Podcast Episodes

César A. Hidalgo, "The Infinite Alphabet: And the Laws of Knowledge" (Allen Lane, 2026)

We all understand that knowledge shapes the fate of business and the growth of nations, but few of us are aware of the principles that govern its mot…

1 month ago

Gudrun Persson, "Russian Military Thought: The Evolution of Strategy Since the Crimean War" (Georgetown UP, 2025)

The development of the Russian military's strategic thought is an understudied and thus misunderstood subject in the West. Strategy in Russia encompa…

1 month ago

John Oakes, "The Fast: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Promise of Doing Without" (Avid Reader, 2024)

With fasting at an all-time high in popularity, here is an enlightening exploration into the history, science, and philosophy behind the practice—ess…

1 month ago

Lauren M. MacLean, "Negotiating Power and Inequality in Ghana: Electricity and Citizenship as Reciprocity (Indiana UP, 2026)

In Ghana, much as in other parts of the Global South, postcolonial leaders aimed for industrial growth through the establishment of affordable hydroe…

1 month ago

Georgios Boudalis, "On the Edge: Endbands in the Bookbinding Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean" (Legacy Press, 2022)

On the Edge: Endbands in the Bookbinding Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean by Dr Giorgios Boudalis (Legacy Press, 2022). The term endbands desi…

1 month ago

Susannah B. Mintz, "Hypochondria: In Sickness and in Story" (Reaktion, 2026)

Hypochondria: In Sickness and in Story (Reaktion, 2026) proposes a bold reimagining of a frequently dismissed condition. Dr. Susannah B. Mintz refram…

1 month ago

Ethelene Whitmire, "The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram" (Viking, 2026)

On the eve of World War II, a handsome young scholar arrived in Paris. The queer, Black son of a housecleaner, who had nevertheless been decorated in…

1 month ago

Alec Ryrie, "The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It" (Reaktion, 2025)

Examining everything from popular novels to politics, an investigation of persistent fascination with Nazis—and where it might take us.

We live in an…

1 month ago

E. and H. Heron, "Flaxman Low: Occult Detective" (MIT Press, 2026)

Flaxman Low, literature’s first professional, full-time “occult detective”—that is, an intrepid investigator who deploys the scientific method when t…

1 month ago

Suzanne Bost, "Quiet Methodologies: Humility in the Humanities" (U Minnesota Press)

What would it mean to disentangle humanities scholarship from combative, extractive, and colonial ways of knowing and writing? This is the question t…

1 month ago