Best Bristol University Press And Policy Press Podcasts (2025)

1
Marc Sapir, "I'll Fly Away: Stories About Amazing Disabled Elders" (2025) 50:39

Play Pause

5d ago50:39

50:39

We all hope to grow old with dignity and some joyfulness. The intimate narratives of 40 extraordinary elders shared in I'll Fly Away: Stories About Amazing Disabled Elders explore both the challenges of aging and the joys and vibrancy that often persist in the twilight years. Poignant observations of the patients and families by a team of health pr…

1
Laura Frances Goffman, "Disorder and Diagnosis: Health and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Arabia" (Stanford UP, 2024) 53:05

7d ago53:05

53:05

Disorder and Diagnosis: Health and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Arabia (Stanford UP, 2024) offers a social and political history of medicine, disease, and public health in the Persian Gulf from the late nineteenth century until the 1973 oil boom. Foregrounding the everyday practices of Gulf residents--hospital patients, quarantined passe…

1
Carolyn Wolf-Gould et al., "A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States" (SUNY Press, 2025) 1:07:01

10d ago1:07:01

1:07:01

A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States (SUNY Press, 2025) takes an empathic approach to an embattled subject. Sweeping in scope and deeply personal in nature, this groundbreaking volume traces the development of transgender medicine across three centuries-centering the voices of transgender individuals, debunking myths about gender-…

1
David Zweig, "An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions" (MIT Press, 2025) 57:39

14d ago57:39

57:39

An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions (MIT Press, 2025) is a devastating account of the decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century—the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. In fascinating and meticulously reported detail, David Zweig shows how…

1
Is basic income the answer to our age of crisis? 39:08

16d ago39:08

39:08

As basic income trials take place around the world, the idea can no longer be dismissed as purely utopian. But can it truly reshape economies and societies? In this episode, Richard Kemp talks with Howard Reed and Elliott Johnson, two of the co-authors of Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything, about the reality of basic income. They expl…

1
Jenn Hobbs, "Bodily Fluids, Fluid Bodies and International Politics: Feminist Technoscience, Biopolitics and Security" (Bristol University Press, 2024) 1:04:05

19d ago1:04:05

1:04:05

In recent years, security actors have become increasingly concerned with health issues. Bodily Fluids, Fluid Bodies and International Politics: Feminist Technoscience, Biopolitics and Security (Bristol University Press, 2024) by Dr. Jenn Hobbs reveals how understandings of race, sexuality and gender are produced/reproduced through healthcare policy…

1
Coll Thrush, "Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific" (University of Washington Press, 2025) 32:13

25d ago32:13

32:13

The Northwest Coast of North America is a treacherous place. Unforgiving coastlines, powerful currents, unpredictable weather, and features such as the notorious Columbia River bar have resulted in more than two thousand shipwrecks, earning the coastal areas of Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island the moniker “Graveyard of the Pacific.” Beginni…

1
Carol A. Heimer, "Governing the Global Clinic: HIV and the Legal Transformation of Medicine" (University of Chicago Press, 2025) 1:05:30

26d ago1:05:30

1:05:30

HIV emerged in the world at a time when medicine and healthcare were undergoing two major transformations: globalization and a turn toward legally inflected, rule-based ways of doing things. It accelerated both trends. While pestilence and disease are generally considered the domain of biological sciences and medicine, social arrangements—and law i…

1
Joshua Howe and Alexander Lemons "Warbody: A Marine Sniper and the Hidden Violence of Modern Warfare" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025) 1:10:24

27d ago1:10:24

1:10:24

A friendship between an environmental historian and a chronically ill US Marine yields a powerful exploration into the toxic effects of war on the human body. Alexander Lemons is a Marine Corps scout sniper who, after serving multiple tours during the Iraq War, returned home seriously and mysteriously ill. Joshua Howe is an environmental historian …

1
Nicholas Chesterley, "Future-Generation Government: How to Legislate for the Long Term" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025) 36:28

