There are a lot of very good, very long books out there: Middlemarch, War and Peace, Don Quixote, the Neopolitan Novels. And then there are the very long books you probably won't ever want to read, like Leonid Brezhnev's memoirs, Saddam Hussein's hackneyed romance novels, or the Kim family's film theory. This show is about that kind of very long book, and the man who decided to read all of them: Daniel Kalder, who joins us on the show to talk about his journey through The Infernal Library and wh...
Mar 16, 2018•20 min•Ep. 41
Americans love a child prodigy: Shirley Temple, Bobby Fischer, Henry Cowell … the list goes on. There’s just something about kid geniuses that enchants us—fascination at how differently they must see the world, and envy at how they've got it made. But in her new book, Off the Charts, Ann Hulbert looks at a range of children who've made a splash over the past century, and whose lives have informed our approach to child-rearing and education. Nature versus nurture is just the start of the debate—a...
Mar 09, 2018•20 min•Ep. 40
For decades, artists have been using horror to speak to our deepest societal fears, from the wilderness (werewolves) to the unknown (aliens). With zombies, that fear is infection: the outbreak of some terrible epidemic that sweeps the world, rendering us all into the drooling, flesh-eating monster next door. But as Dahlia Schweitzer shows in her new book, Going Viral , zombies are part of a much older lineage—dating back to Haitian slavery. Recently, these stories have arisen as commentary on th...
Feb 23, 2018•20 min•Ep. 39
Giorgio Vasari has been variously called the father of art history, the inventor of artistic biography, and the author of “the Bible of the Italian Renaissance”—a little book called The Lives of the Artists . It’s a touchstone for scholars looking to get a peek at life in Michelangelo’s day, and quite fun, too, depending on whose wildly embellished life you’re reading. Ingrid Rowland joins us on the podcast to tell the story of the man behind the men of the Renaissance that we know so well—and, ...
Feb 16, 2018•20 min•Ep. 38
If you're a creature of the 21st century, odds are you've stumbled upon the nascent DIY movement. From baking our bread to stitching our own clothes to raising back yard chickens and growing our own vegetables—even restoring our own furniture—the past few decades have seen a resurgence in our appreciation for crafts, right down to craft beer. But have you ever thatched your own roof with grasses that you grew in your own back yard? Or spent hours researching the secret behind making the best kin...
Feb 09, 2018•20 min•Ep. 37
Phil Klay joins us on the podcast to talk about his essay, “Tales of War and Redemption,” in our Winter issue. It’s an essay that starts on a humorous note, describing the horrible, ridiculously gory deaths of the Christian saints in The Big Book of Martyrs— a comic book for kids. And then he reminds you that he’s been in war, and he’s seen horrible deaths, and horrible suffering. What follows is a beautiful, moving look at suffering, not as sacrifice or cynical constant, but as a reminder of it...
Feb 02, 2018•20 min•Ep. 36
School choice. A portfolio of options. Charters. Vouchers. Virtual classrooms. This is the vocabulary of the 21st-century American education system—and having more of these private options is exactly what policymakers, like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, would like to see. But where did the idea of "public charter schools" come from? And what kind of impact does siphoning money away from the public education system have on the students who remain in that system—or the ones who are taking vi...
Jan 26, 2018•20 min•Ep. 35
So much of the story we hear about China today is an economic one—how over the past few decades, it has risen from poverty and ruin to become a global economic powerhouse. But there’s a story beneath the surface, of the artistic avant-garde that resisted rule from above and inspired generations of ordinary Chinese citizens to seek freedom of expression. From their countryside re-education posts to the abandoned warehouses of Beijing and the short-lived Democracy Wall, Chinese artists flourished ...
Jan 12, 2018•20 min•Ep. 34
The Roman Empire's reputation precedes it: a wingspan that stretched from Syria to Spain, and from the Nile to Scotland's doorstep. Centuries of unbroken rule, a unified commonwealth, and at one point nearly a quarter of the world's population. And then, it all came tumbling down. Why Rome fell has been a favored subject of armchair theorizing pretty much since the empire started teetering—and now, one historian has a bold new idea. Kyle Harper joins us on the podcast to explore how climate chan...
Dec 22, 2017•20 min•Ep. 33
This week, Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman talk about the science (and practice) of creating new things. We share a lot with the other sentient beings on this planet—love, hunger, death, joy, family, jealousy, rage. There's one thing, though, we do that other species, for whatever reason, do not: we innovate. We create. And we do so in a symbiotic way with other humans, building and improving on one another's ideas until suddenly we've all got a supercomputer in our back pockets. So what's at ...
