What is the relationship between popular misogyny and popular feminism? In Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny(Duke University Press, 2018), Sarah Banet-Weiser, Professor of Media and Communications and Head of Department at the LS

Laurie Frankel, “This is How it Always is” (Flatiron Books, 2017)

Dec 10th, 2018 35m 44s

In her new novel This is How it Always is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl. While

Emily Jungmin Yoon, “A Cruelty Special to Our Species” (Ecco Books, 2018)

Dec 7th, 2018 46m 4s

In her first full-length collection, A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco Books, 2018), Emily Jungmin Yoon examines forms of violence against women. At its core these poems delves into the lives of Korean comfort women of the 1930s and 40s, r

Julian Meyrick, Robert Phiddian and Tully Barnett, “What Matters?: Talking Value in Australian Culture” (Monash UP, 2018)

Dec 6th, 2018 32m 31s

How should we value culture? In What Matters? Talking Value in Australian Culture (Monash University Press, 2018), Professors Julian Meyrick, Robert Phiddian and Tully Barnett, from Flinders University’s Laboratory Adelaide: The Value of Cultur

Kevin Hamilton and Ned O’Gorman, “Lookout America!: The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War” (Dartmouth College Press, 2018)

Dec 5th, 2018 58m 6s

One of the major aspects of the end of the Cold War has been the discovery and release of records related to many government activities from the period. In Lookout America!: The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War (Dartmouth Co

Joshua Max Feldman, “Start Without Me” (William Morrow, 2017)

Dec 3rd, 2018 28m 3s

In Joshua Max Feldman‘s thoughtful, bittersweet novel Start Without Me (William Morrow, 2017), two strangers meet at an airport restaurant, and through the course of one Thanksgiving Day, help each other grapple with love, disappointment, and f

John C. Hajduk, “Music Wars: Money, Politics, and Race in the Construction of Rock and Roll Culture, 1940–1960” (Lexington Books, 2018)

Dec 3rd, 2018 1h

In his new book Music Wars: Money, Politics, and Race in the Construction of Rock and Roll Culture, 1940–1960 (Lexington Books, 2018), John C. Hajduk examines the emergence of a “rock and roll culture” in mid 20th century America. Professor Haj

Catherine Russell, “Archiveology: Walter Benjamin and Archival Film Practices” (Duke UP, 2018)

Nov 29th, 2018 50m 28s

In her book Archiveology: Walter Benjamin and Archival Film Practices (Duke University Press, 2018), Catherine Russell defines “archiveology” as “the reuse, recycling, appropriation and borrowing of archival sounds and images by filmmakers”. In

Alec Nevala-Lee, “Astounding” (Dey Street Books, 2018)

Nov 29th, 2018 43m 38s

Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding (Dey Street Books, 2018) is the first comprehensive biography of John W. Campbell, who, as a writer and magazine editor, wielded enormous influence over the field of science fiction in the mid-20th century. “His int

David Charles Sloane, “Is the Cemetery Dead?” (U Chicago Press, 2018)

Nov 26th, 2018 41m 37s

It is certain that we all will experience death in our life. What is less certain is how and where our bodies will be disposed of. In Is the Cemetery Dead? (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Dr. David Charles Sloane discussed how cemeteries h

Nivedita Lakhera, “Pillow of Dreams” (Nivedita Lakhera, 2017)

Nov 21st, 2018 55m 51s

Pillow of Dreams (Nivedita Lakhera, 2017) is an intensely emotional and inspirational collection of poetry and art by Dr. Nivedita Lakhera. She experienced a stroke, divorce, and then a heartbreak all at the young age of 27. She is a doctor of

Andrew S. Curran, “Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely” (Other Press, 2019)

Nov 20th, 2018 1h 2m

Denis Diderot has long been regarded as one of the leading figures of the French Enlightenment, thanks to his editorship of the influential multi-volume Encyclopédie. AsAndrew S. Curran explains in his biography Diderot and the Art of Thinking

