Best DC Public Library Podcasts (2025)

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IMPD Data Report, Increased Cash Assistance For Low-Income Families, Medicaid Open Enrollment Extended, Purdue Adds AI Requirement 4:44

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3h ago4:44

4:44

The results of a violent crime initiative in Indianapolis can be seen in this year's data report from the city's police department. Indiana has increased cash assistance for low-income families under recent welfare reforms. Indiana health officials are extending open enrollment for two major Medicaid programs through December 24. Incoming classes t…

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Mariana Ortega, "Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad" (Duke UP, 2024) 1:16:41

43m ago1:16:41

1:16:41

How can habits of racialization be affected by art, in its reception and its creation? How can a carnal aesthetics help us understand Latinx life? What if we listen to photographs? How might they undo us? Can we be undone? In Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad (Duke UP, 2025), Mariana Ortega focuses on photography using a hermeneutics of l…

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Mariana Ortega, "Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad" (Duke UP, 2024) 1:16:41

7h ago1:16:41

1:16:41

How can habits of racialization be affected by art, in its reception and its creation? How can a carnal aesthetics help us understand Latinx life? What if we listen to photographs? How might they undo us? Can we be undone? In Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad (Duke UP, 2025), Mariana Ortega focuses on photography using a hermeneutics of l…

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David Nasaw, "The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II" (Penguin, 2025) 55:22

15h ago55:22

55:22

In its duration, geographical reach, and ferocity, World War II was unprecedented, and the effects on those who fought it and their loved ones at home, immeasurable. The heroism of the men and women who won the war may be well documented, but we know too little about the pain and hardships the veterans endured upon their return home. As historian D…

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IN Sen. Liz Brown Steps Down From Leadership, Southern IN Lawmakers Divided ON Redistricting Bill, IDOE Announce Funds To Support Students, IU’s Mendoza Wins Heisman Trophy 5:17

1d ago5:17

5:17

The rift among Republican lawmakers deepens as Indiana State Senator Liz Brown steps back from a leadership position. Southern Indiana lawmakers were divided on a bill to redraw U.S. congressional lines. Farmers are having a tough year. Amid tariffs and rising costs, Indiana producers say aid from the Trump Administration could hold them over until…

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Ulinka Rublack, "Dürer's Coats: Renaissance Men and Material Cultures of Social Recognition" (CEU Press, 2025) 37:35

1d ago37:35

37:35

Jana Byars meets one of her academic heroes when Ulinka Rublack joins her to talk about Dürer's Coats: Renaissance Men and Material Cultures of Social Recognition (Routledge, 2025). During the Renaissance, clothing became more and more elaborately decorated and expensive. It often emphasised the privilege of the male elite. Yet clothing could also …

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Mirya Holman, "The Hidden Face of Local Power: Appointed Boards and the Limits of Democracy" (Temple UP, 2025) 44:08

15m ago44:08

44:08

The Hidden Face of Local Power: Appointed Boards and the Limits of Democracy (Temple UP, 2025) by Dr. Mirya Holman explicates the purpose, role, and consequences of appointed boards in U.S. cities. Dr. Holman finds cities create strong boards that generate policy, consolidate power, and defend the interests of businesses and wealthy and white resid…

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Joseph L Graves, "Why Black People Die Sooner: What Medicine Gets Wrong about Race and How to Fix It" (Columbia UP, 2025) 27:59

3d ago27:59

27:59

Why Black People Die Sooner is a powerful and rigorous examination of the ways racism shapes health and disease. Joseph L. Graves Jr. demonstrates that the medical profession still fails to grasp basic facts about race, tracing how deep-rooted falsehoods have perpetuated the disparity between Black and white lifespans. He equips readers with the to…

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IN Senate Votes 19 to 31 Against Redistricting, Trump Lashes Out At IN Sen. Bray, Proposed Cuts To EPA, IDOH Says IN Infant Mortality Rates Low, Allen County Library To Host Monks 7:17

3d ago7:17

7:17

Indiana lawmakers voted 19 to 31 against the congressional redistricting called for by President Donald Trump in his attempt to help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections. President Donald Trump is lashing out at Indiana’s top state senator after legislation to redraw congressional districts failed Thursday in the General Assembly. House Repub…

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Julian Schmid, "Marvel, DC and US Security: The Superhero Genre and Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century" (Edinburgh UP, 2025) 44:42

5d ago44:42

44:42

Marvel, DC and US Security: The Superhero Genre and Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Edinburgh UP, 2025) by Dr. Julian Schmid considers how the long-standing superhero genre has been reinvigorated in the twenty-first century as an interlocutor of security and surveillance discourses following the events of ‘9/11’. While superheroes have …

