Best Nairobi Talks Podcasts (2025)

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John Mathias, "Uncommon Cause: Living for Environmental Justice in Kerala" (U California Press, 2024) 54:27

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9m ago54:27

54:27

How can activists strike a balance between fighting for a cause and sustaining relationships with family, friends, and neighbors? In this episode John Mathias joins host Elena Sobrino to talk about Uncommon Cause: Living for Environmental Justice in Kerala (2024, University of California Press). Uncommon Cause follows environmental justice activist…

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Jürgen Schaflechner, "Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan" (Oxford UP, 2018) 1:26:58

3d ago1:26:58

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About two hundred kilometers west of the city of Karachi, in the desert of Baluchistan, Pakistan, sits the shrine of the Hindu Goddess Hinglaj. Despite the temple's ancient Hindu and Muslim history, an annual festival at Hinglaj has only been established within the last three decades, in part because of the construction of the Makran Coastal Highwa…

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Deepa Das Acevedo, "The War on Tenure" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 1:02:47

8m ago1:02:47

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As academia increasingly comes under attack in the United States, The War on Tenure (Cambridge UP, 2025) steps in to demystify what professors do and to explain the importance of tenure for their work. Deepa Das Acevedo takes readers on a backstage tour of tenure-stream academia to reveal hidden dynamics and obstacles. She challenges the common bel…

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Michael Rowe, "Researching Street-Level Bureaucracy: Bringing Out the Interpretive Dimensions" (Routledge, 2024) 40:09

2d ago40:09

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Researching Street-level Bureaucracy: Bringing Out the Interpretive Dimensions (Routledge, 2024) is the first among a number of new titles in the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods that we’ll be featuring on New Books in Interpretive Political and Social Science. In it, Mike Rowe discusses the continued relevance of the idea of street level b…

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Georgios Tsourous, "Orthodox Choreographies: Boundaries, Borders and Materiality in Jerusalem's Old City" (Gorgias Press, 2024) 1:04:05

2h ago1:04:05

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Orthodox Choreographies: Boundaries, Borders and Materiality in Jerusalem's Old City (Gorgias Press, 2024) offers a comprehensive anthropological study of lived Christianity in Jerusalem’s Old City, with a special focus on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Anastasis. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, the study explores t…

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Gina Vale, "The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State" (Oxford UP, 2024) 56:55

1d ago56:55

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The Unforgotten Women of the Islamic State (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Gina Vale explores the governance of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization through the lives and words of local Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish women. While the roles and activities of foreign (predominantly Western), pro-IS women have garnered significant attentio…

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Dr. Enos Banda on How CfDs Could Unlock Renewable Energy Investments in Africa 21:37

7d ago21:37

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In this episode, Dr. Enos Banda, CEO of ENERTRAG South Africa, explores how Contracts for Difference (CfDs) could accelerate renewable energy deployment across the continent. From ENERTRAG's legacy Darling Wind Farm to the upcoming 210 MW Hendrina Wind Project in Mpumalanga, Dr. Banda highlights how CfDs can de-risk investment, integrate hybrid sys…

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From coal to wind: how Seriti Green is reshaping Africa's energy future 22:17

7d ago22:17

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Recorded at the Africa Energy Forum 2025 in Cape Town, this episode of the Let's Talk Energy podcast features Peter Venn, CEO of Seriti Green, on the company's bold shift from coal to renewables. From building one of Africa's largest wind portfolios to navigating carbon markets and innovative financing, Peter unpacks how Seriti Green is reshaping t…

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A Conversation on Power, Policy, and the Future of Energy in Africa 13:09

7d ago13:09

13:09

Africa's energy transition is moving at pace, with solar, wind, hydro, and storage opening new pathways for security, resilience, and growth. In this episode, Alberto Gambacorta, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Scatec ASA, reflects on the opportunities and challenges of scaling renewables across the continent.…

