The MIT Press Podcast: Recent Episodes
The MIT Press
The MIT Press Podcast features exclusive interviews and content that draw on the topics, themes, and trends explored in our books and journals. Subject areas that are covered include art and design, technology, science, information and data science, linguistics, neuroscience, business and management, architecture and urban design, ecology and sustainability, science fiction, and more. The podcast also regularly features high level discussions about open access publishing and knowledge.
How are sports teams using data science?
This episode is syndicated from the new Harvard Data Science Review Podcast. Published by the MIT Press, Harvard Data Science Review is an open access multidisciplinary journal that defines and shapes data science as a scientifically rigorous field based on the principled and purposed production, processing, parsing and analysis of data.
In this episode, the journal’s Features Editor Liberty Vittert and Editor in Chief Xiao-Li Meng dig into the data behind sports with two experts: Brian Macdonald, sports analytics at Yale (formerly Carnegie Mellon University) and Kirk Goldsberry, NBA analyst at ESPN and author of Sprawlball: A Visual Tour of the New era of the NBA.
If you enjoy this preview of the Harvard Data Science Review podcast, find the journal on twitter at @TheHDSR and remember to subscribe to their podcast on your favorite platform.
Can data science help us combat disinformation?
This episode is syndicated from the new Harvard Data Science Review Podcast. Published by the MIT Press, Harvard Data Science Review is an open access multidisciplinary journal that defines and shapes data science as a scientifically rigorous field based on the principled and purposed production, processing, parsing and analysis of data.
In this episode, the journal’s Features Editor Liberty Vittert and Editor in Chief Xiao-Li Meng discuss fake news, disinformation, and misinformation with Scott Tranter, CEO and founder of Optimus Analytics, and Hany Farid, a professor from UC Berkeley who specializes in the analysis of digital images and is the author of two MIT Press books: Fake Photos and Photo Forensics.
If you enjoy this preview of the Harvard Data Science Review podcast, find the journal on twitter at @TheHDSR and remember to subscribe to their podcast on your favorite platform.
What does data science tell us about art auctions?
This episode is syndicated from the new Harvard Data Science Review Podcast. Published by the MIT Press, Harvard Data Science Review is an open access multidisciplinary journal that defines and shapes data science as a scientifically rigorous field based on the principled and purposed production, processing, parsing and analysis of data.
In this episode, the journal’s Features Editor Liberty Vittert and Editor in Chief Xiao-Li Meng discuss art auctions with art curator Dan Cameron and Artnome’s Jason Bailey.
If you enjoy this preview of the Harvard Data Science Review podcast, find the journal on twitter at @TheHDSR and remember to subscribe to their podcast on your favorite platform.
Featured episode from Between Art and Science, a new podcast from Leonardo.
This episode, hosted by Erica Hruby, features a conversation between two authors published in the Leonardo special issue “Cosmos and Chaos:” Bettina Forget and Lindy Elkins-Tanton. Listen as these authors discuss the connection between art and science, the flawed idea of the hero, exploration of both land and space, and the complexities of being a woman in male dominated fields.
Writer and educator Marcus Gilroy-Ware (After the Fact?, Filling the Void) speaks with Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner about their new book You Are Here.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Joy White, author of Terraformed, speaks with Dhanveer Singh Brar about his forthcoming book Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Tariq Goddard (author, publisher and co-founder of Repeater Books) speaks with Victoria Nelson about her forthcoming book Neighbor George.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Matt Colquhoun (author/editor of Egress and Postcapitalist Desire) speaks to to Thomas Moynihan about his most recent book X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Writer and academic Anthony Gardner (NSK from Kapital to Capital, Politically Unbecoming) interviews Marko Ilić about his new book A Slow Burning Fire, which documents Yugoslavia's cultural output throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Dungeons and Dragons expert Jon Peterson (The Elusive Shift, Game Wizards) speaks with Peter Bebergal (Season of the Witch, Too Much to Dream) about his new book Appendix N; an anthology of writing which takes its name from the list of “inspirational reading” provided by Gary Gygax in the first Dungeon Master's Guide.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Writer Huw Lemmey (Chubz, Red Tory, Unknown Language) speaks with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore about her most recent book The Freezer Door and searching for connection in a world that enforces bland norms of gender, sexuality, and friendship.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
This episode features discussions with Thomas Weaver (Senior Acquisitions Editor for Art and Architecture) and Victoria Hindley (Acquisitions Editor in Visual Culture and Design) about publishing in the fields of art, architecture, and visual culture, as part of our virtual attendance of the 2021 College Art Association Conference.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha discuss their forthcoming book Black Film, British Cinema II (publishing in March with Goldsmiths Press), a book which brings together scholars, thinkers and practitioners to consider the politics of blackness in contemporary British cinema and visual practice.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles discuss The Place Is Here (Sternberg Press, 2019) and the range of perspectives on black art in Thatcherite Britain offered by the collection of artworks, essays, and conversations found in the book.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Cathi Unsworth, journalist and author of Bad Penny Blues, as well as numerous other novels, speaks with artists and author Jenny Hval about her recent book Girls Against God.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Damon Kruskowski, author of Ways of Hearing and The New Analog, previously member of Galaxie 500 and currently a member of Damon & Naomi interviews Rose Simpson, about her book Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden.