26d ago36:28

36:28

Our impact on future generations has never been greater, and the challenges we face are increasingly long-term. Future-Generation Government proposes ways that we can reward our governments for making durable policy decisions that anticipate future crises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
A humanist looks at the night sky 46:47

28d ago46:47

46:47

What does a humanist feel when they gaze up at the stars? In this episode, George Miller speaks to philosopher Richard Norman, author of What Is Humanism For?, about wonder, meaning and morality in a world without God. Their conversation traces Norman’s intellectual journey, from religious upbringing to secular commitment, and explores how humanism…

1
The ageing crisis that no one’s talking about 59:19

1M ago59:19

59:19

Within the next 30 years the European workforce will be down by a quarter, upsetting the systems we have had in place for decades. In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Giles Merritt, author of 'Timebomb: When Ageing Explodes', about this impending ageing crisis. They discuss the multiple factors that have led us here, as well as what needs to …

1
Michael Buser, "Ecologies of Care in Times of Climate Change: Water Security in the Global Context" (Policy Press, 2024) 36:41

1M ago36:41

36:41

Ecologies of Care in Times of Climate Change: Water Security in the Global Context (Policy Press, 2024) investigates and analyses places in Europe, North America and Asia that are facing the immense challenges associated with climate change adaptation. Presenting real-world cases in the contexts of coastal change, drinking water and the cryosphere,…

1
Challenging the monarchy: Britain after Elizabeth II 43:49

2M ago43:49

43:49

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles, Britain has entered a new era — and questions about the future of the monarchy have become more pressing. Does it have a long-term role to play in modern Britain, or is it an anachronism whose days are numbered? In this episode, George Miller talks to Laura Clancy, lecturer in …

1
Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin, "Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America" (Island Press, 2025) 47:19

2M ago47:19

47:19

This is the shocking true-life story of how PFAS—a set of toxic chemicals most people have never heard of—poisoned the entire country. Based on original, shoe-leather reporting in four highly contaminated towns and damning documents from the polluters’ own files, Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America (Island Press, 2025) tr…

1
Chloe Ahmann, "Futures After Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 36:32

2M ago36:32

36:32

Factory fires, chemical explosions, and aerial pollutants have inexorably shaped South Baltimore into one of the most polluted places in the country. In Futures After Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore (U Chicago Press, 2024), anthropologist Chloe Ahmann explores the rise and fall of industrial lifeways on this edge of the city a…

1
Caitlin Killian, "Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 1:07:52

2M ago1:07:52

1:07:52

In today's post-Roe v. Wade world, U.S. maternal mortality is on the rise and laws regarding contraception, involuntary sterilization, access to reproductive health services, and criminalization of people who are gestating are changing by the minute. Today I’m joined by Dr. Caitlin Killian, the editor of and one of the contributors to a new book fr…

1
Daniel A. Rodriguez, "The Right to Live in Health: Medical Politics in Postindependence Havana" (U North Carolina Press, 2020) 51:58

2M ago51:58

51:58

Daniel A. Rodriguez's history of a newly independent Cuba shaking off the U.S. occupation, The Right to Live in Health: Medical Politics in Postindependence Havana (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), focuses on the intersection of public health and politics in Havana. While medical policies were often used to further American colonial power…

1
Jonathan D. Cohen, "Losing Big: America's Dangerous Sports Gambling Boom" (Columbia Global Reports, 2025) 59:01

2M ago59:01

59:01

In 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the floodgates for states to legalize betting on sports. Eager for revenue, almost forty states have done so. The result is the explosive growth of an industry dominated by companies like FanDuel and DraftKings. One out of every five American adults gambled on sports in 2023, amounting to $121 billion…

1
Can journalism as we know it survive? 51:59

3M ago51:59

51:59

There are many truisms about journalism. That it should speak truth to power. That it must be rooted in community. But what do these mean in practice, especially at a time when journalism is facing an unprecedented set of threats – financial, technological, and political? In this episode, George Miller talks to journalist and media commentator Jon …