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Kolby Hanson, "Ordinary Rebels: Rank-And-File Militants Between War and Peace" (Oxford UP, 2025) 42:26

8d ago42:26

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In Ordinary Rebels: Rank-And-File Militants Between War and Peace (Oxford University Press, 2025), Kolby Hanson argues that these periods of state toleration do not simply change armed groups' behavior, but fundamentally transform the organizations themselves by shaping who takes up arms and which leaders they follow. This book draws on a set of in…

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Laurian R. Bowles, "Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness, and Modernity in Accra" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) 1:03:02

10d ago1:03:02

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Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness, and Modernity in Accra (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) explores the experiences of women porters, called kayayei, in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork, anthropologist Laurian R. Bowles shows how kayayei navigate precarity, bringing into sharp relief how racialization, rooted in histories of colonialis…

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

14d 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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Elsa Strydom on South Africa's IPP Programme: Powering a Constrained Grid Sustainably 21:18

16d ago21:18

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In this episode, Elsa Strydom, Interim Head of South Africa's IPP Office, explores how independent power producers are expanding electricity access in a constrained grid environment. From new procurement rounds in renewables, gas, and battery storage to local job creation and training opportunities, she highlights how the IPP Programme is driving a…

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Building Utility-Scale Renewables in Africa: Insights from Stuart MacWilliam at Mulilo 17:52

18d ago17:52

17:52

In this episode of the Africa Energy Forum Podcast, Stuart MacWilliam, Chief Development Officer at Mulilo, explores the journey of scaling renewable energy projects from concept to commercialisation. From navigating regulatory and permitting challenges to structuring innovative PPAs and financing models, he shares how Mulilo delivers utility-scale…

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Nidhi Mahajan, "Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean" (U of California Press, 2025) 1:04:03

17d ago1:04:03

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Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean (U of California Press, 2025) follows sailors from the Gulf of Kachchh in India as they voyage across the Indian Ocean on mechanized wooden sailing vessels known as vahans, or dhows. These voyages produce capital through moorings that are spatial, moral, material, and conceptual. With a view from…

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Susan M. Rigdon, "Oscar Lewis in Cuba: La Partida Final" (Berghahn Books, 2024) 1:07:48

18d ago1:07:48

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American anthropologist Oscar Lewis secured permission from Fidel Castro to undertake three years of field research on cultural and economic change in Cuba in the decade after the victory of Castro's M-26 Movement. Oscar Lewis in Cuba: La Partida Final (Berghahn Books, 2024) delves into Lewis' research goals, methods, the training and composition o…

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Chelsi West Ohueri, "Encountering Race in Albania: An Ethnography of the Communist Afterlife" (Cornell UP, 2025) 51:10

23d ago51:10

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Encountering Race in Albania: An Ethnography of the Communist Afterlife (Cornell University Press, 2025) is the first book to interrogate race and racial logics in Albania. Chelsi West Ohueri examines how race is made, remade, produced, and reproduced through constructions of whiteness, blackness, and otherness. She argues that while race is often …

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Standard Bank's Rentia van Tonder & Aadil Cajee: The Strategic Role of Finance in Energy 21:18

26d ago21:18

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In this episode of Let's Talk Energy, Rentia van Tonder, Head of Power, and Aadil Cajee, Head of Energy & Infrastructure Finance at Standard Bank CIB, discuss how finance is evolving from a transactional role to a strategic driver in Africa's energy transition. From shaping inclusive and climate-resilient energy systems to embedding ESG principles …

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Jovana Diković, "The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia" (UCL Press, 2025) 55:05

20d ago55:05

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What if rural progress isn’t about government intervention but about the self-reliance and ingenuity of peasants themselves? The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia (UCL Press, 2025) subverts conventional wisdom on rural development by shifting the focus from state-led planning to the agency of peasants themselves. Rej…

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Darcie Deangelo et al., "Demilitarizing the Future" (Anthem Press, 2025) 50:25