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Julian Schmid, "Marvel, DC and US Security: The Superhero Genre and Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century" (Edinburgh UP, 2025) 44:42

5d ago44:42

44:42

Marvel, DC and US Security: The Superhero Genre and Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Edinburgh UP, 2025) by Dr. Julian Schmid considers how the long-standing superhero genre has been reinvigorated in the twenty-first century as an interlocutor of security and surveillance discourses following the events of ‘9/11’. While superheroes have …

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Matt Sleat, "Post-Liberalism" (Polity, 2025) 42:13

9h ago42:13

42:13

Liberalism may feel as though it has been around forever - as the "dominant ideology of the modern west" - but not even its advocates and detractors can agree what it is. Political sophisticates ask whether it is classical-, social-, ordo- or neo-liberal while American main street associates it with socialism. Yet a new generation of "post-liberal"…

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Vote To Scale Back On Hep-B Vaccine For Newborns, IN Senate Rejects Amendments To New Map Bill, Where Did IN’s New Map Come From, Dozens Denied Citizenship At Naturalization Ceremony 5:19

4d ago5:19

5:19

Federal vaccine advisers voted last week to scale back their guidance on hepatitis B shots for newborns. The Indiana Senate on Wednesday rejected a handful of amendments to a redistricting bill designed to benefit Republicans. Indiana Republicans are considering whether to approve a controversial new congressional map that favors their party. State…

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Caitlin Wiesner, "Between the Street and the State: Black Women’s Anti-Rape Activism Amid the War on Crime" (U Pennsylvania, 2025) 1:15:08

6d ago1:15:08

1:15:08

Beginning in the 1970s, a series of government agencies established to carry out the federal “war on crime” offered financial and ideological support to the fledgling feminist movement against sexual violence. These entities promoted the carceral tactics of policing, prosecution, and punishment as the only viable means of controlling rape, and they…

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René Esparza, "From Vice to Nice: Midwestern Politics and the Gentrification of AIDS" (UNC Press, 2025) 52:07

6d ago52:07

52:07

Shifting the focus of AIDS history away from the coasts to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, this impressive book uncovers how homonormative political strategies weaponized the AIDS crisis to fuel gentrification. During the height of the epidemic, white gay activists and politicians pursued social acceptance by assimilating to Midwestern…

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IN National Guard Troops Arrive In D.C., IN Senate Adopts Report On New Map, Martin University To Pause Operations, Vop Osili Steps Down As Indy Council President 4:25

23h ago4:25

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About 300 Indiana National Guard troops arrived in Washington, D.C., Saturday. Indiana schools already ban cell phones during instructional time, but a new proposal would lock them away for the entire day. Republicans in the Indiana Senate continue to move forward with a bill aimed at flipping the state's two Democratic congressional seats. Indiana…

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Episode 79 -The Door By The Staircase by Katherine Marsh 21:20

4h ago21:20

21:20

This week, we get a new look at an old fairy tale – the story of the Russian witch known as Baba Yaga. A boys book club in Portland, Oregon met us at Powell's Books to discuss Katherine Marsh's novel "The Door by the Staircase" with host Kitty Felde. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who represents Portland on Capitol, is celebrity reader.…

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Michael D. Dwyer, "Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:11:48

7d ago1:11:48

1:11:48

Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt (Oxford UP, 2025) tells the story of Hollywood's role in the shaping of the Rust Belt in the United States. During the 1970s and 1980s, filmic representations of shuttered auto plants, furloughed millworkers, and decaying downtowns in the industrial heartland contributed to pervasive narrati…

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Redistricting Bill Passes Out Of Senate Committee, Anti-Redistricting Protest Outside Senate Chamber, Bullying And Suicide Prevention Bill, Indy’s Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas Proposal 6:09

22h ago6:09

6:09

Senate Republicans Monday night passed a bill out of committee that aims to redraw Indiana's congressional districts to favor their party. Several hundred people protested the controversial congressional redistricting plan at the Indiana Statehouse Monday. Indiana schools would need to notify parents if their child was a victim of bullying, or expr…

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Magda Long et. al., "Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention (Georgetown UP, 2025) 1:02:21

8d ago1:02:21

1:02:21

Covert action is generally understood as unacknowledged interference by one state in the affairs of another state or non-state actor to affect change. This definition, inspired from the US approach, dominates the debate in intelligence policy and scholarship and provides a prism through which most observers (mis)understand this form of secret state…

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James Sears, "Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk" (Temple UP, 2024) 56:04

8d ago56:04

56:04

“Create A More Positive Rehoboth” was a decades-long goal for progress and inclusiveness in a charming beach town in southern Delaware. Rehoboth, which was established in the 19th century as a Methodist Church meeting camp, has, over time, become a thriving mecca for the LGBTQ+ community. In Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk (Temple UP,…

