Podcast Episodes

Michelle Adams, "The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North" (FSG Press, 2025)

In 1974, the Supreme Court issued a momentous decision: In the case of Milliken v. Bradley, the justices brought a halt to school desegregation acros…

2 months, 1 week ago

Kim Bowes, "Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent" (Princeton UP, 2025)

The story of ancient Rome is predominantly one of great men with great fortunes. Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent (Princeton…

2 months, 1 week ago

Mike Pitts, "Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

Rapa Nui, known to Western cultures as Easter Island for centuries, has long been a source of mystery. While the massive stone statues that populate …

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Elliot B. Hanowski, "Towards a Godless Dominion: Unbelief in Interwar Canada" (McGill-Queen’s UP, 2023)

In recent surveys, one in four Canadians say they have no religion. A century ago, Canada was widely considered to be a Christian nation, and the vas…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

The Augustan Revolution: On Ancient Rome with Reece Edmends

In this second episode of Season 5, I interview Dr. Reece Edmends, a graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, and a junior faculty member in the Classi…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Daneesh Majid, "The Hyderabadis: From 1947 to the Present Day" (Harper Collins, 2025)

From the annexation of the princely state of Hyderabad in September 1948 to the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 and the eventual creation of Tela…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Caroline Sharples, "The Long Death of Adolf Hitler: An Investigative History" (Yale UP, 2026)

Adolf Hitler has taken a long time to die, despite the lethal efficiency of the gun he put to his head in April 1945. Although eagerly anticipated ar…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Karen Dubinsky, "Strangely, Friends: A History of Cuban-Canadian Encounters" (Between the Lines, 2025)

Strangely, Friends: A History of Cuban-Canadian Encounters (Between the Lines, 2025) delves into the rich, often overlooked history of personal and…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Maud Anne Bracke, "Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Feminism, Contraception, and Abortion, 1950-1980 (Oxford UP, 2025)

The introduction of the principle of women's reproductive liberty in France, tentatively by the family planning movement after 1960 and explicitly by…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Guoqi Xu, "The Idea of China: A Contested History" (Harvard UP, 2026)

What counts as China, and who counts as Chinese?

China became a capitalist superpower by investing in globalization. Now that it has established its …

2 months, 2 weeks ago