Smarty Pants

In 19th-century America, unhappily married couples faced divorce laws that varied wildly by state. Some states only allowed suits for “divorce of room and board”—but not the end of a marriage. In New York, divorce was permitted only in cases of proven adultery; South Carolina banned it entirely. But in South Dakota, things were different, and by the 1890s, people were flocking to Sioux Falls to take advantage of the laxest divorce laws in the country. In particular, the women seeking separation caught the most attention, as historian and senior Atlas Obscura editor April White writes in her new book, The Divorce Colony. These women—usually wealthy, almost always white, and trailing newspaper reporters—dared to challenge the status quo barely a generation after married women had won the right to own property, and well before they achieved the vote.Go beyond the episode:April White's The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American FrontierRead the Atavist article that started it allMeet the women profiled in the bookTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today is June 16, Bloomsday, the day in 1904 on which James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place. But this year also marks the 100th anniversary of its publication, and to celebrate the occasion, The American Scholar asked five writers for their thoughts on Joyce's modern masterpiece. One of them, Flicka Small, wrote about the food in the novel, from the inner organs of beasts and fowls that Leopold Bloom eats with relish to the Gorgonzola on his sandwich—not to mention Molly Bloom's sensuous seed cake, Blazes Boylans's suggestive peaches, and everything that Stephen Dedalus can't afford to eat. Flicka Small came to her lectureship at University College Cork by way of her earlier career as a chef, giving her a singular perspective on the wild array of foods that appear on that famous day in Dublin, Ireland.Go beyond the episode:Read Flicka Small's contribution to our Joyce centennial, “Know Me Come Eat With Me”Read the other four essays: Robert J. Seidman on why Ulysses is as vital as ever; Keri Walsh's celebration of the novel's first publisher, Sylvia Beach; Donal Ryan on the three times he's read it; and Amit Chaudhuri on just having fun with the flowBloomsday 2022 is on in Ireland and around the worldWhip up some pan-fried kidneys, a Gorgonzola sandwich, or some sugarsticky sweetsWe borrowed the title of this episode from Alison Armstrong's excellent 1986 cookbook, The Joyce of Cooking, which you can find in used bookstoresTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Humorist Sloane Crosley is best known for her witty essay collections, such as I Was Told There'd Be Cake and Look Alive Out There, both finalists for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Her new book is a novel, Cult Classic—a mystery, romantic comedy, and conspiracy thriller rolled into one, with a sprinkling of mind control and A Christmas Carol for good measure. We first meet the novel's heroine, Lola, as she sneaks out of a dinner with friends in Manhattan's Chinatown for a cigarette and unexpectedly bumps into an ex-boyfriend. The next day, she runs into another one. Then another. What for many of us would merely seem like a bizarre series of uncomfortable encounters—or a personal nightmare—turns out to be something much stranger for Lola, who discovers that her very weird week has resulted from the machinations of a group that insists it's not a cult. Sloane Crosley joins us to talk about love, psychology, and her new novel, Cult Classic.Go beyond the episode:Sloane Crosley's Cult ClassicExplore her back catalogIn case you seek a novel about love gone wrong ... we have you covered with these 14 bad romancesTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most people who dig deep into their family histories tend to uncover the usual: an unexpected great-great-aunt, a familial home halfway around the world, maybe even a secret sibling. Hollywood producer Hopwood DePree found an ancestral English estate bearing his own name. But Hopwood Hall was falling apart, having sat empty since the Second World War and becoming the victim of age and vandalism. A visit to see the 600-year-old manor—and then another—and another—inspired DePree not only to try to save the hall, but also to trade movie scripts for a hard hat and move to Manchester. He describes his—and the house's—journey in his new book, Downton Shabby.Go beyond the episode:Hopwood DePree's Downton Shabby: One American's Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family's English CastleVisit our episode page for vintage photographs of the Hall in its glory daysExperience a day in the life of the Hopwood Hall restoration efforts on DePree's YouTube channelListen to our interview with Adrian Tinniswood on why so many English country houses are in ruinsRevisit the famed 1974 Victoria & Albert exhibition “The Destruction of the Country House,” or go visit Agecroft Hall and Gardens in Richmond, Virginia, one of several country homes dismantled and reassembled on this side of the Atlantic. In England? Visit Hopwood Hall itself later this monthRead Sam Knight's essay about the National Trust's recent report on colonialism and slavery: “Britain's Idyllic Country Houses Reveal a Darker History”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Few birds enjoy the stature that the bald eagle has attained in the United States. It adorns our national seal, several denominations of currency, and T-shirts from coast to coast, with bonded pairs nesting everywhere from the National Arboretum to Dollywood. But not even 100 years ago, the bald eagle was hunted to the verge of extinction even while it was celebrated as a majestic symbol of independence. Children were taught that it was a threat to society or, worse, that it might kidnap and devour them. And just when we began to right our wrongs with the passage of the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, we nearly killed off our national symbol again with DDT. Pulitzer Prize–winner Jack E. Davis swoops through five centuries of history to tell the bird's improbable story in The Bald Eagle.Go beyond the episode:Jack E. Davis's The Bald EaglePeep bald eagle nest cams across the countrySmarty Pants loves birds: meet the caracara and the ravens of the Tower of LondonRead Erik Anderson's story of how a beguiling South American hummingbird ended up in the basement of a Pennsylvania museumWatch Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, a 1908 silent short that dramatizes the (impossible) fear of an eagle carrying off a childTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Americans love their cars. But why? When did cars become so wrapped up in the idea of American identity that we can't pull ourselves away from them, knowing full well that they're expensive, emissions-spewing death machines? Why are we so wedded to the idea of cars that we're now developing all-electric and driverless cars instead of investing in mass transportation? To answer some of these questions, we're joined this episode by Dan Albert, who writes about the past, present, and future of cars, from Henry Ford's dirt-cheap and democratic Model T to the predicted death of the automobile in the 1970s—and again, today. This episode originally aired in 2019.Go beyond the episode:Dan Albert's Are We There Yet?In our Summer 2019 issue, Steve Lagerfeld mourns what wonders might be lost with the end of drivingFor more on how highways made modern America, read Albert's essay “The Highway and the City” and moreJulie Beck reports on the decline of driving (and driver's licenses)An academic analysis of how different modes of transport shape urban travel patternsFor a deeper look at Tesla and Uber, Albert recommends Edward Niedermeyer's Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and Mike Isaac's Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (listen to our interview with Isaac here)TimeOut ranks the 50 best road trip songs of all time (though we would have added Gary Numan's “Cars”)Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google PlayHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Have you ever had a feeling that something bad was about to happen? Has it ever come true? On October 20, 1966, a young Welsh girl named Eryl Mai Jones recounted to her mother a dream in which she went to school and found it wasn't there. “Something black had come down all over it,” she said. The next day, Eryl and 143 