20d ago50:25

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Demilitarizing the Future (Anthem Press, 2025) draws from art, anthropology, and activism to investigate the entrenchment of militarism in everyday lives and consider novel imaginaries of its dissolution--of peacemaking, community, and shared equitable futures. This book will be published in October of 2025. In this episode, Rebecca Kastleman, Darc…

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Cold Rush 27:45

25d ago27:45

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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Ingrid Piller speaks with Sari Pietikainen about her new book Cold Rush (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). This book is an original study of “Cold Rush,” an accelerated race for the extraction and protection of Arctic natural resources. The Northernmost reach of the planet is caught up in the double dev…

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Ruth E. Toulson, "Necropolitics of the Ordinary: Death and Grieving in Contemporary Singapore" (U Washington Press, 2024) 58:30

28d ago58:30

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Can a state make its people forget the dead? Cemeteries have become sites of acute political contestation in the city-state of Singapore. Confronted with high population density and rapid economic growth, the government has ordered the destruction of all but one burial ground, forcing people to exhume their family members. In Necropolitics of the O…

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Advancing Energy Access in Africa – A Conversation with Zaheer Khan at Trina Solar 15:44

1M ago15:44

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In this episode, Zaheer Khan, Regional Director for South Africa at Trina Solar MEA, explores how Trina Solar is supporting Africa's energy transition through large-scale solar projects and partnerships. From supplying PV modules for South Africa's REIPPPP to collaborating with local developers, he shares how innovation and collaboration are expand…

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Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, "Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East" (UP of Colorado, 2025) 58:49

26d ago58:49

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Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East (University Press of Colorado, 2025) by Dr. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni offers an in-depth exploration of the Urartian empire, which occupied the highlands of present-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran in the early first millennium BCE. Lesser known than its rival, the Neo-Assyrian empire, …

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From Biogas to Breakthroughs - Smart Energy for Smart Growth with Cobus van Schalkwyk, Rolls-Royce Solutions Africa 10:52

1M ago10:52

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In this episode, Cobus van Schalkwyk, Director of Global Mining and Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Solutions Africa, discusses how on-site biogas and industrial bio-digesters are transforming power for Africa's remote mining operations. He explains how flexible, low-emission power systems are reducing reliance on diesel, cutting costs, and provid…

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Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football 58:04

1M ago58:04

58:04

Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college footba…

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Maan Barua, "Plantation Worlds" (Duke UP, 2024) 58:49

1M ago58:49

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In Plantation Worlds (Duke UP, 2024), Maan Barua interrogates debates on planetary transformations through the histories and ecologies of plantations. Drawing on long-term research spanning fifteen years, Barua presents a unique ethnography attentive to the lives of both people and elephants amid tea plantations in the Indian state of Assam. In the…

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Expanding Solar in the Middle East & Africa: A Conversation with Weiwei Du at Tongwei Solar 10:12

1M ago10:12

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In this episode, Weiwei Du, Head of Middle East and Africa at Tongwei Solar, discusses the company's growing role in advancing solar energy across the MEA region. From supplying 1.175 GW of modules to ACWA Power in Saudi Arabia, to co-developing the 140 MW Doornhoek project in South Africa, Du shares how Tongwei's expansion strategy is aligning wit…

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Breaking the silence on caste in academia 54:26

1M ago54:26

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Caste isn’t just a South Asian issue — it shapes who speaks, who listens, and who is heard in academic and development spaces worldwide. In this episode of Between the Lines, we confront how caste hierarchies continue to influence the production of knowledge, access to opportunity, and the experience of being in higher education. Hosted by Chandni …

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Vanessa Diaz, "Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood" (Duke UP, 2020) 50:01

1M ago50:01

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While Hollywood’s images present a veneer of fantasy for some, the work to create such images is far from escapism. In Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood (Duke University Press, 2020), anthropologist Vanessa Díaz examines the raced and gendered hierarchies and inequalities that are imbricated within the work …

