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New Books in Politics and Polemics

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

Mark Pennington, "Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom" (Oxford UP, 2025)

58 mins; March 30, 2026

Mark Hlavacik, "Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

29 mins; March 28, 2026

Thomas Hegghammer and Diego Gambetta eds., "Fight, Flight, Mimic: Identity Mimicry in Conflict" (Oxford UP, 2024)

65 hours 5 mins; March 28, 2026

Sarah Jaffe, "Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone" (Bold Type Books, 2021)

68 hours 51 mins; March 25, 2026

On Trump as a “World Historical Individual” with author John B. Judis

34 mins; March 25, 2026

Miriam Ticktin, "Against Innocence: Undoing and Remaking the World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

63 hours 58 mins; March 19, 2026

⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

54 mins; March 19, 2026

Andreas Malm and Wim Carton, "The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late" (Verso Books, 2025)

52 mins; March 18, 2026

Our Age of War: A Discussion with Author Robert Pape

42 mins; March 18, 2026

Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee, "Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How it Could Save Democracy" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

67 hours 36 mins; March 14, 2026

Tristan J. Rogers, "Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction" (Routledge, 2025)

74 hours 49 mins; March 14, 2026

Wendy Brown, "States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity" (Princeton UP, 2025)

41 mins; March 12, 2026

Understanding Iran Under Attack: A Discussion with Author Vali Nasr

48 mins; March 12, 2026

Sari Hanafi, "Against Symbolic Liberalism: A Plea for Dialogical Sociology" (Liverpool UP, 2025)

50 mins; March 11, 2026

Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress

54 mins; March 10, 2026

Sezai Ozan Zeybek, "Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence: Shared Struggles in Turkey" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

40 mins; March 09, 2026

Sean Parson, "Punk Anarchism: An Anti-Politics of Resistance" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

42 mins; March 07, 2026

Barbie Zelizer, "How the Cold War Broke the News: The Surprising Roots of Journalism's Decline" (Polity, 2025)

40 mins; February 28, 2026

Josh Milburn, "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" (Oxford UP, 2023)

76 hours 0 mins; February 21, 2026

Thomas Zeitzoff, "No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis" (Oxford UP, 2026)

58 mins; February 19, 2026

The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy

48 mins; February 19, 2026

Kenneth Lowande, "False Front: The Failed Promise of Presidential Power in a Polarized Age" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

44 mins; February 19, 2026

Hélène Landemore, "Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule" (Penguin, 2026)

58 mins; February 12, 2026

Tom Bolton, "Atomic Albion: Journeys Around Britain’s Nuclear Power Stations" (Strange Attractor, 2025)

54 mins; February 11, 2026

Peter S. Goodman, "Davos Man: How the Billionaire Class Devoured Democracy" (Custom House, 2022)

56 mins; February 09, 2026

Alex Prichard, "Anarchism: a Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2022)

55 mins; February 07, 2026

Itohan I. Osayimwese, "Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage" (Princeton UP, 2025)

79 hours 36 mins; February 03, 2026

Lisa Min et al. eds., "Redacted: Writing in the Negative Space of the State" (punctum books, 2024)

85 hours 24 mins; February 03, 2026

Nicole Wegner, "Martialling Peace: How the Peacekeeper Myth Legitimises Warfare" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

50 mins; January 31, 2026

Bradley R. Simpson, "The First Right: Self-Determination and the Transformation of International Order, 1941-2000" (Oxford UP, 2025)

87 hours 4 mins; January 25, 2026

Emily Mendenhall, "Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID" (U California Press, 2026)

38 mins; January 24, 2026

Nick Romeo, "The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy" (PublicAffairs, 2024)

32 mins; January 24, 2026

Betto van Waarden, "Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

81 hours 45 mins; January 23, 2026

Richard A. Falk and Hans von Sponeck, "Liberating the United Nations: Realism with Hope" (Stanford UP, 2024)

78 hours 30 mins; January 22, 2026

Yunus Emre Ozigci, "NATO’s Meaning and Existence: Within the Interstate Intersubjectivity" (Vernon Press, 2026)

