dictates the nature and boundaries of what is deemed beautiful. We talk …
Ministry of Ideas

Out of TIme

Sacred Time and 'Time is Money'

Ahmed Ragab and Mary Gray

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Many of the earliest time technologies were used to mark sacred time -- time set apart for the divine. But with the Industrial Revolution, efficient time use became its own …
Jewish Studies

Gendering Modern Jewish Thought

Andrea Dara Cooper

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
The idea of brotherhood has been an important philosophical concept for understanding community, equality, and justice. In Gendering Modern Jewish Thought (Indiana UP, 2021), Andrea Dara Cooper offers a gendered …
Diplomatic History

Petroleum and Progress in Iran

Oil, Development, and the Cold War

Greg Brew

Hosted by Grant Golub
From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first “petro-state,” where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industrializing economy, expanding middle class, and powerful …
Peoples & Things

War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence

A Discussion with Nicole Archambeau

Nicole Archambeau

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Nicole Archambeau, associate professor of history at Colorado State University, talks about her book, Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence (Cornell University Press), with …
Jewish Studies

The Belzec Death Camp

History, Biographies, Remembrance

Chris Webb

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Chris Webb's The Belzec Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance (Ibidem, 2016) is a comprehensive account of the Belzec death camp in Poland, which was the first death camp to use …
Literature

Song of the Storyteller

Book 5 of 5: Songs of Steppe & Forest

C. P. Lesley

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to C. P. Lesley about Song of the Storyteller (Five Directions Press, 2023).  It’s 1546, and Ivan the Terrible is about to be coronated and married off. Government …
Gender Studies

Missing: Men at Work

A Conversation with Nick Eberstadt

Nick Eberstadt

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our …
Book of the Day/ Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

What Do You Want Out of Life?

A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters

Valerie Tiberius

Hosted by Mark Klobas
What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money--or work for justice? To run marathons--or sing in a choir? To have children--or travel the world? The things we care about in life--family, friendship, leisure activities, work, our moral ideals--often conflict, preventing us from doing what matters most to us. Even worse, we don't always know what we really want, or how to define success. Blending personal …
Urban Studies

How Cities Can Transform Democracy

Ross Beveridge and Philippe Koch

Hosted by Anna Zhelnina
We live in an urban age. It is well-known that urbanization is changing landscapes, built environments, social infrastructures and everyday lives across the globe. But urbanization is also changing the …
LGBTQ+ Studies

Queering the Midwest

Forging LGBTQ Community

Clare Forstie

Hosted by Clayton Jarrard
Drag shows that test the capacity of bars persist alongside wishes for stronger community among River City's LGBTQ population. In this examination of LGBTQ community in a small, Midwestern city …
Religion

A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion

Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary

Mikel Burley

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion: Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary (Bloomsbury, 2020) is a unique introduction to studying the philosophy of religion, drawing on a wide range of cultures and literary …
Japanese Studies

Sexual Abuse and Education in Japan

In the (Inter)National Shadows

Robert O'Mochain and Yuki Ueno

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Bringing together two voices, practice and theory, in a collaboration that emerges from lived experience and structured reflection upon that experience, O'Mochain and Ueno show how entrenched discursive forces exert …
Philosophy

A Realistic Blacktopia

Why We Must Unite to Fight

Derrick Darby

Hosted by Robert Talisse
In the United States, unjust disparities in things like income, opportunity, health, safety, and education tightly track racial categorizations of the US population. An intuitive approach to social justice calls …
Southeast Asian Studies

Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand

Encounters with Buddhist Monks

Brooke Schedneck

Hosted by Patrick Jory
The city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand has become the destination for a growing segment of the international tourism market: religious tourism. International tourists visit Buddhist temples, volunteer as …
Ministry of Ideas

Anger Management

When Can Rage Be Good?

