Best Ann Pearson Podcasts (2025)

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The Communication Skill That Saves Paralegal Careers 13:39

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2d ago13:39

13:39

Episode Summary: In this episode of the Paralegal Coach Podcast, Ann Pearson continues her Paralegal Survival Toolkit series with a skill she calls career-saving: courageous communication. Ann explains why silence, while tempting, is the most expensive mistake a paralegal can make. Drawing from a powerful real-world story from her time as a paraleg…

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Andrea Gevurtz Arai ed., "Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First-Century East Asia" (Rutgers UP, 2025) 1:22:45

6h ago1:22:45

1:22:45

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

1d ago49:56

49:56

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

2d ago1:18:40

1:18:40

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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Episode 188: Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz Interview 1:01:04

2d ago1:01:04

1:01:04

Episode 188: Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz Interview In this After Show Andrew talks with writing partners Aaron Brownstein and Simon Ganz about their long road to Guy Text. They share what they learned working under Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, About a Boy) and Victor Fresco (Santa Clarita Diet), including lessons about character…

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

4d ago49:56

49:56

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

8d ago52:13

52:13

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

9d ago29:35

29:35

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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Episode 187: Guy Text Written by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz 45:54

9d ago45:54

45:54

Episode 187: Guy Text Written by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz This month’s dead pilot is Guy Text, written by Aaron Brownstein and Simon Ganz, whose credits include Santa Clarita Diet, Beavis and ButtHead, and About a Boy. Four geriatric millennial friends struggle with what it means to be sensitive, thoughtful, emotionally available modern men. …

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

10d ago41:20

41:20

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

11d ago1:01:57

1:01:57

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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How New Paralegals Learn Fast Without Burning Out 12:02

10d ago12:02

12:02

In this episode, Ann Pearson tackles one of the most common and most discouraging experiences for new paralegals: being thrown into the role with little to no onboarding. Ann calls it the "sink or swim" training model, and she reassures listeners that feeling lost or unprepared isn't a reflection of their ability. Instead of waiting for a better on…

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S2E11 - Inanna's Descent & How It Roots Us in Place with Carly Mountain 24:40

10d ago24:40

24:40

In this episode of The Sacred Places Podcast, I’m joined by author, psychotherapist, and somatic guide Carly Mountain for a profound exploration of Inanna’s Descent and one of the world’s oldest myths of transformation, embodiment, and return. Together, we explore how descent work can root us more deeply in our bodies, our breath, and the land bene…

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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

10d ago53:29

53:29

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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#S2011 The Disappearance of Dr. Cherryl Lamont Pearson 20:10

13d ago20:10

20:10

Send us a text On a cold January night in 2002, 37‑year‑old pediatrician Dr. Cherryl Lamont Pearson vanished from her suburban home outside Memphis, Tennessee. After a Memphis Grizzlies game and a relaxed evening with friends, she was suddenly gone—leaving behind her phone, pager, and vital medication, along with a life and career she had every rea…

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

13d ago38:22

38:22

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…

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Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball 46:47

13d ago46:47

46:47

In one of the most unlikely coups in college basketball history, BYU signed basketball phenomenon AJ Dybantsa—the number one high school player in the U.S. Dybantsa’s decision stunned the sports world, and AJ continues to garner national attention. In their new book, Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball, gues…

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers, "The Magic Books: A History of Enchantment in 20 Medieval Manuscripts" (Yale UP, 2025) 59:14

16d ago59:14

59:14

Medieval Europe was preoccupied with magic. From the Carolingian Empire to Renaissance Italy and Tudor England, great rulers, religious figures, and scholars sought to harness supernatural power. They tried to summon spirits, predict the future, and even prolong life. Alongside science and religion, magic lay at the very heart of culture. In this b…

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Educating Zion: The Diaries of Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952-1971 42:05

15d ago42:05

42:05

Award-winning historian Gary Bergera joins John Hatch to talk about the complicated legacy of Ernest L. Wilkinson, who served as BYU president from 1951–71. From Wilkinson’s dogged determination, to the challenges he posed for church presidents David O. McKay and Harold B. Lee, Bergera unpacks how Wilkinson’s personality shaped the university—and h…

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

18d ago56:04

56:04

“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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Paralegal Survival Toolkit - a Series 12:36

17d ago12:36

12:36

Episode Summary: In this episode, Ann Pearson gets straight to the heart of the biggest challenge paralegals face managing an overwhelming workload. Skipping the usual intro, Ann dives right into why so many paralegals feel behind before their day even begins, and why that feeling has nothing to do with their competence. Drawing from her own early-…

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

19d ago1:11:07

1:11:07

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

17d ago1:42:06

1:42:06

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

18d ago1:04:36

1:04:36

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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Anna Zhelnina, "Private Life, Public Action: How Housing Politics Mobilized Citizens in Moscow" (Temple UP, 2025) 52:01

22d ago52:01

52:01

Renovation, an urban renewal plan in Moscow that was announced in the spring of 2017, proposed to demolish thousands of socialist-era apartment buildings. In a country where it is rare under an authoritarian government, residents supported or opposed the redevelopment by mobilizing and organizing into local alliances. They were often shocked by the…

