Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchPeter Harmsen, "Bernhard Sindberg: The Schindler of Nanjing" (Casemate, 2024)
Episode 142
In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six week…
2 years, 4 months ago
Judith Pearson, "Crusade to Heal America: The Remarkable Life of Mary Lasker" (Mayo Clinic Press, 2023)
Episode 247
Mary Woodard Lasker had a singular goal: saving lives by increasing medical research. Together with her husband, advertising genius Albert, they crea…
2 years, 4 months ago
Stanley Wells, "What Was Shakespeare Really Like?" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Episode 281
Sir Stanley Wells is one of the world's greatest authorities on William Shakespeare. Here he brings a lifetime of learning and reflection to bear on …
2 years, 4 months ago
Neema Avashia, "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place" (West Virginia UP, 2022)
Episode 78
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Bo…
2 years, 4 months ago
Norman Hill and Velma Murphy Hill, "Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain: The Extraordinary Story of Love, Civil Rights, and Labor Activism" (Regalo Press, 2023)
Episode 248
The remarkable story of a couple who came together during the civil rights movement and made fighting for equality and civil and workers' rights thei…
2 years, 4 months ago
Deborah Taffa, "Whiskey Tender: A Memoir" (Harper, 2024)
Episode 201
Today’s book is: Whiskey Tender: A Memoir (Harper, 2024), by Deborah Jackson Taffa, who was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to …
2 years, 4 months ago
Josh Fernandez, "The Hands That Crafted the Bomb: The Making of a Lifelong Antifascist" (PM Press, 2024)
Episode 185
Today I talked to Josh Fernandez about his new memoir The Hands That Crafted the Bomb: The Making of a Lifelong Antifascist (PM Press, 2024).
Josh Fer…
2 years, 4 months ago
Andrius Gališanka, "John Rawls: The Path to a Theory of Justice" (Harvard UP, 2019)
Episode 563
It is hard to overestimate the influence of John Rawls on political philosophy and theory over the last half-century. His books have sold millions of…
2 years, 4 months ago
Paul Mendes-Flohr, "Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent" (Yale UP, 2019)
Episode 171
In Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent (Yale University Press, 2019), Paul Mendes-Flohr, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divini…
2 years, 4 months ago
Gregory Wallance, "Into Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)
Episode 173
It’s perhaps one of history’s funny accidents that relations between the U.S. and Russia were changed not by one, but two, George Kennans. Decades be…
2 years, 4 months ago