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Bettina Ng′weno, "No Place Like Home in a New City: Anti-Urbanism and Life in Nairobi" (U of California Press, 2025) 53:28

2M ago53:28

53:28

Bettina Ng’weno is Professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis Nairobi, known as the Green City in the Sun, has taken shape through anti-urban ideologies that insist that the city cannot be home for most residents. Based on decades of experience in rapidly changing Nairobi, No Place Like Home in a New Ci…

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South Africa's Electricity Market Liberalisation: A Conversation with Alexandra Cluver at Bowmans 20:33

2M ago20:33

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In this episode, Alexandra Cluver, Partner at Bowmans, discusses how South Africa's Wholesale Electricity Market is reshaping the country's power sector. From the introduction of the new Market Code and its impact on independent power producers to the evolution of power purchase agreements, she explains how a liberalised market is creating investor…

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Erased Voices and Unspoken Heritage 41:01

1M ago41:01

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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Alexandra Grey speaks with Dr Zozan Balci about Zozan’s new book, Erased Voices and Unspoken Heritage: Language, Identity and Belonging in the Lives of Cultural In-betweeners, published in 2025 by Routledge.. The conversation focuses on a study of adults with three languages ‘at play’ in their…

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Kate Herrity, "Sound, Order and Survival in Prison: The Rhythms and Routines of HMP Midtown" (Bristol UP, 2024) 1:07:54

2M ago1:07:54

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The soundscape of prison life is that of constant clangs, bangs and jangles. What is the significance of this cacophonous din to those who live and work with it? Sound, Order and Survival in Prison: The Rhythms and Routines of HMP Midtown (Bristol UP, 2024) tells the story of a year spent with a UK prison community, bringing its social world vividl…

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Gas-to-Power in Africa: Reliability, Hybrid Models & Investment with Dietmar Siersdorfer, Siemens Energy 14:48

2M ago14:48

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In this episode, Dietmar Siersdorfer, Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Siemens Energy, discusses the evolving role of gas in Africa's energy transition and why 2025 is a pivotal moment for the sector. From integrating gas with renewables to delivering reliable, affordable power, Dietmar shares insights on investment trends, innov…

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Financing Africa's Energy Future Through BESS: A Conversation with Ronald Chindeka at Pele Green Energy 19:27

2M ago19:27

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In this episode, Ronald Chindeka, Head of Investment and Funding at Pele Green Energy, explores the rise of battery energy storage in Africa and how to finance it at scale. From lessons learned on the €84 million Kolda project to new models leveraging Africa's mineral wealth, he shares strategies to overcome capital barriers and accelerate clean en…

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People Power – Africa's Talent as the Energy That Unites Us: A Conversation with Zandile Hlatywayo at ATP 17:21

2M ago17:21

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In this episode, Zandile Hlatywayo, Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy at Allied Talent Partners, shares why Africa's people are the continent's most powerful energy resource. From tackling the silent crisis of talent access to building a borderless, skills-first ecosystem, she explains how ATP is reshaping project outcomes and creating new opport…

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Kevin P. Donovan, "Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 1:02:03

2M ago1:02:03

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In his book, Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2024), Kevin Donovan argues that East African decolonization was not coterminous with political sovereignty but rather consisted of a longer process of reorganizing how value was legitimately defined, produced, and distributed. It is an…

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Kirin Narayan, "Cave of My Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:17:25

2M ago1:17:25

1:17:25

On the podcast today I am joined by Kirin Narayan, emerita professor at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Kirin is joining me to talk about her new book, Cave of my Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora published by Chicago University Press in 2024, and in 2025 as an Indian edition by HarperColli…

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Ayo Wahlberg, "Good Quality: The Routinization of Sperm Banking in China" (U California Press, 2018) 1:12:16

2M ago1:12:16

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From its crude and uneasy beginnings thirty years ago, Chinese sperm banking has become a routine part of China’s pervasive and restrictive reproductive complex. Today, there are sperm banks in each of China’s twenty-two provinces, the biggest of which screen some three thousand to four thousand potential donors each year. Given the estimated one t…

