Best Taylor J F Podcasts (2025)

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Francis Gavin, "Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:17:57

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23m ago1:17:57

1:17:57

In his timely, thought-provoking book Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy (Yale UP, 2025), Francis Gavin makes a powerful case for why a genuine historical sensibility, rooted in curiosity, humility, and discernment, is not just an academic virtue but a critical tool for decision-makers. Rather than mining the past for tidy an…

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Sarah F. Derbew, "Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2022) 1:04:09

23m ago1:04:09

1:04:09

Sarah Derbew’s new book Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge UP, 2022) asks how should articulations of blackness from the fifth century BCE to the twenty-first century be properly read and interpreted? This important and timely book is the first concerted treatment of black skin color in the Greek literature and visual culture of ant…

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Anne Irfan, "A Short History of the Gaza Strip" (Simon & Schuster, 2025) 34:49

1d ago34:49

34:49

In this episode, Joe Williams speaks to historian Anne Irfan about her new book, A Short History of the Gaza Strip (Simon & Schuster, 2025). Drawing on more than a decade of research, Irfan traces the political, social, and humanitarian history of Gaza from 1948 to the present, situating the territory’s current devastation within a much longer traj…

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

26m 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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Brooke Barbier, "King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father" (Harvard UP, 2023) 49:32

2d ago49:32

49:32

King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father (Harvard UP, 2023) is a rollicking portrait of the paradoxical patriot, whose measured pragmatism helped make American independence a reality. Americans are surprisingly more familiar with his famous signature than with the man himself. In this spirited account of John Hancock's life…

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James Lacey, "Rome: Strategy of Empire" (Oxford UP, 2022) 59:33

2d ago59:33

59:33

From Octavian's victory at Actium (31 B.C.) to its traditional endpoint in the West (476), the Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years -- an impressive number by any standard, and fully one-fifth of all recorded history. In fact, the decline and final collapse of the Roman Empire took longer than most other empires even existed. Any historian trying …

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Interview: Grief is complicated — but drawing cartoons can help with Dr. Nathan Gray 31:38

8m ago31:38

31:38

With just a few lines, cartoons can say so much with so little. In a moving talk, cartoonist Navied Mahdavian shares his process for distilling huge concepts into drawings on the page — and shows how his work helped him grieve the death of his beloved grandmother, flaws and all. After the talk, Shoshana interviews Nathan Gray on the use of comics a…

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On Friendship (w/ Andy Elrick) 1:30

3d ago1:30

1:30

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Should you try to improve your friends or leave them be? Do friendship and politics mix? Is friendship about virtue or delight? In 2023, we were interviewed by Andrew Elrick, now a professor at Marist University, for a documentary podcast he was making about men…

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The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress 57:58

4d ago57:58

57:58

At the heart of University College London lies a long-forgotten map library packed with thousands of maps and atlases. Professor James Cheshire stumbled upon it, and spent three years sifting through hundreds of dusty drawers to see what was there. He was stunned to uncover some of the most significant maps and atlases from the last two centuries -…

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Carolyn J. Eichner, "Feminism's Empire" (Cornell UP, 2022) 1:22:43

4d ago1:22:43

1:22:43

Feminism's Empire (Cornell UP, 2022) investigates the complex relationships between imperialisms and feminisms in the late nineteenth century and demonstrates the challenge of conceptualizing "pro-imperialist" and "anti-imperialist" as binary positions. By intellectually and spatially tracing the era's first French feminists' engagement with empire…

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Darcie Fontaine, "Modern France and the World" (Routledge, 2023) 1:10:45

5d ago1:10:45

1:10:45

As she taught university-level courses on modern French history, Darcie Fontaine felt like she could not find a textbook that provided an up-to-date narrative about the ways in which France has been involved in and influenced by the rest of the world—certainly not one that incorporated contributions from scholars of social and cultural history, gen…

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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

5d 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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Patricia Anne Simpson, "Early Modern Women's Work: Kinship, Community, and Social Justice" (Routledge, 2025) 59:22