Agnes Callard and Myisha Cherry

Hosted by Zachary Davis
We live in a time of anger. Yet most of us feel guilty for getting angry, wishing we could stay calm and turn the other cheek. But though anger can …
Peoples & Things

Inventing American Telecommunications

A Conversation with Richard John

Richard John

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Historian Richard John, professor of journalism at Columbia University, talks about his book, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications, with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. Network Nation is a history …
Jewish Studies

Jews and the Qur'an

Meir M. Bar-Asher

Hosted by Drora Arussy
In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Meir Bar-Asher examines how Jews and Judaism are depicted in the Qur'an and later Islamic literature, providing needed context to those passages critical of …
Almost Good Catholics

“Quintessence of Dust?”

Friendly Argument about God and Man

Peter Hall

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Peter Hall is my old friend, a once-atheist who now calls himself an agnostic; we’ve known each other for fifteen years since we both taught English literature at an international …
Jewish Studies

The Origins of Judaism

An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal

Yonatan Adler

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Throughout much of history, the Jewish way of life has been characterized by strict adherence to the practices and prohibitions legislated by the Torah: dietary laws, ritual purity, circumcision, Sabbath …
British Studies

The 10,000 Year Build-Up to Brexit

A Conversation with Ian Morris

Ian Morris

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
How did Britain become a global superpower? Historian and classicist Ian Morris thinks geography has a lot to do with it. Prof. Morris discusses his latest book, Geography is Destiny …
Darts & Letters

Discordia Revisited

The Concordia Netanyahu Riot of 2002

Hosted by Gordon Katic
20 years ago at Concordia University in Montreal pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with police over whether Benjamin Netanyahu should be allowed to speak on campus. Windows were smashed, arrests were made …
The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

Nietzsche, Wokeism, Non-Buddhist Mysticism

A Discussion with Glenn Wallis

Glenn Wallis

Hosted by Matthew O'Connell
What does it mean to be a hundred? Perhaps Fredric Nietzsche would know. He’s in part the star of the show. Along with regular guest Glenn Wallis. We look at …
Book of the Day/ Anthropology

Computing Taste

Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation

Nick Seaver

Hosted by Mathew Gagné
The people who make music recommender systems have lofty goals: they want to broaden listeners’ horizons and help obscure musicians find audiences, taking advantage of the enormous catalogs offered by companies like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora. But for their critics, recommender systems seem to embody all the potential harms of algorithms: they flatten culture into numbers, they normalize ever-broadening data collection, and they profile their users for commercial ends …
Caribbean Studies

Dougla in the Twenty-First Century

Adding to the Mix

Sue Ann Barratt and Aleah N. Ranjitsingh

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir
Identity is often fraught for multiracial Douglas, people of both South Asian and African descent in the Caribbean. In this groundbreaking volume titled Dougla in the Twenty-First Century: Adding to …
African American Studies

Almost Dead

Slavery and Social Rebirth in the Black Urban Atlantic, 1680-1807

Michael Lawrence Dickinson

Hosted by Adam McNeil
Beginning in the late seventeenth century and concluding with the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Almost Dead: Slavery and Social Rebirth in the Black Urban Atlantic, 1680-1807 (U Georgia …
Asian Review of Books

Takeaway

Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter

Angela Hui

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Food journalist Angela Hui grew up in rural Wales, as daughter to the owners of the Lucky Star Chinese takeaway. Angela grew up behind the counter, helping take orders and …
Indian Religions

Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance

Female Agency in Buddhism and Hinduism

Ute Hüsken

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In most mainstream traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, women have for centuries largely been excluded from positions of religious and ritual leadership. However, as this volume shows, in an increasing …
Science Fiction

Where it Rains in Color

Denise Crittendon

Hosted by Rob Wolf and Brenda Noiseux
Denise Crittendon’s debut science fiction novel,Where it Rains in Color (Angry Robot, 2022), is set far in the future, long after the Earth has been destroyed, on the planet of …
Academic Life

The Grant Writing Guide

A Road Map for Scholars

Betty S. Lai

Hosted by Christina Gessler
Why is writing a grant proposal so stressful? Are you supposed to just know how to do it? This episode explores: How to align your values and interests with a …
East-West Psychology Podcast

ID

Identity Dialogues with Debashish Banerji and Leslie Combs

Debashish Banerji and Leslie Combs

Hosted by Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay
Understanding theories and notions of identity, self-making, personhood, transpersonal relationality between self and other, self and cosmos, are questions of central importance to the East-West Psychology department. Throughout history, cultures …
Recall This Book

