Bedrosian Bookclub Podcast

This is the last episode of the Bedrosian Bookclub in this incarnation, it's been a blast. We discuss the importance of The 1619 Project, the book, the project, and it's impact on our political discourse. Why should we pay attention to history, how does the historical narrative of a country affect the way we face the future? Aubrey Hicks is joined by Yesenia Hunter, LaVonna Lewis, Jen Bravo, and David Sloane in a conversation on the meaning and joy in the The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. Follow Aubrey on Twitter @AubreyHi for a new book club announcement soon! Catch up on past episodes in the meantime! Thanks to all the listeners, to all our guests (past and present), and to all the authors who help us think about the world we find ourselves awed by every day.

Three votes for Carribean Fragoza's Eat the Mouth that Feeds You to be something every high school senior is exposed to. This debut collection of short stories is genius, this is late 20th early 21st century Southern California. This is Chicanx, this is Latinx, this is SoCal, this is women, this is body horror, magic realism all in 120 pages. Ten stories about place and placemaking, about community and how we lift each other up, or tear each other apart. A must read! “This collection of visceral, often bone-chilling stories centers the liminal world of Latinos in Southern California while fraying reality at its edges. Full of horror and wonder.”—Kirkus Reviews

Now, in the tail end of 2021, discourse about restorative justice and public safety lack imagination. We tend to “do what we've always done.” NYU Historian Nicole Eustace brings us the story of the search for justice following the 1722 murder of a Native American man at the hands of two White men. Covered With Night is a detailed history of how the Pennyslvania colony leaders had to learn to restore the peace – or face war – with the Five Nations. in particular, we bear witness to how the colonists never truly understood the peoples of the Haudenosaunee Confederation. In this month's book club, we read a deep history of the fallout of a murder in the Penn colony. In this history, we learn that our laws have been around shorter than we care to remember and see alternative ways of coming to justice that have existed and thrived. A powerful tail of how we, as peoples, can live together with more equity and justice – how restorative justice has worked in the world, how it could again. If only we can listen and learn.

Ostensibly, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, is about a young man who finds a manuscript in a dead man's apartment. This experimental novel, released in 2000, takes a cinematic approach to the novel – creating a novel experience in time and space. The dead man, Zampano, was an elderly blind man writing an academic critique of The Navidson Record; a documentary about a family moving into a home in Virginia, which happens to be bigger on the inside. At the center of Danielewski's work is the question, “What is real?” How do humans interact with the space they inhabit? How do they interact with the stories around them? Featuring: Zenya Prowell, Stacy Patterson, Lisa Schweitzer, and Jen Bravo

In Not a Nation of Immigrants, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz strives to look at the ever morphing population of the United States, to uncover the why and how of the mythology that pervades political discourse on American history. In part, Dunbar-Ortiz recognizes that the looming problems of climate change, polarization, and authoritarianism cannot be fought while sweeping the parts of our history we don't like under the rug. What does our history mean about who we are? Some of us are immigrants, some of us are descendants of colonizers, some of us are descendants of indigenous peoples, some of us are arrivants brought here through violence - either refugees or descendants of enslaved peoples. Compound these complex ancestries with the fact that many immigrants conform to the values of White Supremacy (become settlers) in order to assimilate. What can we learn from facing our complex history as told through the vast perspectives that make up our people?

An interview with author of Unconventional Combat, Michael A. Messner. Messner's latest book is an intimate look at 6 historically excluded veterans and their post military careers as activists in intersectional peace movements. Explore the ways these veterans are taking their situated knowledge to create a better future.  

A "canceled" influencer. A lonely man looking for attention. White men adrift in hoards, no memory of the violence or good they've done. Enter The Atmosphere, a new retreat where men can detox from social media and learn to become human again. A cult. This first novel from Alex McElroy is a doozy; capturing the manic craziness of the last decade, the sprint for the next cool thing, the quick turn from darling to pariah, the frenetic way we flit from one catastrophe to another.   Join us as host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla, Lisa Schweitzer, and Donnajean Ward to argue over McElroy's The Atmospherians.