other people were killed when a pile of waste at a nearby coal mine collapsed and sent an avalanche of rubble into the village of Aberfan. After learning of Eryl's dream—and others like hers—the psychiatrist John Barker teamed up with reporter Peter Fairley to establish a Premonitions Bureau at the Evening Standard newspaper to “log premonitions as they occurred and see how many were borne out in reality.” New Yorker staff writer Sam Knight tells the story of Barker's experiment in his new book, The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold. Barker hoped that the bureau, which would receive more than 700 premonitions within 15 months (some of which proved true) might serve as a warning system for future calamities. But the gravest predictions that Barker received warned of his impending death. Go beyond the episode:Sam Knight's The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death ForetoldRead the article that started it all: “The Psychiatrist Who Believed People Could Tell the Future”For just $183.45, this first edition of John Barker's Scared to Death could be yours!The Brits seem to have a thing for where the supernatural and the subconscious meet: listen to our interview with Kate Summerscale about The Haunting of Alma FieldingThen again, so do weTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Russia and China recently agreed to be partners “without limits,” but from the 17th to the 19th century, their relationship wasn't so warm. As Georgetown historian Gregory Afinogenov writes in his recent book, Spies and Scholars, pencil-pushing Russian bureaucrats posted in China or along the border doubled as spies. These career apparatchiks succeeded at gathering intelligence on the Qing dynasty from their quotidian positions at diplomatic offices, religious missions, and frontier outposts, though they never seemed to get much credit for their work. The irony is that while the intelligence they shared bought Russia greater prestige among European powers, these encounters with European ideals of intellectualism also radically changed what kind of “intelligence” was considered worthwhile. This episode originally aired in 2020.Go beyond the episode:Gregory Afinogenov's Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia's Quest for World PowerItching to learn Manchu? Check out the Manchu Studies Group, which includes examples of Manchu scriptFor 20th-century Russian spying, no one beats John le Carré, in life or fictionTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Long before the current spate of legislation aimed at transgender people—and long before 1492—people who identified as neither male nor female, but both, flourished across hundreds of Native communities in the present-day United States. Called aakíí'skassi, miati, okitcitakwe, and other tribally specific names, these people held important roles both in ceremony and everyday life, before the violence wrought by Europeans threatened to wipe them out. In his new book, Reclaiming Two-Spirits, historian Gregory Smithers sifts through hundreds of years of colonial archives, art, archaeological evidence, and oral storytelling to reveal how these Indigenous communities resisted erasure and went on to reclaim their dual identities under the umbrella term “two-spirit.”Go beyond the episode:Gregory Smithers's Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal, and Sovereignty in Native AmericaRead Smithers's essay on the hidden history of transgender TexasWatch Sweetheart Dancers, Ben-Alex Dupris's short documentary about a two-spirit couple trying to rewrite the “one man, one woman” rule for powwow couples dancesExplore the speculative Indigenous fiction of Daniel Heath JusticeCree artist Kent Monkman paints his two-spirit alter-ego into Western European art historyTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google PlayHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The late Budi Darma, one of Indonesia's most beloved writers, spent a formative chapter of his life far from home, studying at Indiana University in the 1970s. He wrote a series of strikingly lonely short stories that would go on to form the collection People from Bloomington, first published in Indonesian in 1980. A man befriends his estranged father only to control him and ends up controlled himself. Someone steals his dead roommate's poetry and enters it into a competition. Another character desperately tries to make contact with the old man across the street who may or may not be trying to shoot people from his attic room. With this absurd but oddly real little collection—and with his next novel, Olenka, also Indiana-inspired—Darma ascended into the pantheon of Indonesian literature, winning numerous awards, including the presidential medal of honor. Budi Darma may be barely known in the United States, but Tiffany Tsao—who has recently translated People from Bloomington for Penguin Classics—hopes that an English-language audience is ready to embrace this unparalleled Indonesian artist.Go beyond the episode:Budi Darma's People from Bloomington, translated by Tiffany TsaoRead Tsao's post in memory of Budi Darma, who died in August 2021Check out these other Indonesian writers mentioned in the episode: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Umar Kayam, Chairil Anwar, Ajip RosidiWant to hear more about the art of translation? Listen to these conversations with German-English translator Susan Bernofsky, Bible translator Robert Alter, Malagasy writer Naivo and his translator Alison Cherette, and Tibetan-English translator Tenzin DickieTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play Have suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you've ever been sucked into the world of Tudor England, whether by Wolf Hall, The Tudors, or one of the novels about Anne Boleyn, you've likely met Hans Holbein. Born in 1497, he learned to paint from his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, and went on to become arguably the finest portraitist of the 16th century. Now Holbein: Capturing Character, the first major show dedicated to the artist in the United States, is being held at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City through May 15. Smarty Pants jetted to the Big Apple to bring you on an audio tour of the exhibition with Austėja Mackelaitė, the Annette and Oscar de la Renta Assistant Curator at the Morgan and a co-curator of the exhibition.Virtually follow along our stops on the tour:Erasmus of Rotterdam Images of DeathSir Thomas MoreRichard Southwell (and preparatory drawing)Simon George (and preparatory drawing)Portrait of a WomanGo beyond the episode:Take a virtual walk through Holbein: Capturing CharacterRead the first few sample pages of Hilary Mantel's letter to Sir Thomas More“The Story of a Stare Down”: Penelope Rowlands investigates how two antagonists from Tudor England ended up facing each other on Fifth AvenueYou should really (re)read the Wolf Hall TrilogyTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google PlayHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When we look back to what we imagine to have been the golden age of reading—say, before the invention of the smart phone—could it be that we're really misreading book history? That's what literary critic and Rutgers professor Leah Price argues in What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, using material history and social history to explore both how people read in the past and how most of us read today. Gutenberg printed more papal indulgences than Bibles, and until the past century or so, most reading was done aloud—in fact, too much reading was discouraged because of the deleterious effect it supposedly had on one's character! Price joins us this week to discuss how, just maybe, social media and books aren't enemies after all, but merely different forms of the same literary tradition.Go beyond the episode:Leah Price's What We Talk About When We Talk About BooksHow does your Zoom background stack up against those on Bookshelf Credibility?For those of us who always check out a new friend's bookshelf first, look no further: https://bookshelfporn.com/You could page through the British Library's digital copies of Gutenberg's Bible … or gasp at the papal indulgences he printed to pay for itThe Library of Congress has an entire digital reading room for rare books and special collections, including some wild medieval medical booksNeed dinner ideas? Check out Martha Brotherton's 1833 recommendations from Vegetable cookery, with an introduction, recommending abstinence from animal food and intoxicating liquorsTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Thomas More wrote Utopia in the 16th century, he ensured that all those who would seek out a perfect society, inspired by his book, would have to answer for the literal Greek meaning of its title: “no place.” So, has there ever been a utopia? It depends on whom you ask. Adrian Shirk, who joined Smarty Pants several years ago to talk about her previous book, takes utopia to mean communities that “have intentionally understood themselves as world-building a way out of a death-dealing system, in the service of making, if only briefly, some idea of heaven on earth—not just for themselves, but however foolhardy, for all of humankind.” From that definition—and from the bop by Belinda Carlisle, of course—comes the title of her new book, Heaven Is a Place on Earth, an exploration of moments and movements in American utopianism then, today, and tomorrow, from the Shakers to the rebuilding of the Bronx to a Waffle House by the side of the road.Go beyond the episode:Adrian Shirk's Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American UtopiaRead essays that became part of the book: “A Brief History of American Utopian Communities,” “Odd Fellows at the Rockland Palace,” and “A Visit to Charlotte Street.”Also mentioned: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda MontellEven The New York Times is profiling the “new generation” of intentional communitiesYou can, of course, still visit the classicsTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1889, a group of Jewish families fleeing Russian pogroms arrived in Argentina, hoping for a new life—or at least a safe place to reside for a while before making their way to Israel. Moisés Ville, the town they founded, some 400 miles from Buenos Aires, was one of the first Jewish agricultural communities in Argentina and over the next 50 years would come to be called the “Jerusalem of South America,” replete with theaters, libraries, and two synagogues. But this sunny story of life in the new world has a dark underside, as Argentinian journalist Javier Sinay learned one day, upon reading a 1947 Yiddish newspaper article written by his own great-grandfather. The article detailed 22 murders of Jewish colonists in swift succession, all in the last decade of the 19th century. Why these people were killed—and what it says about the complex history of this once grand town—is the subject of Sinay's new book, The Murders of Moisés Ville, translated from the Spanish by Robert Croll. Sinay joins us to talk about how a story from 100 years ago changed the way he saw his country, and his own relationship to Judaism.Go beyond the episode:Javier Sinay's new book, The Murders of Moisés VilleVisit our episode page for images from Moisés VilleIt's never too late to connect with the language of your ancestors, as Phyllis Rose writes in “My Mother's Yiddish”Journey further afield into the driving forces of Latin America in our interview with Marie AranaScholar senior editor Bruce Falconer reported from a very different kind of religious community in southern ChileTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastDownload the audio here (right click to “save link as …”)Have suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wild, blossoming cherries are native to many diverse lands, from the British Isles and Norway to Morocco and Tunisia. But they're most associated with Japan, where the sakura is the national flower. These days, though, you'll find blossoming cherries everywhere, on practically every continent. For that, we must thank a lot of dedicated botanists, who braved world wars and long sea voyages—and endured repeated failures—to spread the sakura around the world. But there's one naturalist in particular we can thank: Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram. Journalist Naoko Abe joins us on the podcast to share how this English eccentric saved some of Japan's most iconic cherry blossoms—from the spectacular Great White Cherry to the pink Hokusai—from extinction. This episode originally aired in 2019.Go beyond the episode:Naoko Abe's The Sakura ObsessionIf you're in Washington, D.C., you need not visit the (closed) tidal basin to view the cherries—here is a map trees blossoming all over the cityThe National Park Service created a guide to the cherry blossom varieties in the citySmithsonian's list of the best places to see cherry blossoms around the worldCherry varieties discussed:Taihaku / Prunus serrulata taihaku / Great white cherrySomei-yoshino / Prunus x yedoensis / Tokyo cherryTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bacteria made the first sounds on Earth, dinosaurs likely belched and bugled instead of roared, and for millennia, the Earth was largely silent. Why it took so long for communicative sound to emerge—and how it flourished into the coos, croaks, cries, and cacophony of today—is the subject of David George Haskell's new book, Sounds Wild and Broken. While documenting the sonic marvels of the world, Haskell arrived at the alarming conclusion that we're in an acoustic crisis. Manmade sounds and behavior are causing insects and songbirds to die out, disrupting whale song and silencing shrimp, creating stress in our own minority communities, and generating countless other aural ills. David George Haskell, a professor of biology and environmental studies at Sewanee: The University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow, joins us on the podcast to talk about why sound matters.Go beyond the episode:David George Haskell's Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory ExtinctionListen to more sounds from the book in this playlist“The Insect Apocalypse Is Here,” Brook Jarvis writes in The New York Times MagazineDespite a 2008 U.S. Navy report in which it admitted that its sonar killed whales, whale beachings and deaths from military sonar continue even todayIn The Conversation: “Urban noise pollution is worst in poor and minority neighborhoods and segregated cities”See also: Scholar contributor Harriet A. Washington on environmental racism in A Terrible Thing to WasteExplore the sounds of different decades and countries on Radiooooo, “the musical time machine”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google PlayHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On December 16, 1876, a 35-year-old woman named Nancy Ann Harris died in rural Wisconsin of complications from an abortion. Only one other abortion is mentioned in the leather-bound death records of the county where Harris died and Tamara Dean lives, which she writes about in her essay “Safer than Childbirth,” in the Spring 2022 issue of The American Scholar. The more common cause of death, Dean found, was giving birth. With new challenges to safe and legal abortion coming hard and fast in recent years, it can be instructive to remember that, in the 19th century, abortion was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy and childbirth. Even the Catholic Church didn't oppose ending pregnancy before “quickening,” usually around the fourth month, because no one believed that human life existed before a woman could feel the fetus move. Tamara Dean joins the podcast to talk about what struck her about this one woman's story, and what gets forgotten in the contemporary battle against abortion. Go beyond the episode:Read Tamara Dean's “Safer than Childbirth”Watch Cecily Strong's Saturday Night Live skit that captures the struggle to talk about abortion openlyIn December, the FDA permanently allowed abortion pills to be delivered by mail, which it had previously restrictedListen to our interview with Scott Stern about the decades-long U.S. government plan to imprison “promiscuous” womenTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The birth of religion is commonly held to lie far back in human history, with the occasional exception of an angel Moroni or the borderline godhood of a cult leader. But in Accidental Gods, Anna Della Subin documents how a surprising number of 20th-century men (it's almost always men) found themselves labeled divine, sometimes without their knowledge and nearly always without their consent. Some, like General Douglas MacArthur, were even crowned four different ways, on three separate continents. Subin joins the podcast to explore the urges that lead us to declare a mortal man a god, and what this desire tells us about modernity.Go beyond the episode:Anna Della