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Anna Shadrina, "The Babushka Phenomenon: Older Women and the Political Sociology of Ageing in Russia" (UCL Press, 2025) 44:50

21d ago44:50

44:50

The Babushka Phenomenon: Older Women and the Political Sociology of Ageing in Russia (UCL Press, 2025) by Dr. Anna Shadrina examines the social production of ageing in post-Soviet Russia, highlighting the role of grandmothers as primary caregivers due to men’s traditional estrangement from family life. This expectation places grandmothers, or babus…

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Episode 186: Lisa Muse Bryant Interview 59:15

22d ago59:15

59:15

Episode 186: Lisa Muse Bryant Interview This month’s After Show features Andrew’s conversation with Lisa Muse Bryant, the powerhouse behind our latest dead pilot Dream. Lisa traces her remarkable journey from Camden, New Jersey, to writing on standout series like Black-ish, The Four Seasons, Man on the Inside, and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinos…

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Theresa Delgadillo, "Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas" (U Michigan Press, 2024) 55:52

23d ago55:52

55:52

Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas (U Michigan Press, 2024) offers a new lens for examining diaspora and borderlands texts and performances that considers the inseparability of race, ethnicity, and gender in imagining and enacting social change. Theresa Delgadillo crosses interdisciplinary and canonical borders to in…

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S2E10 - The Magic of Stone and Place with Nicholas Pearson 38:36

24d ago38:36

38:36

In this episode of The Sacred Places Podcast, I’m honored to be joined by one of my dear friends, Nicholas Pearson, to explore the deep magic of stone, land, and the mineral kingdom through his newest book, The Witching Stones. Nicholas has been immersed in all aspects of the mineral realm for nearly 30 years and is widely recognized as a leading e…

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Is a River Alive?: A Conversation with Robert Macfarlane 34:00

24d ago34:00

34:00

Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? (W.W. Norton, 2025) is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that river…

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Marc Sommers, "We the Young Fighters: Pop Culture, Terror, and War in Sierra Leone" (U Georgia Press, 2023) 1:18:50

27d ago1:18:50

1:18:50

We the Young Fighters: Pop Culture, Terror, and War in Sierra Leone (U Georgia Press, 2023) by Dr. Marc Sommers is at once a history of a nation, the story of a war, and the saga of downtrodden young people and three pop culture superstars. Reggae idol Bob Marley, rap legend Tupac Shakur, and the John Rambo movie character all portrayed an upside-d…

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Paulette F. C. Steeves, "The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere" (U Nebraska Press, 2021) 40:01

25d ago40:01

40:01

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere (U Nebraska Press, 2021) is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that …

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Taylor McCall, "The Art of Anatomy in Medieval Europe" (Reaktion Books, 2023) 36:55

27d ago36:55

36:55

Taylor McCall's The Art of Anatomy in Medieval Europe (Reaktion, 2023) is the first history of medieval European anatomical images. Richly illustrated, The Art of Anatomy in Medieval Europe explores the many ways in which medieval surgeons, doctors, monks, and artists understood and depicted human anatomy. Taylor McCall refutes the common misconcep…

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Allison Christine Meier, "Grave" (Bloomsbury, 2023) 50:17

28d ago50:17

50:17

Grave (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Allison C. Meier takes a ground-level view of how burial sites have transformed over time and how they continue to change. As a cemetery tour guide, Meier has spent more time walking among tombstones than most. Even for her, the grave has largely been invisible, an out of the way and unobtrusive marker of death. However,…

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Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024) 1:30:48

1M ago1:30:48

1:30:48

In 2009, the body of a former president of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, was stolen from his grave. The Time of the Cannibals reconsiders this history and the public discourse on it to reconsider how we think about conspiracy theory, and specifically, what it means to understand conspiracy theories “in context.” The months after Papa…

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Don't Ever Stop Asking Questions 19:48

1M ago19:48

19:48

Episode Summary: In this milestone episode host, Ann Pearson, introduces listeners to a fresh direction for the podcast! Spoiler alert: check out the new name of the podcast show. She dives into a topic few paralegals admit out loud: the fear of asking questions on the job. Drawing from decades of experience and countless messages from paralegals w…

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Sarah Hoiland, "Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club" (Temple UP, 2025) 44:53

1M ago44:53

44:53

A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club (Temple UP, 2025) is Dr. Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ethnography about an all-women motorcycle club (MC). She recounts stor…

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Thomas Morel, "Underground Mathematics: Craft Culture and Knowledge Production in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2022) 46:15

1M ago46:15

46:15

Thomas Morel joins Jana Byars to tell the story of subterranean geometry, a forgotten discipline that developed in the silver mines of early modern Europe, talking about his book Underground Mathematics: Craft Culture and Knowledge Production in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge UP, 2022). Mining and metallurgy were of great significance to the rulers…

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Smell With Your Ears Or Hear With Your Nose W/ Mario Wissa 59:31