The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks is a necrography wherein each stolen item from Benin City is an ongoing event: each event a story of colonial violence told and retold through daily viewings by tourists and school children. It is also a "calling in" for museum curators to work toward a future of restitution; a future of museums free of stolen objects, cultures, and histories. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jen Bravo, David Sloane, and Donnajean Ward. For links and more visit our site.

This month we're thinking about history, collections, and stories. How do stories evolve over time, how do stories shape history, how do they make their way through time and space? Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novel The Shadow of the Wind is one of the best-sellingist books of all time. A story within a story, young Daniel finds a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, in the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This simple event begins a lifetime of searching for the book's author, Julián Carax. Can stories pass the boundaries of time and space? How does a story move through history? How can a story temper or inflame  memory? Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla and Carla Della Gatta to discuss the novel on its 20th anniversary. For links and more, check out the showpage.

Polarization is at a high point, political violence surrounds us, joblessness, homelessness, the country's need to face the great wrongs of the past, and the specter of climate change hanging over all of this. What if ...? What if we imagined a different future? How can we rethink leadership for a new age? How can we relate to one another amidst constant uncertainty? Can we rethink what a good life is and how we can go about it? How do we heal ourselves, our communities, and our planet? Listen as we discuss Emergent Strategy, by Adrienne Maree Brown for insights. Our guests include Jennifer Bravo, Megan Goulding, Jessica Payne, Founder, and Brettany Shannon. Thank you to Mockingbird Analytics for this partnership! For more about our guests, links to things we discuss, and more check out the showpage.

Activists, scientists, most of us ... we know that the truth of the climate crisis is monumental. It's overwhelming the size, scope, interconnectedness of the problem. All We Can Save asks us to rethink, reimagine, and co-create a possible future. It's easy to imagine the worst ... in this collection of essays and poems, the authors bring a unique clarity along with hope and optimism for solutions. We might not save everything ... let's work together to save all we can. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Anna Cummins (The 5 Gyres Inst), Jen Bravo (Price Alum & Consultant), and Lauren Turk (Fera Zero). For links and more, check out the showpage.

Ostensibly, editor Gary Paul Nabhan's collection of friends' essays, The Nature of Desert Nature is about the desert. Rather ... it's human nature that we encounter delving into this collection of essays. The writers reminisce on their own beingness as they encountering one specific desert: the Sonoran. The Sonoron is the desert covers vast area in the Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico. Most of the essays focus on Tucson and its environs. For our guests, living on the edge of the desert also has meaning ...  what is the nature of desert nature? Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla and Stacy Patterson. For June, we're reading Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown! Join us for the LIVE Recording on Tue, June 22nd at 5pm pacific

Twilight of Democracy is a memoir. It is also a condemnation of the many intellectuals and opportunists who have not only given up on democracy, but given up on truth. Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize winning author, recalls the last 20 years in Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and briefly, the United States. What drew many of people she thought of as friends, staunch anti-Communist conservatives, toward authoritarianism? This is the story of elites who think they're entitled, who crave power enough to wield conspiracism like a cudgel against the very institutions they once protected. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jen Bravo, Richard Green, Olivia Olson, and Lisa Schweitzer on this episode of the Bookclub.    

In direct contrast to the myth of the "American Dream," we live in a society in which factors outside of our control determine our fates. From skin color to zip code, only the lucky or exceptionally determined are able to break free of the invisible chains binding them to their caste. In Isabel Wilkerson's latest book, Caste, the Hindu caste system in India is a mirror to reflect how this invisible stratification continues to lock in inequity in the U.S.. This richly historic book uncovers how the Third Reich used the American caste system as a model for their dynasty in Germany. Then she uses personal stories, her own among them, to outline the harm and costs our caste system has reeked since 1619. Read the book, then listen to host Aubrey Hicks discuss the book with LaVonna Lewis, Christine Beckman, and Olivia Olson.  

What does it mean to belong? What does it mean to be an individual, to have an identity? How does one become normal? Who gets to decide what is normal? In One of Us, Alice Domurat Dreger uses stories of conjoined twins to help readers through questions of identity, othering, and belonging. Aubrey Hicks is joined by Christine Beckman, Liz Falletta, and Lisa Schweitzer. We're reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum for March. Check out the whole list, click here.

