Best Isles Nation Podcasts (2025)

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Bogan Intelligentsia Ep. 28: Palestinian Activist Ahmed Alabadla on Gaza and Palestinian Recognition 1:36:32

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9h ago1:36:32

1:36:32

Description: In Episode 28 of the Bogan Intelligentsia Podcast, we’re joined by Ahmed Alabadla, a Palestinian activist bearing witness to Gaza's unbreakable spirit amid occupation and genocide. Ahmed vividly recalls Gaza's pre-October 7th vibrancy and the societal machinery under siege, then mourns Gaza City's historic obliteration and its dire por…

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Robert F. Carley, "Culture and Tactics: Gramsci, Race, and the Politics of Practice" (SUNY Press, 2019) 48:49

11h ago48:49

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While scholars of social and political movements tend to analyze tactics in terms of their effectiveness in achieving specific outcomes, Robert F. Carley argues by contrast that tactics are, above all, what social movements do. They are not mere means to an end so much as they are a public form of expression pointing out injustices and making just …

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Nicholas Bromell, "The Time is Always Now: Black Political Thought and the Transformation of U.S. Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2013) 1:00:48

11h ago1:00:48

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Nick Bromell is the author of By the Sweat of the Brow: Labor and Literature in Antebellum American Culture and Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the Sixties, both published by the University of Chicago Press. His articles and essays on African American literature and political thought have appeared in American Literature, American Lit…

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Jonas Enander, "Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth" (The Experiment Press, 2025) 1:05:59

12h ago1:05:59

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Humanity's relationship with black holes began in 1783 in a small English village, when clergyman John Michell posed a startling question: What if there are objects in space that are so large and heavy that not even light can escape them? Almost 250 years later, in April 2019, scientists presented the first picture of a black hole. Profoundly inspi…

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Kate Haulman, "The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America" (Oxford UP, 2025) 39:57

4h ago39:57

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In May 1894, President Grover Cleveland gave a speech thanking those who gathered “to worship at this national shrine.” He was not referring to the battlefields at Gettysburg or Antietam, nor to Mount Vernon, but to the gravesite of Mary Ball Washington, mother of George. While dedicating the new monument that marked it in Fredericksburg, Virginia,…

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Lucy Black, "A Quilting of Scars" (Now or Never Publishing, 2025) 39:28

5h ago39:28

39:28

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery interviews historical fiction legend Lucy E.M Black about her phenomenal new novel, A Quilting of Scars (Now or Never Publishing, 2025). Filled with the pleasure of recognizable yet distinctively original characters and a deftly drawn sense of time and place, A Quilting of Scars brings to life a story of for…

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Edward Fishman, "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare" (Portfolio, 2025) 1:00:18

7h ago1:00:18

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“The acme of skill,” Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, is not “to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles,” but “to subdue the enemy without fighting.” The author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare (Portfolio, 2025) has devoted much of his career to exploring how economic power can advance this goal. He served on …

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Selim Koru, "New Turkey and the Far Right: How Reactionary Nationalism Remade a Country" (I. B. Tauris, 2025) 47:09

13h ago47:09

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Turkey is among a league of revisionist powers who are challenging the world order. Erdogan and his Islamist movement have aimed to create the “New Turkey”, preparing for a future that is less dependent on Western treaty allies and with an alliance structure of its own. In New Turkey and the Far Right: How Reactionary Nationalism Remade a Country (…

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Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, "More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy" (Harper, 2025) 50:35

7h ago50:35

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It has become habitual to think of our relationship with energy as one of transition: with wood superseded by coal, coal by oil, oil by nuclear and then at some future point all replaced by green sources. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz’s devastating but unnervingly entertaining book shows what an extraordinary delusion this is. Far from the industrial era p…

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Valerie Schutte and Jessica S. Hower eds., "Mid-Tudor Queenship and Memory: The Making and Re-making of Lady Jane Grey and Mary I" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) 28:56

12h ago28:56

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Mid-Tudor Queenship and Memory: The Making and Re-making of Lady Jane Grey and Mary I (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) explores (mis)representations of two female claimants to the Tudor throne, Lady Jane Grey and Mary I of England. It places Jane's attempted accession and Mary I's successful accession and reign in comparative perspective, and illustrates…

