Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchJennifer Conrad on Teaching Through Picture Book Appreciation
I have never spoken to anyone like Jennifer Conrad who teaches literature to her senior high school students through picture book appreciation. In our interview, we discuss how her unique program evo…
Published on 2 weeks ago
Jessica F. Green, "Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them" (Princeton UP, 2025)
It’s no secret that the Paris Agreement and voluntary efforts to address climate change are failing. Governments have spent three decades crafting international rules to manage the climate crisis yet…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Michael Kardos, "Fun City Heist" (Severn House, 2025)
Mo Melnick has perfect pitch, which didn’t help him in his career as a drummer, but he used to be in a rock band and now his job is sitting on the Jersey Shore renting out chairs and beach umbrellas.…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Jonathan S. Jones, "Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis" (UNC Press, 2025)
During the Civil War, the utility and widespread availability of opium and morphine made opiates essential to wartime medicine. After the war ended, thousands of ailing soldiers became addicted, or “…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Julia Wagner, "Hester Street" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Joan Micklin Silver's groundbreaking debut feature film, Hester Street (1975), vividly portrays the immigrant experience through the eyes of Gitl (Carol Kane), a young, Orthodox Jewish woman who arri…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Theresa Delgadillo, "Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas" (U Michigan Press, 2024)
Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas (U Michigan Press, 2024) offers a new lens for examining diaspora and borderlands texts and performances that considers the insepar…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Brooke Barbier, "King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father" (Harvard UP, 2023)
King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father (Harvard UP, 2023) is a rollicking portrait of the paradoxical patriot, whose measured pragmatism helped make American independence a…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Anne Irfan, "A Short History of the Gaza Strip" (Simon & Schuster, 2025)
In this episode, Joe Williams speaks to historian Anne Irfan about her new book, A Short History of the Gaza Strip (Simon & Schuster, 2025). Drawing on more than a decade of research, Irfan traces th…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Jimmy Wales with Dan Gardner, "The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last" (Crown Currency, 2025)
In my interview with Jimmy Wales, father of Wikipedia, we celebrate his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last (Crown Currency Publishing, 2025). We talk about …
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Anna Nyburg and Charmian Brinson eds., "Refugees from Nazism to Britain in Trade, Industry, and Engineering" (Brill, 2025)
Refugees from Nazism to Britain in Trade, Industry, and Engineering (Brill, 2025) is a book in German Studies that explores the intricacies and impacts of refugees on British industry and engineerin…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago