New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15" (FSG, 2023)

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner so...

Nate Klemp, "Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World" (Sounds True, 2024)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing down our minds and hearts seems to be the only way to survive. We close down to our inner ...

Patrick Gamsby, "The Discourse of Scholarly Communication" (Lexington Books, 2023)

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Discourse of Scholarly Communication (Lexington Books, 2023) examines the place and purpose of modern scholarship and its dialectical relationshi...

Jenna Ng, "The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie" (Amsterdam UP, 2021)

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Screens are ubiquitous today. Yet contemporary screen media eliminate the presence of the screen and diminish the visibility of its boundaries. As the...

James S. Damico and Mark C. Baildon, "How to Confront Climate Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change" (Teachers College Press, 2022)

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change and climate denial have remained largely off the radar in literacy and social studies education in the United States. How to Confront ...

Christopher Reddy, "Science Communication in a Crisis: An Insider's Guide" (Routledge, 2023)

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Christopher Reddy, environmental chemist and Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusett...

Rob Percival, "The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat" (Pegasus, 2022)

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our future diet will be shaped by diverse forces. It will be shaped by novel technologies, by geopolitical tensions, and the evolution of cultural pre...

Markus Krajewski, "The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque" (Yale UP, 2018)

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque (Yale UP, 2018) is a cutting–edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic tha...

Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel, "After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Creative storytelling is the beating heart of Darwin's science. All of Darwin's writings drew on information gleaned from a worldwide network of scien...

Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg, "Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An indispensable guide for telling fact from fiction on the internet—often in less than 30 seconds. The internet brings information to our fingertip...

Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, "The Will to Predict: Orchestrating the Future Through Science" (Cornell UP, 2023)

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can we predict the future? In The Will to Predict: Orchestrating the Future Through Science (Cornell UP, 2023), Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, an Associ...

Ismar Volić, "Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation" (Princeton UP, 2024)

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What's the best way to determine what most voters want when multiple candidates are running? What's the fairest way to allocate legislative seats to d...

Lisa Herzog, "Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For better or worse, democracy and epistemology are intertwined. For one thing, politics is partly a matter of gathering, assessing, and applying inf...

Eviane Leidig, "The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization" (Columbia UP, 2023)

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On mainstream social media platforms, far-right women make extremism relatable. They share Instagram stories about organic foods that help pregnant wo...

Science Is a Creative Human Enterprise: A Discussion with Natalie Aviles

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Natalie Aviles, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia. We talk about how organizations shape people, a...

Curtis Fox, "Hybrid Warfare: The Russian Approach to Strategic Competition and Conventional Military Conflict" (30 Press Publishing, 2023)

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The on-going war in Ukraine continues to highlight the distinct differences between how Russia operates large-scale military operations from the usual...

Chen-Pang Yeang, "Transforming Noise. A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900-1955" (2023)

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant distur...

Elinor Cleghorn, "Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World" (Dutton, 2022)

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Medicine carries the burden of its own troubling history. Over centuries, women’s bodies have been demonised and demeaned until we feared them, felt...

Sandro Galea, "Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A provocative chronicle of how US public health has strayed from its liberal roots. The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health...

Lee McIntyre, "On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy" (MIT Press, 2023)

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The effort to destroy facts and make America ungovernable didn't come out of nowhere. It is the culmination of seventy years of strategic denialism. I...

Renée Fox, "The Necromantics: Reanimation, the Historical Imagination, and Victorian British and Irish Literature" (Ohio State UP, 2023)

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Necromantics: Reanimation, the Historical Imagination, and Victorian British and Irish Literature (Ohio State UP, 2023) dwells on the literal af...

Paddy Walker and Peter Roberts, "War's Changed Landscape?: A Primer on Conflict's Forms and Norms" (Howgate, 2023)

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout much of the 21st century thus far, the common argument among military pundits was that war has or will soon be radically changed in manners...

Andi Gustavson and Charlotte Nunes, "Transforming the Authority of the Archive: Undergraduate Pedagogy and Critical Digital Archives" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Featuring perspectives from educators, undergraduates, and archivists who are affiliated with community and institutional archives, the contributions ...

The Future of Images of Human Evolution

20 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are all familiar with the “march of progress” image - the representation of evolution that depicts a series of apelike creatures becoming progr...

Cross-Cultural Research on Gaming and “Gaming Disorder”

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998 the phrase “internet addiction” was first used to describe problematic prolonged internet use, and encompassed a wide range of online acti...

What Decision Means

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to Episode No.5 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. ...