Rose is an English former musician. Between 1968 and 1971, she was a member of the Incredible String Band, with whom she sang and played bass guitar, violin, and percussion.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
The philosopher Bruno Latour (We Have Never Been Modern, Laboratory Life, Science in Action) and Eugene Richardson, physician, anthropologist, and author of Epidemic Illusions discuss COVID, colonialism and Critical Zones.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Michael Truscello, author of Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure, discusses the ways in which infrastructure determines who may live and who must die under contemporary capitalism.
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Tai Shani (Turner Prize winning artist, educator and author of Our Fatal Magic) and Amy Hale (anthropologist, folklorist, and writer) discuss the work of artist, occultist and writer Ithell Colquhoun to celebrate the publication of Amy’s book Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of The Fern Loved Gully
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
An extended conversation between Lauren Fournier, writer, independent curator, artist, and author of Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism and writer, educator and philosopher McKenzie Wark (A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, Capital Is Dead, Reverse Cowgirl.)
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Lauren Fournier, writer, independent curator, artist, and author of Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism discusses her forthcoming book with writer, educator and philosopher McKenzie Wark (A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, Capital Is Dead, Reverse Cowgirl.)
Hosted and produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
In the final episode of this series, Brandon Terry, political theorist and African American Studies scholar at Harvard discusses the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.
Terry is the editor of Fifty Years Since MLK, published in 2018 by MIT Press and Boston Review and co-edited To Shape a New World, alongside Tommie Shelby, which was published in 2018 by Harvard University Press.
These books explore the conscription of MLK's legacy to narratives not of his own politics, and how his work might be wrestled back and engaged with on its own radical merit.
Produced by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Around the world, liberal democracies are in crisis. Citizens have lost faith in their government; right-wing nationalist movements frame the political debate. At the same time, economic inequality is increasing dramatically; digital technologies have created a new class of super-rich entrepreneurs. Automation threatens to transform the free economy into a zero-sum game in which capital wins and labor loses. But is this digital dystopia inevitable?
In our final discussion before the election, George Zarkadakis, author of Cyber Republic, reflects on the long term technological challenges and opportunities facing democracy.
George Zarkadakis leads Future of Work at Willis Towers Watson in Great Britain, a global risk and human capital consulting firm. The author of In Our Own Image: The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence and other books, he has written extensively on science and technology for publications including Aeon and Wired.
Hosted by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
On November 3rd, America chooses its next president and in this series of interviews from The MIT Press Podcast, we'll be drawing on the research of various authors to reflect on some of the issues shaping the American political landscape of today.
In this episode Carol A. Stabile discusses her book The Broadcast 41 (published in April of last year by Goldsmiths Press.)
In her book, Carol traces the history of forty-one women who were forced out of American television and radio in the 1950s as part of a censorship program often referred to as the Red Scare. She explains their broad and nuanced political beliefs and how an FBI-backed program of state censorship invoked the paranoia of another American revolution to try and destroy their careers.
We discuss how the cause of anti-communism, g-man masculinity and censorship destroyed a potential television landscape that reflected the reality of post-war America in favor of a white, straight, patriarchal world of white picket fences and eager beavers. We also discuss what the history of these women might tell us about current debates on free-speech and ‘cancel-culture’.
Carol is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. She’s also the author of Feminism and the Technological Fix, White Victims, Black Villains: Gender, Race, and Crime News in US Culture, among other books.
You can find more resources related to the book, including FBI files released since the book's publication, at https://broadcast41.com/
On November 3rd, America chooses its next president and in this series of interviews from The MIT Press Podcast, we'll be drawing on the research of various authors to reflect on some of the issues shaping the American political landscape of today.
The second episode of this series features a discussion with the author of Anti-vaxxers, Jonathan M. Berman. Vaccines are a documented success story, one of the most successful public health interventions in history. Yet there is a vocal anti-vaccination movement, featuring celebrity activists including actress Jenny McCarthy, talk-show host Bill Maher, and presidential hopeful Kanye West.
How do we address those with views that might be deemed absurd and confusing? How do we ensure that the public sphere is based upon evidenced and good faith arguments? And what might be redeemed from world-views built upon misinformation?