Subin's Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned DivineRead “Philip's People” in The London Review of BooksA corollary to the book: a brief history of objects turned into godsMeet the balsa wood carving of General Douglas MacArthur from the Guna people of PanamaTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The North has been a blank, snowy canvas for our best and worst fantasies for thousands of years, home to biting winds, sea unicorns, fearsome Vikings, and even a wintry Atlantis. And it is also home, of course, to Indigenous communities, whose existence and culture could be inconvenient to myths of Aryan purity. Historian Bernd Brunner explores this curiosity cabinet of a region in his new book, Extreme North, translated by Jefferson Chase. Brunner argues that the North was as much invented as it was discovered by the European explorers, colonists, and armchair enthusiasts who ventured there. Encounters with the cultures of the North would inspire epic storytellers (Tolkien, Wagner), grifters (James Macpherson and his Poems of Ossian), racists (Hitler), and countless other complicated figures (Franz Boas, Nanook of the North). Brunner joins us on the podcast to explore the outer, icy limits of the known world and why it still has a hold on us today.Go beyond the episode:Bernd Brunner's Extreme North, translated by Jefferson ChaseFull show notes on our episode pageRosamond Purcell re-created the Museum Wormianum of Arctic curiositiesYou can read all the extant Icelandic family sagas for free onlineThe Poems of Ossian has been called the “Harry Potter of the 18th century”—except the boy wizard wasn't a literary hoaxHow the handshake came to NunavutWhy the top of the map faces northTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Antwerp, the other port city on the North Sea, is frequently overshadowed by its Dutch big brother, Amsterdam. But long before the latter was dubbed the “Venice of the North,” Venetians—and Germans, Britons, Jews fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition, and others—flocked to Antwerp, the wealthiest European city of the 16th century and a huge beneficiary of the Age of Exploration. Pepper, silver, wool, sugar, salt, books, wine, and diamonds all passed through Antwerp in the complex web of trade spanning the Ottoman and Holy Roman empires, India, the Americas, and Africa. The city's star burned brightly for a century, and then was snuffed out first by Spanish soldiers in 1576 and then the Calvinists in 1577. In his new book, Europe's Babylon, Amsterdam-based writer Michael Pye brings Antwerp's golden age to life in all its scandalous, sparkling glory.Go beyond the episode:Michael Pye's Europe's Babylon: The Rise and Fall of Antwerp's Golden AgeVisit the episode page for images of the paintings described in the episodeSee the shadows of the age with a visit to today's AntwerpA beginner's guide to Belgian beer stylesGet to know genever, the Low Countries' answer to gin and whiskeyAntwerp's golden age of fashion came in 1986, with the Antwerp SixTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's hard to imagine an American city without a Chinese restaurant, a pizza parlor or three, and at least one taco joint. But the cooks who originally made American tastebuds salivate at the thought of a good stir-fry or a curry are hardly household names, even though their impact on our cuisine lingers. Mayukh Sen's new book, Taste Makers, chronicles seven immigrant women, each from a different country, who transformed American cookery but have since faded from memory: Chao Yang Buwei (China), Elena Zelayeta (Mexico), Madeleine Kamman (France), Marcella Hazan (Italy), Julie Sahni (India), Najmieh Batmanglij (Iran), and Norma Shirley (Jamaica). He joins us on Smarty Pants to talk about why these women mattered, and why they have been unjustly forgotten.Go beyond the episode:Mayukh Sen's Taste MakersRead excerpts from the book in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Mother JonesGet the full set of links on our websiteTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastDownload the audio here (right click to “save link as …”)Have suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The third novel from John Darnielle, the creative force behind the band The Mountain Goats, draws on the surprisingly fertile combination of freeway towns, goth teenagers, Le Morte d'Arthur, and Chaucer. Devil House followstrue-crime writer Gage Chandler, who, at the urging of his editor, moves into the newly renovated “Devil House” of Milpitas, California, once an abandoned porn shop and the site of a grisly, unsolved double murder on Halloween in 1986. News clippings about the crime point to disaffected teenagers who transformed the old shop into a kind of clubhouse, replete with pentagrams, video art, and schlocky monsters, but no arrests were ever made. Gage struggles with the nature of his work and how to tell the story of Devil House fairly: “What happens when somebody tells a story that has real people in it? What happens to the story; what happens to the teller; what happens to the people?” Darnielle joins the podcast to talk about Devil House, a novel less about the crime than the search for truth.Go beyond the episode:John Darnielle's Devil HouseDip into The Mountain Goats' discography (our host's go-tos are usually Tallahassee, All Hail West Texas, and The Sunset Tree)Mentioned in the interview: “Unicorn Tolerance” from the album Goths, Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (read it all online or try your hand at deciphering the British Library's 15th-century manuscript)Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Learning Chinese is intimidating: four tones, 3,000-odd characters or ideograms to carry on a basic conversation, a completely different orientation of words on the page … oh, and about a dozen languages classified as “Chinese” whose speakers wouldn't understand one another. Becoming literate in any Chinese language was even more difficult at the turn of the 20th century than it is now. Then, no standard pronunciation system existed to get you started on the road to learning one of them. The story of how Mandarin won out—and how its tens of thousands of ideograms survived threats of colonization, simplification, and Romanization—is the subject of Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu, a professor of East Asian languages and literature at Yale. She joins us on the podcast to discuss the rebels, novelists, engineers, librarians, and fringe reformers who made modern Mandarin what it is today.Go beyond the episode:Jing Tsu's Kingdom of CharactersSomething else that radically changed Chinese culture: modern artNot all languages survive encounters with the West: listen to our interview with Don Kulick about the death of TayapTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Between Hello Kitty, anthropomorphized Disney candlesticks, and the prevalence of doe-eyed sticker-comments on Facebook, it's safe to say that cuteness has permeated everything. But what makes something “cute,” and how might there be something disquieting going on beneath all the sugar and spice and everything nice? The philosopher Simon May has spent a lot of time thinking about what cuteness has to tell us about the shifting boundaries between ourselves and the outside world, and how it plays with the dichotomies of gender, age, morality, species, and even power itself. After all, cute is adorable, and kind of harmless—but for all that, it's also a little bit unnerving. This episode originally aired in 2019.Go beyond the episode:Simon May's The Power of CuteThe sweet and sinister art of Yashimoto NaraArt historian Elizabeth Legge wrote about Jeff Koons's Baloon Dog and the Cute Sublime in her paper “When Awe Turns to Awww …”And here is an entire book on Hello Kitty: Christine R. Yano's Pink GlobalizationFor a primer on cute scientific research, see Natalie Angier's article “The Cute Factor” Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

