Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchJacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)
Episode 155
Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lone…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Mel Rosenberg, "Emily Saw A Door" (Random House Studio, 2026)
Michelle Knudsen, celebrated author of over fifty children's books (and a personal favorite) agreed to interview Mel Rosenberg on the eve of publicat…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Peer Schouten, "Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
Episode 134
Peer Schouten, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a breathtaking book. Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Cen…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Oren Harman, "Metamorphosis: A Natural and Human History" (Basic Books, 2025)
A search for the meaning of one of nature's greatest riddles: why do so many creatures transform?
“How many creatures walking on this earth / Have th…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Ashlyn Hand, "Prioritizing Faith: International Religious Freedom and U.S. Foreign Policy" (NYU Press, 2025)
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 formally established the promotion of religious freedom as a U.S. foreign policy and national securit…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Hilary French, "Ballroom: A People’s History of Dancing" (Reaktion Books, 2022)
Episode 175
In the early twentieth century, American ragtime and the Parisian tango fuelled a dancing craze in Britain. Public ballrooms were built throughout th…
3 weeks ago
Todd Cleveland, "Africa and the Olympics: Winning Away from the Podium" (Ohio UP, 2024)
Episode 309
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in 2021 due to COVID-19), the fifty-four African countries that participated finished the tournament with the l…
3 weeks ago
Bill Kopp, "What's the Big Idea: 30 Great Concept Albums" (Hozac, 2025)
Episode 311
As long as there has been music, the form has been used as a vehicle for storytelling. Artists who have something to say often find that putting it i…
3 weeks ago
Ian Smith, "Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
Episode 267
In Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Ian Smith urges readers of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and…
3 weeks ago
Ann Komaromi, "Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society" (Cornell UP, 2022)
Episode 235
Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society (Cornell UP, 2022) traces the emergence and development of samizdat, a significant and distinctive phenomeno…
3 weeks ago