Best Local Files Club Podcasts (2025)

An exciting collection of stories of change that most people don’t usually hear from the bottom up, from the grassroots, about what’s happening in East Asia. Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First-Century East Asia (Rutgers UP, 2025) brings together an exciting cross-regional interdisciplinary group of scholars, schol…

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Nicholas L. Caverly, "Demolishing Detroit: How Structural Racism Endures" (Stanford UP, 2025) 49:56

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In this episode, Nick Caverly talks about his new book, Demolishing Detroit: How Structural Racism Endures (Stanford UP, 2025). For decades, Detroit residents, politicians, planners, and advocacy organizations have campaigned for the elimination of empty buildings from city neighborhoods. Leveling these structures, many argue, is essential to makin…

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Suvi Rautio, "The Invention of Tradition in China: Story of a Village and a Nation Remade" (Springer Nature, 2024) 1:18:40

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Today, anthropologist Professor Anru Lee is joining NBN as a guest host to interview me, Suvi Rautio, on my new book, The Invention of Tradition in China: Story of a Village and a Nation Remade published by Palgrave in 2024. In China, heritage projects are sprouting across the countryside carrying the promise of Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream” as a ca…

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Hour 4: Christmas with Steven Page, Toronto Holiday Memories, Overhyped and Underplayed of the Year 38:07

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Hour 3: Pessimist or Optimist for the New Year? Christmas Gift for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Round 2 35:53

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Hour 2: Stuffed for Christmas, Trivia! Round 1 36:58

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Hour 1: Mayor Polls Surprise, Epstein files Trickle in, The Flu and Heart attacks 33:08

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Hour 4: Are You A Jays Fan or a Leafs Fan, can you be both? 40:59

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Hour 3: Toronto Needs More Chefs and New Streaming Numbers are Bittersweet for Musicians 37:39

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Hour 2: Gen-Xers and Millennials are About to Inherit $1 Trillion and Canada Announces a New Ambassador to the US 37:37

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Hour 1: Stats Sat Crime is Down, but it Doesn’t Feel Like It 35:36

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Karma F. Frierson, "Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz" (U California Press, 2025) 49:56

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The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, b…

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Hour 4: The Biggest Political Stories of 2025, and Gil Moore from Triumph! 38:53

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Hour 3: As U.S. Guns Pour Into Canada, the Bodies Pile Up 38:17

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Hour 2: Calls for Action Against Extremism and Chatbots Influencing Your Vote 37:44

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Hour 1: Are We Getting A White Christmas, and a Recap of the Political Landscape with Tasha Kheiriddin 35:24

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Hour 4: We Hear Your Thoughts of Michael Ma Crossing the Floor and John Tory gives us his Take 35:11

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Hour 3: Marit Stiles Checks in from Northern Ontario, and Ajax Mauor Shaun Collier Responds to a Complaint 36:04

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Hour 2: New Rules on Pay Transparency and an Investigation into Labour Minister David Piccini 32:28

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Leila Hudson, "Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home: Syrian Women Displaced" (Syracuse UP, 2025) 52:13

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While humanitarian organizations and media outlets often reduce Syrian refugees to statistics or brief anecdotes, the real story of displacement unfolds in the intimate spaces of family life. Through the interwoven narratives of five middle-aged sisters from Damascus, Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home reveals how Syrian women navigate war, exile…

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Hour 4: What is Going On in the World of Entertainment with Marilyn Denis and David Corey, and a City Official was Caught Voting While Driving 36:52

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Hour 3: Ford Government Hired a P.I. Firm to Investigate Consumption Sites and Priority Transit Lanes Red Paint is Peeling a Month After Installation 33:27

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Hour 2: What is a Resilience Bank, Raw Sewage in Lake Ontario, and Money for Blood 37:05

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Hour 1: Toronto City Council Approves Luxury Land Transfer Tax and Can Using A.I. Make You Less Knowledgeable 35:59

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Sharon Sliwinski, "An Alphabet for Dreamers: How to See the World with Eyes Closed" (MIT Press, 2025) 29:35

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Borrowing from the traditional alphabet book genre for children, An Alphabet for Dreamers: How to See the World with Eyes Closed (MIT Press, 2025) by Dr. Sharon Sliwinski provides adult readers with a new grammar for dreams, or what neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro calls “oracles of the night.” In this book, Dr. Sliwinski restores dreaming to its pro…

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Hour 4: Who Could Replace Pierre Poilievre and One Family’s Search for Justice 39:43

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Hour 3: What Comes Next for Residents of the Thorncliffe Park Condo and Skate Canada to Stop Hosting Events in Alberta 37:31

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Hour 2: The Latest from Toronto City Hall with CTV News’ Natalie Johnson and Free For All Round One with Tim Hudak, Dave Trafford and Tamara Cherry 35:59

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Hour 1: Swearing an Oath to the King is Unconstitutional and Why Do You Wake Up Minutes Before Your Alarm and 36:22

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Luis Felipe Murillo, "Common Circuits: Hacking Alternative Technological Futures" (Stanford UP, 2025) 41:20

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A digital world in relentless movement—from artificial intelligence to ubiquitous computing—has been captured and reinvented as a monoculture by Silicon Valley "big tech" and venture capital firms. Yet very little is discussed in the public sphere about existing alternatives. Based on long-term field research across San Francisco, Tokyo, and Shenzh…

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Hour 4: Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw Breaks Down 2025, and Trump’s Harsh Comments on the Murder of Robert Reiner 37:50

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Hour 3: Big Promises for Niagara Falls and Canada’s Young People are the Unhappiest Generation 37:31

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Hour 2: Thorncliffe Park Condo Fire is Finally Out and The Round One Panel Weights in on Poilievre’s Response to the Floor Crossing 36:43

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Hour 1: Mark Towhey Breaks Down the Morning Headlines on The Daily Brief and Carmi Levy is in for Tech Tuesdays 37:40

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Megan Tobias Neely, "Hedged Out: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street" (U California Press, 2022) 1:01:57

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In Hedged Out: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street (U California Press, 2022) Megan Tobias Neely, a former hedge fund worker takes an ethnographic approach to hedge funds. Manager? A greedy fraudster, a visionary entrepreneur, a wolf of Wall Street? She gives readers an insider perspective on the phenomenon. Facing an unpredictable and risky s…

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Hour 4: Think You Can Outrun the TTC; Mac Bauer Did, and Richard Crouse reflects on the career of Rob Reiner 38:33

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Hour 3: Caught Stealing Groceries, We Got a Paralegal for That, and Holy Mackinaw an interview with Joe Bowen! 39:03

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Hour 2: Mayor Olivia Chow shares What She’s Focused On With The Year Ahead, and Round One with Laura Babcock, Jon Burnside and Paven Bratch 37:48

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Hour 1: The Headlines with Scott Reid on The Morning Brief and Tom Mulcair breaks down the floor crossing and conservative leadership review on Mulcair Mondays 35:40

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Yasmin Cho, "Politics of Tranquility: The Material and Mundane Lives of Buddhist Nuns in Post-Mao Tibet" (Cornell UP, 2025) 53:29

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Politics of Tranquility: The Material and Mundane Lives of Buddhist Nuns in Post-Mao Tibet (Cornell University Press, 2025) concerns the Tibetan Buddhist revival in China, illustrating the lives of Tibetan Buddhist nuns and exploring the political effects that arise from their nonpolitical daily engagements in the remote, mega-sized Tibetan Buddhis…

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Jerry Moore, "Cat Tales: A History" (Thames & Hudson, 2025) 38:22

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For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go fr…