Best Modern Day Classroom Podcasts (2025)

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Jibola Fagbamiye and Conor McCreery, "Fela: Music Is the Weapon" (Amistad Press, 2025) 1:25:00

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11m ago1:25:00

1:25:00

A spectacular graphic novel about the life and times of the legendary Fela Kuti—the Pan-African frontman, multi-instrumentalist, sociopolitical powerhouse, and father of Afrobeat. In Fela: Music Is the Weapon (Amistad, 2025), artist Jibola Fagbamiye and writer Conor McCreery team up to tell the remarkable origin story of one of Nigeria’s most famou…

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Jonathan Eburne, "Exploded Views: Speculative Form and the Labor of Inquiry" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 1:08:06

3h ago1:08:06

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Exploded Views: Speculative Form and the Labor of Inquiry (U Minnesota Press, 2025) is the latest book by scholar Jonathan P. Eburne, J. H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. An experiment in returning to incomplete scholarly projects to renovate and reimagine them, the book stages a series of encounters with …

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

11m ago56:04

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

11m ago1:02:21

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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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Aaron Smale, "Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the Cyclone" (Bridget Williams, 2024) 44:44

11m ago44:44

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"The Coast has been battered for years by decisions made by those who don’t live there and don’t have any connection to the place. It started early." Based on his investigative Newsroom series, Aaron Smale’s Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the Cyclone (Bridget Williams, 2024) goes deep into the region’s struggle with colonial legacies and environmenta…

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Timothy Gitzen, "Unscripting the Present" (SUNY Press, 2025) 41:26

11m ago41:26

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Timothy Gitzen's Unscripting the Present (SUNY Press, 2025) interrogates contemporary sex panics in the United States, looking especially at popular culture texts to conceptualize queer youth survival strategies. Sex panics saturate contemporary discourse and politics in the United States. While such panics have a long history, they are now infused…

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Tina Seelig on Making Your Own Luck and Other Critical Life and Entrepreneurship Skills 43:20

15m ago43:20

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Stanford educator and renowned creativity expert Tina Seelig joins Richard Lucas on the New Books Network’s Entrepreneurship & Leadership channel to discuss her new book What I Wish I Knew About Luck (coming April 2026). As the host found himself agreeing with everything Tina said, he asked for examples of people who disagreed with her. First, they…

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Susan Ashbrook Harvey, "Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity" (U California Press, 2025) 1:27:31

15m ago1:27:31

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Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity (U California Press, 2025) is an open access tour-de-force study of the power of women's liturgical singing in late antique Syriac Christianity. Extending women's religious participation beyond the familiar roles of female saints and nobles, Syriac churches cultivated a flourishing b…

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Daria Lavelle, "Aftertaste" (Simon & Schuster, 2025) 23:50

3h ago23:50

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In Aftertaste (Simon & Schuster, 2025) Konstantin Duhovny’s father died when he was young, and his mother is too anguished to raise him, so he raises himself, but not very well. After a sad breakup, he advertises for a roommate and finds a chef who becomes his best friend. Kostya starts to realize that although he doesn’t see ghosts, he can taste t…

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

15m ago1:13:03

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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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Spark in the Lab: Mr. Javon’e & Joyful Classroom Revolution 27:47

8h ago27:47

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In this episode, Dr. Chris Dennis sits down with Mr. Javon’e, an energetic K–6 classroom teacher and STEAM specialist whose authentic presence transforms his students’ days. They discuss classroom moments like erupting volcano labs, the balance between structure and excitement, and what administrators should understand about teachers’ day‑to‑day re…

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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

1d ago1:07:49

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

24h ago1:04:47

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

1d ago46:21

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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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Shantala Sriramaiah, "Nitya Prārthanā" (Veda Studies, 2025) 57:00

22h ago57:00

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"Nitya Prārthanā” and “Nitya Dhyāna” are two profound collections designed to infuse daily life with sacredness. “Nitya Prārthanā” offers popular chants from the prayer tradition of India (not Veda) for everyday activities, transforming routine tasks into moments of divine connection. “Nitya Dhyāna” gathers timeless Vedic mantras and sūktams to sup…

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Caitlin Galway, "A Song for Wildcats: Stories" (Dundurn Press, 2025) 44:34

1d ago44:34

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In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Caitlin Galway about her short fiction collection, A Song for Wildcats (Dundurn Press, 2025). An arresting, vividly imaginative collection of stories capturing the complexity of intimacy and the depths of the unravelling mind. Infatuation and violence grow between two girls in the enchanting wild…