Hartmut Koenitz, "Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative: Immersive Expressions for a Complex Time" (Routledge, 2023)

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This remarkably clearly written and timely critical evaluation of core issues in the study and application of interactive digital narrative (IDN) unta...

Ajantha Subramanian on "The Caste of Merit" ((EF,JP))

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Before she became the host and star of Violent Majorities, the RTB series on Israeli and Indian ethnonationalism, Ajantha Subramanian sat down wit...

Paul Gowder, "The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Governments and consumers expect internet platform companies to regulate their users to prevent fraud, stop misinformation, and avoid violence. Yet, s...

Christopher Corker, "The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930" (U of York, 2016)

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Christopher Corker's The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930 (U of York, 2016) focuses on four in-depth case stud...

Free to Investigate: Dr. Scott Atlas on the Freedom in the Sciences

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can we have science without freedom of speech? Dr. Scott Atlas's professional work and personal experiences bring to light an important and often unde...

David B. Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman, "Mainstreaming and Game Journalism" (MIT Press, 2023)

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why games are still niche and not mainstream, and how journalism can help them gain cultural credibility. Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Pres...

Alexandra Filindra, "Race, Rights, and Rifles: The Origins of the NRA and Contemporary Gun Culture" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The United States has more guns than people and more gun violence than any Western democracy. Scholars in diverse fields interrogate why 21st centur...

James W. Cortada, "Inside IBM: Lessons of a Corporate Culture in Action" (Columbia Business School, 2023)

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

IBM was the world's leading provider of information technologies for much of the twentieth century. What made it so successful for such a long time, a...

Can A.I. Mean?

13 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to Episode No.4 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. ...

Thomas DeGloma, "Anonymous: The Performance of Hidden Identities" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, anonymity has rocked the political and social landscape. There are countless examples: An anonymous whistleblower was at the heart of...

Jennifer Thomson, "The Wild and the Toxic: American Environmentalism and the Politics of Health" (UNC Press, 2019)

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first wealth is health, according to Emerson. Among health’s riches is its political potential. Few know this better than environmentalists. In ...

Mark Monmonier, "Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography" (ESRI Press, 2019)

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (ESRI Press, 2019), cartographic cogitator Mark Monmonier shares hi...

Roland Allen, "The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" (Profile Books, 2023)

06 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful...

Chinmay Tumbe, "The Age Of Pandemics (1817-1920): How They Shaped India and the World" (Harper Collins, 2020)

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the Economic and Business History channel I spoke with Dr. Chinmay Tumbe, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute ...

Lee McIntyre, "The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience" (MIT Press, 2019)

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What can explain the success of science as an endeavor for getting closer to truth? Does science simply represent a successful methodology, or is it s...

Lenny A. Ureña Valerio, "Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920" (Ohio UP, 2019

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920 (Ohio University...

Robert R. Janes, "Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat" (Routledge, 2023)

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who do you turn to at the brink of the apocalypse? What might help us to mitigate the financial, commercial, political, social, and cultural collapse ...

Benjamin R. Siegel, “Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India” (Cambridge UP, 2018)

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his first book Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India (Cambridge University Press 2018), historian Benjamin Robert Siegel ...

Carolyn Birdsall, "Radiophilia" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A century ago, the emergence of radio, along with organized systems of broadcasting, sparked a global fascination with the 'wonder' of sound transmiss...

Nicole Seymour, "Glitter" (Bloombury, 2022)

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Glitter (Bloomsbury, 2022) by Dr. Nicole Seymour reveals the complexity of an object often dismissed as frivolous. Dr. Seymour describes how glitter'...

Jeffrey Whyte, "The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War" (Oxford UP, 2023)

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffrey Whyte's book The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War (Oxford UP, 2023) exp...

Ben Jacobsen and David Beer, "Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory: Classification, Ranking and the Sorting of the Past" (Bristol UP, 2023)

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Social media platforms hold vast amounts of biographical data about our lives. They repackage our past content as ‘memories’ and deliver them back...

André Jansson, "Rethinking Communication Geographies: Geomedia, Digital Logistics and the Human Condition" (Edward Elgar, 2022)

23 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How are geographies of communication changing with contemporary digital media and data infrastructure? What is ‘geomedia’ and ‘transmedia’? Wh...

Howie Singer and Bill Rosenblatt, "Key Changes: The Ten Times Technology Transformed the Music Industry" (Oxford UP, 2023)

23 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Key Changes: The Ten Times Technology Transformed the Music Industry (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Howie Singer and Bill Rosenblatt tells a new ...