"The first time I can remember feeling truly powerless, I was three, and I was trapped sideways in a bucket in the garage." The first line of Allie Brosh's latest illustrated memoir, Solutions and Other Problems, lets the audience know that we still can know what to expect her to say. Using short illustrated essays, stories of her life, Brosh walks us through a few important experiences. The absurdity, the childlike wonder, the laugh-out-loud humor contained in the stories all the while she shares her grief, depression, and anxiety is utterly relatable. In this, the first book we read this month, we discuss mental health and our various reactions to this treasure of a book. Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla, Liz Falletta, and Stacy Patterson.

Reading A Promised Land by Barack Obama in January 2021 is a bit of a trip. In some places, the reader feels the swell of nostalgia, the remembrance of governance and a time free of COVID-19. Other times, the juxtaposition Obama's words, with a deep reverence for democracy, and the insurrection of January 6th feels painful.   A Promise Land is part one of what will be a two part Presidential memoir. Much of the book is process and policy heavy, giving the reader a close glimpse of the daily life of the leader of the free world. Even when the topic is heavy, Obama's writing lifts that heaviness and delivers a long fireside chat filled with the intelligence and humor we've come to associate with him.   Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by LaVonna Lewis, Olivia Olson, David Sloane, and Ehsan Zaffar. We discuss the things we missed, the things we loved, and the book that also needs be written - and whose responsibility that might be.   For links to some of the things we talked about, visit our showpage.

In our new series on Community Impact we speak with Victoria Ciudad-Real, John Roberson III, Gary Painter, and Jeffery Wallace about findings from their collaborative project Accelerating Fair Chance Hiring among Los Angeles employers.   The project, in which the Price Center partnered with LeadersUp and the State of California Workforce Accelerator Fund, used an employer survey and co-design sessions with Angeleno employers to determine the best way forward with Fair Chance hiring processes.   What can employers take away from this project? Find more about the findings: https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/fairchance/

Octavia Butler's 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower, was listed as a New York Times bestseller for the first time in September 2020. Parable is the story of a 15-year-old Black girl with plans to save civilization. Lauren was brought up in a small walled community in Southern California. America is in the middle of a heated election and facing deep ecological crisis, spreading disease, drug epidemics, sky-rocketing homelessness, and rampant poverty. She sees in these crises possibility for something more dire in her near future. When it happens, she's prepared with a way forward for herself and anyone willing to join her. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jeffery A. Jenkins, Donnajean Ward, and Olivia Olson on this discussion of the prescient novel.

For this bonus episode, we’re talking with Daniel Flaming & Anthony Orlando on the new report on homelessness in the time of COVID (and after). The Economic Roundtable report uses past pandemic and past recession data to predict how COVID joblessness will translate into homelessness over the coming years. Looking at joblessness as well as the housing market, the authors predict that this recession with see more than double the unhousing that we saw in 2008 (when 10% of the jobless became homeless within the three years following the recession). These dire predictions also come with concrete policy solutions that will help prevent this unhousing from happening after the pandemic, and hopefully prevent catastrophes after the next recession or pandemic. Locked Out: Unemployment and Homelessness in the COVID Economy is underwritten by the Economic Roundtable, and is written by Daniel Flaming, Anthony W. Orlando, Patrick Burns, and Seth Pickens. Download the full report here: https://economicrt.org/publication/locked-out/  

In today's bonus episode, we speak with Elizabeth Dragga (Founder of The Book Truck) and Julie Sandor about the work they do to support young book nerds throughout LA County. "The future is limited for teens with low literacy skills. Underserved teens face tremendous barriers to reading. Fortunately, that’s where The Book Truck comes in. We improve literacy by giving free books to foster care and low-income teens in a way that gets even the most reluctant reader to pick up a book." Check them out, learn how you can help put free books into the hands of underserved teens!  