5d ago59:22

59:22

Patricia Anne Simpson joins Jana Byars to talk about Early Modern Women's Work: Kinship, Community, and Social Justice (Routledge, 2025). The book examines the contributions of female writers, artists, scientists, religious leaders, and patrons who engaged in entrepreneurial, intellectual, and emotional labor in German-speaking Europe. Through indi…

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Jonathan Eig, "King: A Life" (FSG, 2023) 39:22

6d ago39:22

39:22

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life (FSG, 2023) is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us …

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

7d 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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Natalie Porter, "Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders" (ECW Press, 2025) 45:24

8d ago45:24

45:24

A vibrant, meticulously researched celebration of the women and non-binary skateboarders who defied a hostile industry and redefined skateboarding around the world With enthusiasm and empathy, Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders (ECW Press, 2025) celebrates the relentless participation of women in skateboardi…

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Jenny Linford, "Repast: The Story of Food" (Thames & Hudson, 2025) 49:19

8d ago49:19

49:19

Our insatiable appetite for creativity in the kitchen – or around the open fire – is reflected in the fascinating array of objects explored in this book. Authored by food writer Jenny Linford in consultation with curators from the British Museum, Repast: The Story of Food (Thames & Hudson in partnership with the British Museum, 2025) focuses on art…

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Erika Pani, "Torn Asunder: Republican Crises and Civil Wars in the United States and Mexico, 1848-1867" (UNC Press, 2025) 57:37

9d ago57:37

57:37

Between the late 1840s and the late 1860s, the United States and Mexico had quite a bit in common. Both suffered from reactionary succession movements, both faced brutal civil wars, and both had to figure out a method of reconstructing broken nations in their aftermath. In Torn Asunder: Republican Crises and Civil Wars in the United States and Mexi…

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Maia Kotrosits, "After Transformation: Rewriting Time, Christian Late Antiquity, and the Present" (Duke UP, 2025) 52:17

9d ago52:17

52:17

In After Transformation, Maia Kotrosits offers a lyrical history of Christian late antiquity as it lives on in and with the present. Recasting the monumental changes that occurred between the second and fourth centuries, when Rome transitioned from pagan to Christian worship, Kotrosits presents a condensed and evocative meditation on the profound e…

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Jochen Hellbeck, "World Enemy No. 1: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Fate of the Jews" (Penguin Group, 2025) 1:27:51

10d ago1:27:51

1:27:51

In the West, World War II is commonly understood as the Allies’ struggle against Nazism. Often elided, if not simply forgotten, is the Soviet Union’s crucial role in that fight. With this book, acclaimed historian Jochen Hellbeck rectifies this omission by relocating the ideological core of the conflict. It was not the Western powers but Communist …

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Renata Keller, "The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War" (UNC Press, 2025) 37:12

10d ago37:12

37:12

Despite twenty-first-century fears of nuclear conflagrations with North Korea, Russia, and Iran, the Cuban Missile Crisis is the closest the United States has come to nuclear war. That history has largely been a bilateral narrative of the US-USSR struggle for postwar domination, with Cuba as the central staging ground--a standard account that obscu…

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Could Mental Workouts Keep Your Brain Young? | NPR’s Short Wave 11:42

10m ago11:42

11:42

Today, we’re featuring an episode from NPR’s science podcast Short Wave. In it, host Regina G. Barber talks to NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton about MENTAL EXERCISES. Scientists have found the first compelling evidence that cognitive training can boost levels of a chemical that typically declines as people age. And previous studies of people h…

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The Furious Minds of MAGA (w/ Laura Field) 1:09:36

10d ago1:09:36

1:09:36

Laura K. Field's Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, published earlier this month, is a book we simply had to discuss. Listeners to this podcast will recognize its cast of characters—conservative intellectuals like Patrick Deneen, Michael Anton, John Eastman, Adrian Vermeule, and Harry Jaffa, among others—whose ideas and influence Fiel…

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Jim Cullen, "1980: America's Pivotal Year" (Rutgers UP, 2022) 41:44

