Best Strange And Beautiful Network Podcasts (2025)

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Michael Knowles: Attacks on Christians, Norm McDonald, and Leaving Atheism for Catholicism 2:23:53

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38m ago2:23:53

2:23:53

Six years ago Fox News denounced Michael Knowles as “disgusting” for making an obvious point, and then banned him from the air. He’s since been vindicated, to put it mildly. (00:00) The Left’s Exploitation of Greta Thunberg (08:02) The Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting (15:55) Why Is Catholicism Booming? (25:11) How Technology and Wealth Is Corr…

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Jonas Hassen Khemiri, "The Sisters" (FSG, 2025) 55:01

4m ago55:01

55:01

Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of six novels, seven plays, and a collection of short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. The Family Clause was a finalist for the National Book Award for translated literature, and Invasion! Won an Obie Award for best script. His work has appeared in The New York…

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Oswyn Murray, "The Muse of History: The Ancient Greeks from the Enlightenment to the Present" (Harvard UP, 2024) 1:02:16

14h ago1:02:16

1:02:16

The study of ancient Greece has been central to Western conceptions of history since the Renaissance. The Muse of History: The Ancient Greeks from the Enlightenment to the Present (Harvard UP, 2024) traces the shifting patterns of this preoccupation in the last three centuries, in which successive generations have reinterpreted the Greeks in the li…

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Steven Veerapen, "Witches: A King's Obsession" (Birlin, 2025) 39:42

17h ago39:42

39:42

Witches – whether broomstick-riding spell-casters or Wiccan earth-worshippers – have been culturally relevant for centuries. For centuries, too, belief in the potency of witchcraft has been debated, accused witches have been hunted and punished, and film and TV productions have brought the witch and the witch-hunter to big and small screens. But wh…

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Jeremy Gordon, "See Friendship: A Novel" (Harper Perennial, 2025) 52:47

14h ago52:47

52:47

Ahead of looming layoffs within the ongoing decimation of media, Jacob Goldberg, a culture writer in New York, knows what will save him: a podcast. Not just any podcast, but something that will demonstrate his singular thoughtfulness in an oversaturated, competitive market. When Jacob learns the true, tragic circumstances behind the mysterious deat…

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Flannery Burke, "Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region" (U Washington Press, 2025) 36:18

14h ago36:18

36:18

Just as easterners imagined the American West, westerners imagined the American East, reshaping American culture. Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Flannery Burke flips the script of American regional narratives. In novels, travel narratives, popular histories, and dude ranch brochures, twenti…

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Justin Wyatt, "Creating the Viewer: Market Research and the Evolving Media Ecosystem" (U Texas Press, 2024) 1:07:28

17h ago1:07:28

1:07:28

Creating the Viewer: Market Research and the Evolving Media Ecosystem (U Texas Press, 2024) is a study of the largely hidden world of primary media market research and the different methods used to understand how the viewer is pictured in the industry. The first book on the intersection between market research and media, Creating the Viewer takes a…

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Nicole Nehrig, "With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories" (W.W. Norton, 2025) 39:40

14h ago39:40

39:40

In this first of a series of episodes on healing, we speak with Nicole Nehrig, whose book With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories (W.W. Norton, 2025) is a rich and intimate exploration of how women have used textile work to create meaningful lives, from ancient mythology to our current moment. Knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting―througho…

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Anthony Bonato, "Dots and Lines: Hidden Networks in Social Media, AI, and Nature" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025) 1:05:42

14h ago1:05:42

1:05:42

Can networks unlock secrets of AI or make sense of a social media mess? A behind-the-scenes look at how networks reveal reality. According to mathematician Anthony Bonato, the hidden world of networks permeates our lives in astounding ways. From Bitcoin transactions to neural connections, Dots and Lines: Hidden Networks in Social Media, AI, and Nat…

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Helen C. Epstein, "Why Live: An Anatomy of Suicide Epidemics" (Columbia Global Reports, 2025) 31:34

17h ago31:34

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What causes suicide epidemics—and how can we prevent them? Many suicides are caused by biological mental illness, but sometimes the suicide rate of a particular group jumps—two-, three-, or even ten-fold—in a short time, behaving like an epidemic. Suicide epidemics unfold more slowly than microbial plagues like flu or malaria, but they happen far t…

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David McNally, "Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History" (U California Press, 2025) 43:05

11m ago43:05

43:05

David McNally's Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History (U California Press, 2025)presents the first systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery. McNally argues that enslaved labour within the plantation system constituted capitalist commodity production, and crucially, reframes the resistance of enslaved people…

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Sexual Imperialism and English Language Teaching 31:50

6h ago31:50

31:50

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Hanna Torsh speaks with Dr Vaughan Rapatahana about sexual predation in the English language teaching industry. The conversation addresses his new book Sexual Predation and TEFL: The teaching of English as a Foreign Language Enables Sexual Predation (Brill, 2024), which explores how teaching E…

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Alice Lovejoy, "Tales of Militant Chemistry" (U California Press, 2025) 36:42

1d ago36:42

36:42

In Tales of Militant Chemistry (U of California Press, 2025), Alice Lovejoy tells the untold story of film as a chemical cousin to poison gas and nuclear weapons, shaped by centuries of violent extraction. The history of film calls to mind unforgettable photographs, famous directors, and the glitz and hustle of the media business. But there is anot…