Joanna Zylinska, "The Perception Machine: Our Photographic Future between the Eye and AI" (MIT Press, 2023)

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A provocative investigation of the future of photography and human perception in the age of AI. We are constantly photographing and being photographed...

Vineeta Sinha. "Temple Tracks: Labour, Piety and Railway Construction in Asia" (Berghahn Books, 2023)

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The notions of labour, mobility and piety have a complex and intertwined relationship. Using ethnographic methods and a historical perspective, Vineet...

Vincent Ialenti, "Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now" (MIT Press, 2020)

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Based on twelve years of anthropological exploration, Vincent Ialenti'sDeep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now (MIT Press, 2020) ...

Laila Shereen Sakr, "Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives" (Stanford UP, 2023)

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laila Shereen Sakr's book Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives (Stanford UP, 2023) explores an alternative origin story of twent...

Skylar Bayer and Gabriela Serrato Marks, "Uncharted: How Scientists Navigate Their Own Health, Research, and Experiences of Bias" (Columbia UP, 2023)

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

People with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM fields, and all too often, they face isolation and ableism in academia. Uncharted: How Scientis...

Toward Equity in Science: A Discussion with Cassidy Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Cassidy Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière, co-authors of Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Adva...

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 7: A Genealogy of Gun Violence

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roo...

Nettrice R. Gaskins, "Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation: Culturally Relevant Making Inside and Outside of the Classroom" (MIT Press, 2021)

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Nettrice R. Gaskins about Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation: Culturally Relevant Making Inside and Outside of the Classr...

Jesse Dart, "Feeding the Hustle: Free Food & Care Inside the Tech Industry" (Lexington Books, 2022)

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Food is increasingly a subject of interest in social sciences: how we cook, consume, and share food is relevant to our social lives. In Feeding the H...

Mark Munsterhjelm, "Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of Indigenous Peoples" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023)

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Forensic genetic technologies are popularly conceptualized and revered as important tools of justice. The research and development of these technologi...

The Future of Predictions: A Discussion with Christopher E. Mason

09 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Predictive algorithms are changing the world – that is the claim of Christopher E. Mason who has co-authored (with Igor Tulchinsky) the book The A...

This is the Best Statement of the Simulation Hypothesis We've Seen

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the UConn PopCast, and in this episode we discuss Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 movie World on a Wire, shown on West German television ove...

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 3: What Is Genealogy

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can g...

Using History For User Research (UX): A Discussion with Larry McGrath

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Episode 4 of "Practical History" I talk to Larry McGrath, a user researcher at Amazon (and author of Making Spirit Matter Neurology, Psychology, ...

Linda Eckert, "Enough: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cervical cancer kills almost 350,000 women each year. What's more horrifying, is that millions have died of this disease that's nearly 100% preventabl...

Monica Huerta, "The Unintended: Photography, Property, and the Aesthetics of Racial Capitalism" (NYU Press, 2023)

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The end of the nineteenth century saw massive developments and innovations in photography at a time when the forces of Western modernity—industriali...

Andrew C. McKevitt, "Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America" (UNC Press, 2023)

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United States has more guns than people – a condition that is “unprecedented in world history.” Scholars often focus on gun culture, the Sec...

Too Much Communication?

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to Episode No.2 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. ...

Jeff Jarvis, "The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The age of print is a grand exception in history. For five centuries it fostered what some call print culture – a worldview shaped by the completene...

Daniel Jütte, "Transparency: The Material History of an Idea" (Yale UP, 2023)

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political...

Andrea L. Guzman et al., "The SAGE Handbook of Human–Machine Communication" (SAGE, 2023)

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication (Sage, 2023) has been designed to serve as the touchstone text for researchers and scholars engaging...

Peter Bellerby, "The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Bellerby is the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, the world's only truly bespoke makers of globes. His team of skilled craftspeople make ex...

Ran Zwigenberg, "Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ran Zwigenberg’s Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (U Chicago Press, 2023) explores early ...

G. H. Bennett, "The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys" (US Naval Institute Press, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys (US Naval Institute Press, 2023) by Dr. G. H. Bennett examines th...

Peter Samsonov, "IS-2: Development, Design, and Production of Stalin's Warhammer" (Military History Group, 2022)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The IS-2 is the quintessential Soviet heavy tank from World War 2. Heavily armored and boasting a fearsome 122mm gun, this tank matched the German pan...

