New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
Episodes
Retraction Watch: A Discussion with Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, cofounders of Retraction Watch. We talk about lots of things, retracting very few. Ivan Ora...
Jun Liu, "Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age: Mobile Communication and Politics in China" (Oxford UP, 2020)
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How has digital communication technologies impacted the dynamics of political contention in China? What is the role of mobile technology in the countr...
Eric Herschthal, "The Science of Abolition: How Slaveholders Became the Enemies of Progress" (Yale UP, 2021)
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the context of slavery, science is usually associated with slaveholders' scientific justifications of racism. But abolitionists were equally adept ...
Aubrey Clayton, "Bernoulli's Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science" (Columbia UP, 2021)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There is a logical flaw in the statistical methods used across experimental science. This fault is not a minor academic quibble: it underlies a reprod...
Kevin Coe and Joshua M. Scacco, "The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times" (Oxford UP, 2021)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times (Oxford UP, 2021) is part of the Oxford Studies in D...
Rashmi Sadana, "The Moving City: Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure" (U California Press, 2021)
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Moving City: Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure (U California Press, 2021) is a rich and intimate account of urban...
Sydney A. Halpern, "Dangerous Medicine: The Story Behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis" (Yale UP, 2021)
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From 1942 through 1972, American biomedical researchers deliberately infected people with hepatitis. Government-sponsored researchers were attempting ...
Diane Coyle, "Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be" (Princeton UP, 2021)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be (Princeton UP, 2021), Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportuni...
Fritjof Capra, "Patterns of Connection: Essential Essays from Five Decades" (High Road Books, 2021)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first Systems and Cybernetics episode of 2022! After a short break over the holidays to rest and spend time with family (and, of course...
Paul A. Offit, "You Bet Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky History of Medical Innovation" (Basic Book, 2021)
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Every medical decision—whether to have chemotherapy, an X-ray, or surgery—is a risk, no matter which way you choose. In You Bet Your Life: From B...
Ben Westhoff, "Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic" (Grove Press, 2019)
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Westhoff is an award-winning investigative journalist whose best-selling 2019 book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest...
Emily Levesque, "The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers" (Sourcebooks, 2021)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Humans from the earliest civilizations through today have craned their necks each night, using the stars to orient themselves in the large, strange wo...
Where the Wild Things Are: Reimagining the More-Than-Human City
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Amidst accelerating environmental change and intense urbanisation, there is growing enthusiasm for building sustainable and ‘natural’ cities. Yet,...
Renny Thomas, "Science and Religion in India: Beyond Disenchantment" (Routledge, 2021)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Science and Religion in India: Beyond Disenchantment (Routledge, 2021) provides an in-depth ethnographic study of science and religion in the context...
Lina Zeldovich, "The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste Into Wealth and Health" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The average person produces about four hundred pounds of excrement a year. More than seven billion people live on this planet. Holy crap! Because of t...
Peter Cappelli, "The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face" (Wharton School Press, 2021)
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke to Professor Peter Cappelli about his new book The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We...
Leonard Mlodinow, "Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking" (Pantheon, 2022)
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Leonard Mdlodinow about his new book Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking (Pantheon, 2022). "On or around December 1910, hum...
Kenneth Anderson, "Strychnine and Gold: The Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States" (2021)
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kenneth Anderson is the author of Strychnine and Gold, a two-volume history of the “untold story of addiction treatment in the United States.” An...
Wim Van Petegem et al., "Evolving as a Digital Scholar: Teaching and Researching in a Digital World" (Leuven UP, 2021)
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to become a digitally agile scholar? This manual explains how academics can comfortably navigate the digital world of today and tomo...
Pankaj Jain, "Science and Socio-Religious Revolution in India" (Routledge, 2018)
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Scholars have long noticed a discrepancy in how non-Western and Western peoples conceptualize the scientific and religious worlds. Non-Western traditi...
Carla Yanni, "The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States" (U Minnesota Press, 2007)
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elaborately conceived, grandly constructed insane asylums—ranging in appearance from classical temples to Gothic castles—were once a common sight ...
Grant Tavinor, "The Aesthetics of Virtual Reality" (Routledge, 2021)
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When philosophers have approached virtual reality, they have almost always done so through the lens of metaphysics, asking questions about the reality...
Paulette F. C. Steeves, "The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere (U Nebraska Press, 2021) is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North a...
73 Teletherapy with Hannah Zeavin (High Theory Crossover, Saronik)
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Crossover Month at Recall this Book ends with a glance sideways at the doings of our pals Saronik and Kim, hosts of the delightfully lapidary podcast ...
Stephanie A. Martin, "Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump" (U Alabama Press, 2021)
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Stephanie (Sam) A. Martin’s new book, Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump (U Alabama Pre...