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Robert Ivermee, "Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India" (Oxford UP, 2025) 55:54

1d ago55:54

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This is a powerful new account of a chapter in history that is crucial to understand, yet often overlooked. For 150 years, from the reign of Louis XIV to the downfall of Napoleon, France was an aggressive imperial power in South Asia, driven by the pursuit of greatness and riches. Through their East India company and state, the French established a…

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Susana M. Morris, "Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler" (Amistad Press, 2025) 54:42

1d ago54:42

54:42

A magnificent cultural biography, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler (Amistad, 2025) charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work. As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science fiction, Octavia Butler w…

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Maddalena Cerrato, "Michel Foucault's Practical Philosophy: A Critique of Subjectivation Processes" (SUNY Press, 2025) 54:25

1d ago54:25

54:25

Michel Foucault's thought, Maddalena Cerrato writes, may be understood as practical philosophy. In this perspective, political analysis, philosophy of history, epistemology, and ethics appear as necessarily cast together in a philosophical project that aims to rethink freedom and emancipation from domination of all kinds. The idea of practical phil…

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Michaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen, "The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds Across Landscapes and Imagination" (Reaktion, 2025) 1:00:34

1d ago1:00:34

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In The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination (Reaktion, 2025), nature writers Michaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen set out in search of sounds beautiful and loathsome, melodious and disturbing, healing, strange and intimate. The phenomena of sound may be fleeting and evanescent, but the memory of it can open a window in…

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Mutaz al-Khatib, "Key Classical Works on Islamic Ethics" (Brill, 2024) 27:35

1d ago27:35

27:35

In this episode of Unlocking Academia, host Raja Aderdor speaks with Dr. Mutaz Al-Khatib, Associate Professor at the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics and Director of the Master’s program in Applied Islamic Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Together, they explore Key Classical Works on Islamic Ethics (Brill, 2024), a groundbr…

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Lynda Williams, "The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories" (Guernica, 2025) 23:38

1d ago23:38

23:38

The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories (Guernica, 2025) conjures up images of women who struggle through difficult transitions, unpleasant encounters, or ghastly boyfriends and husbands. One woman is a lesbian who sees the man who raped her a decade before, another suffers from bipolar disease, and a third is harassed by her professor. Som…

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David Woodman, "The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom" (Princeton UP, 2025) 39:15

1d ago39:15

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The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom (Princeton University Press, 2025) by Professor David Woodman is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “kingdom of the E…

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Leon J. Hilton, "Counter-Cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 56:10

1d ago56:10

56:10

What if we embraced neurodivergent ways of being not as deviations to be corrected but as vital ways of inhabiting the world? What new realities might emerge? Bringing a much-needed humanistic perspective to the study of autism and other forms of neurodivergence, Counter-Cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance (U Minnesota P…

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Lee Strobel: Possession, Miracles, Visions, and Encounters With Angels & Demons 1:58:27

2d ago1:58:27

1:58:27

There’s a lot that science can’t explain, including most of what actually matters. Lee Strobel on the overwhelming evidence that the supernatural world is entirely real. (00:00) Introduction (03:02) Strobel’s Encounter With an Angel (11:30) Do We Have a Guardian Angel? (25:31) What Are Demons? (40:03) Why Did the Pharisees Hate When Jesus Performed…

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Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney, "Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration" (U California Press, 2025) 1:20:39

2d ago1:20:39

1:20:39

Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (open access) examines spaces, practices, and ideologies of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin from 300 BCE to 600 CE. Analyzing a wide range of sources—including legal texts, archaeological findings, documentary evidence, and visual materials—Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney argue that prison…

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D.J. Corchin , "A Million Yes's" (Phazelfoz, 2025) 55:16

3d ago55:16

55:16

DJ Corchin is a celebrated author and illustrator from Oak Park, IL. In our spirited interview, we discuss his career as a polymath, his unconventional breakthrough from self publishing to traditional publishing and back.and celebrate his brand new picture book , A Million YES's (Phazelfoz Company, 2025), illustrated by Dan Dougherty. Learn more ab…

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Tia Sahrakorpi on a Use-Based History of Electricity in Finland 1:20:25

3d ago1:20:25

1:20:25

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Tiia Sahrakorpi, Visiting Professor at Weber State University, about her interesting book project, Our Land: An Oral History of Energy, which was funded by the Research Council of Finland. The project, which was rooted in oral histories in three locations in Finland, takes a use-based perspective and ex…

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Catherine Merridale, "Moscow Underground" (HarperColins, 2025) 33:41

3d ago33:41

33:41

Moscow Underground (HarperCollins, 2025) by Dr. Catherine Merridale is a sweeping novel of life, death and politics in the quicksand world of Stalin's tyranny. Moscow's glittering new subway is under construction at last. The first line will run through the centre of the city, cutting deep through Moscow soil. But futures cannot be created without …

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Ḥannā Diyāb, "The Book of Travels" (NYU Press, 2022): A Conversation with Johannes Stephan 51:22

3d ago51:22

51:22

The Book of Travels Ḥannā Diyāb: A Conversation with Johannes Stephan The Book of Travels is Ḥannā Diyāb’s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights. D…