Podcast On Democracy and Bullshit January 14, 2026 We鈥檙e continuing our series on philosopher Harry Frankfurt鈥檚 seminal work, On Bullshit. Our discussion with H茅l猫ne Landemore is on democracy and bullshit, with a special focus on her book, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. Read More
Podcast What Do You Want Out of Life? December 17, 2025 What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money鈥攐r work for justice? To run marathons鈥攐r sing in a choir? To have children鈥攐r travel the world? The things we care about in life鈥攆amily, friendship, leisure activities, work, our moral ideals鈥攐ften conflict, preventing us from doing what matters most to us. Read More
Podcast Everything Evolves December 10, 2025 Mark Vellend describes how all observable phenomena in the universe can be understood through two sciences. The first is physics. The second is the science of evolvable systems. Read More
Podcast How Progress Ends December 08, 2025 Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. Read More
Podcast Safe Havens for Hate December 02, 2025 Content moderation on social media has become one of the most daunting challenges of our time. Nowhere is the need for action more urgent than in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Read More
Podcast Wound Man December 02, 2025 The Wound Man鈥攁 medical diagram depicting a figure fantastically pierced by weapons and ravaged by injuries and diseases鈥攚as reproduced widely across the medieval and early modern globe. Jack Hartnell charts the emergence and endurance of this striking image, used as a visual guide to the treatment of many ailments. Read More
Podcast Death in a Shallow Pond November 24, 2025 From the bestselling coauthor of Wittgenstein鈥檚 Poker, Death in a Shallow Pond is a fascinating account of Peter Singer鈥檚 controversial 鈥渄rowning child鈥� thought experiment鈥攁nd how it changed the way people think about charitable giving. Read More
Podcast Taxation and Resentment November 21, 2025 Andrea Louise Campbell examines public opinion on taxation, exploring why what Americans favor in principle differs from what they accept in practice. Read More
Podcast The First King of England November 17, 2025 From one of today鈥檚 leading historians of the early medieval period, The First King of England is an enthralling chronicle of 脝thelstan, England鈥檚 founder king whose achievements of 927 rival the Norman Conquest of 1066 in shaping Britain as we know it. Read More
Podcast The Life of Violet November 13, 2025 In 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet鈥攁 teasing tribute to Woolf鈥檚 friend Mary Violet Dickinson. Read More
Podcast Make Your Manuscript Work October 22, 2025 Developmental editing holds the power to make a manuscript connect with publishers and readers, yet few scholarly writers have the training to do it well. Laura Portwood-Stacer shows scholarly writers how to identify what鈥檚 been holding their writing back and fix it so they can accomplish their publication goals. Read More
Podcast India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent October 06, 2025 Much of world history is Indian history. Home today to one in four people, the subcontinent has long been densely populated and deeply connected to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas through migration and trade. Read More
Podcast Classicism and Other Phobias October 01, 2025 Dan-el Padilla Peralta shows how the concept of 鈥渃lassicism鈥� lacks the capacity to affirm the aesthetic value of Black life and asks whether a different kind of classicism鈥攐ne of insurgence, fugitivity, and emancipation鈥攊s possible. Read More
Podcast The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear September 18, 2025 The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear by Nan Z. Da is a compelling new reading of The Tragedy of King Lear that finds parallels in twentieth-century Chinese history. Read More
Podcast A History of the Muslim World September 09, 2025 Michael A. Cook talks with Morteza Hajizadeh about his new book, A History of the Muslim World鈥攁 panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muhammad to the birth of the modern era. Read More