According to the prevailing logic, America has an anger management problem: it's counterproductive, destructive, and, unchecked, might lead you to storm the Capitol. But not all anger is made equal, and perhaps the best way to master its uses and abuses is to understand its differences. In her new book, The Case for Rage, University of California philosophy professor Myisha Cherry contends that this misunderstood emotion—wielded successfully in the past by figures like Audre Lorde, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ida B. Wells—can fuel today's fight against racism. Cherry joins us on the podcast to discuss how to cultivate the kind of rage we need to make a better world.Go beyond the episode:Myisha Cherry's The Case for Rage (read an excerpt here)Read Audre Lorde's seminal essay, “The Uses of Anger,” which inspired Cherry's coining of the term Lordean rageListen to our interview with Pankaj Mishra about the ressentiment that fuels our Age of AngerDown with the Stoics, up with Epicureanism!Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A few years ago, we ran a special winter episode on the Snow Maiden, an adored figure from Slavic folklore. Today, we travel to Austria for an encounter with the Krampus. Each December, this devil clad in sheepskin and goat horns wanders the Alpine valleys of Bavaria and Tyrol. The Krampus lurks in other parts of Austria, as well—and some of his cousins pop up even farther afield in Eastern Europe—but the specter of this dark Christmas legend is strongest in the mountains. You might have met some version of him in—the 2015 Hollywood horror movie Krampus or the 2010 Finnish film Rare Exports. But the real story of the Krampus is better than the movies. Here to tell us about it is Al Ridenour, host of the dark folklore podcast Bone & Sickle and the author of the book The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas.Go beyond the episode:Al Ridenour's The Krampus and the Old Dark ChristmasListen to the Bone & Sickle podcast, co-hosted by Ridenour and Sarah ChavezLooking for more winter folktales? The Snow Maiden awaits.Rare Exports (2010) is our host's favorite holiday horror flickKrampus (2015) is not entirely true to the myth, but we love it anywayAnd there's always Santa slashersThis episode features an arrangement of “Carol of the Bells” performed and recorded by myuu.Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast Have suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Elizabeth D. Samet teaches English at West Point, where future Army officers learn how not to lose. There, as in any U.S. military setting, everything can be won—and should be won—unequivocally, whether it's a sports match, an exam, or a war. But what happens when, as Samet writes in our Winter 2022 cover story, “The ambiguities of life are confused with the clarity of sport?” What are the stakes when the ambiguities of war are disguised by the very institutions sending young people to fight, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, on time scales that can be measured in decades? Samet, the author of the recently published book, Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness, joins us to discuss the hazards of never owning loss. The opinions expressed here are Samet's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense. Go beyond the episode:Elizabeth D. Samet's Winter 2022 cover story, “The Art of Losing”Read her new book, Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of HappinessHer past writing for The American Scholar expands on the meaning of Civil War monuments, the scourge of military sexual assault and the masculine code, and the long history behind the Army's Jim Crow fortsTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Some time ago, the legal scholar, veterinary surgeon, and Homo sapiens Charles Foster spent a few weeks in the woods trying to live like a badger, a deer, a swift, an otter, and a fox, hoping to understand animal consciousness. That book, Being a Beast, now finds its unlikely sequel in Being a Human, in which Foster attempts the perhaps more difficult task of reconstructing the human consciousness of millennia ago. He settles on three pivotal turns in our history: the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, and, far more recently, the Enlightenment. How does one escape the constraints of modern thought—of written language, digital technology, creature comfort—in pursuit of the origins of modern consciousness? Foster joins the podcast to report on his quest in the woods of northern England, and beyond.Go beyond the episode:Charles Foster's Being a Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness, and Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species DivideFor another complicating view on humanity's adventures in and out of agriculture, check out David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of EverythingThinking in words has its perks: read Emily Fox Gordon on “How I Learned to Talk”If our current era is an extension of the Enlightenment, as Foster argues, we might need to cling to our ideals of humanism a bit more in the struggle against social media, per James McWilliams in “Saving the Self in the Age of the Selfie”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're a person who has despaired over ever finding a nice 100 percent wool sweater and decided to knit your own, odds are you've heard of Clara Parkes. Parkes, who started out in 2000 with a newsletter reviewing yarn, now has six books under her belt, including the New York Times best-selling Knitlandia. Her seventh book, Vanishing Fleece, is a yarn of a different kind—the unlikely story of how she became the proud proprietor of a 676-pound bale of wool and, in the process of transforming it into commercial yarn, got an inside look at a disappearing American industry. Parkes journeys across the country from New York to Wisconsin and Maine to Texas. Along the way, she meets shepherds, shearers, dyers, and the countless mill workers who tend the machinery that's kept us in woolens for more than a century, but which for the past 50 years has been on the verge of collapse.Go beyond the episode:Clara Parkes's Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American WoolPeruse her reviews of yarn and other woolly wares on the Knitter's Review websiteWatch yarn company Brooklyn Tweed's gorgeous video series on how woolen-spun and worsted-spun yarn is made—and how greasy fleece is scoured into clean, fluffy combed woolSome of the woolly companies mentioned in this episode: Allbirds wool shoes, Farm to Feet wool socks, Catskill Merino yarn (the source of her 676-pound bale), Lani Estill's carbon-neutral Bare Ranch, ElsaWool breed-specific yarnsTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Have suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cassandra Quave, an ethnobotanist at Emory University, searches for plants that may be used to treat life-threatening illnesses. Her lab has discovered compounds—found in chestnuts, blackberries, and a host of other plants—that can help treat antimicrobial resistance by stopping bacteria from communicating with each other, adhering to our tissues, or producing toxins. In her new memoir, The Plant Hunter, Quave discusses how a childhood staph infection and its lifelong complications motivated her deeply personal fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In her quest for new treatments, she has explored the rainforests of the Amazon, the mountains of Italy, Albania, and Kosovo, and the swamps of Florida. Quave joins us on the podcast to talk about how she discovered why and how plant-based folk medicines work. Go beyond the episode:Cassandra Quave's The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next MedicinesTune into her Foodie Pharmacology podcastExplore (or volunteer with!) the Emory University Herbarium, which Quave curatesRead Ellen Wayland-Smith's essay from our Spring 2021 Issue, “Natural Magic,” on modern medicine's roots in alchemy, astronomy, and the apothecary shopYou may have noticed that Smarty Pants has a predilection for plants: some of our other favorite nature-centric episodes include an interview with plant psychology evangelist Lucy Jones, forestry legend Suzanne Simard, rewilding queen Isabella Tree, plant messiah Carlos Magdalena, and cherry blossom enthusiast Naoko AbeTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Stitcher • Google PlayHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Manuscript scholars have long marveled over the marginalia left in books, particularly handwritten books, and what the different layers of a text tell us about the people who made it. Look beyond the pages—to the bindings, the illustrations, the pages themselves—and a surprising material history reveals itself. Mary Wellesley, a tutor at the British Library, has written an ode to the ordinary people who wrote such manuscripts by hand, illustrated them, bound them, preserved them, and did all of the necessary labor