Best Aaron Alejandro Podcasts (2025)

1
Virginia Woolf, "The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories" (Princeton UP, 2025) 44:43

Play Pause

15h ago44:43

44:43

In 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet—a teasing tribute to Woolf’s friend Mary Violet Dickinson. But it was only in 2022 that Woolf scholar Urmila Seshagiri discovered a final, revised typescrip…

1
Alejandro Montoya Marin | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter 1:15:40

14h ago1:15:40

1:15:40

Writer/Director Alejandro Montoya Marin (The Unexpecteds) joins Matt and Tim to discuss the 2012 Timur Bekmambetov film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, starring Rufus Sewell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Benjamin Walker as the titular Abraham Lincoln. Matt Walsh ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/mrmattwalsh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Timothy Simons ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…

1
Amanda Belantara and Emily Drabinski, "Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create" (Litwin Books, 2024) 36:15

3d ago36:15

36:15

Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create (Litwin Books, 2025) sits at the heart of the library project, shaping how materials are described and organized and how they can be retrieved. The field has long understood that normative systems like Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress do this inadequately and worse, deploying language …

1
"Who Factor" 46:14

3d ago46:14

46:14

Author, speaker, and life coach Brad Lomenick sits down to discuss life strategies like the "who factor" people in life that encourage, equip, and empower. Be a positive catalyst in an organization and the importance of being humble, hungry, and full of hustle. We explore how gratitude beats entitlement, why access plus hustle changes careers, and …

1
Uncanny E.T.A. Hoffmann with Peter Wortsman 1:30:43

5d ago1:30:43

1:30:43

Step into the unsettling world of E.T.A. Hoffmann with translator Peter Wortsman to explore “The Sandman”—a tale that haunted Freud enough to spark his famous psychoanalytic analysis of “The Uncanny,” examining familiar things that unsettle and disturb us for no clear reason. What makes this bizarre story so deeply disturbing, even today? And how d…

1
157 Mangrum's Comical Computation (JP) 46:23

5d ago46:23

46:23

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselve…

1
Eibhear Walshe and Eleanor Fitzsimons, "Speranza: Poems by Jane Wilde" (Liverpool UP, 2025) 37:57

6d ago37:57

37:57

Speranza: Poems by Jane Wilde (Liverpool UP, 2025) by Dr. Eibhear Walshe and Dr. Eleanor Fitzsimons is the first contemporary edition of the poetry of Jane Wilde, née Elgee, who also wrote as Speranza. Speranza was, in her time, renowned worldwide, with essays, poetry and translated work published in Ireland, England, America and beyond. She was a …

1
Nick Katsiadas and Carl Sell eds., "Tolkien's Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 47:10

8d ago47:10

47:10

The structural and symbolic purposes of ruins in literary texts have a long history, yet few scholars explore their importance within J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. From the ruins of Erebor and the relics of Gondolin appearing in The Hobbit to the various images of Amon Sûl, Moria, and Osgiliath in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien constructs a disti…

1
Beverly D'Angelo | In The Line Of Fire 16:19

8d ago16:19

16:19

Actress and singer Beverly D'Angelo (Vacation, Entourage) joins Matt & Tim to discuss the 1993 Wolfgang Petersen film, In The Line Of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo, and John Malkovich. Jim Curley plays the President. It doesn't matter. For the rest of this conversation, go to ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/secondincommand⁠⁠ and become a patron! …

1
Todd McGowan, "The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 1:01:10

8d ago1:01:10

1:01:10

The difficulty of Jacques Lacan's thought is notorious. The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan cuts through this difficulty to provide a clear, jargon-free approach to understanding it. The book describes Lacan's life, the context from which he emerged, and the reception of his theory. Readers will come away with an understanding of concepts s…

1
Vanessa Warne, "By Touch Alone: Blindness and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Culture" (U Michigan Press, 2025) 49:41

10d ago49:41

49:41

By Touch Alone: Blindness and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Culture (U Michigan Press, 2025) by Dr. Vanessa Warne demonstrates how reading by touch not only changed the lives of nineteenth-century blind people, but also challenged longstanding perceptions about blindness and reading. Over the course of the nineteenth century, thousands of blind peo…

1
Carol Atack, "Plato: A Civic Life" (Reaktion, 2025) 1:12:55

10d ago1:12:55

1:12:55

Plato is a key figure from the beginnings of Western philosophy, yet the impact of his lived experience on his thought has rarely been explored. Born during a war that would lead to Athens’ decline, Plato lived in turbulent times. In Plato: A Civic Life (Reaktion, 2025), Carol Atack explores how Plato’s life in Athens influenced his thought, how he…