83 hours 6 mins; January 21, 2026

Laurie Parsons, "Carbon Colonialism: How Rich Countries Export Climate Breakdown" (Manchester UP, 2023)

44 mins; January 18, 2026

Gonzalo Lizarralde, "Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed" (Columbia UP, 2021)

45 mins; January 17, 2026

Angie Hobbs, "Why Plato Matters Now" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

78 hours 32 mins; January 14, 2026

Stephen Skowronek, "The Adaptability Paradox: Political Inclusion and Constitutional Resilience" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

40 mins; January 12, 2026

Bruce Berglund, "The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Power" (Triumph Books, 2026)

63 hours 25 mins; January 10, 2026

Amitav Acharya, "The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West" (Hachette UK, 2025)

56 mins; January 10, 2026

Sonya Lea, "American Bloodlines: Reckoning with Lynch Culture" (UP of Kentucky, 2025)

48 mins; January 09, 2026

J. Logan Smilges, "Crip Negativity" (U of Minnesota Press, 2023)

57 mins; January 09, 2026

Chris Dietz, "Self-Declaration in the Legal Recognition of Gender" (Routledge, 2022)

73 hours 23 mins; January 06, 2026

What happens when liberalism stops feeling like a victory and starts feeling like an exhaustion?

85 hours 32 mins; January 05, 2026

Hans Kundnani, "Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project" (Oxford UP, 2023)

48 mins; January 01, 2026

Russell T. McCutcheon, "Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion" (Routledge, 2023)

48 mins; December 29, 2025

Jonathan Sumption, "The Challenges of Democracy: And the Rule of Law" (Profile Books, 2026)

29 mins; December 26, 2025

Trymaine Lee, "A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America" (St. Martins, 2025)

52 mins; December 25, 2025

Beenash Jafri, "Settler Attachments and Asian Diasporic Film" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

68 hours 48 mins; December 23, 2025

Caitlin Schroering, "Global Solidarities Against Water Grabbing: Without Water, We Have Nothing" (Manchester UP, 2024)

55 mins; December 21, 2025

Leo R. Chavez, "The Latino Threat: How Alarmist Rhetoric Misrepresents Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation" (Stanford UP, 2025)

73 hours 42 mins; December 20, 2025

Kwame Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism’s High Tide: A Conversation with Howard W. French

48 mins; December 20, 2025

Pierre D'Alancaisez and Amir Naaman, "Inversion: Gay Life After the Homosexual" (Verdurin, 2025)

76 hours 45 mins; December 17, 2025

Mirya Holman, "The Hidden Face of Local Power: Appointed Boards and the Limits of Democracy" (Temple UP, 2025)

44 mins; December 14, 2025

Katrina Navickas, "Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England" (Reaktion, 2025)

29 mins; December 14, 2025

161 One Battle After Another: A West Newton Cinema Discussion with Peter Coviello and Ethan Warren (JP)

33 mins; December 04, 2025

Is a River Alive?: A Conversation with Robert Macfarlane

34 mins; December 01, 2025

Nicholas Gamso, "Art After Liberalism" (Columbia UP, 2022)

83 hours 31 mins; November 29, 2025

Jake Monaghan, "Just Policing" (Oxford UP, 2023)

61 hours 21 mins; November 28, 2025

Lauren E. M. Everett, "Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land: At Home in Santa Monica's Rent-Controlled Housing" (Temple UP, 2025)

49 mins; November 26, 2025

160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP)

21 mins; November 20, 2025

Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami

34 mins; November 20, 2025

On Democracy and Bullshit with Hélène Landemore

66 hours 15 mins; November 18, 2025

Cory Doctorow on Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

96 hours 34 mins; November 17, 2025

Caroline Jack, "Business as Usual: How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

70 hours 38 mins; November 13, 2025

Joseph Stiglitz, "The Origins of Inequality" (Oxford UP, 2025)

39 mins; November 10, 2025

House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr.