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Benjamin Schneider, "The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution" (Island Press, 2025) 1:13:03

3d ago1:13:03

1:13:03

In The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution (Island Press, 2025), Benjamin Schneider argues that American city-building is a lost art. U.S. cities used to constantly evolve, experimenting with new urban designs and ambitious infrastructure projects, from railroads and subways to public housing and shopping malls. But in rece…

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IN Senate Convenes, Talks Redistricting, Trump Congratulates IN House For New Map, Marion County’s Potential Split With New Map, Grandparents Talk Life Before Vaccines, IU Big Ten Champs 8:33

1d ago8:33

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The Indiana Senate will meet today to discuss a congressional map that would flip Indiana’s two Democratic congressional seats for Republicans. President Donald Trump posted on social media over the weekend, congratulating the Indiana House for passing a new congressional map. Indiana House Republicans have approved a controversial new congressiona…

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Sylvia D. Hoffert, "Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town" (U Georgia Press, 2025) 46:21

9d ago46:21

46:21

In Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town (University of Georgia Press, 2025), Dr. Sylvia Hoffert calls on a particularly rich collection of primary sources, including diaries, letters, oral histories, census data, court documents, church records, and psychiatric hospital logs, all relating to Hill…

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Peace A. Medie, "Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa" (Oxford UP, 2020) 1:02:06

9d ago1:02:06

1:02:06

In Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa (Oxford UP, 2020), Peace A. Medie studies the domestic implementation of international norms by examining how and why two post-conflict states in Africa, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, have differed in their responses to rape and domestic violence. Specifically, she…

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Andrea Flores, "The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America" (UC Press, 2021) 1:07:49

9d ago1:07:49

1:07:49

Dr. Andrea Flores’ most recent book, The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America (University of California Press, 2021), is a detailed account of how immigrant youth in Nashville, Tennessee negotiated the stakes of academic achievement by reproducing terms of belonging while at the same time recasting wha…

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Gloria Browne-Marshall, "A Protest History of the United States" (Beacon Press, 2026) 1:06:22

9d ago1:06:22

1:06:22

Exploring 500 years of protest and resistance in US history—and how its force is foundational and can empower us to navigate our chaotic world In this timely new book in Beacon’s successful ReVisioning History series, professor Gloria Browne-Marshall delves into the history of protest movements and rebellion in the United States. Beginning with Ind…

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David Silkenat, "Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South" (Oxford UP, 2022) 1:04:47

9d ago1:04:47

1:04:47

They worked Virginia's tobacco fields, South Carolina's rice marshes, and the Black Belt's cotton plantations. Wherever they lived, enslaved people found their lives indelibly shaped by the Southern environment. By day, they plucked worms and insects from the crops, trod barefoot in the mud as they hoed rice fields, and endured the sun and humidity…

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José Blanco F. and Raúl J. Vázquez-López, "Dress, Fashion, and National Identity in Puerto Rico: Taínos to Beauty Queens" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 1:00:14

10d ago1:00:14

1:00:14

Analyzing dress, costume, and fashion in Puerto Rico, Dress, Fashion, and National Identity in Puerto Rico: Taínos to Beauty Queens (Bloomsbury, 2025) by Dr. José Blanco F. & Raúl J. Vázquez-López utilizes case studies that explore national identity and nation formation as well as past and current practices in Puerto Rican visual culture. As the la…

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Shilla Lee , "Crafting Rural Japan: Traditional Potters and Rural Creativity in Regional Revitalization" (Routledge, 2024) 1:04:36

6d ago1:04:36

1:04:36

Centering collaborations and frictions around a Japanese town’s pottery industry, Crafting Rural Japan: Traditional Potters and Rural Creativity in Regional Revitalization (Routledge, 2024)n discusses the place of creative village policy in the revitalization of rural Japan, highlighting how rural Japan is moving from a state of regional extinction…

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Gwyneth Mellinger, "Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow" (U Massachusetts Press, 2024) 24:46

11d ago24:46

24:46

“When the civil rights movement began to challenge Jim Crow laws, the white southern press reframed the coverage of racism and segregation as a debate over journalism standards. Many white southern editors, for instance, designated Black Americans as “Negro” in news stories, claiming it was necessary for accuracy and “objectivity,” even as white su…

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Redistricting Bill Passes 2nd House Reading, ILEA Vote On IPS, Rokita/Morales Noncitizen Voter Lawsuit, IU, Eli Lilly Deal For Clinical Trials, Bezos Housing Grant, Big Ten Championship Game 5:37