1
Meaningful Impact by Living Your Brand 50:46

11d ago50:46

50:46

On this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, we have the chance to sit down with Kerri LeDoux, Executive Director of the Live Like Johnny Organization and mother to the late Johnny Callan. Kerri shares a heartfelt testimony of Johnny's life and the example he led. She shares his desire to help others and how the FFA became the vehicle for him…

1
Natacha Chetcuti-Osorovitz and Sara Garbagnoli "La Pensée Wittig: Une Introduction" (Payot, 2025) 43:23

12d ago43:23

43:23

How is it possible to be a subject when faced with oppression? The revolutionary thought and work of French novelist and lesbian thinker Monique Wittig are today in dialogue with feminist and LGBTQIA+ analyses and politics. Her materialist theorization of lesbianism subfuses contemporary feminism and queer political and social movements. By proposi…

1
Robert Waxler and David Beckman, "You Say, I Say: Staying Alive with Literature, Language, and Friendship" (Rivertown Books, 2025) 49:53

12d ago49:53

49:53

In a world increasingly dominated by visual and electronic noise, Robert Waxler and David Beckman's You Say, I Say: Staying Alive with Literature, Language, and Friendship (Rivertown Books, 2025) captures the enduring power of literature-not to resolve the great questions of human existence, but to help us explore those questions in ways that are e…

1
Julia Rensing, "Troubling Archives: History and Memory in Namibian Literature and Art" (Transcript Publishing, 2025) 46:14

13d ago46:14

46:14

Namibia’s colonial history casts a long shadow over the country’s present. Contemporary authors and artists confront the legacies of German and South African colonial rule and engage creatively with the persistent remnants of the past. In their works, the archive remains both an invaluable and fraught resource for accessing obscured histories. In T…

1
Constance Bailey, "Conversations with Kiese Laymon" (UP of Mississippi, 2025) 1:07:26

13d ago1:07:26

1:07:26

This is a very special episode of the New Books Network, as the editor of Conversations with Kiese Laymon (UP of Mississippi, 2025), Dr. Constance Bailey, discusses the process of selecting, compiling, and publishing the volume with the subject himself, award-winning author, Kiese Laymon. Conversations with Kiese Laymon provides an in-depth look at…

1
Lamorne Morris | The Dark Knight Rises 16:08

15d ago16:08

16:08

Actor and Emmy winner Lamorne Morris (New Girl, Fargo) joins Matt & Tim to discuss the 2012 Christopher Nolan film, The Dark Knight Rises, starring Christian Bale and Tom Hardy. William Devane plays an unnamed President. For the rest of this conversation, go to ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/secondincommand⁠⁠ and become a patron! Matt Walsh ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http…

1
Wendell Marsh, "Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities" (Columbia UP, 2025) 53:46

15d ago53:46

53:46

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 (…

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

16d ago1:08:14

1:08:14

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…

1
Yu Zhang, "Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965" (U Michigan Press, 2020) 57:41

18d ago57:41

57:41

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, modern Chinese intellectuals, reformers, revolutionaries, leftist journalists, and idealistic youth often crossed the increasing gap between the city and the countryside, which made the act of "going to the countryside" a distinctively modern experience and a continuous practice in China. Such a spatial…

1
Great History to Greater Opportunities 42:02

19d ago42:02

42:02

On this episode of Growing Our Future, host Aaron Alejandro welcomes Lorie Vincent, Founder & President of ACCELERATION by Design LLC. Lorie shares her inspiring journey from the Texas Panhandle to national leadership, her mission to empower rural communities, and why gratitude, collaboration, and bold vision are essential to growth. 🎥 In the video…

1
Bradley A. Gorski, "Cultural Capitalism: Literature and the Market After Socialism" (Northern Illinois UP, 2025) 1:01:25

19d ago1:01:25

1:01:25

Bradley Gorski, a literary and culture scholar, examines the breakneck commercialization of Russian book publishing and of Russian literature more broadly – in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, thousands of new publishers emerged, up from a mere two hundred at the Soviet Union’s end. The notion of the “bestseller” qu…

1
156 Recall This B-Side #1: Merve Emre on Natalia Ginzburg’s “The Dry Heart” 15:38

20d ago15:38

15:38

RtB loves the present-day shadows cast by neglected books, which can suddenly loom up out of the backlit past. So, you won’t be shocked to know that John has also been editing a Public Books column called B-Side Books. In it, around 50 writers (Ursula Le Guin was one) have made the case for un-forgetting a beloved book. Now, there is a book that co…

1
Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, "The Three Ravens Folk Tales: New Tellings of Half-forgotten Stories from England's 39 Historic Counties" (The History Press, 2025) 52:29