to ensure that they survived the centuries intact, or perhaps only slightly nibbled by mice. She joins us on the podcast to talk about her new book, The Gilded Page. Go beyond the episode:Mary Wellesley's The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval ManuscriptsYou can flip through the only known copy of Margery Kempe's autobiography on the British Library websiteOr peruse Anne Boleyn's elaborately illuminated Book of Hours, in which Henry VIII scribbled love notes, and her miniature girdle Book of Psalms:Geoffrey Chaucer's manuscripts are so well-known to us because they were great, yes—but also because of his social and financial standing. Listen to our interview with Marion Turner, author of the first biography of Geoffrey Chaucer in a generation Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his decades-long career, the writer Paul Auster has turned his hand to poems, essays, plays, novels, translations, screenplays, memoirs—and now biography. Burning Boy explores the life and work of Stephen Crane, whose short time on earth sputtered out at age 28 from tuberculosis. Like his biographer, Crane, too, spanned genres—poetry, novels, short stories, war reporting, and semi-fictional newspaper “sketches”—striking it big in 1895 with The Red Badge of Courage, which was widely celebrated at the time and is still regarded as his best work. But in Auster's estimation, the rest of Crane's output (and there is a surprising amount of it) is sorely neglected, and the pleasure of Burning Boy lies in reading one of the 19th century's finest writers alongside one of today's. Paul Auster joins the podcast to talk about the task of restoring Stephen Crane to the American canon.Go beyond the episode:Paul Auster's Burning BoyRead Steven G. Kellman's review, “Poet of the Extreme”Eager for a taste of Stephen Crane beyond the novels? We recommend The Black Riders and Other Lines and “The Open Boat”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alice Hoffman's 1995 novel, Practical Magic, is the story of two sisters, Sally and Gillian Owens, who are born into a family of witches. The catch is that their ancestor, Maria Owens, cursed the family, so that any man one of them falls in love with dies an untimely death. It's a classic fairy tale, and like most fairy tales it didn't have a sequel—until this year. After going back to the 1960s generation of the family with The Rules of Magic, and all the way back to the 1600s with Magic Lessons, Hoffman returns this year to the present with the fourth and final story of the Owens family, The Book of Magic, which sees the youngest Owens, Kylie, maybe—finally—break the curse for good.Go beyond the episode:Alice Hoffman's The Book of Magic, and her 40-odd other magical talesThe original trailer for Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and the most beautiful house in MassachusettsFrom New England to Catalonia, people are campaigning to memorialize—and legally pardon—the tens of thousands of people burned as witchesRead more about the Jewish pirates that sail into the Owens story in the 1600sTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You may have heard of them before: those pale creatures with suspiciously sharp canines that sleep in coffins during the day, hunt people at night, and occasionally transform into bats. Stories of bloodsucking monsters have haunted humanity for hundreds, even thousands of years—but the modern vampire was arguably born when Enlightenment rationality met Eastern European folklore. That's Nick Groom's argument: he's known as the Prof of Goth, and he makes the case that vampires rose from the grave at the same time that philosophy, theology, forensic medicine, and literature were beginning to question what it meant to be human. Why have vampires lingered in the imagination for hundreds of years? Nick Groom joins us on the podcast to open some coffins for answers. This episode originally aired in 2018.Go beyond the episode:Nick Groom's The Vampire: A New HistoryThe London Library reported that it located some of the dog-eared books Bram Stoker used during the seven years he researched Dracula Watch the trailer for The Hunger (1983), in which David Bowie and Susan Sarandon both suffer the love of an immortal vampireWe are also fond of Only Lovers Left Alive (2014), in which a glamorous Tilda Swinton and a depressed Tom Hiddleston puzzle out their place in modern societyHere's a montage of all the bite scenes from Christopher Lee's classic turn in Dracula (1958)And, of course, there's always Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996–2003), which inspired Slayage, a peer-reviewed journal from the Whedon Studies AssociationTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Between 1947 and 1956, at least 77 recorded witchcraft trials took place in West Germany. Wonder doctors and faith healers walked the land, offering salvation to the tens of thousands of sick and spiritually ill wartime survivors who flocked to them. People hired exorcists and made pilgrimages to holy sites in search of redemption. The Virgin Mary appeared to these believers thousands of times. Monica Black, a historian at the University of Tennessee, found these stories and many others in newspaper clippings, court records, and other archives of the period that testify to West Germany's supernatural obsession with ridding itself of evil—and complicate the conventional story of its swift rise from genocidal dictatorship to liberal, consumerist paradise. Black joins us on the podcast to describe the spiritual malaise lurking in the shadows: the unspoken guilt and shame of a country where Nazis still walked free. This episode originally aired in 2020.Go beyond the episode:Monica Black's A Demon-Haunted LandThere's a three-part, five-hour documentary about the German mystic and faith healer Bruno Gröning on YouTube, presented by the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends, which is probably not the most unbiased sourceNational Geographic has compiled an extensive map of sightings of the Virgin Mary (note the big upswing in 1950s Germany)East Germans also fell prey to the influence of West German faith healers: the preacher Paul Schaefer promised people salvation if they followed him to South America. Read Scholar senior editor Bruce Falconer's 2008 essay, “The Torture Colony,” on the troubled (and Nazi-ridden) Colonia DignidadTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 2002, literacy was at an all-time low in Egypt, revolution was a few short years away, and Nadia Wassef opened an independent bookstore named Diwan in Cairo. With her sister Hind and her friend Nihal, Wassef built an oasis for lovers of the written word, whether Arabic, English, French, or German. Diwan now has seven locations—and two mobile book trucks—having survived recessions, censorship, misogyny, and political turmoil. Wassef joins the podcast to talk about the story of the store in her new book, Shelf Life.Go beyond the episode:Nadia Wassef's Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo BooksellerIf you're ever in Egypt, visit DiwanRead your way through Egypt with these recommendations in The GuardianDive into the golden age of Egyptian cinema, or watch Souad, the first film by a female Egyptian director to be screened at CannesTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The English country house has been on the brink of ruination since at least the start of World War I—or perhaps the first chug of the Industrial Revolution—or was it the end of serfdom …? Propping up this dying, decadent institution has been a favored pastime of preservationists, architecture buffs, and earls for about as long as the institution has been around. In his new book, Noble Ambitions, historian Adrian Tinniswood peels back the wallpaper to show how these ancestral piles survived both World War II and the sunset of the British Empire—and in some ways, are more relevant than they ever were.Go beyond the episode:Adrian Tinniswood's Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the English Country House After World War IIFor the completionist, his previous book: The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939Revisit the famed 1974 Victoria & Albert exhibition “The Destruction of the Country House,” or go visit Agecroft Hall and Gardens in Richmond, Virginia, one of several country homes dismantled and reassembled on this side of the Atlantic. In England? Check out Sudbury Hall, which gets a shout out in the episodeThe first bestselling