Jonathan M. Berman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Basic Sciences at NYITCOM–Arkansas. An active science communicator, he served as national cochair of the 2017 March for Science.
Hosted by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
On November 3rd, America chooses its next president and in this series of interviews from the MIT Press Podcast, we'll be drawing on the research of various authors to reflect on some of the issues shaping the American political landscape of today.
In this, the first episode, Robert I. Rotberg (author of Anticorruption) discusses corruption - what is it? where is it? And is it getting worse? He explains the long history of corruption in the USA, as well as the measures that can be taken to eradicate it. We also explore issues of corruption across the globe, including the Lava Jato case in Brazil, the authoritarian anti-corruption of Rwanda and the ways in which corporate elites shape politics in countries like the US and the UK.
Robert I. Rotberg is President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation, Founding Director of Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Intrastate Conflict, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of The Corruption Cure: How Citizens and Leaders Can Combat Graft, Things Come Together: Africans Achieving Greatness in the Twenty-First Century, Transformative Political Leadership, and numerous other books.
Hosted by Sam Kelly
Mixed by Samantha Doyle
Soundtrack by Kristen Gallerneaux
Michael Hollingshead, the man who turned Timothy Leary onto LSD, managed to fundamentally influenced modern drug culture whilst remaining virtually anonymous in popular culture at large. In this episode, biographer Andy Roberts talks us through the life of a key character in psychedelic history.
In this episode Bita Moghaddam discusses the emergence of ketamine as a combat anesthetic in the Vietnam war, its transformation into a recreation drug central to club culture, and its current transition into a treatment for depression.
This episode offers an insight into the work of leading cancer specialist and author of When Blood Breaks Down, Mikkael A. Sekeres. 1 in 2 people will develop cancer in their lifetime, but thankfully treatment for the disease is rapidly changing and improving. I ask Mikkael about the drugs that allow people to beat cancer and live better with it.
Drawing on interviews with approximately sixty advocates, drug users, former users, friends, families, witnesses, clinicians, and scientists; Nancy D Campbell has drawn together a history of a defining tragedy of contemporary life; the overdose. I ask her about the reality of drug overdoses and one of the tools being used by activists to prevent more deaths; Naloxone.
C. Riley Snorton and Hentyle Yapp read from Saturation, a book that offers an analysis of racial representation and controversy in the art world.
Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 brings together urgency and scientific rigor so the world’s researchers can quickly disseminate new discoveries that the public can trust. Amy Brand (Director, The MIT Press) and Vilas Dhar (Trustee, The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation) discuss this new overlay journal, its innovative goals, and its role as a proof-of-concept for new models of peer-review and rapid publishing.
Conor Rose reads from Jackie Wang's Carceral Capitalism. This extract, taken from the opening of the book, offers insight into the Black Lives Matter movement as well as new forms of predatory policing, informed by the 2008 financial crash.
Please use this link to support Black Lives Matter.
Susan Schuppli is Director of the Centre for Research Architecture in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. In her book, Material Witnesss, her research is an exploration of the evidential role of matter in contexts including the natural disaster, climate change, and conflict zones.
In this interview she discusses her work as a writer, artist and educator.
Best known for its introduction of French theory to American readers, Semiotext(e) has been one of America's most influential independent presses since its inception more than three decades ago. Publishing works of theory, fiction, madness, economics, satire, sexuality, science fiction, activism and confession.
In this interview Chris Kraus and Hedi El Kholti, who run Semitext(e) alongside Sylvère Lotringer, discuss the history of the press.
In Break On Through, Lucas Richert explores Anti-psychiatry, psychedelics, and radical challenges to psychiatry and the conventional treatment of mental health in the 1970s. In this interview Lucas discusses the issues that run through the sixties and seventies and how they're forming debates about mental health today.
In Co-Illusion, writer and critic David Levi Strauss, tracks the rise of Donald Trump and the media landscape that warped around him. In this interview he discusses the language of Trump, the forthcoming election, and the changing relationship between image and truth.
An interview with Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska about Collaborative Society (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) and how networked technology enables the emergence of a new collaborative society.
Shashi Shekhar and Pamela Vold, authors of Spatial Computing, fromThe MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, discuss the reach, risks and importance of spatial computing in confronting COVID-19.
Author of High Weirdness, Erik Davis discusses psychedelic politics, media paranoia, conspiracy theories, and consensus reality in the time of COVID-19.
An interview with Wade Roush, author of Extraterrestrials, from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. Are we alone in the universe? If not, where is everybody? And which might be more meaningful?
Soundtrack produced by artist and author of High Static, Dead Lines (Strange Attractor Press, December 2018) Kristen Gallerneaux.
An interview with Donna J. Drucker, author of Contraception, from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. We discuss reproductive justice, the history of contraceptive technology and how the future of contraception can offer more choice and more freedom for every kind of person.