Juan Manuel del Nido, "Taxis Vs. Uber: Courts, Markets and Technology in Buenos Aires" (Stanford UP, 2021)
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Uber's April 2016 launch in Buenos Aires plunged the Argentine capital into a frenzied hysteria that engulfed courts of law, taxi drivers, bureaucrats...
Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani, "Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors" (PublicAffairs, 2021)
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Human-made climate change may have begun in the last two hundred years, but our species has witnessed many eras of climate instability. The results ha...
Matthew C. Kruger, "What The Living Know: A Novel of Suicide and Philosophy" (Nfb Publishing, 2020)
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Now that science has granted eternal life and youth to all, the world is a place of endless opportunity to live out one's dreams and fulfill one's des...
Helga Nowotny, "In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms" (Polity, 2021)
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Helga Nowotny about her new book In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Polity, 2021). One of the ...
John Cardina, "Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly" (Cornell UP, 2021)
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly (Cornell UP, 2021) explores the tangled history of weeds and their relationship to humans. Through eig...
Colin Jerolmack, "Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town" (Princeton UP, 2021)
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Up to Heaven and Down to Hell (Princeton UP, 2021) is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous deci...
Matt Carlson et al., "News After Trump: Journalism's Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture" (Oxford UP, 2021)
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Political scientists have argued that Donald Trump exacerbated long-simmering changes in polarization, populism, and other aspects of politics. In the...
Ginger Nolan, "Savage Mind to Savage Machine: Racial Science and Twentieth-Century Design" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Attempting to derive aesthetic systems from natural structures of human cognition, designers looked toward the “savage mind”—a way of thinking t...
Rebekah Lee, "Health, Healing and Illness in African History" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Health, Healing and Illness in African History (Bloomsbury, 2021), Rebekah Lee makes an overall assessment of the history and historiography and...
Thomas Huckle and Tobias Neckel, "Bits and Bugs: A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures in Computational Science" (SIAM, 2019)
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A true understanding of the pervasive role of software in the world demands an awareness of the volume and variety of real-world software failures and...
Harry Yi-Jui Wu, "Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization" (MIT Press, 2021)
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1948, the World Health Organization began to prepare its social psychiatry project, which aimed to discover the epidemiology and arrive at a classi...
Charles Foster, "Being a Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness" (Metropolitan Books, 2021)
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How did humans come to be who we are? In his marvelous, eccentric, and widely lauded book Being a Beast, legal scholar, veterinary surgeon, and natur...
Brendan Borrell, "The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine" (Mariner Books, 2021)
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive thr...
Jonathan B. Edelmann, "Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory" (Oxford UP, 2020)
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020), Professor Jonathan B. Edelmann develops...
Paul Halpern, "Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate" (Basic Books, 2021)
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Cr...
COVID-19 and Vaccine Hesitancy in Japan
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anti-vaccination movements pose an increasing threat to global public health, but what of vaccine hesitancy? Join us for a discussion on the effects o...
Karl Herrup, "How Not to Study a Disease: The Story of Alzheimer's" (MIT Press, 2021)
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, some of our best and brightest medical scientists have dedicated themselves to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. What happened? Whe...
Exploring Science Literacy and Public Engagement with Science
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Ayelet Baram-Tsabari. We talk about the accessibility of science using Google to scholars and students in languages beyon...
David Sulzer, "Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music" (Columbia UP, 2021)
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do ot...
Laurie Winkless, "Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces (Bloomsbury, 2022), physicist Laurie Winkless brings the amazing world of surface science to the popular s...
Anna Bokov, "Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930" (Park Publishing, 2020)
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930 (Park Publishing, 2020), Anna Bokov examines the history of the Higher Art ...
Omar W. Nasim, "The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History" (MIT Press, 2021)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of source...
Paul Steinhardt, "Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale" (Open Agenda, 2021)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have developed two distinct books, Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals, and Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale, based on H...
Jennifer Fay, "Inhospitable World: Cinema in the Time of the Anthropocene" (Oxford UP, 2018)
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Inhospitable World: Cinema in the Time of the Anthropocene (Oxford UP, 2018) explores the connection between cinema and artificial weather, climates,...
Charles Sheppard, “Coral Reefs: Science and Survival” (Open Agenda, 2021)
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Coral Reefs: Science and Survival is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Charles Sheppard, Professor of Life Sciences ...
Claudia de Rham, “The Pull of the Stars” (Open Agenda, 2021)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Pull of the Stars is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Claudia de Rham, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Impe...
Gabriel Yoran, "The Interfact: On Structure and Compatibility in Object-Oriented Ontology" (Open Humanities Press, 2021)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Objects in object-oriented ontology (OOO) are mysterious and inexhaustible entities. But since OOO grants ontological priority to objects, it should h...