nonfiction book about the country house? Mark Girouard's Life in the English Country HouseRead Sam Knight's essay about the National Trust's recent report on colonialism and slavery: “Britain's Idyllic Country Houses Reveal a Darker History”If you haven't yet, you simply must watch Downtown AbbeyTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In March 2018, the Oxford philosopher Amia Srinivasan wrote a provocative essay for the London Review of Books asking, “Does anyone have the right to sex?” Three years later, the essay forms the backbone of a bold new collection that probes the complexity of sex as private and political act, moving beyond the simplicity of yes and no and the hashtags of #girlboss feminism. Srinivasan joins the podcast to discuss the ideas that animate The Right to Sex, whether it's pornography and freedom, rape and racial injustice, punishment and accountability, or pleasure and power.Go beyond the episode:Amia Srinivasan's The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First CenturyRead the essay that started it all: “Does anyone have the right to sex?”Relatedly, her essay on pronouns: “He, She, One, They, Ho, Hus, Hum, Ita”How many other philosophers have been profiled by Vogue?Smarty Pants is no stranger to feminism: listen to our episodes on feminist book collecting, rock criticism, war, science, and religionListen to historian Scott Stern on the origins of criminalizing sex work, and read his essay, “Sex Workers of the World United”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A bear burrowing through the trash bin. Rats on a home invasion spree. Elephants barreling through Indian villages. Caterpillars munching through crops. Once upon a time these offenders would be put on trial and dealt with in a court of law, however ineffectually. Today, conflict management between humans and the natural world is an entire industry that grows with every incursion we make into the wilderness. Mary Roach returns to the podcast to talk about what it was like to be mugged by a macaque while working on her new book, Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.Go beyond the episode:Mary Roach's Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the LawFlash back to 2016, when Roach was our very first guestYes: we really did put animals on trial, and it did not go wellAre the parrots of Western cities pests? San Francisco thinks not; Amsterdam disagreesWhat to do when 30-50 feral hogs run into your yard (OK, but they are actually a problem)Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For many of us, our very first book wasn't one that we read ourselves—it was one read to us, the pages pawed by grubby hands eager to flip back to a favorite illustration. The very best children's books combine a good story—however simple—with enchanting illustrations that can spark a love for reading, writing, art—or all three. Elizabeth Lilly, the author-illustrator of a new book for children called Let Me Fix You a Plate, joins us on the podcast to talk about the process of inviting the littlest readers into a new world.Go beyond the episode:Elizabeth Lilly's Let Me Fix You a Plate: A Tale of Two Kitchens and GeraldineRead Scholar assistant editor Jayne Ross's list of “10 Classic Books for Cooped-Up Kids” and her ode to the late Beverly ClearyThe science of how children learn to read, from linguist and Scholar contributing editor Jessica LoveTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The most groundbreaking ideas in modern physics—the Earth is round, special relativity, the uncertainty principle—were once seen as shocking, impossible, even deviant (recall Galileo's trial). Even today, wild ideas can be laughed out of a conference, especially if they come from someone perceived as an outsider. Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander, one such self-identified outsider, joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Fear of a Black Universe, and his own experiences as a Black man in science who has made major contributions, “not in spite of [his] outsider's perspective, but because of it.”Go beyond the episode:Stephon Alexander's Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider's Guide to the Future of PhysicsRead an excerpt from his first book, The Jazz of PhysicsListen to the whole of Here Comes Now, Stephon Alexander's album with RiouxScience writer Priscilla Long explains what's so great about the Higgs bosonMedical doctor Robert Lanza steps out of his lane to propose “A New Theory of the Universe”Jethro K. Lieberman bemoans the state of physics education in “The Gravity of the Situation”Math and philosophy team up in Cristopher Moore and John Kaag's exploration of “The Uncertainty Principle”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As of this summer's Tokyo Games, skateboarding is an Olympic sport—and those of us who didn't grow up popping ollies and skinning our knees might be wondering how that happened. Originally known as “sidewalk surfing,” skateboarding was invented in midcentury California and Hawaii by surfers looking for something to do when the waves weren't great. Since the first commercial skateboard was sold in 1962, the sport has ballooned to a billion-dollar industry including magazines, movies, and merchandise. Kyle Beachy, the author of The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life, and a devoted skateboarder and skateboarding critic, joins the podcast to explain how the pastime became a global sensation.Go beyond the episode:Kyle Beachy's new book, The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard LifeBehold: skateboarding at the OlympicsFor a taste of feature-length skate documentaries, try Dogtown and the Z-Boys (2001) or Minding the Gap (2018)Three “high-reward skate films” recommended by our guest:Mouse: Spike Jonze directs a street skateboarding video from the latter days of the so-called “golden era” of the mid '90s. A perfect example of what the traditional “skate video” form can yield. Paving Space: A 12-minute documentary about a collaborative art project between the Isle skateboard team and artist Raphael Zarka.Atlantic Drift Episode 11: Jacob Elliot Harris has defined a style for his Atlantic Drift project, and this one, featuring his lifetime friend Tom Knox, reveals just how vital the relationship between filmmaker and skater-subject is. Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Black Beauty, Flicka, Secretariat, National Velvet, Misty of Chincoteague, and all the rest—horse books are a genre unto themselves, occupying an entire shelf (or more, should you add the 112 books in The Saddle Club series) of girls' bedrooms everywhere. For all of the girls who lived and breathed horses (on the page or in the barn), the infatuation meant something that is difficult—or even embarrassing—to explain outside of the stable. Horse Girls, edited by Halimah Marcus, the executive director of Electric Literature, smashes all the stereotypes you might hold about riders and the way they relate to their horses, with diverse essays from the literary likes of horsewoman Jane Smiley and aspiring horse girl Carmen Maria Machado.Go beyond the episode:Horse Girls: Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond, edited by Halimah Marcus (read her introduction here)“I Hate Horses” by T Kira Madden, excerpted from the book“How Horses Helped My Ancestors Evade Colonizers, & Helped Me Find Myself” by Braudie Blais Billie, another excerpt“Horse girl energy” (and all the memes) explainedThough during the pandemic many people turned to riding—during which riders stayed six feet apart long before social distancing—horse fever has a long historyOur host outed herself as a horse girl once before, in an interview with The Age of the Horse author Susanna ForrestTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you were to distill the story of King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot down to its essence, you might alight on three nouns: Sword Stone Table. That's the title of a new collection of Arthurian retellings, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington, that imagines the legends of yore in a London coffee shop, a dystopian Mexico City, Anishinaabe country, and even on Mars. Krishna and Jenn Northington join the podcast to talk about the Arthurs, Merlins, Guineveres, Lancelots, Morgans, and more who populate the once and future land of our imagination.Go beyond the episode:Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn NorthingtonReacquaint yourself