In this episode we hear from John Troyer, author of Technologies of the Human Corpse and the Director of The Center for Death and Society at The University of Bath. We discuss the way technology is blurring the distinctions between life and death, the emergence of death studies from the 70s social and political milieu and how his own experiences of bereavement inform his research.
In this podcast we discuss visibility, haunting and fascism with art historian and theorist Elizabeth Otto. Otto's book Haunted Bauhaus explores the marginalized histories of occult spirituality, gender fluidity and queer identity within the Bauhaus; offering fresh insight into one of the most canonized periods of European art history.
A discussion with the the author of Free Will (from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) and Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem, Mark Balaguer, in which we discuss the scientific arguments for and against the possibility of free will.
The journal of Global Environmental Politics (GEP) has hit a tremendous milestone in 2020—celebrating its 20 years of publication with the MIT Press! In this episode, two of the journal’s Co-Editors Matthew Hoffmann and Erika Weinthal reflect on the origins and goals of GEP, its immeasurable impact on the discussions of relationships between global political forces and environmental change, and the thought process behind the journal’s upcoming 20th-anniversary volume.
A discussion with the the author of Citizenship (from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series), Dimitry Kochenov, in which we discuss the glorification of citizenship and the structures of power underlying this supposedly positive concept.
Featuring an incredible new soundtrack produced by artists and author of High Static, Dead Lines (Strange Attractor Press, December 2018) Kristen Gallerneaux.
Quantitative Science Studies (QSS) is a newly launched open access journal that was born out of a collaboration between the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) and the MIT Press. In this episode, Editor-in-Chief Ludo Waltman discusses the origins of QSS, its growing inaugural issue, and its future as a publishing outlet run for and by the scientometric community.
In this episode, Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director at the MIT Press, and Ellen Finnie, Co-Interim Associate Director for Collections at MIT Libraries, discuss the Ideas series: a hybrid print and open access book series for general readers, that provides fresh, strongly argued, and provocative views of the effects of digital technology on culture, business, government, education, and our lives.
Learn more about the full series: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/strong-ideas
The authors of Data Feminism (forthcoming in Spring 2020), Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein, along with Catherine Ahearn, Content Lead at PubPub, discuss the value and process of open peer review, share experiences and best practices, and explore issues surrounding peer review transparency.
Learn more: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/data-feminism.
Stefan Van der Stigchel discusses how we filter out what is irrelevant so we can focus on what we need to know.
On this episode of the MIT Press podcast, Olivia Erlanger and Luis Ortega Govela discuss their book, Garage
Frank Lloyd Wright invented the garage when he moved the automobile out of the stable into a room of its own. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (allegedly) started Apple Computer in a garage. Suburban men turned garages into man caves to escape from family life. Nirvana and No Doubt played their first chords as garage bands. What began as an architectural construct became a cultural construct. In this provocative history and deconstruction of an American icon, Olivia Erlanger and Luis Ortega Govela use the garage as a lens through which to view the advent of suburbia, the myth of the perfect family, and the degradation of the American dream.
Bonus to the Ways of Hearing podcast and book
A behind-the-scenes conversation with the creators of Ways of Hearing, the podcast and book. Hosted by author Damon Krukowski, with Radiotopia and Showcase executive producer Julie Shapiro, sound designer Ian Coss, MIT Press editor Matthew Browne, and graphic designer James Goggin. Recorded live before a studio audience at the PRX Podcast Garage, April 9, 2019. Mixed by Ian Coss.
On this episode of the MIT Press podcast, Thomas Lin, Editor-in-Chief of Quanta Magazine, discusses the research and current climate behind the science and math in Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire: The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta and The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta.
On the latest episode of The MIT Press podcast, Robyn Metcalfe, food historian and food futurist, discusses her new book, Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating.
Even if we think we know a lot about good and healthy food—even if we buy organic, believe in slow food, and read Eater—we probably don't know much about how food gets to the table. What happens between the farm and the kitchen? Why are all avocados from Mexico? Why does a restaurant in Maine order lamb from New Zealand? In Food Routes, Robyn Metcalfe explores an often-overlooked aspect of the global food system: how food moves from producer to consumer. She finds that the food supply chain is adapting to our increasingly complex demands for both personalization and convenience—but, she says, it won't be an easy ride.
Networked, digital tools will improve the food system but will also challenge our relationship to food in anxiety-provoking ways. It might not be easy to transfer our affections from verdant fields of organic tomatoes to high-rise greenhouses tended by robots. And yet, argues Metcalfe—a cautious technology optimist—technological advances offer opportunities for innovations that can get better food to more people in an increasingly urbanized world.
