Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchAniket De, "The Boundary of Laughter: Popular Performances Across Borders in South Asia" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Episode 208
Combining archival research with ethnographic fieldwork, Aniket De's book The Boundary of Laughter: Popular Performances Across Borders in South Asia…
4 years, 2 months ago
Vinayak Chaturvedi, "Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Essentials of History" (SUNY Press, 2022)
Episode 157
Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Essentials of History (SUNY Press, 2022) explores the place of history in the political thought of Vina…
4 years, 2 months ago
Michael J. Altman, "Hinduism in America: An Introduction" (Routledge, 2022)
Episode 206
Hinduism in America: An Introduction (Routledge, 2022) is a concise introduction to the long history of religion in the encounter between America and…
4 years, 2 months ago
On Yoga, Cultural Appropriation, and Racism
Episode 162
Shreena Gandhi is a multi-faceted cultural historian of religion with expertise in religion, race, the Americas and Hinduism. Trained at Swarthmore, …
4 years, 2 months ago
Caleb Simmons, "Singing the Goddess Into Place: Locality, Myth, and Social Change in Chamundi of the Hill, a Kannada Folk Ballad" (SUNY Press, 2022)
Episode 207
Singing the Goddess Into Place: Locality, Myth, and Social Change in Chamundi of the Hill, a Kannada Folk Ballad (SUNY Press, 2022) demonstrates how …
4 years, 2 months ago
Meenal Shrivastava, "Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir" (Athabasca UP, 2018)
Episode 204
Today I talked to about Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir (Athabasca UP, 2018). This book is available open access here.
As a precocious young girl, Surekha…
4 years, 2 months ago
Koushiki Dasgupta, "Sadhus in Indian Politics: Dynamics of Hindutva" (Sage, 2021)
Episode 205
Koushiki Dasgupta's Sadhus in Indian Politics: Dynamics of Hindutva (Sage, 2021) maps the changing face of contemporary Hindu politics, evaluating th…
4 years, 2 months ago
Marion (Mugs) McConnell, "Letters from the Yoga Masters" (North Atlantic Books, 2016)
Episode 214
This intimate and insightful account of the life of Dr. Harry (Hari) Dickman, referred to by Swami Sivananda as “the yogi of the West,” features more…
4 years, 2 months ago
Kajri Jain, "Gods in the Time of Democracy" (Duke UP, 2021)
Episode 200
In 2018 India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the world's tallest statue: a 597-foot figure of nationalist leader Sardar Patel. Twice th…
4 years, 3 months ago
Wendy Doniger, "After the War: The Last Books of the Mahabharata" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Episode 212
Wendy Doniger's After the War: The Last Books of the Mahabharata (Oxford UP, 2022) is a new translation of the final part of the Mahabharata, the gre…
4 years, 3 months ago