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Sustainable Finance in Africa's Energy Transition: A Conversation with Youri Harel at MCB 12:49

2M ago12:49

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In this episode, Youri Harel, Head of Specialised Finance at Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) discuss how innovative financing solutions are driving Africa's energy transition. From funding renewable energy projects in emerging markets to supporting the development of gas, critical minerals, and green hydrogen, MCB shares its approach to balancing s…

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Scaling Sustainable Infrastructure in Africa: A Conversation with AIIM 15:25

2M ago15:25

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In this episode, Ed Stumpf, Investment Director at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), explores how private capital is shaping the future of sustainable infrastructure across the continent. From net-zero energy solutions to the critical role of minerals in the energy transition, Ed shares AIIM's approach to unlocking transformative i…

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"Age, Creativity and Culture: Reconsideration of how the Phases of Life Influence Knowledge, Experience, and Creation" 1:08:59

2M ago1:08:59

1:08:59

“Age, Creativity and Culture: Reconsidering how the Phases of Life Influence Knowledge, Experience, and Creation” by Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera appeared in Nuevos Horizontes in 2024. The article examines age as a dimension of identity, creativity and cognition, and in this episode, Heidi Landecker, Samuel Jay Keyser, and Jenny Wilson consider the importa…

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Lizzie Wade, "Apocalypse: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures" (Harper, 2025) 1:29:26

2M ago1:29:26

1:29:26

A richly imagined new view on the great human tradition of apocalypse, from the rise of Homo sapiens to the climate instability of our present, that defies conventional wisdom and long-held stories about our deep past to reveal how cataclysmic events are not irrevocable endings, but transformations. A drought lasts for decades, a disease rips throu…

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Anand Pandian, "Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down" (Stanford UP, 2025) 52:22

2M ago52:22

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In 2016, Anand Pandian was alarmed by Donald Trump's harsh attacks on immigrants to the United States, the appeal of that politics of anger and fear. In the years that followed, he crisscrossed the country—from Fargo, North Dakota to Denton, Texas, from southern California to upstate New York—seeking out fellow Americans with markedly different soc…

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Klaus Bachmann, "The Genocide in Rwanda in Comparative Perspective: Death and Survival on the Lake Kivu Shore" (Routledge, 2025) 1:22:35

2M ago1:22:35

1:22:35

The Genocide in Rwanda in Comparative Perspective: Death and Survival on the Lake Kivu Shore (Routledge, 2025) combines social science concepts, history and transitional justice studies to examine the social dynamics, specific actors and ideologies involved in the genocide in Rwanda and examines what makes this genocide a unique case of mass violen…

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Yuki Kato, "Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City" (NYU Press, 2025) 1:07:12

2M ago1:07:12

1:07:12

Gardens are often spaces of hope, expected to solve many problems in a city including food insecurity and climate resilience. In fact, there has been a historical trend of urban gardening gaining popularity during times of crisis. Gardens of Hope is the story of urban gardening in New Orleans in the decade after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita…

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Jess Reia, "Urban Music Governance: What Busking Can Teach Us about Data, Policy and Our Cities" (Intellect, 2025) 34:40

2M ago34:40

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What happens when precarious urban cultural laborers take data collection, laws, and policymaking into their own hands? Buskers have been part of our cities for hundreds of years, but they remain invisible to governments and in datasets. From nuisance to public art, this cultural practice can help us understand the politics of data collection, arch…

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Shani Adia Evans, "We Belong Here: Gentrification, White Spacemaking, and a Black Sense of Place" (U Chicago Press, 2025) 32:37

2M ago32:37

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Although Portland, Oregon, is sometimes called “America’s Whitest city,” Black residents who grew up there made it their own. The neighborhoods of Northeast Portland, also called “Albina,” were a haven for and a hub of Black community life. But between 1990 and 2010, Albina changed dramatically—it became majority White. In We Belong Here, sociologi…