Melinda Baldwin, "Making 'Nature': The History of a Scientific Journal" (U Chicago Press, 2015)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Melinda Baldwin about her book Making 'Nature': The History of a Scientific Journal (U Chicago Press, 2015). Melinda is...
David Politzer, “The Physics of Banjos” (Open Agenda, 2021)
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Physics of Banjos is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and David Politzer, 2004 Nobel Laureate and the Richard Chace...
Joseph Reagle on H. G. Wells's "World Brain" (1937)
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a World Brain, as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repositor...
Sarah S. Richardson, "The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific in...
Migual Nicolelis, “Minds and Machines” (Open Agenda, 2021)
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Minds and Machines is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Miguel Nicolelis, Professor of Neurobiology, Neurology, Neur...
Jessica Hurley, "Infrastructures of Apocalypse: American Literature and the Nuclear Complex" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1945, America has spent more resources on nuclear technology than any other national project. Although it requires a massive infrastructure that...
Alfred Mele, “Free Will: An Investigation” (Open Agenda, 2021)
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Free Will: An Investigation is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Alfred Mele, the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeist...
Timothy M. Yang, "A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan" (Cornell UP, 2021)
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy Yang’s A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan (Cornell 2021) is a case study of Hoshi Pharmaceutical, a Japanese...
Rocky Kolb, “A Universe of Particles: Cosmological Reflections” (Open Agenda, 2021)
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A Universe of Particles: Cosmological Reflections is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Rocky Kolb, the Arthur Holly ...
Jacob Johanssen, "Fantasy, Online Misogyny and the Manosphere: Male Bodies of Dis/Inhibition" (Routledge, 2021)
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book Fantasy, Online Misogyny and the Manosphere: Male Bodies of Dis/Inhibition (Routledge, 2021), Jacob Johanssen takes us on a journey ...
Andrew Piper, "Can We Be Wrong? The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can We Be Wrong? The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data (Cambridge UP, 2020) by Andrew Piper tackles the problem of generalization with...
Greg Hickock, “Beyond Mirror Neurons” (Open Agenda, 2021)
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Beyond Mirror Neurons is based on an in-depth, filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Greg Hickok, Professor of Cognitive science at UC Irvine,...
Jade S. Sasser, "On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women's Rights in the Era of Climate Change" (NYU Press, 2018)
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since the turn of the millennium, American media, scientists, and environmental activists have insisted that the global population crisis is “back”...
Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray, "Technology in World Civilization" (MIT Press, 2021)
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Technology in World Civilization represents a milestone history of technology. First published in 1990 and now revised and expanded in light of rece...
Kalanit Grill-Spector, “Vision and Perception” (Open Agenda, 2021)
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vision and Perception is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Kalanit Grill-Spector, Professor in Psychology and the Sta...
Ginny Smith, "Overloaded: How Every Aspect of Your Life is Influenced by Your Brain Chemicals" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From adrenaline to dopamine, most of us are familiar with the chemicals that control us. They are the hormones and neurotransmitters that our brains r...
Britt Rusert, "Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture" (NYU Press, 2017)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture (NYU Press, 2017), by Professor Britt Rusert (UMass-Amherst), has alread...
James Shires, "The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East" (Hurst, 2021)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How has “cybersecurity” become a catch-all for everything that touches our digital world? In his new book, The Politics of Cybersecurity in the M...
Diana Kelly, "The Red Taylorist: The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov" (Emerald, 2020)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast Diana Kelly, author of The Red Taylorist: The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov (Emerald, 2020), tells us of the advantage...
Jamie Mustard, "The Iconist: The Art and Science of Standing Out" (BenBella Books, 2019)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Jamie Mustard about his new book The Iconist: The Art and Science of Standing Out (BenBella Books, 2019). Ever feel like you’re ...
Winka Dubbeldam, "Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms" (Actar, 2022)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The object as solid, having three dimensions, is not just a different formal trend, but a paradigm shift; a reconceiving of how the architectural obje...
Noémi Tousignant, "Edges of Exposure: Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal" (Duke UP, 2018)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is “capacity”? In science research and health interventions, it typically refers to the relative availability of equipment, infrastructure, p...
Jennifer Ferng and Lauren R. Cannady, "Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks" (Voltaire Foundation, 2021)
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A ground-breaking volume examining the transnational conditions of the European Enlightenment, Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transn...
Lewis A. Grossman, "Choose Your Medicine: Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in America" (Oxford UP, 2021)
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout American history, lawmakers have limited the range of treatments available to patients, often with the backing of the medical establishment...
