Best Brendan Davis Podcasts (2025)

The Canadian men's national team got back on the pitch for the first games of the 2025-26 season and crushed Romania 3–0 for their first win over a UEFA opponent in their home country since beating Cyprus in 2009. Ben Steiner and Alex Gangué-Ruzic dive into the Romania match, preview the upcoming game against Wales and break down the massive transf…

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Katherine Fusco, "Hollywood's Others: Love and Limitation in the Star System" (Columbia UP, 2025) 43:30

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16h ago43:30

43:30

We tend to think about movie stars as either glamorous or relatable. But in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Hollywood star system was taking shape, a number of unusual stars appeared on the silver screen, representing groups from which the American mainstream typically sought to avert its eyes. What did it mean for a white entertainment columnist to …

1
Molly Worthen, "Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump" (Random House, 2025) 1:05:57

16h ago1:05:57

1:05:57

Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here? In Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to …

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Daniel Horowitz, "Bear With Me: A Cultural History of Famous Bears in America" (Duke UP, 2025) 48:37

1d ago48:37

48:37

From teddy bears and Winnie-the-Pooh to Smokey Bear, Yogi Bear, and Cocaine Bear, American popular culture has been fascinated with real and fictional bears for more than two centuries. Bears are ubiquitous, appearing in advertisements, as logos for sports teams, and as central characters in children’s books, cartoons, movies, and video games. In B…

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Ep. #3598: UFC Paris preview with guests Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho, more 1:31:32

16h ago1:31:32

1:31:32

On Episode 3,598, the guys welcome five guests and all of them are on this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 258 card in Paris as Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho, Benoit Saint Denis, Mauricio Ruffy and Brad Tavares join the show.By MMA Junkie Radio

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NFP Extra: PROMISE DAVID dishes on CanMNT, UCL and Lockeroom Jams 14:17

1d ago14:17

14:17

Promise David hops on the Northern Futbol Podcast, and dishes on everything from the Canadian men's national team, to getting his first call, staying with Union St-Gilloise, looking forward to the Champions League, the CanMNT dressing room DJ and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

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Remembering Bill 17:19

3d ago17:19

17:19

By Brendan Davis

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

2d 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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Brendan A. Shanahan, "Disparate Regimes: Nativist Politics, Alienage Law, and Citizenship Rights in the United States, 1865-1965" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:17:16

4d ago1:17:16

1:17:16

Historians have well described how US immigration policy increasingly fell under the purview of federal law and national politics in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. It is far less understood that the rights of noncitizen immigrants in the country remained primarily contested in the realms of state politics and law until the mid-to-late twentiet…

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A podcast about anxiety and other things 1:15:23

2d ago1:15:23

1:15:23

Flying solo this week companionship! During this episode I decided to talk about anxiety (amongst other things). I wanted to share how my anxiety presents it's self, where I think it comes from, why so many of us feel it and what’s actually helped me manage it. I also take some time to answer some listener questions around MTB origins, riding with …

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Wade Davies, "Native Hoops: The Rise of American Indian Basketball, 1895-1970" (UP of Kansas, 2020) 55:41

5d ago55:41

55:41

The game of basketball is perceived by most today as an “urban” game with a locale such as Rucker Park in Harlem as the game’s epicenter (as well as a pipeline to the NBA). While that is certainly a true statement, basketball is not limited to places such as New York City. In recent years scholars have written about the meaning of the game (and tri…

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Ep. #3597: JDM vs Makachev, Frankie Edgar interview, McGrillen vs Loughran join the show, more 1:06:37

3d ago1:06:37

1:06:37

On Episode 3,597, the guys talked with Frankie Edgar, who be fighting for BKFC. They also had an interview with two fighters who will be facing each other, Lewis McGrillen and Caolan Loughran.By MMA Junkie Radio

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Donald G. Nieman, "The Path to Paralysis: How American Politics Became Nasty, Dysfunctional, and a Threat to the Republic" (Anthem Press, 2024) 53:45

6d ago53:45

53:45

Much has been written about political polarisation in the United States, but no one has examined it through the lens of recent U.S. history. There is nothing deterministic about how we became polarised, and it happened more recently than many think. To fully understand the problem, we must take the long view, the perspective provided by history, wi…

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Season 5, Ep 69 - Automa-Tawny the Automaton Townie (w/ Tawny Newsome) 45:17