What better way to end a hard year than to visit Grafton, New Hampshire as author Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling as he reports on the people who lived there during the Free Town Project? In the new book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, Hongoltz-Hetling follows Graftonites and some "colonizers' who saw it as the perfect place to build a utopian community free of government. Where does the balance between individual rights and the common good exist in American politics? What can this book tell us about the current controversy on mask wearing during this pandemic? And what kind of governance would suit the bears of New Hampshire the best? Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Anthony Orlando, Aubrey Hicks, and David Sloane.

This episode is a bit different but we decided this was too good to pass up. We aren’t discussing a book today, rather we’re going to cover another important report out of the USC Price School of Public Policy. In October we spoke to folks from the Price Center for Social Innovation and the Safe Communities institute about criminal justice. Today ... we're going back to the Price Center to discuss a new report on housing affordability in Los Angeles. The report covers findings from a door-to-door survey done in 2019 to uncover the realities of families living with rent burden. Aubrey Hicks (our ED) speaks to Gary Painter (Social Innovation), Jovanna Rosen, Sean Angst, and Soledad De Gregorio about the impact of rent burden on two neighborhoods in Los Angeles. These findings "must be taken into account when creating policy responses to protect renters during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscore the rental precarity that, which, as rental precarity existed prior to the pandemic. Researcher and practitioner efforts must address the impending eviction crisis stemming from the pandemic shut-down as well as the more enduring task of tackling long-term rental affordability." To learn more about this project, including an overview of the project strategy, as well as key findings from analyses of listening sessions and public safety data, check out the report webpage here.

In Citizen, Claudia Rankine wrote: “Because white men can’t / police their imagination / black people are dying." In her follow-up book, Just Us: An American Conversation, Rankine comes back to her exploration of conversation and the racial imaginary of the United States. Through the practice of making conversation, creating an entangled empathy, the book interrogates Whiteness and the state of relating to others. Rankine provides an example of a process with which all of us can explore our American story. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by LaVonna Lewis, Olivia Olson, Sumun Pendakur, and David Sloane.

The Auctioneer was released in 1976 with a campaign that likened it to "The Lottery.” That the novel reflects an ongoing fascination with the broken dream of a peaceful rural life. Set in a farming community in New Hampshire, the Joan Samson creates a town of residents bracing for change, unsure of the future and looking toward an understood past. Farmers know that as city dwellers continue their flight to the interiors … the land they farm is worth more than the history of their town, the generations lived, or all the crops sewn. The arrival of Perly Dunsmore, an auctioneer, takes that unease to new levels. Yet … he’s simply helping the townsfolk to sell off unwanted items. What is wrong with that? Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer is a classic. Her characters live in a very different time, the horror they face remains entirely relatable.   Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Aubrey Hicks, Jeff Jenkins, and Stacy Patterson.

This episode is a bit different but we decided this was too good to pass up. We aren't discussing a book today, rather we're going to cover an important report out of the USC Price School of Public Policy. Given recent events, the findings of this report can help us understand why and how the dialogue between communities and law enforcement is so fraught. Perhaps the two stakeholders are thinking about public safety in very different ways. This project can help us understand both the conflict and where to go from here. "The past decade has elevated the urgent need for police reform, brought to the forefront by high-profile police killings and movements like #BlackLivesMatter. To better understand conceptions of public safety and support the growing public interest in criminal justice reform, the USC Price Center for Social Innovation partnered with Microsoft and the USC Price Safe Communities Institute to launch the NDSC Criminal Justice Data Initiative in the spring of 2019." Today, Aubrey Hicks (our ED) speaks to Gary Painter (Social Innovation) and Erroll Southers (Safe Communities Institute) about the impetus behind the collaboration, the process of understanding community needs, the impact they hope to see, and thoughts on the next stages of research. For links to some of the things we talk about, please see the showpage.  