James Wynn and G. Mitchell Reyes, "Arguing with Numbers: The Intersections of Rhetoric and Mathematics" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2021)
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One pervasive stereotype about mathematics is that it is objective, unbiased, or otherwise exempt from the influence of human passions. James Wynn a...
Benjamin Labatut, "When We Cease to Understand the World" (NYRB, 2021)
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An interview with Benjamín Labatut, author of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Benjamin and...
David Herzberg, "White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The contemporary opioid crisis is widely seen as new and unprecedented. Not so. It is merely the latest in a long series of drug crises stretching bac...
Shaoling Ma, "The Stone and the Wireless: Mediating China, 1861–1906" (Duke UP, 2021)
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I interview Shaoling Ma, professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS about her new book, The Stone and the Wireless: Mediating ...
Matthew Walker, “Sleep Insights” (Open Agenda, 2021)
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sleep Insights is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Fou...
Shaking the World: How Geology Can Help Us Address the Big Challenges of the 21st Century
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Southeast Asia is the most tectonically and geologically active region on Earth. These processes have enriched the mountains and basins with world-fam...
Oliver Rollins, "Conviction: The Making and Unmaking of the Violent Brain" (Stanford UP, 2021)
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Exposing ethical dilemmas of neuroscientific research on violence, this book warns against a dystopian future in which behavior is narrowly defined in...
Nolan Gasser, "Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste" (Flatiron Books, 2019)
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we love the music we love? In Why You Like IT: The Science & Culture of Musical Taste (Flatiron Books, 2019) musicologist Nolan Gasser, archi...
Molly Thomasy Blasing, "Snapshots of the Soul: Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture" (Cornell UP, 2021)
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Snapshots of the Soul: Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture (Cornell UP, 2021) considers how photography has shaped Russian poetry from ...
Robin Ince, "The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity" (Atlantic Books, 2021)
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Comedian Robin Ince quickly abandoned science at school, bored by a fog of dull lessons and intimidated by the barrage of equations. But, twenty years...
Beatrice Gruendler, "The Rise of the Arabic Book" (Harvard UP, 2020)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did it happen that, in the 13th century, Europe's largest library owned fewer than 2,000 volumes while Baghdad alone boasted of several libraries ...
Gavin Van Horn et al., "Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, 5-Volume Set" (Center for Humans and Nature, 2021)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From The Center for Humans and Nature, Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a five-volume collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and sto...
Herbert Lin, "Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons" (Stanford UP, 2021)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does America’s growing dependence on modern information technology systems mean for the management of its nuclear weapons? In his new book, Cy...
Kenneth O'Reilly, "Asphalt: A History" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Asphalt: A History (U Nebraska Press, 2021), Kenneth O’Reilly provides a history of this everyday substance. By tracing the history of asphalt—...
Frans de Waal, “On Atheists and Bonobos” (Open Agenda, 2021)
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Atheists and Bonobos is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and primatologist Frans de Waal, Emory University, who is r...
Scott Cunningham, "Causal Inference: The Mixtape" (Yale UP, 2021)
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Just about everyone knows correlation does not equal causation, and probably that a randomized controlled experiment is the best way to solve that pro...
James Garrison, "Reconsidering the Life of Power: Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy" (SUNY Press, 2021)
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Reconsidering the Life of Power: Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy by James Garrison (SUNY Press 2021), argues that the...
Chinese Digital Vigilantism: The Mediated and Mediatised Justice-Seeking
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is digital vigilantism? How do Chinese citizens seek justice online? How does digital vigilantism reflect contemporary Chinese technological and ...
68 Martin Puchner: Writing and Reading from Gilgamesh to Amazon
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Book Industry Month continues with a memory-lane voyage back to a beloved early RtB episode. This conversation with Martin Puchner about the very or...
Gabriella Lukács, "Invisibility by Design: Women and Labor in Japan's Digital Economy" (Duke UP, 2020)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of labor market deregulation during the 2000s, online content sharing and social networking platforms were promoted in Japan as new sites ...
David A. B. Murray, "Living with HIV in Post-crisis Times: Beyond the Endgame" (Lexington Books, 2021)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past decade, effective prevention and treatment policies have resulted in global health organizations claiming that the end of the HIV/AIDS c...
Scott Tremaine, “Astrophysical Wonders” (Open Agenda, 2021)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysical Wonders is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Scott Tremaine, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics at the...
Daniel K. L. Chua and Alexander Rehding, "Alien Listening: Voyager's Golden Record and Music from Earth" (Zone Book, 2021)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1977 NASA shot a mixtape into outer space, and it remains the only human-made object to have left the solar system. The Golden Record aboard the V...
John S. Tregoning, "Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them" (Oneworld, 2021)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nature wants you dead. Not just you, but your children and everyone you have ever met and everyone they have ever met; in fact, everyone. It wants yo...