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 …
Ministry of Ideas

Border Lines

Refugees and the International Order

Deborah Anker, Celeste Cantor-Stephens, Chowra Makaremi and Adrian Rennix

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Climate change and war have flung millions of people on the move, who often seek safe harbor in the very countries responsible for their displacement. But despite the lofty ideals …
Literature

White Flag

Judy L. Mandel

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Cheryl said many times that "I'm done with that life, I'll never go back to it." But she did. When her Aunt Judy finds her in jail after two years …
Peoples & Things

Why It’s So Hard for Us to Subtract

A Discussion with Leidy Klotz

Leidy Klotz

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Leidy, professor of engineering at the University of Virginia, talks about his book, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. As Klotz shows throughout …
Scholarly Communication

Monumental Names

Archival Aesthetics and the Conjuration of History in Moscow

Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Monumental Names: Archival Aesthetics and the Conjuration of History in Moscow (Routledge, 2022) asks us to consider: what stands behind the propensity to remember victims of mass atrocities by their personal …
The Vault

Sennett and Foucault on Sexuality and Solitude (1979)

Richard Sennett and Michel Foucault

Hosted by New York Institute for the Humanities
In 1979, sociologist and NYIH founder Richard Sennett, and philosopher Michel Foucault, discussed the connections between the history of sexuality and self consciousness. In this episode from the Vault, the …
Higher Education

Truth, Fiction, and Student Loan Forgiveness

A Conversation with Beth Akers

Beth Akers

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
With the Biden Administration's student loan relief coming down the pike, Annika sits down with Dr. Beth Akers, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in higher …
Book of the Day/ Science, Technology, and Society

Should You Believe Wikipedia?

Online Communities and the Construction of Knowledge

Amy S. Bruckman

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
As we interact online we are creating new kinds of knowledge and community. How are these communities formed? How do we know whether to trust them as sources of information? In other words, should we believe Wikipedia?  Should You Believe Wikipedia?: Online Communities and the Construction of Knowledge (Cambridge UP, 2022) explores what community is, what knowledge is, how the internet facilitates new kinds of community, and how knowledge is …
Law

The Practice of American Constitutional Law

H. Jefferson Powell

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
What areas of our lives are governed by constitutional law? When asked about what constitutional law is, Americans tend to think of notable Supreme Court cases such as the abortion …
Eastern European Studies

Resurrecting the Jew

Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland’s Jewish Revival

Geneviève Zubrzycki

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival. Klezmer music, Jewish-style restaurants, kosher vodka, and festivals of Jewish culture have become popular, while new museums, memorials, Jewish …
Art

Beautiful, Gruesome, and True

Artists at Work in the Face of War

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Art has a long history of engaging with conflict and violence. From the antiquities, through Goya, to Guernica, our museums are filled with depictions of battles, pogroms, uprisings, and their …
European Politics

And Then What?

Stories from Twenty-First-Century Diplomacy

Catherine Ashton

Hosted by Tim Jones
When she was chosen as the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) in 2009, Catherine Ashton admits she "felt no exhilaration", fearing she had "few …
Economics

The Performative State

Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China

Iza Ding

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
What does the state do when public expectations exceed its governing capacity? The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China (Cornell, 2022) shows how the state can shape public …
Nordic Asia Podcast

Broken Pathways

Women’s Political Leadership in Sri Lanka

Ramona Vijeyarasa and Nadine Vanniasinkam

Hosted by Petra Alderman
Why are there so few women from non-elite backgrounds in Sri Lankan politics? What barriers do they face on their pathways to politics? And what can be done to support …
Peoples & Things

Computers, Information, and Decision-Making

A Discussion with Samantha Kleinberg

Samantha Kleinberg

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Samantha Kleinberg, an associate professor of computer science at Stevens Institute of Technology, talks about a book she’s been writing on how we can (and can’t) use information to make …
South Asian Studies