An interview with author of The Affordable City by Shane Phillips. (Follow Phillips on Twitter: @ShaneDPhillips) Shane Phillips believes that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires that cities support both tenant protections and housing abundance. There is no single solution to the housing crisis—it will require a comprehensive approach backed by strong, diverse coalitions. Read along with us! For September, we’re reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

An interview with author of The Address Book, Deirdre Mask. The Address Book is a broad look at the invention and proliferation of the address. Relatively new, addresses were first a way for royals to count their subjects. Today, addresses can reflect our identity, our history, our race, and our access to opportunity. With the postal service in jeopardy, and the world in disarray, settle in for an interview with a beguiling author. Explore the many ways a simple address can change lives, cities, and the future. Follow Mask on Twitter: @Deirdre_Mask Follow Orlando on Twitter: @AnthonyWOrlando Read along with us! For September, we’re reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Hey! It's our 100th episode! Thanks so much for listening!   Today we're discussing award winning novelist N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became, bringing New York City alive in the first of a new series. It is the story of New York City: the story of its history, its people, the land, the place, and the layers that build to become something greater than the sum of its parts. Join us as we discuss the novel and the current political moment, the hope of the progressive, and the hope of the collective. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla, Juan De Lara, and Olivia Olson. Thanks again for listening ... spread the word! 

An interview with author of Care: Stories, Christopher Records. (Follow Records on Twitter: @cdrecords001) Care: Stories is the fiction debut by USC Price alum, Christopher Records. Records aims to show "ordinary queer people living ordinary lives in an ordinary place." The ordinary place in question is the Inland Empire, which depending on who is defining the area is as vast as Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The vastness of the place adds a sense of "stagnation and loneliness and cruelty," for the characters in the stories. Explore the ways in which place and care and humanness intersect in these short stories. Read along with us! For July, we’re reading The City We Became by N. K. Jemison. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Our host, Dr. Lisa Schweitzer, chose Sofía Segovia's The Murmur of Bees (translated by Simon Bruni) in August of 2019. It seemed like it would be a good sprawling family saga to read the next summer. Come June 2020, the choice would be prescient. The novel is, indeed, a sprawling family saga ... one set in the midst of the Mexican Revolution and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. It is the story of a family and their land as the world changes around them. It is a story of grief, of love, of family. Host Dr. Schweitzer is joined by Caroline Bhalla, Olivia Olson, and Donnajean Ward. This podcast has spoilers. For links and more, check out the showpage.

An 18 year old Mohammad Darwish cries out, "We want freedom!" A revolution begins in the city of Rastan, Syria. April 1st, 2011. For many years, journalist Rania Abouzeid spends time near or inside Syria to interview the Syrian people through the many years of internal (with added external) conflict in the country. No Turning Back is the story of the civil war in Syria told through the eyes of the Syrians Abouzeid interviews, an accounting of their lives from 2011-2016. Listen as host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Ehsan Zaffar, David Sloane, and Aubrey Hicks discuss this vital reporting.

Another bonus episode! Host Lisa discusses the book Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968 by Center Director, Jeffery Jenkins and Boris Heersink (Fordham). Heersink and Jenkins examine how National Convention politics allowed the South to remain important to the Republican Party after Reconstruction. They trace how Republican organizations in the South changed from biracial coalitions to mostly all-white ones over time. They explore how the 'whitening' of the Republican Party affected its vote totals in the South. Once states passed Jim Crow laws essentially to disenfranchise black voters, the Republican Party in the South performed better electorally the whiter it became. These results are important for understanding how the GOP emerged as a competitive, and ultimately dominant, electoral party in the late-twentieth century South. Read along with us! We’re reading The Murmur of Bees by by Sofía Segovia (Translated by Simon Bruni) for June. For more information, see the showpage. Let us know what you think of the book & our podcasts on Facebook or Twitter. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.  

We spent #EarthDay2020 talking about environmental justice. We spoke about an intriguing new book by UCDavis  Prof. Julie Sze. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing the results of persistent injustices, as the virus affecting marginalized communities harder, with more dire consequences. What must we learn from environmental justice struggles in order to form a more perfect union? Listen as host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Jovanna Rosen, Madi Swayne, Jaime Lopez, and Olivia Olson to discuss Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger by Julie Sze.

Can a groundswell of feminist activism threaten an authoritarian patriarchal regime? Author, Leta Hong Fincher looks at this question through the study of women in China. In Betraying Big Brother, Fincher examines the current feminist movement in China. Following the "feminist five," the reader is exposed to the history of the changing roles of women in the country, as well as the current activist movement fueled first through connections built online through the movement to the streets of cities in China. Our discussion covers the book, thoughts on racism during the COVID-19 pandemic (at the beginning stages here in the U.S.) as well as the role of government in women's lives. Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Olivia Olson, David Sloane, and Aubrey Hicks for this episode! For more information, check out the showpage.