Metcalfe follows a slice of New York pizza and a club sandwich through the food supply chain; considers local foods, global foods, and food deserts; investigates the processing, packaging, and storage of food; explores the transportation networks that connect farm to plate; and explains how food can be tracked using sensors and the Internet of Things. Future food may be engineered, networked, and nearly independent of crops grown in fields. New technologies can make the food system more efficient—but at what cost to our traditionally close relationship with food?
Amy Brand, director of the MIT Press, and Peter Suber of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society discuss open access models, experimentation, and the future of scholarly communication.
Jess Polka, executive director of ASAPbio, and Sam Klein of the MIT Press/MIT Media Lab’s Knowledge Futures Group (KFG) and Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society survey and explain open science initiatives and tools.
In this episode, Nick Lindsay, Director of Journals and Open Access at the MIT Press, and Katharine Dunn, scholarly communications librarian at the MIT Libraries, discuss open access at the Institute and beyond—illuminating many issues surrounding open access and scholarly publishing present and future.
In the first of four episodes in the MITP Open Access series, Travis Rich, PubPub co-founder and project lead, speaks with Edward Finn, founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. They discuss Frankenbook—an open access digital version of the print edition of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein published by the MIT Press in 2017.
Sherry Zane, Associate Director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Connecticut, discusses her recent article, “’I did It for The Uplift of Humanity and The Navy’: Same-Sex Acts and The Origins of The National Security State, 1919–1921”, published in the June 2018 issue of The New England Quarterly.
Abstract:
This essay explores U.S. national security interests on the World War I home-front from 1917-1921 in Newport, Rhode Island when Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt's covert operatives attempted to restrict same-sex acts through methods of entrapment. It argues that World War I provided government officials new opportunities to expand security concerns as it policed and punished gender and sexual non-conformity well before the Cold War.
Mark Polizzotti translates authors from Patrick Modiano to Gustave Flaubert. In this episode, Polizzotti demystifies the process of translation and demonstrates its capacity for art. Beginning with the first translators, some 2,000 years ago--"traitors" who brought the Bible to the common public via translation--and illuminating the implications of contemporary machine translation, Polizzotti offers a riveting take on language and its elasticity. This conversation about Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto is, in interviewer Chris Gondek's words, much like the book itself a "discussion, a reframing, and a corrective."
Carla Cevasco, Assistant Professor of American Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, discusses her recent article, "This is My Body: Communion and Cannibalism in Colonial New England and New France." Her article was published in the December 2016 issue of The New England Quarterly.
Abstract:
Analyzing the material culture of English, French, and Native communion ceremonies, and debates over communion and cannibalism, this article argues that peoples in the borderlands between colonial New England and New France refused to recognize their cultural similarities, a cross-cultural failure of communication with violent consequences.
This episode features an interview with MIT Press author Varun Sivaram about his new book Taming the Sun. Varun Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He teaches “Clean Energy Innovation” at Georgetown University, is a Fellow at Columbia University's Center for Global Energy Policy, and serves on Stanford University's energy and environment boards. He has advised both the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of New York on energy and was formerly a consultant at McKinsey & Co. He holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. PV Magazine called him “The Hamilton of the Solar Industry,” Forbes named him one of its 30 under 30, and Grist selected him as one of the top 50 leaders in sustainability.
“…Using VR scent, touch, and sight to alter the subjective experience of taste is going to be very large project; not just an academic project but also for those in the food industry.”
Does feeling and smelling donuts in a Virtual Reality setting contribute to eating less and feeling fuller? In this episode, Jeremy Bailenson, Founding Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, discusses a study (recently published in Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments journal) that sought to explore the effects of haptic and olfactory cues through virtual food on human satiation and eating behavior. Bailenson also discusses the benefits and caveats to standalone consumer VR; the trend of high-end, location-based VR; reality-blurring (when a virtual memory gets mistaken for a physical one); and more.
Related Content:
- Presence article: “Exploring the Influence of Haptic and Olfactory Cues of a Virtual Donut on Satiation and Eating Behavior” by Benjamin J. Li and Jeremy N. Bailenson
- Book: Experience on Demand
Anne Graziano and Eliyahu Keller, editors of Thresholds 46: SCATTER!, talk about the mission of the journal; the making of the SCATTER! issue; the role of student journals; and how to make architectural knowledge and education more accessible.
Established in 1992, Thresholds is the annual peer-reviewed journal produced by the MIT Department of Architecture. Each independently themed issue features content from leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of architecture, art, and culture.
About the Speakers:
Anne Graziano is a student of architecture, artist, and editor. She is currently a Master of Architecture candidate and graduate fellow at MIT. Her studies focus on representation and circulation of architecture and architectural knowledge as it pertains to digital and physical infrastructures.