6d ago45:17

45:17

Automa-Tawny the Automaton Townie is a clockwork robot that's a local in every town. She was also the winner of this year's March Magic bracket of powerful magic user despite little to no evidence of magical abilities. Credits Arnie: Arnie Niekamp Chunt: Adal Rifai Usidore: Matt Young Automa-Tawny: Tawny Newsome Flower: Brooke Breit Mysterious Man:…

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Glenn Ligon, "Distinguishing Piss from Rain" (Hauser & Wirth, 2024) 53:14

5d ago53:14

53:14

An expansive volume featuring over two decades of incisive reflections on race, art and pop culture by one of the greatest artists working today This long-awaited and essential volume collects writings and interviews by Glenn Ligon, whose canonical paintings, neons and installations have been delivering a cutting examination of race, history, sexua…

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Wade Davies, "Native Hoops: The Rise of American Indian Basketball, 1895-1970" (UP of Kansas, 2020) 55:41

7d ago55:41

55:41

The game of basketball is perceived by most today as an “urban” game with a locale such as Rucker Park in Harlem as the game’s epicenter (as well as a pipeline to the NBA). While that is certainly a true statement, basketball is not limited to places such as New York City. In recent years scholars have written about the meaning of the game (and tri…

1
Daniel Wortel-London, "The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981" (U of Chicago Press, 2025) 30:20

8d ago30:20

30:20

Many local policymakers make decisions based on a deep-seated belief: what’s good for the rich is good for cities. Convinced that local finances depend on attracting wealthy firms and residents, municipal governments lavish public subsidies on their behalf. Whatever form this strategy takes—tax-exempt apartments, corporate incentives, debt-financed…

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LaShawn Harris, "Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City" (Beacon, 2025) 1:08:03

8d ago1:08:03

1:08:03

On October 29, 1984, 66-year-old beloved Black disabled grandmother Eleanor Bumpurs was murdered in her own home. A public housing tenant 4 months behind on rent, Ms. Bumpurs was facing eviction when white NYPD officer Stephen Sullivan shot her twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. LaShawn Harris, 10 years old at the time, felt the aftershocks of the trag…

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Andrew Fialka, "Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerrilla Violence during the American Civil War" (U Georgia Press, 2025) 56:18

6d ago56:18

56:18

Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerrilla Violence during the American Civil War (U Georgia Press, 2025) by Dr. Andrew Fialka illustrates two exceptional incidents of occupational and guerrilla violence in Missouri during the American Civil War. The first is a Union spy's two-week-long murder spree targeting civilians, and the second is …

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John Lisle, "Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA" (St. Martin's Press, 2025) 1:14:56

9d ago1:14:56

1:14:56

The inside story of the CIA’s secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves. Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerous—even deadly—experiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending d…

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Patrice D. Douglass, "Engendering Blackness: Slavery and the Ontology of Sexual Violence" (Stanford UP, 2025) 1:19:39

7d ago1:19:39

1:19:39

In Engendering Blackness: Slavery and the Ontology of Sexual Violence (Stanford UP, 2025) Patrice D. Douglass interrogates the relationship between sexual violence and modern racial slavery and finds it not only inseverable but also fundamental to the structural predicaments facing Blackness in the present. Douglass contends that the sexual violabi…

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Steve Luxenberg, "Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation" (Norton, 2019) 48:16

9d ago48:16

48:16

Steve Luxenberg has created an unusual history of the famous Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson and the 19th century’s segregationist practices in his book Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation (Norton, 2019) It is unusual because it is chiefly an ensemble biography of Henry Brown, John Mars…

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Kathleen B. Casey, "The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America" (Oxford UP, 2025) 36:23

9d ago36:23

36:23

For generations of Americans, the purse has been an essential and highly adaptable object, used to achieve a host of social, cultural, and political objectives. In the early 1800s, when the slim fit of neoclassical dresses made interior pockets impractical, upper-class women began to carry small purses called reticules, which provided them with a p…

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Peter Conti-Brown and Sean H. Vanatta, "Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America" (Princeton UP, 2025) 53:22

9d ago53:22

53:22

What does it mean to supervise a bank? And why does it matter who holds that power? In this episode, Sean H. Vanatta joins us to explore the hidden machinery behind American finance, as told in his new book Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America (Princeton UP, 2025), co-authored with Peter Conti-Brown. Spanning near…

