Ep. 26 – Illustrated Print Culture in the 19th Century
Professor Patricia Mainardi discusses the earliest days of comics along with other exciting developments in the illustrated press in 19th-century France and England.
Shining a Spotlight on Jewish Lives
To celebrate the launch of the new Jewish Lives series website, you can get 25% off purchases of books in the series and enter for a chance to win all 35 books. The Jewish Lives series is a major series of interpretative biography designed to illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon
Ep. 25 – Reproductive Technology and the Rights of the Child
Millions of children have been born in the United States with the help of cutting-edge reproductive technologies. Tom Ekman discusses these technologies, where they are going, and more importantly, the rights of the children born using them.
Notes from the Gulag
The following two poems are written by Arsenii Formakov, a Latvian Russian poet, novelist, and journalist, during two terms in Soviet labor camps, 1940 to 1947 in Kraslag and 1949 to 1955 in Kamyshlag and Ozerlag. This correspondence, which Formakov mailed home to his family in Riga, provides readers with
Ep. 24 – The Science and Mystery of Solar Eclipses
Solar eclipses have fascinated us since the beginning of human existence. Astronomer and anthropologist Anthony Aveni discusses the cultural history of eclipses, the science behind them, and gives some tips for watching two upcoming US total solar eclipses.
Ep. 23 – How Retailers Strip Your Privacy
Your personal data isn’t safe even when you shop offline. Retailers are tracking your behavior and evaluating your value as a customer in physical stores. Privacy expert and author Joseph Turow discusses the ways they are doing this and what you can do to protect your privacy.
Eclipses and the Lessons of History
Anthony Aveni— “Celestial source of life and light on earth! What envious rival intercepts thy rays? Dares thy own satellite intercepts thy blaze, Or stay thy stream of empyrean birth?…” The first four lines of a sonnet “tweeted out” by the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy
Ep. 22 – The End of Europe
Daily Beast correspondent and author Jamie Kirchick discusses why the Europe we know may cease to exist as Russian meddling, uncertainty about the future of NATO, and events like Brexit push the EU in a new and uncertain direction.
Ep. 21 – A Brief History of the Reformations
Noted historian and author Carlos Eire breaks down some of the myths about Martin Luther and the Reformation and provides an insightful look at the history of the Catholic and Protestant religions from medieval to modern times.
Ep. 20 – American watercolor in the age of Homer and Sargent
Kathleen A. Foster, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, discusses the blockbuster new book and exhibition about American watercolor in the late 19th and early 20th century.