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Wings of Desire 27:07

11m ago27:07

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Wings of Desire (1987) is a film that stays with the viewer; part of how it works is to flood the viewer’s mind with images that seem, at first, disconnected but which also take root and then resurface a day or week later when one isn’t suspecting to think about a trapeze artist or Peter Falk. More like a painting than a film, Wings of Desire flips…

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“Rurality 2.0”: How City Migrants are Reshaping Norway’s Rural Regions with Tom Bratrud 1:11:07

24h ago1:11:07

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In today’s episode, we talk to Tom Bratrud about his ongoing, long-term work with city-dwellers who migrate to rural parts of Norway. This research forms the basis of Tom’s forthcoming book project, which has the working title Rurality 2.0: Redefining Urban-Rural Divides in the Mountains of Norway. Tom Bratrud is Associate Professor in Social Anthr…

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

1d ago1:06:22

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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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Thomas Haigh on the History of “AI” as a Brand 1:42:06

1d ago1:42:06

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Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Thomas Haigh, Professor and Chair of History and affiliate of the Department of Computer Science at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, about his forthcoming book on the history of artificial intelligence. The book, which has had the working title _Artificial Intelligence: The History of a Brand_ with th…

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Dainy Bernstein, "Artifacts of Orthodox Jewish Childhoods" (Ben Yehuda Press, 2022) 1:12:19

1d ago1:12:19

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The culture of mainstream American childhood is vastly different than the culture of Orthodox Jewish childhood - which is itself a rich and varied landscape of texts, music, toys, and more, with nuanced shadings from one sect of Orthodox Judaism to the next. In Artifacts of Orthodox Jewish Childhoods: Personal and Critical Essays (Ben Yehuda Press,…

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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

1d ago1:02:06

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

2d ago1:04:36

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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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Claire Parnell, "Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era" (U Massachusetts Press, 2025 44:39

2d ago44:39

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The average reader need not go far in a bookstore before, knowingly or not, they encounter authors who started their careers by self-publishing prior to achieving commercial success. Examples include Margaret Atwood, Andy Weir, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, E. L. James, Scarlett St. Clair, and many more. Such stories of self-made writers are compellin…

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The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies 53:00

20m ago53:00

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This week on Democracy Dialogues, co-hosts Rachel Beatty Riedl and Esam Boraey speak with Susan C. Stokes, Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. Drawing from her book The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies (P…

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Michal A. Piegzik, "Gamble in the Coral Sea: Japan's Offensive, the Carrier Battle, and the Road to Midway" (Naval Institute Press, 2025) 53:34

2d ago53:34

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Driven by extensive Japanese primary sources, Gamble in the Coral Sea: Japan's Offensive, the Carrier Battle, and the Road to Midway (Naval Institute Press, 2025) offers an operational analysis of the first clash of aircraft carriers at the pivotal Battle of the Coral Sea from the Japanese perspective, including leadership, tactics, and errors that…

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Dylan Taylor-Lehman, "Going Rackless: Chicago’s Amateur Pool Players and the Quest for Glory in the Biggest Tournament in the World" (3 Fields Books, 2025) 36:33

2d ago36:33

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Playing every angle for a shot at the big time, Chicagoans venture to area pool halls to perfect their games and navigate league play for a shot at the APA World Pool Championships in Las Vegas. In Going Rackless: Chicago’s Amateur Pool Players and the Quest for Glory in the Biggest Tournament in the World (3 Fields Books, 2025) Dylan Taylor-Lehman…

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Beau Cleland, "Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy" (U Georgia Press, 2025) 1:03:38

2d ago1:03:38

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Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy (U Georgia Press, 2025) by Dr. Beau Cleland recenters our understanding of the Civil War by framing it as a hemispheric affair, deeply influenced by the actions of a network of private parties and minor officials in the Confederacy and Britis…

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Gregory S. Wilson, "Poison Powder: The Kepone Disaster in Virginia and Its Legacy" (U Georgia Press, 2023) 1:09:48

2d ago1:09:48

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In 1975 workers at Life Science Products, a small makeshift pesticide factory in Hopewell, Virginia, became ill after exposure to Kepone, the brand name for the pesticide chlordecone. They made the poison under contract for a much larger Hopewell company, Allied Chemical. Life Science workers had been breathing in the dust for more than a year. Ing…