Best Jake Macfarlane Podcasts (2025)

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161 One Battle After Another: A West Newton Cinema Discussion with Peter Coviello and Ethan Warren (JP) 33:53

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10d ago33:53

33:53

One Battle After Another, the spirited and controversial Oscar contender from Paul Thomas Anderson, premiered in September. That opening weekend featured a "Behind the Screen" premiere at the storied West Newton cinema. Why "behind"? Because Marisa Pagano and J.B. Sloan of the West Newton Cinema Foundation) invited RTB to oversee a fascinating post…

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

4d 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…

1
Nicholas Gamso, "Art After Liberalism" (Columbia UP, 2022) 1:23:31

11d ago1:23:31

1:23:31

Art After Liberalism (Columbia UP, 2022) is an account of creative practice at a moment of converging political and social rifts – a moment that could be described as a crisis of liberalism. The apparent failures of liberal thinking are a starting point for an inquiry into emergent ways of living, acting, and making art in the company of others. Wh…

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Yoram Hazony, "Conservatism: A Rediscovery" (Regnery Publishing, 2022) 1:09:23

8d ago1:09:23

1:09:23

Conservatism needs to be rediscovered. That is, it needs to be differentiated from the post WWII concept of liberal democracy and return to its traditional three pillars of religion, nationalism, and economic growth. And it needs to be thought of as Anglo-American conservatism, rooted in the tradition of the English Constitution going back to such …

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Jake Monaghan, "Just Policing" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:01:21

15d ago1:01:21

1:01:21

Policing is a source of perennial conflict and philosophical disagreement. Current political developments in the United States have only increased the urgency of this topic. Today we welcome philosopher Jake Monaghan to discuss his book, Just Policing (Oxford UP, 2023), which applies interdisciplinary insights to examine the morality of policing. T…

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Lauren E. M. Everett, "Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land: At Home in Santa Monica's Rent-Controlled Housing" (Temple UP, 2025) 49:42

18d ago49:42

49:42

Rent control and other tenant protections have profound and positive impacts on individuals’ and communities’ lives. Dr. Lauren Everett’s Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land: At Home in Santa Monica’s Rent-Controlled Housing (Temple UP, 2025) shows how rent control impacts the lives of the renters themselves. Dr. Everett interviews residents about…

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160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP) 21:04

15d ago21:04

21:04

John's “Arendt's Refugee Politics” came out in Public Books in early November. He made the case that his favorite political philosopher, Hannah Arendt is an opponent both of identity politics and also of a cosmpolitan universalism that is blind to all the differences (of race, gender, belief) that make us who though not what we are. Going back to o…

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Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami 34:01

23d ago34:01

34:01

Transcript of the interview Minna Salami is a writer, social critic, and thought leader on feminism, knowledge production, and the aesthetics and structures of power. She formerly served as Programme Chair and Senior Fellow at THE NEW INSTITUTE, where she led the Black Feminism and the Polycrisis programme. Her work sits at the intersection of idea…

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On Democracy and Bullshit with Hélène Landemore 1:06:15

26d ago1:06:15

1:06:15

Today I’m speaking with Hélène Landemore, Professor of Political Science at Yale University, about Democracy and Bullshit, with a special focus on her 2020 book, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2020). Bullshit is a feature of both democracies and dictatorships alike, but it takes di…

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Cory Doctorow on Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It 1:36:34

27d ago1:36:34

1:36:34

In this special livestream edition of Peoples & Things, host Lee Vinsel and very special guest host, danah boyd, formerly of Microsoft Research, presently Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University, chat with writer and activist, Cory Doctorow, about his new book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do Abo…

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Caroline Jack, "Business as Usual: How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:10:38

1M ago1:10:38

1:10:38

Business as Usual: How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century, (U Chicago Press, 2024) reveals how American capitalism has been promoted in the most ephemeral of materials: public service announcements, pamphlets, educational films, and games—what Caroline Jack calls “sponsored economic education media.” These items, whic…

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Joseph Stiglitz, "The Origins of Inequality" (Oxford UP, 2025) 39:47

1M ago39:47

39:47

Joseph E. Stiglitz has had a remarkable career. He is a brilliant academic, capped by sharing the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and the Nobel Peace Prize, and honorary degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and more than fifty other universities, and elected not only to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Lett…