Claiming the State

Active Citizenship and Social Welfare in Rural India

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner

Hosted by Alok Prasanna and Sarayu Natarajan
Citizens around the world look to the state for social welfare provision, but often struggle to access essential services in health, education, and social security. Claiming the State: Active Citizenship …
Ministry of Ideas

Introducing Making Meaning

A Podcast Series About the Meaning of Life

Hosted by Zachary Davis
When I was 25, the world I had known ended. I no longer believed the religion I was raised in was true, and I found myself having to build a …
Biblical Studies

The Shema in John's Gospel

Lori A. Baron

Hosted by Michael Morales
The Shema (Deut. 6:4-5) remains the centerpiece of Jewish prayer, proclaiming divine unity even while summoning God’s people to loyalty and loving obedience. In her recent book, Lori A. Baron …
Literary Studies

Alchemy and Exemplary Poetry in Middle English Literature

Curtis Runstedler

Hosted by Nathan Moore
Curtis Runstedler's book Alchemy and Exemplary Poetry in Middle English Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) explores the different functions and metaphorical concepts of alchemy in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English poetry and …
Politics & Polemics

Where Did Conservatism Go?

A Conversation with Yoram Hazony

Yoram Hazony

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
Israeli political philosopher Yoram Hazony discusses the Enlightenment, the American Founding, his latest book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery (Regnery Publishing, 2022), and Conservatism's past and future. Dr. Hazony is the President of the …
Book of the Day/ The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones

The Future of Nuclear Fusion

A Discussion with Sharon Ann Holgate

Sharon Ann Holgate

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – and created energy - for the first time. It was clearly an important moment. But might the development of fusion technology come too late? Owen Bennett Jones speaks with Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion: The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth (Icon Books, 2022) …
Global Media & Communication

Platforms and Cultural Production

Thomas Poell, David B. Nieborg, and Brooke Erin Duffy

Hosted by Aswin Punathambekar and Jing Wang
Hello, world! This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. In this episode, our co-hosts Aswin Punathambekar and Jing Wang discusses the book Platforms and Cultural Production (2021) by …
Military History

Blood and Ruins

The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945

Richard Overy

Hosted by Kelly McFall
Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 (Viking, 2022) to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins …
General History

Empire and Catastrophe

Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954

Spencer D. Segalla

Hosted by Michael Vann
Spencer Segalla’s Empire and Catastrophe: Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954 (U Nebraska Press, 2021) explores natural and anthropogenic disasters during the years of decolonization …
Literary Studies

The Ruins Lesson

Meaning and Material in Western Culture

Susan Stewart

Hosted by John Yargo
How have ruins become so valued in Western culture and so central to our art and literature? Covering a vast chronological and geographical range, from ancient Egyptian inscriptions to twentieth-century …
Sports

Sport and the Home Front

Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45

Matthew Taylor

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Matthew Taylor, Professor of History at De Montfort University, and author of Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-1945 (Routledge, 2020). In …
Ministry of Ideas

You Don't Have To Be Special--Meaning and Self-Conception

Making Meaning Series 1

David Burns

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Feelings of meaninglessness often are caused by how we understand ourselves. If we change how we think about our worth, we’ll discover radiant meaning can be found in even the …
Military History

Kursk 1943

Hitler's Bitter Harvest

Anthony Tucker-Jones

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
The year 1943 was a pivotal one on the Eastern Front during World War II. The Axis had suffered a catastrophic defeat at the battle of Stalingrad earlier in the …
Peoples & Things

The Internet, Inequality, and the “Digital Divide”

A Discussion with Daniel Greene

Daniel Greene

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Information scholar Daniel Greene, an assistant professor at University of Maryland, talks about his book, The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope, with Peoples & …
Israel Studies

The History of Galilee, 1538-1949

Mysticism, Modernization, and War

M. M. Silver

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
This study of Galilee in modern times reaches back to the region's Biblical roots and points to future challenges in the Arab-Jewish conflict, Israel's development, and inter-faith relations. M. M. Silver's …
Jewish Studies

The Jewish Reformation

Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism As Spiritual Enterprise

Michah Gottlieb

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise (Oxford University Press, 2021) was the 2022 winner of the AHA’s Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of Jewish …
Christian Studies