20d ago52:29

52:29

Do you know the legends of the giants who ruled England before the first human kings? What about the demon dog Black Shuck who terrorized sixteenth-century Norfolk? Or the many times the Devil has tried to get his way before being outwitted by everyday people? England’s historic counties are overflowing with folklore, and this collection of 39 stor…

1
Dominic Davies and Candida Rifkind, "Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics" (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2025) 57:48

21d ago57:48

57:48

Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2025) by Dr. Dominic Davies & Dr. Candida Rifkind is the first in-depth study of comics about refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and detainees by artists from the Global North and South. Co-written by two leading scholars of nonfiction comics, the book expl…

1
Mark Seligman, "AI and Ada: Artificial Translation and Creation of Literature" (First Hill Books, 2025) 37:20

21d ago37:20

37:20

Taking recent spectacular progress in AI fully into account, Mark Seligman's AI and Ada: Artificial Translation and Creation of Literature (Anthem Press, 2025) explores prospects for artificial literary translation and composition, with frequent reference to the hyperconscious literary art of Vladimir Nabokov. The exploration balances reader-friend…

1
Arden Myrin | Annie 16:17

22d ago16:17

16:17

Comedian and actress Arden Myrin (The Righteous Gemstones, Will You Accept This Rose? podcast) joins Matt and Tim to discuss the 1982 John Huston film, Annie, starring Aileen Quinn and Albert Finney. Edward Herrmann plays President Franklin D. Roosevelt. For the rest of this conversation, go to ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/secondincommand⁠⁠ and become a p…

1
Mark Goble, "Downtime: The Twentieth Century in Slow Motion" (Columbia UP, 2025) 55:11

23d ago55:11

55:11

Slow motion is everywhere in contemporary film and media, but it wasn't always so ubiquitous. How did slow motion ascend to the dubious honor of becoming our culture's least "special" effect? And what does slow motion — a trick secured paradoxically through the camera's ever-racing speeds of capture — tell us about the temporalities and trajectorie…

1
Amir Moosavi, "Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War" (Stanford UP, 2025) 28:47

24d ago28:47

28:47

Lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, the Iran-Iraq War was the longest conventional war fought between two states in the twentieth century. It marked a period that began just after a revolutionary government in Iran became an Islamic Republic and Saddam Hussein consolidated power in Iraq. It ended with both wartime governments still in power…

1
Matthew Benjamin Cole, "Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century" (U of Michigan Press, 2025) 1:48:38

25d ago1:48:38

1:48:38

Are we already living in some kind of fascist or technocratic dystopia? How do we avert the AI dystopia? These are the types of things that you'll see thrown about in op-eds and analysis pieces all over the net and the press. Dystopia is doing some kind of work in our political vocabulary that goes beyond a reference to those iconic dystopian novel…

1
Rose Casey, "Aesthetic Impropriety: Property Law and Postcolonial Style" (Fordham UP, 2025) 52:20

25d ago52:20

52:20

Aesthetic Impropriety: Property Law and Postcolonial Style (Fordham UP, 2025) analyzes vanguard legal actions and literary innovations to reveal contemporary reforms to property law that are undoing law’s colonial legacies. Casey traces precise legal histories across distinct jurisdictions throughout the anglophone world, revealing the connection b…

1
Darcie Deangelo et al., "Demilitarizing the Future" (Anthem Press, 2025) 50:25

27d ago50:25

50:25

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…

1
Caitlin Reilly | The Day After Tomorrow 15:58

29d ago15:58

15:58

Actress and comedian Caitlin Reilly (Loot, Hacks) joins Matt and Tim to discuss the 2004 Roland Emmerich film, The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. Kenneth Welsh plays Vice President (VEEP) Becker. For the rest of this conversation, go to ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/secondincommand⁠⁠ and become a patron! Matt Walsh ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…

1
Kevin J. Hayes, "Understanding Hunter S. Thompson" (U South Carolina Press, 2025) 43:55

1M ago43:55

43:55

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) pushed the boundaries of storytelling. While the writer is most recognized for the genre-bending work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), in Understanding Hunter S. Thompson (University of South Carolina Press, 2025), Kevin J. Hayes provides a broad and nuanced analysis of Thompson's multifaceted career and unique …

1
Brian Duff, "Restaurant" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 43:02

1M ago43:02

43:02

In the last few decades, restaurants and food culture have achieved extraordinary cultural presence. Chefs are heroes and thought leaders, well-executed entrées go viral, dining out has become theater, plating has become art and ubiquitous Instagram content. But in recent years restaurants have faced crisis upon crisis. Restaurant (Bloomsbury, 2025…

