Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMartina Baradel, "21st Century Yakuza: Death of Japanese Organised Crime" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Episode 948
Once dominant and institutionalised, the Yakuza, one of Japan's best known criminal organisations, is now shrinking under the combined pressure of …
3 months, 3 weeks ago
Carrie LeVan, "Neighborhoods Matter: How Place and People Affect Political Participation" (NYU Press, 2026)
Episode 947
Participation in official governmental institutions and activities has declined dramatically. Americans are less inclined to express trust in, or…
3 months, 3 weeks ago
Anna Terwiel offers A Moment of No to the Prison-Industrial Complex (JP)
Episode 946
Punishment makes nobody safer, imprisonment only impoverishes us as a society. And yet, we lock up our own, more and more for worse and worse reasons…
3 months, 4 weeks ago
Thomas Paine at the Semiquincentennial: A Conversation with Gregory Claeys
Episode 945
Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (Princeton University Press, 2026) is the first major new edition of Paine’s works, bringing together all his writin…
3 months, 4 weeks ago
The Once and Future Republic: On Cicero, Locke, and the Making of America with Michael C. Hawley
Episode 944
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, it would be wise to look back at the ancient thinkers and writers who helped inspire …
3 months, 4 weeks ago
Jonathan Schneer, "Nine Days in May: The General Strike Of 1926" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Episode 943
In May, 1926, nearly three million British workers downed tools to support nearly one million of their countrymen, miners whose employers meant to le…
3 months, 4 weeks ago
Daniel Krcmaric, "Above the Law" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Episode 942
The United States has traditionally been a great promoter of international justice – forging the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals after World War II and…
4 months ago
Infrastructure, Nickel, and the Politics of Polyalignment in Indonesia
Episode 940
Indonesia is often framed as a key arena of China-Japan-US competition in the Second Cold War. In this episode, we talk with Trissia Wijaya about her…
4 months ago
Cyanne E. Loyle, "Escaping Justice: Impunity for State Crimes in the Age of Accountability" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Episode 941
Now more than ever, the international community plays a central role in pressing governments to hold themselves to account. Despite pressure to adher…
4 months ago
Why Democracy’s Troubles Should Come as No Surprise
Episode 939
Why have so many democracies become more polarized, unstable, and vulnerable to authoritarianism? And why did so many political observers fail to see…
4 months, 1 week ago