Tamim Ansary brings 1500 years of history to life in Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Destiny Disrupted gives readers a broad overview of history of the middle world, beginning with the time of Mohammed and the birth of Islam through almost the present day. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Olivia Olson, David Sloane, and Ehsan Zaffar on this episode! For links and more, visit our showpage.

Does your favorite conspiracy come with evidence and theory of governance, or is it just a meme? Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, authors of A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy argue that the new conspiracism, while having the feel of classic conspiracy theories, have none of the search for meaning. The authors articulate the rise of this new kind of conspiracy thinking and the ramifications for democratic institutions and our collective understanding of the world. Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Olivia Olson, Jeff Jenkins, and Aubrey Hicks to discuss this new book about the current political moment. Follow us on Twitter: @drschweitzer @AubreyHi @jaj7d @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we’re reading Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China by Leta Hong Fincher. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu. Check out the showpage for links to some of the things we talk about.

In today’s episode we're briefly gorgeous, or possibly briefly monstrous. We're pretty sure both are true. What we are sure of is that Ocean Vuong's magnificent novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is just that; gorgeous and painful, heart fulfilling and heart breaking. Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is ostensibly a letter from the narrator, Little Dog, to his mother, Rose. Our narrator is a young man in his 20s. As a Vietnamese American, Little Dog writes of war, abuse, first love, exploration of language and the struggles of coming of age. Listen as our host Aubrey Hicks discusses the novel with Liz Falletta, Jeff Jenkins, Stacy Patterson, and David Sloane. Follow us on Twitter: @AubreyHi @stacypatt614 @jaj7d @dcsloane53 @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we’re reading Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamin Ansary. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

In today’s episode we’re thinking about racism, sexism, misogynoir, and the journalism. We're reading Trailblazer, a memoir by journalist giant Dorothy Butler Gilliam. Gilliam shattered the barriers of race and gender as the first black female reporter at The Washington Post. She had to transform the way the Post viewed what was worthy of space on the pages, leaving a trail for more journalists to follow. Listen as Professor Lisa Schweitzer discusses the book with Caroline Bhalla, Brettany Shannon, and Donnajean Ward. Follow us on Twitter: @drschweitzer, @Coodence, @brettanyshannon,  @DonnajeanWard, @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we’re reading Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamin Ansary. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

An interview with author of Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, Rucker C. Johnson. (Follow Rucker on Twitter: @ProfRucker) Rucker stopped by USC for a conversation with the Gary Painter, Director of the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation. While on campus, Rucker was also gracious enough to spend some time with our Executive Director, Aubrey Hicks. The conversation covers the goals behind the book and the hopeful idea that we can provide good education for our children given what we've learned in the 65 years since the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Read along with us! For December, we’re reading Trailblazer by Dorothy Butler Gilliam and in January we're reading On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.  

In today’s episode we’re thinking about the patriarchy, and Mona Eltahawy’s tools for women and girls. Tools to take down the premise by which prevents so many women from living full human lives. The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls is a memoir, a manifesto, and a toolkit for women to retrain themselves to take up space in the world. To live fully, and without guilt for that humanness.  Listen as Professor Nicole Esparza, Marisa Turesky, and Aubrey Hicks delve into the book. @nicolephd, @AubreyHi, @mturesky, @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we're reading Trailblazer by Dorothy Butler Gilliam. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

