Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchJoseph A. Seeley, "Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria" (Cornell UP, 2024)
Episode 559
Icy, unpredictable, and treacherous, the dangers of the Yalu River were heightened in the twentieth century when it became the longest non-maritime b…
1 year, 2 months ago
Maggie M. Cao, "Painting US Empire: Nineteenth-Century Art and Its Legacies" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Episode 168
Painting US Empire: Nineteenth-Century Art and Its Legacies (University of Chicago Press, 2025) by Dr. Maggie Cao is the first book to offer a synthe…
1 year, 2 months ago
Jade S. Sasser, "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question" (U California Press, 2024)
Episode 205
Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a ra…
1 year, 2 months ago
Leigh Ann Henion, "Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark" (Algonquin, 2024)
Episode 383
“Almost every storyline we’re familiar with suggests that we should banish [darkness] as quickly as possible—because darkness is often presented as a…
1 year, 2 months ago
On Barak, "Heat, a History: Lessons from the Middle East for a Warming Planet" (U California Press, 2024)
Episode 138
Despite the flames of record-breaking temperatures licking at our feet, most people fail to fully grasp the gravity of environmental overheating. Wha…
1 year, 2 months ago
Nir Arielli, "The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History" (Yale UP, 2025)
Episode 295
The Dead Sea is a place of many contradictions. Hot springs around the lake are famed for their healing properties, though its own waters are deadly …
1 year, 3 months ago
Gary Griggs, "California Catastrophes: The Natural Disaster History of the Golden State" (U California Press, 2024)
Episode 181
California has more natural hazards per square mile than any other state, but this hasn’t deterred people from moving here. Entire California towns a…
1 year, 3 months ago
Andrew Boyd, "I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor" (New Society, 2023)
Episode 204
Andrew Boyd is a humorist and long-time veteran of creative campaigns for social change. He led the decade-long satirical media campaign “Billionaire…
1 year, 3 months ago
David N. Livingstone, "The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Episode 203
Scientists, journalists, and politicians increasingly tell us that human impacts on climate constitute the single greatest threat facing our planet a…
1 year, 3 months ago
Marcia Bjornerud, "Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks" (Flatiron Books, 2024)
Episode 120
Today I talked to Marcia Bjornerud about Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks (Flatiron Books, 2024).
Rocks are the record of our …
1 year, 3 months ago