11d ago41:44

41:44

1980 was a turning point in American history. When the year began, it was still very much the 1970s, with Jimmy Carter in the White House, a sluggish economy marked by high inflation, and the disco still riding the airwaves. When it ended, Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide, inaugurating a rightward turn in American politics and cultur…

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Adam Jones, "Sites of Genocide" (Routledge, 2022) 1:11:41

5d ago1:11:41

1:11:41

Adam Jones will be familiar to anyone interested in the field of genocide studies. He's published one of the leading textbooks in the field. He's been influential in drawing attention to the intersection of gender and mass violence. And he's particpated in the emergence of attention to genocides of indigenous peoples over the past decade. Sites of …

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Shatema Threadcraft, "Labors of Resurrection: Black Women, Necromancy, and Morrisonian Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2025) 58:24

13d ago58:24

58:24

Western democracies are haunted. Michael Hanchard suggests that the specter of race is what haunts our democracies, but it may be more accurate to suggest that they are haunted by their own racialized death machines—by racialized premature death. If this haunting is not adequately attended to, democracies cannot fulfill their function. Even W. E. B…

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Faisal Devji, "Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:04:48

13d ago1:04:48

1:04:48

Faisal Devji's Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam (Yale UP, 2025) is a compelling examination of the rise of Islam as a global historical actor. Until the nineteenth century, Islam was variously understood as a set of beliefs and practices. But after Muslims began to see their faith as an historical actor on the world stage, they ne…

Taylor J F Podcasts

1
Know Your Enemy

Matthew Sitman

1
TED Health

TED

1
New Books in History

Marshall Poe

1
Francis Gavin, "Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:17:57

1
Sarah F. Derbew, "Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2022) 1:04:09

1
Anne Irfan, "A Short History of the Gaza Strip" (Simon & Schuster, 2025) 34:49

1
Taylor McCall, "The Art of Anatomy in Medieval Europe" (Reaktion Books, 2023) 36:55

1
Brooke Barbier, "King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father" (Harvard UP, 2023) 49:32

1
James Lacey, "Rome: Strategy of Empire" (Oxford UP, 2022) 59:33

1
Interview: Grief is complicated — but drawing cartoons can help with Dr. Nathan Gray 31:38

1
On Friendship (w/ Andy Elrick) 1:30

1
The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress 57:58

1
Carolyn J. Eichner, "Feminism's Empire" (Cornell UP, 2022) 1:22:43

1
Darcie Fontaine, "Modern France and the World" (Routledge, 2023) 1:10:45

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

1
Patricia Anne Simpson, "Early Modern Women's Work: Kinship, Community, and Social Justice" (Routledge, 2025) 59:22

1
Jonathan Eig, "King: A Life" (FSG, 2023) 39:22

1
Allison Christine Meier, "Grave" (Bloomsbury, 2023) 50:17

1
Natalie Porter, "Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders" (ECW Press, 2025) 45:24

1
Jenny Linford, "Repast: The Story of Food" (Thames & Hudson, 2025) 49:19

1
Erika Pani, "Torn Asunder: Republican Crises and Civil Wars in the United States and Mexico, 1848-1867" (UNC Press, 2025) 57:37

1
Maia Kotrosits, "After Transformation: Rewriting Time, Christian Late Antiquity, and the Present" (Duke UP, 2025) 52:17

1
Jochen Hellbeck, "World Enemy No. 1: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Fate of the Jews" (Penguin Group, 2025) 1:27:51

1
Renata Keller, "The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War" (UNC Press, 2025) 37:12

1
Could Mental Workouts Keep Your Brain Young? | NPR’s Short Wave 11:42

1
The Furious Minds of MAGA (w/ Laura Field) 1:09:36

1
Jim Cullen, "1980: America's Pivotal Year" (Rutgers UP, 2022) 41:44

1
Adam Jones, "Sites of Genocide" (Routledge, 2022) 1:11:41

1
Shatema Threadcraft, "Labors of Resurrection: Black Women, Necromancy, and Morrisonian Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2025) 58:24

1
Faisal Devji, "Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam" (Yale UP, 2025) 1:04:48