1
Pandemic Power: The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy - A Liberal Critique 1:05:20

3M ago1:05:20

1:05:20

In this episode, host Andrea Talabér (CEU Press) sat down with Muriel Blaive to talk about her new book with CEU Press, Pandemic Power: The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy - A Liberal Critique. In the podcast we talked about the (failure of the) pandemic response, the necessity of critique, being shadowbanned on Facebook, censorship, an…

1
Tuomas Tammisto, "Hard Work: Producing Places, Relations and Value on a Papua New Guinea Resource Frontier" (Helsinki UP, 2024) 2:05:32

3M ago2:05:32

2:05:32

On the podcast today I am joined by socio-cultural anthropologist, Tuomas Tammisto, who is an academy research fellow in Social Anthropology at Tampere University. Tuomas is joining me to talk about his recently published book, Hard Work: Producing Places, Relations and Value on a Papua New Guinea Resource Frontier (Helsinki UP, 2024) Hard Work exa…

1
Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women's Health 1:01:58

3M ago1:01:58

1:01:58

Black people, and especially Black women, suffer and die from diseases at much higher rates than their white counterparts. The vast majority of these health disparities are not attributed to behavioral differences or biology, but to the pervasive devaluation of Black bodies. Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women’s Health…

1
Tiffany D. Joseph, "Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Health Care Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025) 1:09:04

3M ago1:09:04

1:09:04

Despite progressive policy strides in health care reform, immigrant communities continue to experience stark disparities across the United States. In Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Health Care Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025), Tiffany D. Joseph exposes the insidious contradiction of Massachusetts' advanced health care …

1
Jeremy Brown, "The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:03:17

3M ago1:03:17

1:03:17

In The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19 (Oxford UP, 2023), Brown investigates the relation between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, to the special vulnerabilities Jewish immigrants faced in the US as result of pr…

1
Mara Mills et al., "How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic" (NYU Press, 2025) 1:22:43

3M ago1:22:43

1:22:43

How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic is the first book to document the experiences of those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City—disabled people. Diverse disability communities across the five boroughs have been disproportionately impacted by city and national policies, work and housing conditions, stigma, racism, and violence—as much …

1
The myth of the heroic billionaire 27:47

3M ago27:47

27:47

Billionaires represent a scourge of economic inequality, but how do they get away with it within our culture? In this episode of our Transforming Business podcast series with Martin Parker, Carl Rhodes, author of ‘Stinking Rich’, explains the dangerous and deceptive myths which portray billionaires as a ‘force for good’. They discuss the myths of t…

1
David Oakeshott, "Schooling, Conflict and Peace in the Southwestern Pacific: Becoming Enemy Friends" (Bristol UP, 2024) 50:28

3M ago50:28

50:28

Bringing concepts from critical transitional justice and peacebuilding into dialogue with education, Schooling, Conflict and Peace in the Southwestern Pacific: Becoming Enemy Friends (Bristol University Press, 2024) by Dr. David Oakeshott examines the challenges youth and their teachers face in the post-conflict settings of Bougainville and Solomon…

1
Amy Adamczyk, "Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:00:20

3M ago1:00:20

1:00:20

Most people think about abortion in the context of the country they live in. In the U.S., abortion fuels debate, elections, and legislation. In China, abortion is often treated as a settled issue. Why and how do abortion attitudes vary across the world? In her new book, Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion (Ox…

1
Changemaking and radical hope in times of crisis 30:19

3M ago30:19

30:19

Everybody wants to change the world, but can we actually make a difference? In the first episode of our Transforming Business podcast series with Martin Parker, Jane Holgate and John Page, authors of Changemakers: Radical Strategies for Social Movement Organising, discuss the power of activism and challenge the belief that change is impossible. The…