3d ago5:37

5:37

A bill that would redraw Indiana's congressional map to benefit Republicans passed through its second reading Thursday after hours of argument. A state-mandated task force chaired by Mayor Joe Hogsett has advanced two proposals that could fundamentally change how Indianapolis schools are governed. Attorney General Todd Rokita and Secretary of State…

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Professor Todd Eberly on “Interesting Times” in MD Politics 35:38

5h ago35:38

35:38

As Maryland heads into a challenging budget year and an election cycle legislative session, Professor Todd Eberly of St. Mary’s College of Maryland joins the Conduit Street Podcast to unpack the forces shaping the state’s political and economic landscape. Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson talk with Prof. Eberly about the ripple effects of federa…

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Maja Davidović, "Governing the Past: 'Never Again' and the Transitional Justice Project" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 54:44

12d ago54:44

54:44

The way we govern the past to ensure peaceful futures keeps conflict anxieties alive. In pursuit of its own survival, permanence and legitimacy, the project of transitional justice, designed to put the 'Never Again' promise into practice, makes communities that ought to benefit from it anxious about potential repetition of conflict. Governing the P…

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IN State Sen. Won’t Seek Reelection, Impact Of AI Data Centers, Marion County Schools Gets Funds From Lilly Endowment, Marion County Gets Funds From Lilly Endowment 6:05

8d ago6:05

6:05

Republican state Sen. Kyle Walker won’t seek reelection next year. Tech companies and governments could be doing more to reduce the environmental impact of AI data centers. Indiana is testing out a new approach to supporting newborn parents in the workplace; one that could eventually reach state offices across the region. Millions of dollars are he…

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Daniel Skinner et al., "The City and the Hospital: The Paradox of Medically Overserved Communities" (U Chicago Press, 2023) 43:20

13d ago43:20

43:20

The City and the Hospital (Chicago 2023) focuses on an urban paradox: American hospitals are imagined as sites of healing and care, and yet the people who live and work in nearby neighborhoods have some of the worst health outcomes in the nation. One part urban sociology and one part policy analysis, this book reports insights from a collaborative …

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Indiana's Congressional Map Passes Committee, Republicans Divided On Redistricting, Early Child Care Funding Cuts, Indiana Recidivism Factors, Indy’s Snowfall Response 5:36

1d ago5:36

5:36

A bill that would redraw Indiana's congressional map to benefit Republicans was passed through committee Tuesday after hours of testimony. A push to redraw Indiana's congressional districts has divided Republicans in the solidly conservative state. Last year, Indiana froze enrollment for a program that helps low income families pay for child care a…

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A Conversation with Sean OBrien 10:47

12d ago10:47

10:47

How does a White House speechwriter turn into a writer for kids? How do you become a Washington speech writer to begin with? We speak to Sean O'Brien, former speechwriter to then-Vice President Joe Biden. Kitty Felde is host.By Kitty Felde

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Jonathan S. Jones, "Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis" (UNC Press, 2025) 38:11

14d ago38:11

38:11

During the Civil War, the utility and widespread availability of opium and morphine made opiates essential to wartime medicine. After the war ended, thousands of ailing soldiers became addicted, or “enslaved,” as nineteenth-century Americans phrased it. Veterans, their families, and communities struggled to cope with addiction’s health and social c…

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Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis, "Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:06:12

14d ago1:06:12

1:06:12

Following the end of the Cold War, the world experienced a remarkable wave of democratization. Over the next two decades, numerous authoritarian regimes transitioned to democracies, and it seemed that authoritarianism as a political model was fading. But as recent events have shown, things have clearly changed. In Dictating the Agenda: The Authorit…

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Indiana GOP Introduce New Congressional Map, Indy Winter Contingency Plan, Free Nutritious Food Event For Indy Residents, Three Black Indy Artists Center of New Documentary 5:08

9d ago5:08

5:08

Indiana Republicans introduced a new congressional map on Monday, designed to flip the state's two Democratic seats for Republicans. More international students are opting out of attending college in the U.S. and Indiana. As below freezing temperatures continue into this week, Indianapolis officials are initiating winter contingency plans this mont…

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Theresa Delgadillo, "Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas" (U Michigan Press, 2024) 55:52

14d ago55:52

55:52

Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas (U Michigan Press, 2024) offers a new lens for examining diaspora and borderlands texts and performances that considers the inseparability of race, ethnicity, and gender in imagining and enacting social change. Theresa Delgadillo crosses interdisciplinary and canonical borders to in…

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Julia Wagner, "Hester Street" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 40:11

15d ago40:11

40:11

Joan Micklin Silver's groundbreaking debut feature film, Hester Street (1975), vividly portrays the immigrant experience through the eyes of Gitl (Carol Kane), a young, Orthodox Jewish woman who arrives in New York City from Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Reunited with her already-assimilated husband, Gitl finds they now have …