Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMary Flannery, "Geoffrey Chaucer: Unveiling the Merry Bard" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
Episode 273
For over six centuries, Chaucer has epitomized poetic greatness, though more recent treatments of The Canterbury Tales’ lively and often risqué style…
1 year, 8 months ago
Eugene W. Holland, "Perversions of the Market: Sadism, Masochism, and the Culture of Capitalism" (SUNY Press, 2024)
Episode 513
Perversions of the Market: Sadism, Masochism, and the Culture of Capitalism (SUNY Press, 2024) argues that capitalism fosters sadism and masochism--n…
1 year, 8 months ago
Claire C. Robison, "Bringing Krishna Back to India" (Oxford UP, 2024)
Episode 577
The Hare Krishnas have long been associated with American hippie culture and New Age religious movements. But they have developed deeply rooted commu…
1 year, 8 months ago
The Anxious Generation: A Conversation with Jonathan Haidt
Episode 138
In this episode of Madison's Notes, Jonathan Haidt, renowned social psychologist and author, dives deep into the impact of digital saturation on toda…
1 year, 8 months ago
Yoni Appelbaum, "Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of Prosperity" (Random House, 2025)
Episode 200
We take it for granted that good neighborhoods—with good schools and good housing—are inaccessible to all but the very wealthy. But, in America, this…
1 year, 8 months ago
Ray Brescia, "The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism" (NYU Press, 2025)
Episode 759
As Americans increasingly depend upon their phones, computers, and internet resources, their actions are less private than they believe. Data is rout…
1 year, 8 months ago
Jessica A. Brockmole, "Pink Cars and Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way Into the Driver's Seat" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025)
Episode 111
Since the commercial introduction of the automobile, US automakers have always sought women as customers and advertised accordingly. How, then, did c…
1 year, 8 months ago
Glen L. Thompson, "Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China" (Eerdmans, 2024)
Episode 293
Many people assume that the first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-spe…
1 year, 8 months ago
Paul Podolsky, "The Uncomfortable Truth About Money: How to Live with Uncertainty and Learn to Think for Yourself" (Harriman House, 2024)
Episode 169
We are all stuck in a money cage. Money isn’t the most important thing, but it is a thing and you can’t get away from it. Birth costs money and death…
1 year, 8 months ago
Ada Palmer, "Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Episode 92
Ada Palmer joins Jana Byars to talk about her new book, Inventing the Renaissance (U Chicago Press, 2025) and the ways history is written and used.
F…
1 year, 8 months ago