55 mins; November 06, 2025

Carol Mason, "From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary" (U California Press, 2025)

57 mins; November 05, 2025

Liam Graham, "Physics Fixes All the Facts" (Springer Nature, 2025)

46 mins; November 05, 2025

brian bean, "Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition" (Haymarket, 2025)

60 hours 38 mins; November 04, 2025

Joshua Castellino, "Calibrating Colonial Crime: Reparations and The Crime of Unjust Enrichment" (Policy Press, 2025)

52 mins; November 04, 2025

Muhammad H. Zaman, "Infected: How Power, Politics, and Privilege Use Science Against the World’s Most Vulnerable" (The New Press, 2025)

36 mins; November 04, 2025

Eram Alam, "The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare" (JHU Press, 2025)

51 mins; November 03, 2025

Nancy Neiman, "Markets, Community and Just Infrastructures" (Routledge, 2020)

73 hours 59 mins; November 01, 2025

13.3 – Ismail Patel and Hatem Bazian

67 hours 59 mins; October 31, 2025

Democratic Dialogues: Pathways of Democratic Backsliding, Resistance, and (Partial) Recoveries

42 mins; October 28, 2025

Michael Lazarus, "Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx" (Stanford UP, 2025)

67 hours 3 mins; October 26, 2025

Nathan E. Sanders and Bruce Schneier, "Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship" (MIT Press, 2025)

43 mins; October 23, 2025

Ron Broglio, "Animal Revolution" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)

49 mins; October 20, 2025

Massimo Modonesi, "The Antagonistic Principle: Marxism and Political Action" (Haymarket, 2019)

43 mins; October 20, 2025

Deborah Gordon, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World" (Oxford UP, 2021)

46 mins; October 20, 2025

Elisabeth R. Anker, "Ugly Freedoms" (Duke UP, 2022)

60 hours 9 mins; October 19, 2025

Nancy Newman, "Songs and Sounds of the Anti-Rent Movement in Upstate New York: Including Twenty-Two New Settings of Period Tunes" (SUNY Press, 2025)

53 mins; October 18, 2025

David Stasavage, "The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today" (Princeton UP, 2020)

39 mins; October 18, 2025

Hamid Dabashi, "After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization" (Haymarket, 2025)

37 mins; October 15, 2025

Will Kitchen, "Culture, Capital and Carnival: Modern Media and the Representation of Work" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

41 mins; October 10, 2025

Kevin M. Schultz, "Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals): A History" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

86 hours 39 mins; October 10, 2025

What is Free Speech with Fara Dabhoiwala

69 hours 38 mins; October 09, 2025

Richard Duncan, "The Money Revolution: How to Finance the Next American Century" (John Wiley & Sons, 2022)

55 mins; October 06, 2025

Jill Elaine Hasday, "We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality" (Oxford UP, 2025)

24 mins; October 05, 2025

Greg Lukianoff and Nadine Strossen, "The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail" (Heresy Press, 2025)

52 mins; October 02, 2025

Sasha Davis, "Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

28 mins; October 01, 2025

Kenja McCray, "Essential Soldiers: Women Activists and Black Power Movement Leadership" (NYU Press, 2025)

69 hours 54 mins; September 22, 2025

Tim Weiner, "The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century" (Mariner Books, 2025)

51 mins; September 22, 2025

Nicholas Jacobs and Sidney M. Milkis, "Subverting the Republic: Donald J. Trump and the Perils of Presidentialism" (UP of Kansas, 2025)

61 hours 30 mins; September 20, 2025

Our Common Future: The Birth of Liberal Environmentalism

68 hours 16 mins; September 19, 2025

Sarah Schulman, "The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity" (Penguin, 2025)

49 mins; September 19, 2025

Zahi Zalloua, "Fanon, Žižek and the Violence of Resistance" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

68 hours 36 mins; September 17, 2025

Dominic Davies and Candida Rifkind, "Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics" (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2025)

57 mins; September 17, 2025

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