Eric D. Weitz, “Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy” (Princeton UP, 2018)

Nov 20th, 2018 1h 1m

What can the Weimar Republic teach us about how democracies fail? How could the same vibrancy that gave us cultural touchstones spawn Nazism? In his new book Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton University Press, 2018), Eric D. Weitz

Steven Shaviro, “Discognition” (Repeater Books, 2016)

Nov 20th, 2018 1h 5m

Steven Shaviro’s book Discognition (Repeater Books, 2016) opens with a series of questions: What is consciousness? How does subjective experience occur? Which entities are conscious? What is it like to be a bat, or a dog, a robot, a tree, a hum

Pedith Pui Chan, “The Making of a Modern Art World: Institutionalization and Legitimization of Guohua in Republican Shanghai” (Brill, 2017)

Nov 20th, 2018 57m 20s

The Making of a Modern Art World: Institutionalization and Legitimization of Gouhua in Republican Shanghai (Brill, 2017) investigates the production and consumption of guohua (“national painting”) in Shanghai between 1929 and the outbreak of th

Peter Zinoman, “Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung” (U California Press, 2013)

Nov 19th, 2018 43m 50s

Over the course of the 1930s, Vietnamese author Vũ Trọng Phụng published eight novels, hundreds of works of narrative nonfiction, stories, plays, essays and articles. He was a best-selling writer in his own day who sharpened his acute literary

Kate Brandes, “The Promise of Pierson Orchard” (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2017)

Nov 19th, 2018 28m 8s

How do families decide when financial relief outweighs the risks of drilling for natural gas on their land? In Kate Brandes’ novel Promise of Pierson Orchard (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2017), a big energy company comes to Minden, Pennsylvani

Jack David Eller, “Inventing American Tradition: From the Mayflower to Cinco de Mayo” (Reaktion Books, 2018)

Nov 19th, 2018 45m 28s

Americans gathering for Thanksgiving this week may assume they are continuing an unbroken chain of tradition that traces directly back to Massachusetts settlers in 1620. In fact, many of our most cherished Thanksgiving traditions are far more r

Anthony Ryan, “The Empire of Ashes” (Ace, 2018)

Nov 16th, 2018 33m 8s

The Draconis Memoria series is comprised of a trilogy set in a world where drake (dragon) blood is a prized commodity, the basis of the trading fortune of the Ironship Syndicate. It is a brilliant, savage adventure. When I jumped in with Anthon

Tiffany Quay Tyson, “The Past is Never” (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018)

Nov 16th, 2018 35m 22s

It’s a hot August day in 1976, the sun beats down in the Mississippi Delta, and three siblings go swimming in the old, forbidden rock quarry. Everyone knows that something evil and unspeakable once happened there. The youngest child disappears,

Alicia Malone, “The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women” (Mango Publishing Group, 2018)

Nov 16th, 2018 59m 32s

Today we will be talking to Alicia Malone, the author of The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women (Mango Publishing Group, 2018). Malone is a film critic and host on Turner Classic Films who has compiled a list of 52 films directed by wo

Ronald Rael, “Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary” (U California Press, 2017)

Nov 16th, 2018 42m 9s

With the passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006, the U.S. Congress authorized funding for what has become the largest domestic construction project in twenty-first century America. The result? Approximately 700 miles of fencing, barricades, an

Eliot Peper, “Borderless” (47North)

Nov 15th, 2018 39m 22s

It seems clear that our dependence on the internet will only grow in coming years, offering untold convenience. But how much control will we have to surrender to access this digital wonderland? That’s one of the key questions animating the firs

Vernon Keeve III, “Southern Migrant Mixtape” (Nomadic Press, 2018)

Nov 15th, 2018 44m 56s

In this episode, we speak with Vernon Keeve III about his book Southern Migrant Mixtape (Nomadic Press, 2018), a collection published by Nomadic Press. Memoir comes in many forms, be it poetry or prose. Keeve’s work is a bridge between both wor