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House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr. 55:13

1M ago55:13

55:13

At the height of the civil rights movement, Charles C. Diggs Jr. (1922–1998) was the consummate power broker. In a political career spanning 1951 to 1980, Diggs, Michigan’s first Black member of Congress, was the only federal official to attend the trial of Emmett Till’s killers, worked behind the scenes with Martin Luther King Jr., and founded the…

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Carol Mason, "From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary" (U California Press, 2025) 57:21

1M ago57:21

57:21

Antiabortion stories, images, and policies have primed Americans to embrace attitudes and politics once deemed extreme. Abroad, US antiabortion tactics, personnel, and funds have contributed to a global rise of the Right. From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary (University of California Press, 2025) is a schola…

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Liam Graham, "Physics Fixes All the Facts" (Springer Nature, 2025) 46:53

1M ago46:53

46:53

Complex systems seem to magically emerge from the interactions of their parts. A whirlpool emerges from water molecules. A living cell from organic molecules. You emerge from the cells of your body. Not since chaos has a concept from physics spread like wildfire to other disciplines. Emergence can be found from chemistry to economics; from psycholo…

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brian bean, "Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition" (Haymarket, 2025) 1:00:38

1M ago1:00:38

1:00:38

Where do cops come from and what do they do? How did “modern policing” as we know it today come to be? What about the capitalist state necessitates policing? In this clear and comprehensive account of why and how the police—the linchpin of capitalism—function and exist, organizer and author brian bean presents a clear case for the abolition of poli…

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Muhammad H. Zaman, "Infected: How Power, Politics, and Privilege Use Science Against the World’s Most Vulnerable" (The New Press, 2025) 36:28

1M ago36:28

36:28

In Infected: How Power, Politics, and Privilege Use Science Against the World’s Most Vulnerable (The New Press, 2025), Professor Muhammad H. Zaman reveals the troubling history of how science and public health have been manipulated to serve the interests of power. Moving from the U.S.–Mexico border to Pakistan, from the Tuskegee syphilis trials to …

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Joshua Castellino, "Calibrating Colonial Crime: Reparations and The Crime of Unjust Enrichment" (Policy Press, 2025) 52:59

1M ago52:59

52:59

While decolonization liberated territories, it left the root causes of historical injustice unaddressed. Governance change did not address past wrongs and transferred injustice through political and financial architectures. In Calibrating Colonial Crime: Reparations and The Crime of Unjust Enrichment (Bristol University Press/Policy Press, 2024) Dr…

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Eram Alam, "The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare" (JHU Press, 2025) 51:39

1M ago51:39

51:39

For more than 60 years, the United States has trained fewer physicians than it needs, relying instead on the economically expedient option of soliciting immigrant physicians trained at the expense of other countries. The passage of the Hart–Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 expedited the entry of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) from p…

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Nancy Neiman, "Markets, Community and Just Infrastructures" (Routledge, 2020) 1:13:59

1M ago1:13:59

1:13:59

A series of market-related crises over the past two decades – financial, environmental, health, education, poverty – reinvigorated the debate about markets and social justice. Since then, counter-hegemonic movements all over the globe are attempting to redefine markets and the meaning of economic enterprise in people’s daily lives. Assessments of m…

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Radio ReOrient 13.3: “Why Palestine Activism & Resistance Matter,” with Hatem Bazian and Ismail Patel, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Marchella Ward 1:07:59

1M ago1:07:59

1:07:59

In this episode, Claudia Radiven and Chella Ward spoke with Ismail Patel and Hatem Bazian about Pro-Palestinian resistance and the nature of protests - from the Iraq war demonstrations to the recent protests after the events of October 7th 2023. This conversation extended into the nature of colonial projects of occupation and the role coloniality s…

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Democratic Dialogues: Pathways of Democratic Backsliding, Resistance, and (Partial) Recoveries 42:09

2M ago42:09

42:09

A podcast from Cornell University’s Brooks School of Public Policy Center on Global Democracy About the Podcast Each week, co-hosts Rachel Beatty Riedl and Esam Boraey bring together leading scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to explore the challenges and possibilities facing democracy around the world. Produced by Cornell’s Center on Global…