Dirk Van Laak, "Lifelines of Our Society: A Global History of Infrastructure" (MIT Press, 2023)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Infrastructure is essential to defining how the public functions, yet there is little public knowledge regarding why and how it became today's stronge...

Anne Baillot, "From Handwriting to Footprinting: Text and Heritage in the Age of Climate Crisis" (Open Book Publishers, 2023)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do we currently preserve and access texts, and will our current methods be sustainable in the future? In From Handwriting to Footprinting: Text a...

Kat Mustatea, "Voidopolis" (MIT Press, 2023)

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize, Kat Mustatea's Voidopolis (MIT Press, 2023) is a hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of ...

Tabitha Stanmore, "Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Magic is ubiquitous across the world and throughout history. Yet if witchcraft is acknowledged as a persistent presence in the medieval and early mode...

Anne Mendelson, "Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood" (Columbia UP, 2023)

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the populat...

Ruth Dalton, "Living in Houses: A Personal History English Domestic Architecture" (Lund Humphries, 2022)

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Living in Houses: A Personal History of English Domestic Architecture (Lund Humphries, 2022), Dr. Ruth Dalton presents a rich and rewarding histo...

Joe Lane, "Networks, Innovation, and Knowledge: the North Staffordshire Potteries, 1750-1851" (U of London, 2023)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the industrial district of the North Staffordshire Potteries dominated the British earthenware industr...

Jenny Odell, "Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock" (Random House, 2023)

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her first book, How to Do Nothing, artist Jenny Odell examined the power of quiet contemplation in a world where our attention is bought and sold....

Florentine Koppenborg, "Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance" (Cornell UP, 2023)

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Florentine Koppenborg’s Japan’s Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance (Cornell UP, 2023) begins with the understated observatio...

Jason Puskar, "The Switch: An Off and On History of Digital Humans" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the telegraph to the touchscreen, how the development of binary switching transformed everyday life and changed the shape of human agency. The Sw...

Matthew F. Jordan, "Danger Sound Klaxon!: The Horn That Changed History" (U Virginia Press, 2023)

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Danger Sound Klaxon!:The Horn That Changed History (University of Virginia Press, 2023) reveals the untold story of the Klaxon automobile horn, one o...

Stefan Tanaka, "History without Chronology" (Lever Press, 2019)

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this interview, we talk with Stefan Tanaka, professor emeritus of UCSD and a specialist in modern Japanese history. He is author of two books on ...

Technology, AI, Political Economy, and Economic Development

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Simon Johnson (MIT Sloan Economics Professor and Former IMF Chief Economist) joins the podcast to discuss his new book "Power and Progress", co-author...

Emily H. C. Chua, "The Currency of Truth: Newsmaking and the Late-Socialist Imaginaries of China's Digital Era" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China’s news sector is a place where newsmakers, advertising executives, company bosses, and Party officials engage one another in contingent and ev...

Kai Jun Chen, "Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China" (U Washington Press, 2023)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technology in Qing China (University of Washington Press; 2023) looks at the history of court-sponsored p...

A.I. and Practice with Stuart Baldwin

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The technological revolution we are facing today is artificial intelligence. At least this is what we are told. Those doing the telling include tech e...

Xaq Frohlich, "From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age" (U California Press, 2023)

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Xaq Frohlich’s From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age (U California Press, 2023) is a biography of the Nutrition ...

Can You Fall in Love with ChatGPT?

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute recently sponsored a panel discussion on the topic, “Can you fall in love with ChatGPT?” and ...

The Future of Crucial Materials: A Discussion with Ed Conway

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for...

Aarathi Prasad, "Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses" (William Collins, 2023)

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Silk—a luxury fabric, a valuable trade good, and a scientific marvel. This material, created by the bombyx mori silkworm, has captivated artisans ...

Jordan Frith, "Barcode" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Barcodes are about as ordinary as an object can be. Billions of them are scanned each day and they impact everything from how we shop to how we travel...

Colin McFarlane, "Waste and the City: The Crisis of Sanitation and the Right to Citylife" (Verso, 2023)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Colin McFarlane, through W...

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, "Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 40 years, lawmakers in America's two major political parties have taken increasingly extreme positions on ideological issues. Voters fro...

Peter Nelson, "Computer Games As Landscape Art" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Nelson's book Computer Games As Landscape Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) proposes that computer games are the paradigmatic form of contempora...

Jeremy Howick, "The Power of Placebos: Unlocking Their Potential to Improve Health Care" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Should your doctor prescribe a placebo for you, instead of conventional medicine? And if she did, would it work? Is the double-blind placebo-controlle...