1
In Covid’s Wake: How our Politics Failed Us--A Conversation with Stephen Macedo (Part 2) 52:57

3M ago52:57

52:57

This week on Madison’s Notes, we continue our discussion with Stephen Macedo, co-author of In COVID’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us (Princeton UP, 2025). The book examines the institutional failures during the pandemic, including the politicization of science, inconsistent messaging, and the disproportionate impacts of policies. We cover key que…

1
Jade S. Sasser, "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question" (U California Press, 2024) 59:55

3M ago59:55

59:55

Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a rapidly growing field, but most researchers overlook a closely related concern: reproductive anxiety. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question (U California Press, 2024) is the first comprehensive study of h…

1
In Covid’s Wake: How our Politics Failed Us: A Conversation with Frances Lee 45:57

4M ago45:57

45:57

In the first part of our two-part conversation on Madison’s Notes, we speak with Frances Lee, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, about her co-authored book In COVID’s Wake (Princeton UP, 2025). The book offers a comprehensive and candid political assessment of how institutions performed during the pandemic. It explore…

1
Social work and social control 35:01

4M ago35:01

35:01

Social work exists in a constant tension between caring and protecting vulnerable people, and the control mechanisms within the broader context social workers operate in. Where are the lines drawn in its dual role as an instrument of the state and an advocate for social justice? In this episode Malcolm Carey and Gurnam Singh, guest editors of the C…

1
Christos Lynteris, "Visual Plague: The Emergence of Epidemic Photography" (MIT Press, 2022) 1:17:33

4M ago1:17:33

1:17:33

How epidemic photography during a global pandemic of bubonic plague contributed to the development of modern epidemiology and our concept of the “pandemic.” In Visual Plague: The Emergence of Epidemic Photography (MIT Press, 2022), Christos Lynteris examines the emergence of epidemic photography during the third plague pandemic (1894–1959), a globa…

1
Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell, "Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature: Unsettling the Anthropocene" (Routledge, 2024) 52:40

4M ago52:40

52:40

Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature: Unsettling the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2024) presents an innovative and imaginative reading of contemporary Australian literature in the context of unprecedented ecological crisis. The Australian continent has seen significant, rapid changes to its cultures and land-use from the impact o…

1
The myth of the hormonal female 52:37

4M ago52:37

52:37

We’ve all blamed PMS on hormones but, despite popular belief, no direct causal link between female sex hormones and PMS has ever been proven. So why does the ‘hormonal woman’ stereotype persist? And how does it fuel outdated, sexist narratives about female health? In this episode, Jess Miles speaks to Sally King, a visiting fellow in menstrual phys…

1
Educational Inequality in Fijian Higher Education 45:45

4M ago45:45

45:45

In this episode of the Language-on-the-Move podcast, Dr Hanna Torsh speaks with Dr Prashneel Ravisan Goundar about his new book, English Language-Mediated Settings and Educational Inequality: Language Policy Agendas in the South Pacific published by Routledge in 2025. In this book, Goundar explores how educational inequalities are responsible for t…

1
David R. Saunders, "Chasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965" (Cornell UP, 2024) 1:06:59

4M ago1:06:59

1:06:59

In Chasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965 (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. David R. Saunders demonstrates that the withdrawal of the British imperial state from Sabah did not result in the decolonization of the territory. From the late 1940s to the 1960s, international anti-co…

1
Emine Ö Evered, "Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity" (U Texas Press, 2024) 56:25

4M ago56:25

56:25

Historian Emine Ö. Evered’s Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity (University of Texas Press, 2024) investigates the history of alcohol, its consumption, and its proscription as a means to better understand events and agendas of the late Ottoman and early Turkish republican eras. Through a comprehensive examination of archival…