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Ep. #3596: DWCS wrap up, Eric Nicksick & Modestas Bukauskas Interviews, more 1:14:49

8d ago1:14:49

1:14:49

On Episode 3,596, the guys had a slow week with no major events. They went over the news and had two guests., Modestas Bukauskas and Eric Nicksick.By MMA Junkie Radio

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

8d 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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Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football 58:04

8d 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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Tracy Slater, "Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp" (Chicago Review Press, 2025) 42:03

10d ago42:03

42:03

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Executive Order 9066, which authorized the confinement of tens of thousands of Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the Western U.S., sending them to cramped, hastily-constructed camps like Manzanar and Amache. One such Japanese-American was Karl Yoneda, a well-known labor activist–an…

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Episode 248 – CanMNT ROSTER BREAKDOWN + Buchanan's La Liga Stardom 59:41

9d ago59:41

59:41

Ben, Alex, and Brenan are back on NFP this week and cover a variety of topics, including the recently announced Canadian men's national team roster, Jesse Marsch's plans, and other aspects of Canadian soccer, as outlined below. CanMNT Roster Breakdown -Why Marshall-Rutty is a smart callup -Who is Jayden Hibbert? -Tajon Buchanan's starring form and …

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Tom Arnold-Forster, "Walter Lippmann: An Intellectual Biography" (Princeton UP, 2025) 42:50

9d ago42:50

42:50

From the years before World War I until the late 1960s, the journalist and political theorist Walter Lippmann was one of the most influential writers in the United States of America. His words and ideas had a powerful impact on American liberalism and his writings on the media are still taught today. Lippmann is now the subject of Tom Arnold-Forste…

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Timothy Messer-Kruse, "Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution" (LSU Press, 2024) 1:00:33

11d ago1:00:33

1:00:33

Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution (LSU Press, 2024) unearths a long-hidden factor that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While historians have generally acknowledged that patriot leaders assembled in response to postwar economic chaos, the threat of popular insurgencies, and the inability of the states…

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Honey, I Shrunk the Nuts! Listener Questions Special 1:30:50

9d ago1:30:50

1:30:50

You're listener questions NEVER disappoint! A proper mixed bag this week folks. No guest, just your amazing questions. We go deep on memories, first crashes, shrinking nuts, inspirations, dodgy tricks, bike tech, injuries, the price of bikes and even how many times we all poo in a day. Safe to say our listeners (YOU) are the best! Episode Sponsors:…

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Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" (Ballantine, 2013) 57:03

12d ago57:03

57:03

Bill Dedman, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and New York Times #1 bestselling author of Empty Mansions, shares the extraordinary story of a reclusive copper heiress, the battle over her fortune, and the HBO series adaptation now in development. As an investigative journalist, Bill Dedman has built his career writing stories that chan…

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Elaine Weiss, "Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement" (Simon and Schuster, 2025) 1:05:45

12d ago1:05:45

1:05:45

Elaine Weiss, acclaimed author of The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, follows that magisterial work with a work of equal scholarly significance and narrative excellence, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement (Simon and Schuster, 2025), "the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore …

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K. Ian Shin, "Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Making of America's Pacific Century" (Stanford UP, 2025) 1:07:42

13d ago1:07:42

1:07:42

This episode, which is co-hosted with Delaney Chieyen Holton, features Dr. K. Ian Shin discussing his recently published book, Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Making of America’s Pacific Century (Standford UP, 2025). Imperial Stewards argues that, beyond aesthetic taste and economics, geopolitics were critical to the United States’ transform…

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Gregory A. Daddis, "Faith and Fear: America's Relationship with War Since 1945" (Oxford UP, 2025) 59:43

13d ago59:43

59:43

In a groundbreaking reassessment of the long Cold War era, historian Gregory A. Daddis argues that ever since the Second World War's fateful conclusion, faith in and fear of war became central to Americans' thinking about the world around them. With war pervading nearly all aspects of American society, an interplay between blind faith and existenti…

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Ep. #3595: UFC & PFL review, Paul Hughes Interview, more 57:41

11d ago57:41

57:41

On Episode 3,595, the guys had two cards to go over, PFL and UFC. They also had a guest, Paul Hughes, join the show.By MMA Junkie Radio