1M ago59:31

59:31

(Red)- It's a him! SooPer Mario Wissa! The social communication expert, author, and public speaker Mario jumps into the hot seat to show us how to laugh, relax and take life a little less seriously. But how will he handle these loaded, life alternating questions?? Be only able to teleport, but only into occupied toilet stalls Vs. Be able to magical…

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Episode 185: Dream Written by Lisa Muse Bryant 57:20

1M ago57:20

57:20

Episode 185: Dream Written by Lisa Muse Bryant This month’s Dead Pilots Society features Dream, a musical comedy pilot from Lisa Muse Bryant, whose work includes Black-ish, The Four Seasons, Man on the Inside, and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The show centers on Dream Morgan, a former teen mom who finally goes after her long-delayed ambit…

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Christina Jerne, "Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia Activism" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 56:40

1M ago56:40

56:40

For more than 150 years, Italy has been home to a resilient and evolving resistance against the pervasive influence of mafias. While these criminal organizations are renowned for their vast international business enterprises, the collective actions taken to oppose them are less known. In Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia …

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Heath Pearson, "Life Beside Bars: Confinement and Capital in an American Prison Town" (Duke UP, 2024) 1:05:01

1M ago1:05:01

1:05:01

In Life Beside Bars: Confinement and Capital in an American Prison Town (Duke UP, 2024), Heath Pearson showcases dynamic, interdependent community as the best hope for undoing the systems of confinement that reproduce capital in Cumberland County, New Jersey—a place that is home to three state prisons, one federal prison, and the regional jail. Pea…

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S2E9 - Egypt and the Golden Age of Humans and Land with Fotoula Foteini Adrimi 1:00:48

1M ago1:00:48

1:00:48

In this episode, I sit down with Fotoula Foteini Adrimi, author of Sacred Mysticism of Egypt and director of The ISIS School of Holistic Health, for a conversation that touched a very personal part of my lineage. The Egyptian side of my heritage has always been the hardest for me to connect with, and Fotoula’s presence felt like both a guide and a …

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Nayma Qayum, "Village Ties: Women, NGOs, and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh" (Rutgers UP, 2021) 1:02:46

1M ago1:02:46

1:02:46

Across the global South, poor women’s lives are embedded in their social relationships and governed not just by formal institutions – rules that exist on paper – but by informal norms and practices. Village Ties: Women, NGOs, and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh (Rutgers UP, 2021) takes the reader to Bangladesh, a country that has risen fr…

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Judith L. Pearson, "Radical Sisters: Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner, Evelyn Lauder, and the Dawn of the Breast Cancer Movement" (Mayo Clinic Press, 2025) 1:01:56

2M ago1:01:56

1:01:56

There was a time when women's health was marginalized. There was a time when breast cancer wasn't discussed. There was a time when October wasn't pink. But three women--Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner, and Evelyn Lauder--refused to be silenced. Their courage ignited a movement that forever changed the way society addresses breast cancer. When th…

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Ellen Muehlberger, "Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World" (U California Press, 2025) 1:16:11

2M ago1:16:11

1:16:11

How do you know the nature of another person: who she is, or what she is capable of? In four exploratory essays, a seasoned historian examines the mechanisms by which ancient people came to have knowledge—not of the world and its myriad processes but about something more intimate, namely the individuals they encountered in close quarters, those the…

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Karine Gagné, "Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas" (U Washington Press, 2019) 1:41:53

2M ago1:41:53

1:41:53

In her new book, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas (University of Washington Press, 2019), Karine Gagné explores how relations of reciprocity between land, humans, animals, and glaciers foster an ethics of care in the Himalayan communities of Ladakh. She explores the way these relations are changing due to climate ch…

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Al Posamentier, "Math Makers: The Lives and Works of 50 Famous Mathematicians" (Prometheus, 2020) 56:37

2M ago56:37

56:37

Today I talked to Alfred S. Posamentier, a co-author (with Christian Spreitzer) of Math Makers: The Lives and Works of 50 Famous Mathematicians (Prometheus, 2020). This charming book is more than just mathematics, because mathematicians are not just makers of mathematics. They are human beings whose life stories are often not just entertaining, but…

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Jenny C. Mann, "The Trials of Orpheus: Poetry, Science, and the Early Modern Sublime" (Princeton UP, 2021) 48:04

2M ago48:04

48:04

Today’s guest is Jenny Mann, who has a new book titled The Trials of Orpheus: Poetry, Science, and the Early Modern Sublime (Princeton University Press, 2021). Jenny is Professor in both New York University’s English Department and the Gallatin School, and her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Folger Shakespeare Library. She …

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Vania Smith-Oka, "Becoming Gods: Medical Training in Mexican Hospitals" (Rutgers UP, 2021) 49:05

2M ago49:05

49:05

In Becoming Gods: Medical Training in Mexican Hospitals (Rutgers University Press, 2021), Vania Smith-Oka follows a cohort of interns throughout their year of medical training in hospitals to understand how medical students become medical doctors. She ethnographically tracks their engagements with one another, interactions with patients, experience…