Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchVictor Navarro-Remesal, "Zen and Slow Games" (MIT Press, 2026)
A deep dive into the reflective modes of playfulness in video games. Slowness and reflectiveness have always been part of the video game medium, thou…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Seth S. Tannenbaum, "Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark" (U Illinois Press, 2026)
Celebrated as a democratic space for all Americans, the major league ballpark in fact privileged the middle- and upper-class white male fan while ta…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Catherine Elgin, "Epistemic Ecology" (MIT Press, 2025)
Humans are highly inquisitive, yet fallible and cognitively limited. How can we improve our epistemic lot despite our limitations? In Epistemic Ecolo…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán, "Detroit Never Left: Black Space, White Borders, Latino Crossings" (NYU Press, 2025)
Detroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wipe…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Helen Redmond, "Liquid Handcuffs: Policing and Punishment in Methadone Clinics and the Future of Opioid Addiction Treatment" (North Atlantic Books, 2026)
A hard-hitting exposé of how methadone clinics fail people in recovery—and an urgent, unapologetic case for their abolition.
Methadone is a life-sav…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Boiling Point
Every other movie seems to be touted as a “tour de force”--but Philip Barantini’s 2021 look at ninety minutes in the life of a chef and everyone arou…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Jessi Streib, "The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Episode 424
Are jobs fair? In The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay after College (U Chicago Press, 2023), Jessi Streib, an associate Professor of So…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Coming Out as Dalit with Yashica Dutt
This episode features Yashica Dutt, journalist and author of Coming Out as Dalit. We began with a discussion of her choice to write a memoir, the sig…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Claire Provost and Matt Kennard, "Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Episode 171
As European empires crumbled in the 20th century, the power structures that had dominated the world for centuries were up for renegotiation. Yet inst…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Jieun Kiaer, "Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Episode 112
Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Jieun Kiaer provides an in-depth discussion of emoji use in a glo…
1 month, 2 weeks ago