Eliyahu Keller is an architect, researcher, and author. He is currently pursuing a PhD in history, theory, and criticism of architecture and art at MIT. He has served as a research assistant for the Harvard-Mellon Urban Initiative and was a member of the Berlin Portal Research Group.
Related Content:
- Thresholds 45: MYTH
- Thresholds 46: SCATTER! on Facebook
- Thresholds 46: SCATTER! on Instragram
The intersection between cutting-edge neuroscience and the emerging field of network science has been growing tremendously over the past decade. Olaf Sporns, editor of Network Neuroscience, and Distinguished Professor, Provost Professor of Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, discusses the applications of network science technology to neuroscience. Dr. Sporns hopes the launch of Network Neuroscience will contribute to the creation of a common language used by scientists and researchers in the neuroscientific community to unify the field of neuroscience again.
Network Neuroscience is open for submissions. Check out the guidelines and submit your work!
Listen as Peter Krause and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss the key differences between united and hegemonic power and the internal structure of violent and nonviolent national movements, as outlined in Krause’s article “The Structure of Success: How the Internal Distribution of Power Drives Armed Group Behavior and National Movement Effectiveness” from International Security 38:3 (Winter 2013/14). This conversation was recorded on January 17, 2014.
Listen as Andrew Menard and Laura Dassow Walls discuss the notions of walking, wildness, nationalism, and the role of beauty in Thoreau's "Walking." This conversation was recorded on February 27, 2014.
Read Andrew Menard's article, "Nationalism and the Nature of Thoreau's 'Walking.'"
Our contributors discuss their work in the arts and sciences, which is showcased in the new article collection, Water Is in the Air: Physics, Politics, and Poetics of Water in the Arts. Water Is in the Air explores the ways that artists, from all over the world, working at the cutting edge of science and engineering, create work that addresses critical issues of water in culture and society. This conversation was recorded on March 19, 2014.
Contributors:
Jean-Marc Chomaz, CNRS research director at the École Polytechnique Hydrodynamics Laboratory (Ladhyx) and professor at École Polytechnique. He is a member of the artist group Labofactory.
Mikael Fernström and Sean Taylor, the art-science collaborators behind Softday. Fernström and Taylor teach at the University of Limerick. Listen to their sound art piece, "Hypoxia Hibernalis," a shortened version of "Marbh Chrios.”
Annick Bureaud, independent art critic, curator and event organizer, researcher and teacher in art and technosciences. She is the director of Leonardo/OLATS, European sister organization to Leonardo/ISAST.
Roger Malina, physicist, astronomer, editor-in-chief of Leonardo, and distinguished professor at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere...
Marla R. Miller and Paula D. Hunt discuss Sybil Ludington, material culture, and American mythmaking. Although there is no primary evidence supporting Sybil’s historic ride, she has become an increasingly popular figure tied to the American Revolution. This conversation was recorded on March 30, 2015.
Correction: At (28:41), it was the Connecticut NOW (National Organization for Women) that sponsored the Sybil Ludington Young Feminist Award.
Check out Paula D. Hunt's article, “Sybil Ludington, the Female Paul Revere: The Making of a Revolutionary War Heroine,” from the June 2015 issue of The New England Quarterly.
Contributors:
Marla R. Miller, Member of NEQ's Editorial Board and Director of the Public History program at The University of Massachusetts, Ahmerst.
Paula D. Hunt, Doctoral Candidate at Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.
Related content:
- "Drunk History"
- "Hangry Moments in History"
- Daughters of the American Revolution
- "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Berton Braley's Take on Longfellow's poem
- Sybil Ludington golf ball
- Sybil Ludington "Contributors to the Cause" stamp
- Colonel Ludington silhouette
As Lucas Kello reveals, it is far easier to attack than to defend when it comes to cyber war. Listen as Kello and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss the dangers of cyber war, review recent cases of cyber attack, and offer security advice for policymakers. This conversation is based on Kello’s article “The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution: Perils to Theory and Statecraft,” which appears in the Fall 2013 issue of International Security (38:2). This episode was recorded on October 2, 2013.
Our contributors discuss the connections between science, specifically chemistry, and art, and talk about how materials traditionally identified with science can be used to create art. This conversation was recorded on January 24, 2013.
Contributors:
Tami Spector, Professor of Chemistry at the University of San Francisco.
Philip Ball, freelance science writer, lecturer, and author of several popular science books.
Kathryn de Ridder-Vignone, Post-Doctoral Research Analyst at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University.
Julian Voss-Andreae, sculptor and physicist based in Portland, Oregon.
Roger Malina, physicist, astronomer, editor-in-chief of Leonardo, and distinguished professor at the University of Texas, Dallas.