1
Daniel Oberhaus, "The Silicon Shrink: How Artificial Intelligence Made the World an Asylum" (MIT Press, 2025) 59:34

5M ago59:34

59:34

AI psychiatrists promise to detect mental disorders with superhuman accuracy, provide affordable therapy for those who can't afford or can't access treatment, and even invent new psychiatric drugs. But the hype obscures an unnerving reality. In The Silicon Shrink: How Artificial Intelligence Made the World an Asylum (MIT Press, 2025), Daniel Oberha…

1
Patricia A. Roos, "Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction" (Rutgers UP, 2024) 1:16:12

5M ago1:16:12

1:16:12

In 2015, Patricia Roos’s twenty-five-year-old son Alex died of a heroin overdose. Turning her grief into action, Roos, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, began to research the social factors and institutional failures that contributed to his death. Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction (Rutgers UP, 2024) tells h…

1
Angela Wanhalla et al., "Te Hau Kainga: The Maori Home Front during the Second World War" (Auckland UP, 2024) 1:18:20

5M ago1:18:20

1:18:20

Taking readers to the farms and factories, the marae and churches where Māori lived, worked and raised their families, Te Hau Kāinga: The Māori Home Front during the Second World War (Auckland University Press, 2024) by Dr. Angela Wanhalla, Dr. Sarah Christie, Dr. Lachy Paterson, Dr. Ross Webb and Dr. Erica Newman tells the story of the profound tr…

1
Erica Borgstrom and Renske Visser, "Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement" (Routledge, 2024) 59:34

5M ago59:34

59:34

Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement (Routledge, 2025) by Professor Erica Borgstrom & Dr. Renske Visser is the first of its kind to examine key topics in death, dying, and bereavement through a critical lens, highlighting how the understanding and experience of death can vary considerably, based on social, cultural, historical, polit…

1
Casey Golomski, "God's Waiting Room: Racial Reckoning at Life's End" (Rutgers UP, 2024) 1:12:32

5M ago1:12:32

1:12:32

Can older racists change their tune, or will they haunt us further once they're gone? Rich in mystery and life's lessons, God's Waiting Room: Racial Reckoning at Life's End (Rutgers University Press, 2024) considers what matters in the end for older white adults and the younger Black nurses who care for them. An innovation in creative nonfiction, C…

1
How to be creative with data analysis 43:51

6M ago43:51

43:51

Alongside a growing interest in creative methods, researchers are increasingly exploring how to bring creativity into data analysis. But how do you strike the balance between innovation and maintaining a systematic, rigorous and ethical approach? Jess Miles talks to Helen Kara, Dawn Mannay, and Alastair Roy, editors of The Handbook of Creative Data…

1
Adrian de Leon, "Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America" (UNC Press, 2023) 1:15:36

6M ago1:15:36

1:15:36

In a book that pulls together both sides of the Pacific, Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America (UNC Press, 2023) asks the question: what if we look at Filipino history not from the cities or the imperial metropoles, but from the mountains and the countryside? Or put another way, from the "bundok," the Tagalog word for "mountain" which Am…

1
David Lyon, "Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2024) 59:41

6M ago59:41

59:41

Surveillance is everywhere today, generating data about our purchasing, political, and personal preferences. Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2024) shows how surveillance makes people visible and affects their lives, considers the technologies involved and how it grew to its present size and prevalence, and explores…

1
Dean Itsuji Saranillio, "Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood" (Duke UP, 2018) 1:18:48

6M ago1:18:48

1:18:48

In Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood (Duke University Press, 2018), Dean Itsuji Saranillio offers a bold challenge to conventional understandings of Hawai‘i’s admission as a U.S. state. Hawai‘i statehood is popularly remembered as a civil rights victory against racist claims that Hawai‘i was undeserving of statehood b…

1
China and the Indo-Pacific: Policies and Global Implications 31:34

6M ago31:34

31:34

Why has the Indo-Pacific become the pre-eminent theatre of global geo-strategic and geo-economic competition? What is the interest and role of different actors such as China, Russia, the US, the EU and NATO in the region? How are small island developing states such as the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, and Vanuatu affected by challeng…