On Time, Change, History, and Conversion

Sean Hannan

Hosted by Adrian Guiu
Sean Hannan offers a new interpretation of Augustine of Hippo's approach to temporality by contrasting it with contemporary accounts of time drawn from philosophy, political theology, and popular science. Hannan …
Politics & Polemics

Reclaiming a Lost Vision of Feminism

A Conversation with Erika Bachiochi

Erika Bachiochi

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has led to a flurry of commentary and wondering, "Where next?" But, it also begs deeper questions: what is the history of abortion and …
Buddhist Studies

Buddhist Responses to COVID

A Discussion with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Hosted by Pierce Salguero
Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana, chief abbot at the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center and a scholar of modern Buddhism in Sri Lanka. We talk about his role …
Book of the Day/ Economic and Business History

No Return

Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe

Rowan Dorin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Beginning in the twelfth century, Jewish moneylenders increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of European authorities, who denounced the evils of usury as they expelled Jews from their lands. Yet Jews were not alone in supplying coin and credit to needy borrowers. Across much of Western Europe, foreign Christians likewise engaged in professional moneylending, and they too faced repeated threats of expulsion from the communities in which they settled. No …
Biblical Studies

The Female Ruse

Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible

Rachel Adelman

Hosted by David Kunsman
In Rachael E. Adelman's monograph The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Press, 2017) she explores how the feminine trickster archetype plays a central …
General History

Inventing the Third World

In Search of Freedom for the Postwar Global South

Gyan Prakash and Jeremy Adelman

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
What is the Third World? The term has essentially been scrubbed from our collective consciousness. What once used to be something concrete seems to have vanished into thin air. Today …
Diplomatic History

US-Egypt Diplomacy Under Johnson

Nasser, Komer, and the Limits of Personal Diplomacy

Gabriel Glickman

Hosted by Grant Golub
What happens to policies when a president dies in office? Do they get replaced by the new president, or do advisers carry on with the status quo? In November 1963, these were …
Environmental Studies

Half-Life of a Secret

Reckoning with a Hidden History

Emily Strasser

Hosted by Cody Skahan
In 1942, the US government began construction on a sixty-thousand-acre planned community named Oak Ridge in a rural area west of Knoxville, Tennessee. Unmarked on regional maps, Oak Ridge attracted …
Ministry of Ideas

A Fortunate Coalescence--Finding Meaning in the Ordinary

Making Meaning Series 2

Aaron Jones

Hosted by Zachary Davis
We’re often given the following choice: either there’s a cosmic, eternal purpose to our lives or nothing matters at all. But perhaps the meaning of life is the meaning in …
Russian and Eurasian Studies

Faster, Higher, Stronger, Comrades!

Sports, Art, and Ideology in Late Russian and Early Soviet Culture

Tim Harte

Hosted by Aaron Weinacht
Dr. Tim Harte's Faster, Higher, Stronger, Comrades!: Sports, Art, and Ideology in Late Russian and Early Soviet Culture (U Wisconsin Press, 2020) looks at sport as artistic subject matter, in …
Sports

New Kids in the World Cup

The Totally Late '80s and Early '90s Tale of the Team That Changed American Soccer Forever

Adam Elder

Hosted by Robert Sherwood
In 1990, though no one knew it then, a fearless group of players changed the sport of soccer in the United States forever. Young, bronzed, and mulleted, they were America’s …
Peoples & Things

The Promises and Perils of Hype in Science and Technology

A Discussion with Gemma Milne

Gemma Milne

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Journalist and STS graduate student Gemma Milne talks about her book, Smoke and Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It, with Peoples & Things host …
Business, Management, and Marketing

The Art of Gig

Venkatesh Rao

Hosted by Joseph Fridman
Venkatesh Rao is a writer and consultant based in Los Angeles. The bulk of his consulting practice comprises 1:1 work with senior executives as a conversational sparring partner, to stress …
Critical Theory

Trade Winds

A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping

Christiaan De Beukelaer

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How can we build greener infrastructure in the face of the global climate emergency? In Trade Winds: A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping (Manchester UP, 2023), Christiaan De Beukelaer, a …
Music