Dec 15, 2017•19 min•Ep. 32
This week, we talk to Cullen Murphy, the son of cartoonist John Cullen Murphy, about growing up during the funnies’ midcentury heyday. Cartoon County is part memoir, part history of the giants of the comics world, who drew Superman, Beetle Bailey, Hägar the Horrible, The Wizard of Id … and a bevy of strips and gags read by millions of Americans. Visit the episode page for a slideshow of images from the book, including sketches, comic strips, and Polaroids from Cullen Murphy’s collection. Go beyo...
Dec 08, 2017•20 min•Ep. 31
This week on the podcast, we’re talking about sublimated desires—and the repressed kind, too. William Deresiewicz expands on an essay he wrote for us about being a man in Jane Austen’s world—and how her novels are about so much more than Colin Firth-as-Mr. Darcy. And Hallie Lieberman explains how the history of sex toys—and the laws banning them—can illuminate America’s complicated relationship with sexuality. • Go beyond the episode: William Deresiewicz’s essay, “ A Jane Austen Kind of Guy ” • ...
Nov 20, 2017•37 min
A measly three percent of books published in the United States are works in translation—so this week, we’re shining a spotlight on two books from dramatically different places. Naivo’s Beyond the Rice Fields is the first Malagasy novel ever translated into English; he and his translator, Allison Charette, talk with us about love stories and origin stories. And Tenzin Dickie, editor of Old Demons, New Deities —the first English anthology of Tibetan fiction—joins us on the show to talk about life ...
Nov 10, 2017•41 min
Our Halloween special covers two subjects perfect for your next macabre dinner party: how the witch gained her powers, and the myriad alternatives to a casket. Caitlin Doughty, the Internet’s favorite mortician, tells us about her world travels in search of the holy grail of corpse interaction—along with a few other stories that illuminate our changing relationship with the afterlife. And Ronald Hutton, medieval historian and witch expert, goes into the history of fear surrounding one of the old...
Oct 27, 2017•45 min
Family drama, circa 1930: Yuri Slezkine tells the saga of the House of Government, a communal residence where top Soviet officials and their families lived, loved, died, and disappeared in the years after the Russian Revolution; Caroline Moorehead introduces American audiences to the story of the Rossellis, the family at the forefront of the fight against Mussolini’s fascism. • Episode Page : https://theamericanscholar.org/back-in-the-ussr/ • Go beyond the episode : • Yuri Slezkine’s House of Go...
Oct 13, 2017•40 min
This week, we look at how we have irrevocably shaped the planet through consumption: of fossil fuels, exotic foods, cups of tea. Erika Rappaport talks about how the drive for empire was spurred on by lust for a certain caffeinated plant, which fueled countless wars and colonial expansion. And Alexandra Kleeman and Jen Monroe throw a dinner party for the future, imagining what food will taste like in 30 years’ time. • Episode page : https://theamericanscholar.org/once-and-future-food/ • Go beyond...
Sep 29, 2017•39 min
What power do words have, and how do their meanings change across centuries—and continents? We talk to Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, about how moving from Britain to Baltimore changed his work; Jennifer Choi unearths the cruel etymology behind an innocuous blue birthmark; and Max Décharné draws a map of the vulgar tongue. • Episode page : https://theamericanscholar.org/rhapsodies-in-blue/ • Go beyond the episode: • “My Mongolian Spot ,” Jennifer Choi’s essay on havin...
Sep 15, 2017•45 min
This week is for the ladies: we'll be talking about women's roles in two pretty different fields—science and religion—and how women have worked their way in from the fringes of both. Angela Saini unravels the pervasive idea that science is free from bias, and talks about how prejudice against women comes out in studies as well as in the academy; Adrian Shirk spotlights the American women who have shaped modern religion, both inside and outside the lines. • Episode Page: https://theamericanschola...
Sep 01, 2017•35 min
We hit the seven seas and the five gyres in our wettest podcast episode yet: Laura Sook Duncombe talks about the female swashbucklers forgotten by history—including a pirate who gave birth in the middle of a sea battle—and Marcus Eriksen talks about sailing the ocean blue in a raft made of plastic bottles. • Go beyond the episode: • Laura Sook Duncombe’s Pirate Women : The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas • Read more about Cheng I Sao , the world’s most successful...
Aug 11, 2017•36 min
Melanie Kiechle introduces us to the 19th-century world of smell detectives, where the nose reigned supreme and cities mapped their stench patterns; Sam Kean tells how gases can have a profound effect on us—from knocking us out to making us laugh, and even causing the French Revolution. Plus, top off our exploration into the sensory world of invisible forces with an excerpt from a new book on all the light we cannot see. Go beyond the episode: Melanie Kiechle’s Smell Detectives : An Olfactory Hi...