As Mary Sarotte reveals in her Fall 2012 article in International Security, the actions of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests nearly split the Communist Party of China. Listen as Sarotte and International Security Editor Sean Lynn-Jones discuss internal party reactions to the event, how it affected relations between the US and China, and lessons the CCP may have learned from other Cold War-era governments. This conversation was recorded on November 20, 2012.
Listen as our contributors discuss the connections between science and the arts, especially where the sublime—the unknowable, the incomprehensible—fits within these fields. This conversation was inspired by Leonardo Reviews Quarterly 2.01: With Essays on the Sublime in Art and Science. This episode was recorded on August 22, 2012.
Contributors:
Michael Punt, Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth and Editor-in-Chief of Leonardo Reviews Quarterly.
Sundar Sarukkai, Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities at Manipal University.
Martyn Woodward, doctoral researcher in the visual arts at the University of Plymouth.
Roger Malina, physicist, astronomer, editor-in-chief of Leonardo, and distinguished professor at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Maximilian Schich, Isabel Meirelles, and Roger Malina discuss the contents and creation of the new article collection, Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks, which explores the application of the science of complex networks to art history, archeology, visual arts, the art market, and other areas of cultural importance. This conversation was recorded on April 26, 2012.
Contributors:
Maximilian Schich, DFG fellow at László Barabási's Center for Complex Network Research in Boston.
Isabel Meirelles, information designer and associate professor of graphic design at Northeastern University, Boston.
Roger Malina, physicist, astronomer, editor-in-chief of Leonardo, distinguished professor at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Bill Fowler, member of the editorial board of The New England Quarterly, Mary Babson Fuhrer, and Robert A. Gross discuss Fuhrer's recent NEQ article, “The Revolutionary Worlds of Lexington and Concord Compared” and Gross's 1976 book, The Minutemen and Their World. Our panelists discuss the two colonial towns, their similarities and differences, and key factors that led to the famous battles between the English and the colonists on April 19, 1775. This conversation was recorded on March 22, 2012.
Edward Mead Earle was a historian, scholar, professor, and international relations expert; he was also a founding father of the field we know as Security Studies. Listen as David Ekbladh and International Security Editor Sean Lynn-Jones discuss Earle's contributions to the field, his views on what Security Studies should be, his seminar at the Institute for Advanced Study, and what he might think of Security Studies today. This conversation was recorded on January 4, 2012.
Contributing artists to PAJ 100 recorded podcasts based on their pieces for the issue, responding to PAJ editor Bonnie Marranca's four statements on major themes Belief, Being Contemporary, Performance and Science, and Writing and Performance.
Read about the contributors and themes here.
Much has been made of the rise of China's economy, and some fear that China will surpass the United States as the world's largest economy in the coming years. Michael Beckley goes against the grain in his article "China's Century? Why America's Edge Will Endure" (International Security, Winter 2011/12), arguing that the size of a nation's economy doesn't necessarily dictate its global power, and that the United States is not in great danger because of China's economic developments. Beckley and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss this and the state of the Chinese economy as a whole when compared to the United States'. This conversation was recorded on December 14, 2011.
Bill Fowler, member of the editorial board of The New England Quarterly, Professor Dick Brown, and Governor Michael Dukakis discuss Brown's recent NEQ article, “'Tried, Convicted, and Condemned, in Almost Every Bar-room and Barber's Shop': Anti-Irish Prejudice in the Trial of Dominic Daley and James Halligan, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1806". Our panel touches on the evolution of our judicial system, the responsibility of the policy maker in correcting errors of our past, and the role of the historian in presenting and explaining these errors to the public. This conversation was recorded on June 22, 2011.
In this podcast, Claire MacDonald and Sarah Parry discuss the history of recording, the sharing of sound art between artists, how recording has shaped communities, the impact of technology on artists and their publics, and the artist's voice and the different genres it inhabits.
About the Contributors:
Claire MacDonald is a curator, writer, and editor whose work focuses on the intersections of performance, writing, and art. She is a founding editor of Performance Research and a contributing editor to PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. She recently served as Director of the International Centre for Fine Art Research at University of Arts London, and is currently Professor II at the Norwegian Theatre Academy. She has a PhD in Critical and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, and has recently written a novel.
Sarah Parry has been teaching at the Univeristy of British Columbia since 2005. Her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Alberta, entitled "Caedmon Records, the Cold War, and the Scene of the Postmodern", explored the history of Caedmon Records, a company that pioneered the recording of the spoken word. She teaches critical theory and modern and postmodern American poetry. Other interests include sound recording history and acoustical poetics.
Nicolas Collins, editor of Leonardo Music Journal and Chair of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, answered our questions about the 20th anniversary issue of LMJ. The issue's theme was improvisation. In the podcast, Nic explains how he chose the theme and shares insights about putting the issue together, as well as about how improvisation and composition have evolved during his tenure as editor of LMJ.
Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History and Acting Chair, Department of History at Yale University, chats with Rebecca Federman, Culinary Collections Librarian at the New York Public Library. Paul provides insight into 19th-century American restaurant dining based on his recent article in The New England Quarterly, "American Restaurants and Cuisine in the Mid–Nineteenth Century" (March 2011). We hear about the most popular dishes, regional differences in menus, and which dishes could make a modern-day comeback.
Michael Gurevich, lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at the Queen’s University, Belfast School of Music and Sonic Arts, serves as guest editor of the Winter 2010 issue of Computer Music Journal. In this podcast, Michael discusses the fields of Computer Music and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). He describes how these fields intersect and what they can learn from each other, touching on how the field of Computer Music has grown and how this affects performance and composition of electronic music. This conversation was recorded on December 14, 2010.
Sean Lynn-Jones, editor of International Security, interviews author John Schuessler, whose article "The Deception Dividend: FDR's Undeclared War" appears in the Spring 2010 issue of the journal. Their conversation tackles the question of whether FDR willfully deceived the American public in order to persuade them to support WWII – and touches on perceptions of warring democracies as well as comparisons to the 2003 Iraq War. The conversation was recorded on May 21, 2010
In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." They discuss the impact of Salinger, the political and social climate during the time of Catcher, and contemplate how Cold War is viewed today. The conversation was recorded on February 24, 2010.
Mary Kelley, member of the NEQ editorial board, interviews Deirdre Clemente about her article "'Prettier Than They Used to Be': Femininity, Fashion, and the Recasting of Radcliffe's Reputation, 1900-1950" which appears in the December 2009 issue of The New England Quarterly. The conversation was recorded on December 21, 2009.
Samuel Jay Keyser, Editor-in-Chief of Linguistic Inquiry, has shared a campus with Noam Chomsky for 40-odd years via MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The two colleagues sat down in Mr. Chomsky's office to discuss ideas on language evolution and the human capacity for understanding the complexities of the universe. The unedited conversation was recorded on September 11, 2009.
Bill Fowler, Chair of NEQ's Board of Directors, speaks with Bob Gross about the events leading up to Shays's Rebellion and how they relate to today's circumstances. Mr. Gross's article, "A Yankee Rebellion? The Regulators, New England, and the New Nation" appears in the March 2009 issue of The New England Quarterly. The discussion was recorded at Northeastern University on April 10, 2009.
Artist Jan Harrison's work explores the connections between human and animal psyches and takes the form of painting, pastel, sculpture, and performance. Jan's essay in the current (January 2011) issue of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, called "Singing in Animal Tongues: An Inner Journey", describes the origins and scope of Jan's work, including her ability to speak and sing in "Animal Tongues." In this podcast, Jan and curator Linda Weintraub discuss Jan's work and the animal beings who help Jan create it.
Bill Fowler, Chair of The New England Quarterly Board of Directors, and author David Naumec discuss his article "From Mashantucket to Appomattox: The Native American Veterans of Connecticut's Volunteer Regiments and the Union Army". The article appears in the December 2008 issue of The New England Quarterly. The conversation was recorded at the MIT Press on December 12, 2008.
In this episode Martin Erwig show us how we can find computational concepts inside some of our favorite stories.
Chris Gondek interviews Mitchel Resnick about his work at the MIT Media Lab, the foundation for his new book, Lifelong Kindergarten.
In this episode Chris Gondek interviews author John Palfrey about how diversity and free expression can coexist on a modern campus
In this episode Chris Gondek speaks with author Tom Mullaney on the invention of the Chinese typewriter, and how the characters originally utilized are still the ones available on modern keyboards.
The detection of gravitational waves in 2015 rocked the science community. In this episode, Chris Gondek spoke with author Harry Collins, whose book Gravity's Kiss centers around the incredible discovery.
In this episode Chris Gondek interviews Ed Finn, author of the new book What Algorithms Want. Tune in for an interesting discussion on algorithm disconnect revolving around things humans regularly use, like Siri. And listen in for a definition of the phrase "culture machines".
Ed Finn is Founding Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is also Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering and the Department of English.
In this episode, author Ryan Milner talks to Chris Gondak about the rise of the internet meme, and the five logics that factor into the foundation, growth, and success of a meme.
Ryan Milner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the College of Charleston.
Matt Hern began to examine urban displacement when he first encountered an empty lot in the northeast sector of Portland, OR. This corner was the site of a communty resisting against gentrification. In this episode, Chris Gondak speaks with Matt Hern about the inspiration for his book, and the battles that many urban communities are fighting across North America.
Matt Hern is Codirector of 2+10 Industries, teaches at multiple universities, and lectures widely. He is the author of Common Ground in a Liquid City.
Cherian George is Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is the author of Freedom from the Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore and other books.