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Katherine L. French, "Household Goods and Good Households in Late Medieval London: Consumption and Domesticity After the Plague" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) 52:31

4h ago52:31

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The Black Death that arrived in the spring of 1348 eventually killed nearly half of England's population. In its long aftermath, wages in London rose in response to labor shortages, many survivors moved into larger quarters in the depopulated city, and people in general spent more money on food, clothing, and household furnishings than they had bef…

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Episode 2631: Joseph Maroon, M.D., FACS ~ ESPN, Renown NFL Neurosurgeon for Pittsburgh Steelers , Iron Man Tri-Athlete, Nat'l Award Honoree 22:49

1d ago22:49

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ESPN, AP, USA Today, NFL Neurosurgeon, Ironman Triathlete It is not everyday that I get to speak to a renowned neurosurgeon for the NFL. Yes! The National Football League. In addition, long time team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers March 4, 2022 The NFL Physicians Society (NFLPS) awarded the Arthur C. Rettig Award for Academic Excellence t…

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WILDMANN 22 SEPTEMBER 2025 Fungi 33:56

3h ago33:56

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H explores the curious beauty and crucial role played by the mysterious world of fungi on a foray with the Manx Fungi Group

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Bob Wyss, "Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal" (University of California Press, 2025) 47:28

1d ago47:28

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For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and lighting the dark. In the coalfields and beyond, in Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal (University of California Press, 2025) Bob Wyss describes how this magical elixir sparke…

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Kawika Guillermo, "Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games" (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) 30:19

1d ago30:19

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An immersive journey into the author's lifelong attachment to video games, revealing how they shape us, shatter us, and give us the courage to start again Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) is a captivating collection of personal essays that unpack the mystifying and often intimate roles that video games …

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Kenja McCray, "Essential Soldiers: Women Activists and Black Power Movement Leadership" (NYU Press, 2025) 1:09:54

1d ago1:09:54

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Academics and popular commentors have expressed common sentiments about the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s—that it was male dominated and overrun with autocratic leaders. Yet women’s strategizing, management, and sustained work were integral to movement organizations’ functioning, and female advocates of cultural nationalism often exhi…

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Stefanie Mercado Altman, Claire Altman, and Stan Altman, "Twice Blessed: A Story of Unconditional Love" (Fordham UP, 2025) 52:56

1d ago52:56

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Twice Blessed (Fordham University Press, 2025) is a memoir that explores the depths of love, resilience, and the true meaning of family. Stefanie Mercado Altman, Claire Altman, and Stan Altman share an intimate and inspiring story about the bonds that define us, from adoption to caregiving and beyond. When Stefanie was adopted by Claire and Stan, …

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Jon Mills, "End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024) 41:46

1d ago41:46

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Dr. Jon Mills, has had an impressive career as practicing professional, researcher, educator and writer in the psychology and psychoanalytic field. His work bounds the world of philosophy and psychology, focusing upon both individual human behavior and the manifestation of the collective behavior in the social context. He is the author and/or edito…

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Tim Weiner, "The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century" (Mariner Books, 2025) 51:34

1d ago51:34

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In 2007, Tim Weiner published the book Legacy of Ashes. It was a history of the CIA from its founding to the early 2000s. As a university student in Italy, I bought the book as soon as it came out. The second non-fiction book I ever bought in English. The book was riveting. It kickstarted my interest in the CIA and covert operations. Now, Tim Weine…

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Xiang Biao and Wu Qi, "Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) 1:39:40

1d ago1:39:40

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Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Xiang Biao on his new book, Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World, which was originally written and published in Chinese. The English translation has just come out with Palgrave Macmillan. Self as Method provides a manifesto of intellectual activism that counsels China’s young people t…

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Mary Beth Willard, "Why It's Ok to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists" (Routledge, 2021) 1:08:14

1d ago1:08:14

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The #metoo movement has forced many fans to consider what they should do when they learn that a beloved artist has acted immorally. One natural thought is that fans ought to give up the artworks of immoral artists, but according to Mary Beth Willard, it’s hard to find good reasons to do so. In Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists (Routl…

