New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
Episodes
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...
Jill Tartar, “SETI: Astronomy as a Contact Sport” (Open Agenda, 2021)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
SETI: Astronomy as a Contact Sport is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jill Tarter, Chair Emeritus for SETI Researc...
Robert Brooks, "Artificial Intimacy: Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Algorithmic Matchmakers" (Columbia UP, 2021)
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons...
Naomi Oreskes, "Why Trust Science?" (Princeton UP, 2021)
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us...
Simon Egbert and Matthias Leese, "Criminal Futures: Predictive Policing and Everyday Police Work" (Routledge, 2020)
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Egbert and Matthias Leese's Criminal Futures: Predictive Policing and Everyday Police Work (Routledge, 2020) explores how predictive policing...
Ian Stewart, “The Joy of Mathematics” (Open Agenda, 2021)
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Joy of Mathematics is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the Un...
Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever, "Making AI Intelligible: Philosophical Foundations" (Oxford UP, 2021)
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In their open-access publication, Making AI Intelligible: Philosophical Foundations (Oxford University Press, 2021), Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever ...
Paul Steinhardt, “Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals” (Open Agenda, 2021)
11 Nov 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...
Gershom Gorenberg, "War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East" (PublicAffairs: 2021)
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Second Battle of El-Alamein, alongside Stalingrad and Midway, is taught in schools the world over as one of the turning points of the Second World...
Kristin Hussey, "Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the opening of the Suez Canal, larger and faster steamships, plus dockside engineering to accommodate them – time shrunk in the British Empire....
Jeffrey J. Hall, "Japan's Nationalist Right in the Internet Age: Online Media and Grassroots Conservative Activism" (Routledge, 2021)
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Japan's nationalist right have used the internet to organize offline activism in increasingly visible ways. Jeffrey J. Hall, investigates the role of...
Sima Shakhsari, "Politics of Rightful Killing: Civil Society, Gender, and Sexuality in Weblogistan" (Duke UP, 2020)
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 2000s, mainstream international news outlets celebrated the growth of Weblogistan—the online and real-life transnational network of Ira...
Andrew Leigh, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?: Existential Risk and Extreme Politics" (MIT Press, 2021)
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that you're more likely to die from a catastrophe than in a car crash? The odds that a typical US resident will die from a catastrophic e...
How to Be Wrong: An Introduction to the Podcast
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"How To Be Wrong" is a podcast series hosted by John J. Kaag, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and John W...
Scott Soames, “Appreciating Analytic Philosophy” (Open Agenda, 2021)
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Appreciating Analytic Philosophy is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Scott Soames, Distinguished Professor of Philo...
Maria Jose de Abreu, "The Charismatic Gymnasium: Breath, Media, and Religious Revivalism in Contemporary Brazil" (Duke UP, 2021)
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In The Charismatic Gymnasium: Breath, Media, and Religious Revivalism in Contemporary Brazil (Duke University Press, 2021), Maria José de Abreu e...
Lee Smolin, “Examining Time” (Open Agenda, 2021)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Examining Time is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Lee Smolin who is a faculty member of Perimeter Institute for Th...
Bradley Alger, "Defense of the Scientific Hypothesis: From Reproducibility Crisis to Big Data" (Oxford UP, 2019)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Bradley Alger, Professor Emeritus of Physiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine and author of Defense of the...
Diego Armus and Pablo Gómez, "The Gray Zones of Medicine: Healers and History in Latin America" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Edited by Diego Armus and Pablo Gómez, The Gray Zones of Medicine: Healers and History in Latin America (University of Pittsburgh Press 2021) tell ...
Vicky Neale, "Why Study Mathematics?" (London Publishing Partnership, 2020)
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Students and their families face a consequential choice in whether to pursue a degree, and in what area. For those considering mathematics programs, t...
67 Everything and Less: Mark McGurl on Books in the Age of Amazon
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What do you make of Amazon: The new Sears Roebuck? A terrifying monopoly threat? Satisfaction (a paperback in your mailbox, a Kindle edition on your t...
Alcino Silva, “Learning and Memory” (Open Agenda, 2021)
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Learning and Memory is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Alcino Silva, Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology, Psyc...
Jonathan Schooler, “Mind-Wandering and Meta-Awareness” (Open Agenda, 2021)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mind-Wandering & Meta-Awareness is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jonathan Schooler, Professor of Psychological a...
Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro, "When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vac...
Caitlin Ring Carlson, "Hate Speech" (MIT Press, 2021)
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hate speech can happen anywhere - in Charlottesville, Virginia, where young men in khakis shouted, "Jews will not replace us"; in Myanmar, where the ...
George Styles, "Contemplation" (2021)
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Although many of us move through life at a fast pace, do you ever stop to wonder why things are the way they are? More so, do you even know why you sh...
Stephen Scherer, “Our Human Variability” (Open Agenda, 2021)
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our Human Variability is a comprehensive book based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Stephen Scherer, the GlaxoSmithKline...
A Conversation with Aliyah Kovner, Science Writer and Science Podcaster
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Aliyah Kovner, science writer and also host of the podcast A Day in the Half-Life. We talk about who science communicatio...
Nicolette Hahn Niman, "Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat" (Chelsea Green, 2021)
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat (Chelsea Green, 2021), Nicolette Hahn Niman makes the expanded case for large rumi...
Roberto J. González, "Connected: How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network" (U California Press, 2020)
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Connected: How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network (U California Press, 2020) is the true story of how, against all odds, a remote Me...
Alex Pentland and Alexander Lipton, "Building the New Economy: Data As Capital" (MIT Press, 2021)
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Data is now central to the economy, government, and health systems—so why are data and the AI systems that interpret the data in the hands of so few...
Ashley Hinck, "Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World" (LSU Press, 2019)
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World (Louisiana State Press, 2019) examines what Ashley Hinck calls “fan-base...