Jul 28, 2017•40 min
Psychologist Alexander Todorov tells us how we’ve got it all wrong on the science of first impressions—and warns of physiognomy’s dangerous return—while Elizabeth Wilson gives us a glimpse into the secret, sexy history of tennis, just in time for the Wimbledon finals. Go beyond the episode: Alexander Todorov’s Face Value: The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions Explore the Social Perception Lab at Princeton, where you can watch videos of how our visual stereotypes map onto faces Watch ho...
Jul 13, 2017•31 min
Meet the experimental archaeologist and the master brewer who are resurrecting beverages of the past. Dr. Patrick McGovern, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, discuss what it takes to turn millennia-old booze samples at the bottom of a jug into mead fit for a king; our editors give us a sneak peek at their favorite fictional food scenes; and we honor Brian Doyle, who died last month. Go beyond the episode: Read “ Joyas Vo...
Jun 27, 2017•31 min
True tales of horse historians, mad bombers, and infinite jam jarsSusanna Forrest takes us down the bridle path of our long relationship with horses; Michael Cannell tells the story of New York’s mad bomber and the invention of criminal profiling; and Eugenia Cheng shares her infinite enthusiasm for the link between mathematics and art. Go beyond the episode: • Susanna Forrest’s The Age of the Horse , and her blog about horse history and news • Michael Cannell’s Incendiary • Track the mad bomber...
Jun 09, 2017•46 min
Sarah Williams Goldhagen takes us on a tour of New York’s High Line—and the insides of our brains—and Judith Matloff talks about traveling 72,000 miles, across nearly a dozen mountain ranges, as she investigated why the world’s highlands harbor so much violence. Go beyond the episode: • Sarah Williams Goldhagen’s Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives • Judith Matloff’s No Friends But the Mountains: Dispatches from the World’s Violent Highlands • Plan your own trip to ...
May 16, 2017•34 min
Lee Alan Dugatkin on the world’s cutest science experiment, which transformed wild foxes into cuddlebugs; Ellen Lagemann makes the case for college in prisons; and an underground poetry reading promoting this weekend’s March for Science. Go beyond the episode: • The Science Stanzas curated by Jane Hirshfield for the March for Science • Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut’s How to Tame a Fox • Ellen Lagemann’s Liberating Minds and the Bard Prison Initiative • Read more about Stalin’s geneticist h...
Apr 21, 2017•40 min
Geoffrey R. Stone tells the epic story of how sex came to be legislated in America; Linda Heywood introduces us to an African queen cooler than Cleopatra; and John Dvorak gives us a lesson in the total eclipse of the heart. Er, sun. Mentioned in this episode: • Geoffrey R. Stone’s Sex and the Constitution • Linda M. Heywood’s Njinga of Angola • The upcoming solar eclipse on August 21st, with an interactive map from NASATune in every two weeks to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from li...
Apr 07, 2017•40 min
Pankaj Mishra goes back to the Enlightenment to explain our age of anger; Ronald Rael imagines how architecture might dismantle a wall rather than construct it; and our editors offer up their favorite tales from the Emerald Isle. Sláinte! Episode extras: • Our St. Patrick’s Day Reading list • Martha McPhee on Edna O’Brien Tune in every two weeks to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progres...
Mar 17, 2017•51 min
André Aciman gives us a primer on W. G. Sebald, who blurred the line between memory and fiction; Rowan Ricardo Phillips talks about the biomechanics of poetry; and Julian Gewirtz unveils the travel itinerary of the least likely visitor to communist China you’d expect: Milton Friedman. Mentioned in this episode: • André Aciman on W. G. Sebald and “The Life Unlived” • “ Halo ,” a poem by Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Langdon Hammer’s introduction • Julian Gewirtz’s essay, “Milton Friedman’s Misadvent...
Mar 03, 2017•40 min
Julia Lichtblau takes us to an elite secondary school in Abidjan that’s changing the lives of African girls; Steve Early shows how Richmond, California, became a progressive beacon; and Phillip Lopate tells us what he thinks about confiding your darkest secrets. Mentioned in this episode: • Julia Lichtblau on the smart girls of Côte d’Ivoire• Phillip Lopate’s collection of essays for us on his blog, Full Disclosure • Emily Fox Gordon’s essay on the central conflict of the memoir, whether to conf...
Feb 10, 2017•33 min
Amanda Kolson Hurley gives us a tour of the Trump Hotel; our editorial assistant Noelani Kirschner introduces the Scholar’ s newest blog; and a chorus of voices tells us why they went to Washington for the Women’s March. Mentioned in this episode: • Amanda Kolson Hurley on Trump’s influence over public space in Washington, D.C. • Barry Goldstein’s portrait series of March attendees and of protesters • The first post in our new blog, Portrait of the Artist Tune in every two weeks to catch intervi...
Jan 27, 2017•30 min