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Season 5, Ep 68 - Honk if You're Hungry (w/ Ross Kimball) 47:03

13d ago47:03

47:03

Honk the Assassin is back and you won't believe what he's... okay, fine, he's trying to kill Arnie. Credits Arnie: Arnie Niekamp Chunt: Adal Rifai Usidore: Matt Young Honk the Assassin: Ross Kimball Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Matt Young, and Adal Rifai Associate Producer: Anna Havermann Post-Production Coordination: Garre…

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Susan C. Boyd, "Heroin: An Illustrated History" (Fernwood, 2022) 45:23

14d ago45:23

45:23

Dr. Susan Boyd is a scholar/activist and Distinguished Professor emerita at the University of Victoria. Her research examines a variety of topics related to the history of drug prohibition and resistance to it, drug law and policy, including maternal drug use, maternal/state conflicts, film and culture, radio and print media, heroin assisted-treatm…

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Paul Thomas Chamberlin, "Scorched Earth: A Global History of World War II" (Basic Books, 2025) 1:04:46

15d ago1:04:46

1:04:46

In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires and the triumph of an American-led democratic order. In Scorched Earth: A Global History of World War II (Basic Books, 2025), historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin opens a longer and wider aperture on World War II a…

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Marlee S. Bunch, "Unlearning the Hush: Oral Histories of Black Female Educators in Mississippi in the Civil Rights Era" 1:04:21

16d ago1:04:21

1:04:21

In Unlearning the Hush: Oral Histories of Black Female Educators in Mississippi in the Civil Rights Era (University of Illinois Press, 2025), Dr. Marlee Bunch shared her research on Black female educators in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era and discussed how their experiences and wisdom continue to inform contemporary teaching practices and …

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Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks, "Command of Commerce: America's Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China" (Oxford UP, 2025) 49:10

16d ago49:10

49:10

Command of Commerce: America's Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China (Oxford UP, 2025) provides a systematic reevaluation of the balance of economic power between the U.S. and China. The conventional wisdom is that China's economic power is very close to America's and that Washington cannot undertake a broad economic cutoff of China without …

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Doug Levy, "Hero Redefined: Profiles of Olympic Athletes Under the Radar" (Clever Cleever, 2025) 56:33

14d ago56:33

56:33

Heroes aren’t just the ones who bring home medals. Hero Redefined: Profiles of Olympic Athletes Under the Radar (Clever Cleever, 2025) delves into the lesser-known stories of Olympic athletes—and a couple of special Olympic venues—that challenge the conventional narrative of glory and gold. In riveting personal profiles exploring herculean feats of…

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Ep. #3594: UFC & PFL preview, Johnny Walker and Zhang Mingyang Interviews, more 54:32

14d ago54:32

54:32

On Episode 3,594, the guys had a UFC and PFL card to cover. They also had the main event fighters from UFC China, Johnny Walker and Zhang Mingyang.By MMA Junkie Radio

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Darren W. Davis and David C. Wilson, "Racial Resentment in the Political Mind" (U Chicago Press, 2021) 55:57

17d ago55:57

55:57

In Racial Resentment in the Political Mind, Darren W. Davis and David C. Wilson challenge the commonly held notion that all racial negativity, disagreements, and objections to policies that seek to help racial minorities stem from racial prejudice. They argue that racial resentment arises from just-world beliefs and appraisals of deservingness that…

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Citizenship Stripping: You Are Not American 54:36

17d ago54:36

54:36

Over the last two centuries, the US government has revoked citizenship to cast out its unwanted, suppress dissent, and deny civil rights to all considered “un-American”—whether due to their race, ethnicity, marriage partner, or beliefs. Drawing on the narratives of those who have struggled to be treated as full members of “We the People,” law profe…

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Kathleen Wilson, "Strolling Players of Empire: Theater and Performances of Power in the British Imperial Provinces, 1656–1833" (Cambridge UP, 2022) 55:38

17d ago55:38

55:38

Why did Britons get up a play wherever they went? In Strolling Players of Empire: Theater and Performances of Power in the British Imperial Provinces, 1656–1833 (Cambridge UP, 2022), Dr. Kathleen Wilson reveals how the performance of English theater and a theatricalized way of viewing the world shaped the geopolitics and culture of empire in the lo…