1
Bénédicte Meillon, "Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth" (Bloomsbury, 2022) 53:59

1M ago53:59

53:59

Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth (Bloomsbury, 2022) tackles the reenchantment process at work in a part of contemporary ecoliterature that is marked by the resurfacing of the song of the earth topos and of Gaia images. Focusing on the postmodernist braiding of various indigenous and ecofeminist ontologies,…

1
Don't Be Scared to Try 50:17

1M ago50:17

50:17

Aaron Alejandro sits down with Kat Villarreal, an agricultural science teacher and FFA advisor in South Texas, to trace her journey from a non-farm kid to building a thriving IDEA Public Schools FFA program (now ~350 members). Kat shares how mentorship, grit, and student leadership took her chapter from zero to state-level achievements. What You’ll…

1
Leon J. Hilton, "Counter-Cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 56:10

1M 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…

1
Flannery Burke, "Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region" (U Washington Press, 2025) 36:18

1M 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…

1
Aliyah Khan, "Far From Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean" (Rutgers UP, 2020) 45:03

1M ago45:03

45:03

Muslims have lived in the Caribbean for centuries. Far From Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean (Rutgers University Press, 2020) examines the archive of autobiography, literature, music and public celebrations in Guyana and Trinidad, offering an analysis of the ways Islam became integral to the Caribbean, and the ways the Caribbean shaped Islam…

1
Susana M. Morris, "Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler" (Amistad Press, 2025) 54:42

1M 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…

1
Ever Carradine | W. 1:19:39

1M ago1:19:39

1:19:39

Actress Ever Carradine (The Handmaid's Tale, Goliath, Shameless) joins Matt and Tim to discuss the 2008 Oliver Stone film, W.. Josh Brolin stars as George W. Bush and Richard Dreyfuss plays Dick Cheney. Matt Walsh ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/mrmattwalsh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Timothy Simons ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/timothycsimons⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…

1
Ḥannā Diyāb, "The Book of Travels" (NYU Press, 2022): A Conversation with Johannes Stephan 51:22

1M 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…

1
Diana Souhami, "No Modernism Without Lesbians" (Head of Zeus Book, 2020) 38:35

1M ago38:35

38:35

Diana Souhami talks about her new book No Modernism Without Lesbians, out 2020 with Head of Zeus books. A Sunday Times Book of the Year 2020. This is the extraordinary story of how a singular group of women in a pivotal time and place – Paris, between the wars – fostered the birth of the Modernist movement. Sylvia Beach, Bryher, Natalie Barney, and…

1
Victoria Young, "Translation and the Borders of Contemporary Japanese Literature: Inciting Difference" (Routledge, 2024) 56:21

1M ago56:21

56:21

Translation and the Borders of Contemporary Japanese Literature: Inciting Difference (Routledge, 2024) examines contemporary debates on such concepts as national literature, world literature, and the relationship each of these to translation, from the perspective of modern Japanese fiction. By reading between the gaps and revealing tensions and bli…

1
Anders M. Greene-Crow, "Austerity Measures: The Poetics of Food Insecurity in Early Modern English Literature" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) 1:04:33

1M ago1:04:33

1:04:33

My guest today is Anders M. Greene-Crow. Anders teaches at the Woods College of Advancing Studies and is a former Professor of English at Boston College. More recently, Anders has been preparing for the New York state bar exam, while also co-hosting the podcast “Say Podcast and Die!,” about R.L. Stine’s book series, Goosebumps. Today, we are discus…

1
Aaron Hammes, "TransGenre" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 59:37

1M ago59:37

59:37

TransGenre (Cambridge UP, 2025) is a reconsideration of genre theory in long-form fiction through transgender minor literature in the US and Canada. Using four genre sites (the road novel, the mourning novel, the chosen family novel, and the archival novel), this Element considers how the minoritized becomes the minoritarian through deterritorializ…

1
Andy Richter | The President's Analyst 15:57

1M ago15:57

15:57

Actor Andy Richter (Conan O' Brien, Cabin Boy, The Three Questions Podcast) joins Matt and Tim to discuss the 1967 Theodore J. Flicker film, The President's Analyst, starring James Coburn. The President is referenced but does not appear in this film. For the rest of this conversation, go to ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/secondincommand⁠⁠ and become a patro…

1
Omid Safi, “Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition” (Yale UP, 2018) 1:17:58

1M ago1:17:58

1:17:58

It's often touted that Rumi is one of the best-selling poets in the United States. That may be the case but popular renderings of the writings of this 13th-century Muslim have largely detached him from the Islamic tradition, and specifically Sufi mysticism. In Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition (Yale University Press, 2018)…