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Michael Lazarus, "Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx" (Stanford UP, 2025) 1:07:03

2M ago1:07:03

1:07:03

Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx by Michael Lazarus Karl Marx gave us not just a critique of the political economy of capital but a way of confronting the impoverished ethical quality of life we face under capitalism. Interpreting Marx anew as an ethical thinker, Absolute Ethical Life provides crucial resources for understanding how…

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Nathan E. Sanders and Bruce Schneier, "Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship" (MIT Press, 2025) 43:32

2M ago43:32

43:32

AI is changing democracy. We still get to decide how. AI’s impact on democracy will go far beyond headline-grabbing political deepfakes and automated misinformation. Everywhere it will be used, it will create risks and opportunities to shake up long-standing power structures. In this highly readable and advisedly optimistic book, Rewiring Democracy…

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Ron Broglio, "Animal Revolution" (U Minnesota Press, 2022) 49:03

2M ago49:03

49:03

Animals are staging a revolution—they’re just not telling us. From radioactive boar invading towns to jellyfish disarming battleships, Animal Revolution (U Minnesota Press, 2022) threads together news accounts and more in a powerful and timely work of creative, speculative nonfiction that imagines a revolution stirring and asks how humans can be a …

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Deborah Gordon, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World" (Oxford UP, 2021) 46:28

2M ago46:28

46:28

In No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World (Oxford University Press, 2021), Deborah Gordon shows that no two oils or gases are environmentally alike. Each has a distinct, quantifiable climate impact. While all oils and gases pollute, some are much worse for the climate than others. In clear, accessible language, Gordon expla…

Jake Macfarlane Podcasts

1
Cold Case Talk

Cold Case Coalition

1
New Books in Politics and Polemics

Marshall Poe

1
161 One Battle After Another: A West Newton Cinema Discussion with Peter Coviello and Ethan Warren (JP) 33:53

1
Is a River Alive?: A Conversation with Robert Macfarlane 34:00

1
Nicholas Gamso, "Art After Liberalism" (Columbia UP, 2022) 1:23:31

1
Yoram Hazony, "Conservatism: A Rediscovery" (Regnery Publishing, 2022) 1:09:23

1
Jake Monaghan, "Just Policing" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:01:21

1
Lauren E. M. Everett, "Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land: At Home in Santa Monica's Rent-Controlled Housing" (Temple UP, 2025) 49:42

1
160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP) 21:04

1
Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami 34:01

1
On Democracy and Bullshit with Hélène Landemore 1:06:15

1
Cory Doctorow on Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It 1:36:34

1
Caroline Jack, "Business as Usual: How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:10:38

1
Joseph Stiglitz, "The Origins of Inequality" (Oxford UP, 2025) 39:47

1
House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr. 55:13

1
Carol Mason, "From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary" (U California Press, 2025) 57:21

1
Liam Graham, "Physics Fixes All the Facts" (Springer Nature, 2025) 46:53

1
brian bean, "Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition" (Haymarket, 2025) 1:00:38

1
Muhammad H. Zaman, "Infected: How Power, Politics, and Privilege Use Science Against the World’s Most Vulnerable" (The New Press, 2025) 36:28

1
Joshua Castellino, "Calibrating Colonial Crime: Reparations and The Crime of Unjust Enrichment" (Policy Press, 2025) 52:59

1
Eram Alam, "The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare" (JHU Press, 2025) 51:39

1
Nancy Neiman, "Markets, Community and Just Infrastructures" (Routledge, 2020) 1:13:59

1
Radio ReOrient 13.3: “Why Palestine Activism & Resistance Matter,” with Hatem Bazian and Ismail Patel, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Marchella Ward 1:07:59

1
Democratic Dialogues: Pathways of Democratic Backsliding, Resistance, and (Partial) Recoveries 42:09

1
Michael Lazarus, "Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx" (Stanford UP, 2025) 1:07:03

1
Nathan E. Sanders and Bruce Schneier, "Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship" (MIT Press, 2025) 43:32

1
Ron Broglio, "Animal Revolution" (U Minnesota Press, 2022) 49:03

1
Deborah Gordon, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World" (Oxford UP, 2021) 46:28