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Wendell Marsh, "Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities" (Columbia UP, 2025) 53:46

1d ago53:46

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Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities (Columbia University Press, 2025), is a groundbreaking book that recasts the role of knowledge in the making of a colonial and postcolonial nation. It makes a case for a new literary and intellectual-historical approach to Islam in Africa. The Senegalese Muslim scholar Shaykh Musa Kamara (…

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Danna Zeiger, "Rewriting the Rules" (Millbrook Press, 2025) 49:59

2d ago49:59

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In our wonderful interview, Dr. Danna Trachtenberg Zeiger and I celebrate her debut picture book, Rewriting the Rules, a STEM nonfiction picture book which was just released from Millbrook Press (Carol Hinz, editor) on September 9, 2025". She is represented by Gaby Cabezut at The Seymour Agency. A published scientist, Danna's research has appeared …

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Karen Robert, "Driving Terror: Labor, Violence, and Justice in Cold War Argentina" (U New Mexico Press, 2025) 1:04:55

3d ago1:04:55

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Driving Terror: Labor, Violence, and Justice in Cold War Argentina (U New Mexico Press, 2025) by Dr. Karen Robert tells the story of twenty-four Ford autoworkers in Argentina who were tortured and “disappeared” for their union activism in 1976, miraculously survived, and pursued a decades-long quest for truth and justice. In December 2018, more tha…

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Devin Smart, "Preparing the Modern Meal: Urban Capitalism and Working-Class Food in Kenya's Port City" (Ohio UP, 2025) 1:22:24

2d ago1:22:24

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Preparing the Modern Meal: Urban Capitalism and Working-Class Food in Kenya's Port City (Ohio UP, 2025) is an urban history that connects town and country. Devin Smart examines how labor migrants who left subsistence food systems in Kenya’s rural communities acquired their daily meals when they arrived in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa, a place w…

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Aaron L. Miller, "Basketball in Japan: Shooting for the Stars" (Routledge, 2024) 1:03:34

1d ago1:03:34

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Today we are joined by Aaron Miller, Lecturer in Kinesiology at California State University, East Bay and the author of Basketball in Japan: Shooting for the Stars (Routledge, 2025.) In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of basketball in Japan, the ongoing legacy of Samurai culture in Japanese sport, and what Japanese basketball’s succes…

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Calvin Schermerhorn, "The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:04:55

2d ago1:04:55

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Dr. J Calvin Schermerhorn is a professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. His books include The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815–1860, and Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery. He lives in Tempe, AZ. The long history of the racial we…

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Stuart McHardy, "Scotland's Sacred Goddess: Hidden in Plain Sight" (Luath, 2025) 27:30

2d ago27:30

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In Scotland’s Sacred Goddess: Hidden in Plain Sight (Luath Press, 2025), Stuart McHardy delves into the rich tapestry of pre-Christian Scottish beliefs, uncovering the enduring presence of ancient mythologies in today’s landscape. Long before the arrival of Christian monks, the Scots revered a pantheon of deities, with the Cailleach Goddess at its …

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Kathleen Smithers, "Tourism, Philanthropy and School Tours in Zimbabwe: Problematising "Win-Win" Discourses" (Routledge, 2024) 57:39

2d ago57:39

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In Tourism, Philanthropy and School Tours in Zimbabwe: Problematising "Win-Win" Discourses (Routledge, 2024), Kathleen Smithers investigates the tensions between a school's role as a communal learning space and its function as a spectacle for tourists. Using a school in Matabeleland North as a case study, Smithers analyzes how school tours, often m…

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Karen Smythe, "A Town with No Noise" (Palimpsest Press, 2025) 34:06

2d ago34:06

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In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Guelph, Ontario author Karen Smythe about Karen's novel, A Town With No Noise (Palimpsest Press, 2025). Samara and J., a struggling young couple, are off to J.’s birthplace, Upton Bay, a small town turned upscale theatre and winery destination. Sam has been hired by an editor friend to write a pr…