Classic Rock and Hair Metal with Professor and Guitarist Jesse Kavadlo

Deep Cuts Series

Jesse Kavadlo

Hosted by Bob Batchelor
Jesse Kavadlo is the classic “renaissance man” – literature and humanities professor, author of acclaimed books and articles, President of the Don DeLillo Society, fantastic husband and father…AND self-taught guitarist …
Book of the Day/ Russian and Eurasian Studies

Stalin's Library

A Dictator and His Books

Geoffrey Roberts

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
In this engaging life of the twentieth century’s most self-consciously learned dictator, Geoffrey Roberts explores the books Stalin read, how he read them, and what they taught him. Stalin firmly believed in the transformative potential of words, and his voracious appetite for reading guided him throughout his years. A biography as well as an intellectual portrait, Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books (Yale UP, 2022) explores all aspects of …
Critical Theory

In Kierkegaard's Garden with the Poppy Blooms

Why Derrida Doesn't Read Kierkegaard When He Reads Kierkegaard

Chris Boesel

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The philosophy of deconstruction, most famously pushed forward by Jacques Derrida, has left an undeniable dent on contemporary thought, and even religion has found itself in deconstruction’s sights, with …
Music

Long Road

Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation

Steven Hyden

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
Ever since Pearl Jam first blasted onto the Seattle grunge scene three decades ago with their debut album, Ten, they have sold 85M+ albums, performed for hundreds of thousands of …
Jewish Studies

Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah

The Sixteenth-Century Journey of David Reubeni Through Africa, the Middle East, and Europe

Alan Verskin

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In 1524, a man named David Reubeni appeared in Venice, claiming to be the ambassador of a powerful Jewish kingdom deep in the heart of Arabia. In this era of …
Latino Studies

Transborder Los Angeles

An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations

Yu Tokunaga

Hosted by David-James Gonzales
Focusing on Los Angeles farmland during the years between the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Japanese Internment in 1942, Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations …
High Theory

Index

A Discussion with Dennis Duncan

Dennis Duncan

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Dennis Duncan tells us about the history of the index. At it’s simplest, an index is a table with columns that allow you to …
Ministry of Ideas

The Weight of the World--Capitalism and Meaning

Making Meaning Series 3

Kathryn Lofton

Hosted by Zachary Davis
The ideology of capitalism, which drives us to find happiness in endless exertion and economic gain, dulls our emotions and blinds us to the source of our most abundant meaning—relationships …
Shakespeare For All

Shakespeare's "Hamlet" Part 1: the Story

A Discussion with Paulina Kewes

Paulina Kewes

Hosted by Zachary Davis
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains some of the most famous words, images, and characters in all of literature. In this course, you’ll learn Hamlet’s story, explore its lead character’s mind, and …
Literary Studies

Heterotopic World Fiction

Thinking Beyond Biopolitics with Woolf, Foucault, Ondaatje

Lesley Higgins and Marie-Christine Leps

Hosted by Iqra Shagufta Cheema
Note: Sadly, Dr. Marie-Christine Leps passed away before the book came out. Via this conversation, we pay homage to her work that went into the making of this book and …
Peoples & Things

Gendered Labor, Food Security, and Technology in 20th-Century Mali

A Discussion with Laura Ann Twagira

Laura Ann Twagira

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Laura Ann Twagira, an associate professor of history, head of African Studies, and an affiliate with science in society program and feminist gender sexuality studies program at Wesleyan University, talks …
Religion

The Burning Book

Jason Olson and James Goldberg

Hosted by Blair Hodges
The Burning Book (Common Consent Press, 2022) is an unusual and intriguing memoir about Jason Olsen's conversion from Judaism to Mormonism. But it tells no simple story of triumphant conversion away from error toward …
Film

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

J. W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
In 1966 Stanley Kubrick told a friend that he wanted to make “the world’s scariest movie.” A decade later Stephen King’s The Shining landed on the director’s desk, and a …
International Horizons

Where is the Left? The Rise and Decline of Social Democratic Movements

A Discussion with David Abraham

David Abraham

Hosted by International Horizons
This week on International Horizons, David Abraham from the University of Miami discusses the origins of social democratic parties in Europe and the parallels with similar movements in the US …
LGBTQ+ Studies