For today's episode, we're thinking about the many books we've discussed over the years. After 70+ book discussions, we thought it was about time we did a look back at our favorite discussions, the surprises, the let downs, and what we hope for the future.   @drschweitzer, @AubreyHi, @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we're reading The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahaay. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Aubrey L. Hicks, Susan Lindau, and Joan Miller to discuss Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver. Pepper is a big man. He's accused of a crime that he doesn't see himself in. He's dropped suddenly, into a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York called New Hyde. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter - the police don't want to work unpaid overtime to process him and the hospital machine doesn't want to refuse. 72 hours turns into a month and then more. In the darkness of his room, he's visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It isn't a delusion. The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper makes friends with three other inmates and plans to fight back: Dorry, an elderly schizophrenic who's been on the ward for decades; Coffee (Kofi), an African immigrant with severe OCD; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl. What's real? Who is the very real monster and how do we fight it? How do we treat people unwanted by mainstream society? How do we know if we are experiencing reality? Read along with us! Next month we're reading The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahaay. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Another bonus episode! Host Lisa discusses Professor Liz Falletta's book, By-Right, By-Design: Housing Development Versus Housing Design in Los Angeles. Falletta looks to help practitioners move beyond housing production as a zero sum game towards the more polyvalent solutions that will be required as LA densifies. Read along with us! We're reading Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver for Spooktober. Let us know what you think of the book & our podcasts on Facebook or Twitter. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

The Undercommons is a series of essays exploring contemporary political thought from an inside/outside the commons perspective. Our guest today contends that under all the theory, the book is about friendship and the many ways in which friendship and conversation can be study. That study is love. Exploring issues of race, politics, the university, study, poetry, and ultimately ... friendship. Listen as two friends explore the book and what it means to be against and for the university. Featuring Aubrey Hicks and Chris Finley. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

You've heard that gerrymandering can be bad for representation. Jonathan A. Rodden wants to take you further back in time to the beginnings of what has become a problem of representation, to the time that the Democrats were aligning with labor and Republicans were moving further from urban spaces. Today in certain states, the historic shift still reveals itself in geographic voting, leading to a mismatch between vote share and seat share. Host Lisa Schweitzer discusses Why Cities Lose by Jonthan Rodden with Nicolas Duquette, Jeffery A. Jenkins, and Pamela Clouser McCann. Does the book discover the "deep roots of the urban-rural political divide?" Is this a problem we can fix?  

Today's book: The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú. The southern border between Mexico and the U.S. can be a violent place. Yet isn't as easily defined as it seems.There are places where the border is permeable, invisible. The border is a construct, and the racialized rhetoric of The Border combined with two decades of militarization have wreaked havoc on the people and the land. Cantú becomes a border patrol agent to understand the realities on the ground ... but the complicity he feels drives him away. Can he escape the border, or does that mirage move with him? Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Juan De Lara, Jaime Lopez, and Aubrey Hicks for a far ranging discussion of borders, metaphors, and life in between. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.  

What is a summer book club without a good detective novel? Our conversation today dives into Robert Galbraith's third installment of the Cormoran Strike novels, Career of Evil. Today's host is convinced that Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) might have the best descriptions of the complexity of London since Dickens! Host Richard Green is joined by Lisa Schweitzer and Aubrey Hicks. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

If models of the world are all wrong, why are they critical to understanding our complex world? Today, host Pamela Clouser McCann discusses the book The Model Thinker with guests Jeffery A. Jenkins and James Lo. For links to some of the things we discuss, check out the showpage! Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Can the way a person plays golf really explain their whole personality? Famed golf writer Rick Reilly aims to make the case in Commander in Cheat. Detailing with excruciating detail and humor the myriad of ways President Trump cheats in the golf world. Does Reilly make the case for using golf as a metaphor for President Trump's governance? Listen as we hash that out. Host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Anthony W. Orlando, David Sloane, and Richard Green. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Or email us at bedrosian.bookclub@usc.edu.

Layli Long Soldier is the author of our book for June 2019, Whereas, winner of the National Book Critics Circle award, and finalist for the National Book Award. She is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Whereas in response to an "apology" to Native Americans which was buried in a department of defense appropriations bill during the Obama administration. It is a stunning use of language to build and re-build America, the land of the Plains Indians as others before the colonizers.  The book is at turns devastating, celebratory, adept, clever, playful and always unique.  Apologies for our terrible attempts at Lakota, while we tried to find proper pronunciation we failed. Our failure is another record of the violence perpetrated in our name again our Native brothers and sisters.  David Sloane and Deborah Natoli join host Aubrey Hicks in discussion of this work by Layli Long Soldier, Lakota and American.