Erin in the Morning

An Interview with Erin Reed, LGBTQ+ Activist and Substacker

Erin Reed

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Erin Reed. Reed is an activist, public speaker, and writer across multiple platforms, including a Substack newsletter, all of which she gathers under the title “Erin in …
Book of the Day/ Politics & Polemics

Christopher Hitchens

What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters

Ben Burgis

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters (Zero Books, 2022), Ben Burgis reminds readers about what was best in Hitchens's writings and helps us gain a better understanding of how someone whose whole political life was animated by the values of the socialist left could have ended up holding grotesque positions on Iraq and the War on Terror. Burgis' book makes …
Education

Gaming the Past

Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History

Jeremiah McCall

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Routledge, 2022) is a complete handbook to help pre-service teachers, current teachers, and teacher educators use historical video games in …
Psychology

The Soul Solution

A Guide for Brilliant, Overwhelmed Women to Quiet the Noise, Find Their Superpower, and (Finally) Feel Satisfied

Vanessa Loder

Hosted by Elizabeth Cronin
Are you so busy fulfilling everyone else’s expectations that you’ve lost touch with yourself? Do you find yourself filling up your “free” hours with mundane tasks, soaking up podcasts to …
Psychology

Making Nice with Naughty

An Intimacy Guide for the Rule-Following, Organized, Perfectionist, Practical, and Color-Within-The-Line Types

Thomas L Murray

Hosted by Nathan Moore
Have too much self-control?  You worked hard, followed the rules, and delayed gratification to get where you are in life. You played nice, did what you were told, and were …
American Politics

The History and Politics of Star Wars

Death Stars and Democracy

Chris Kempshall

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Chris Kempshall's The History and Politics of Star Wars: Death Stars and Democracy (Routledge, 2022) provides the first detailed and comprehensive examination of all the materials making up the Star …
Literature

Tell Me One Thing

Kerri Schlottman

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I talked to Kerri Schlottman about her new novel Tell Me One Thing (Regal House Publishing, 2023). Quinn and a friend are driving from New York City to Pennsylvania when she …
Intellectual History

Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Between Phenomenology and Dialectic

Robert J. Dostal

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis
In Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: Between Phenomenology and Dialectic (Northwestern University Press, 2022), Robert J. Dostal provides a comprehensive and critical account of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy, arguing that Gadamer’s enterprise is …
Ministry of Ideas

Weaving the World Together--Meaning as 'Emergance'

Making Meaning Series 4

Michael Steger

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Meaning is less a secret to discover than an emergent property, a byproduct of engaging with the world. Through experimentation and an orientation of openness, we can weave ourselves into …
Peoples & Things

“Tech” Journalism and the Many Lives of Stewart Brand

A Discussion with John Markoff

John Markoff

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Journalist John Markoff has been writing about Silicon Valley for over forty years. In this interview with Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel, Markoff talks about his long career, how …
Education

Museums as Agents of Change

A Guide to Becoming a Changemaker

Mike Murawski

Hosted by Callie Smith
Museums everywhere have the potential to serve as agents of change—bringing people together, contributing to local communities, and changing people’s lives. So how can we, as individuals, radically expand the …
Indian Ocean World

On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World

A History of Lake Tanganyika, c.1830-1890

Philip Gooding

Hosted by Gargi Binju
On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World: A History of Lake Tanganyika, c.1830-1890 (Cambridge UP, 2022) is the first interdisciplinary history of Lake Tanganyika and of eastern Africa's relationship …
Gender Studies

Women Standing Strong Together

A Collection of Stories with Soul Purpose, Volume II

Gloria Coppola et al.

Hosted by Nathan Moore
Life will always bring us experiences and uncertainty, risks, losses - never planned, never found - emotional upheaval that defines what it means to be vulnerable; to break down to …
Burned by Books

The Revivalists

Christopher M. Hood

Hosted by Chris Holmes
Christopher M. Hood is the Director of the Creative Writing Program at the Dalton School in New York City and lives nearby with his wife and daughter. He received an …