with the magic of Mary Stewart's Merlin TrilogyEven the BBC wants to know: King Arthur and Camelot—Why the cultural fascination?The boy king is no stranger to television, but “good adaptations of the King Arthur myth to screen are far out-numbered by the unsuccessful ones”A good one from the Arthur extended universe: The Green KnightTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!Music featured from Strobotone (“Medieval Theme 02”), courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In her cover story for the magazine's summer issue, Lucy Jones writes about “a renaissance of love for nature” that took place during the pandemic in the midst of so much isolation and death. Why is it, exactly, that going into nature is so therapeutic? Jones's new book, Losing Eden, examines the wealth of scientific literature on the psychological effects of nature, from neurons to the whole nervous system. She joins us on the podcast to talk about her research into what we lose when we lose contact with nature.Go beyond the episode:Lucy Jones's Losing Eden: Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World and Its Ability to Heal Body and SoulRead her Summer 2021 cover story, “Rewilding Our Minds” and an essay in Emergence on “The Druid Renaissance”A 2020 instance of a white woman calling the police on a Black birdwatcher sparked new studies and stories on the problems minorities face in parks and other public spaces, but racism in outdoor pursuits is nothing new. Groups like Outdoor Afro aim to make nature more welcoming.Find solace (and food!) in foraging responsibly: @blackforager Alexis Nikole on Instagram, “Wildman” Steve Brill on your bookshelf, Falling Fruit on the map, meetups in your own back yardCall us Smarty Plants: some of our other favorite nature-centric episodes include an interview with forestry legend Suzanne Simard, rewilding queen Isabella Tree, plant messiah Carlos Magdalena, and cherry blossom enthusiast Naoko Abe.Tune in every two weeks to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The experimental archaeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern, known casually as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages,” and Sam Calagione, master brewer and founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, have spent years resurrecting the beverages of the past. In 2017, we sat down with them before an event at the Smithsonian to discuss what it takes to turn millennia-old booze samples at the bottom of a jug into mead fit for a king—or jiahu for an emperor—or tahenket for a pharaoh.Go beyond the episode:Try not to spill any beer on your copy of Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-CreatedExplore Dr. Pat's work on the intoxicating science of alcohol at the University of Pennsylvania MuseumWatch Patrick McGovern and Sam Calagione work on a recipe for a new ancient aleAnd if you're in the area … pop over to Dogfish Head Brewery to check out what's on tapTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Love it or hate it, sweat is the reason why you don't die of heatstroke in the summer—though you might want to die of embarrassment if you work up too much of it. But perspiration also contains a trove of secrets about our body's inner workings, from sexy pheromones and disease markers to what we had for lunch. In her new book, The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration, science journalist Sarah Everts explores what it reveals about our biology and behavior, debunking overheated myths—and maybe even some stigma—along the way.Go beyond the episode:Sarah Everts's The Joy of SweatDip into the world of custom perfume, which can smell quite different depending on who wears itDon't cancel your gym membership, but do give your heart a workout in the saunaYes, you really do smell your hand after shaking someone else's: here is the experiment with the videos to prove itTry out the first “mail odor dating service”Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For something that seems so simple, the act of adorning one's face with a smudge of lip color or a flick of eyeliner can mean getting a promotion, getting home safely, and being taken seriously—or not. As journalist Rae Nudson writes in her new book, All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian, makeup has, for better or worse, shaped cultural narratives and standards of beauty for centuries. Red lipstick is patriotic—and it's an act of protest—and it's a sign of sex appeal—all depending on when you lived, and who and where you are. Nudson joins us on the podcast to talk about the choices we make when we wear makeup, and whether those choices are ever entirely ours to make.Go beyond the episode:Rae Nudson's All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim KardashianNudson wrote about the camouflage paint industry and the the makeup mogul crafting the U.S. Army's exclusive supplyRead more about Sabella Nitti, whose 1920s makeover saved her from the death penaltyFor decades, women have been inspired by Elizabeth Taylor's iconic blue eyeshadow from Cleopatra–which she applied herself“Everything We Know About Beauty We Learned From Drag Queens,” writes Kristina Rodulfo in ElleTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In her 25 years as a music journalist, Jessica Hopper has profiled the doyennes of modern rock and pop music: Björk, Kacey Musgraves, St. Vincent, Liz Phair, Robyn, and many more. Her reviews run the gamut from the latest Nicki Minaj album and the “mobile shopping mall that is the Vans Warped Tour” to the only album by D.C.'s first all-women punk band, released three decades after they broke up. The new second edition of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic expands on the 2015 one. That the provocative (and mostly accurate) title still works six years later points out that rock criticism has even fewer women in it than rock music does. Hopper joins us on the podcast to discuss her writing, from her beginnings as a local Chicago critic to her expansive oral histories of Hole and the women who transformed Rolling Stone in the 1970s. Go beyond the episode:Jessica Hopper's The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock CriticRead “Building a Mystery,” her oral history of Lilith Fair, and her reflections on Joni Mitchell's Blue, 50 years onListen to her eclectic playlist of music that came out of ChicagoHopper hosted Season 2 of KCRW's Lost Notes podcast, looking at artistic legacies of the likes of The Freeze and Cat PowerTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you were a small child who grew up near a coastline—or maybe especially if you didn't—nothing was more enchanting about summer than collecting seashells on the beach. People have been using conches and scallops and whelks as musical instruments, jewelry, canvas, and even money, pretty much since we evolved enough to pick them up. But the future of seashells and the creatures who make them is uncertain. The smallest shells are dissolving in an acidifying ocean, and today mollusks that have survived 500 million years of ice ages and heat waves are facing an enemy undeterred by their hardened exteriors: humans, and the climate change we've created. Science writer Cynthia Barnett's new book, The Sound of the Sea, is a plea to listen to what shells are telling us, both about the ocean and ourselves. Go beyond the episode:Cynthia Barnett's The Sound of the Sea (watch the book trailer here)Listen to the haunting sound of the conch horn found in the temple of Chavín, and read about Miriam Kolar's archaeoacoustic investigations into the instrumentsEver wonder how a mollusk repairs its shell?Evolutionary biologist Gary Vermeij explains how to read a seashellProbably most famous poem about a shell ever written: “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell HolmesTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are a lot of very good, very long books out there: Middlemarch, War and Peace, Don Quixote, the Neapolitan Novels. And then there are the very long books you probably won't ever want to read, like Leonid Brezhnev's memoirs, Saddam Hussein's hackneyed romance novels, or the Kim family's film theory. This show is about that kind of very long book, and the man who decided to read all of them: Daniel Kalder, who joins us on the show to talk about his journey through The Infernal Library and what these books tell us about the dictatorial soul, assuming there is one. This episode originally aired in 2018.Go beyond the episode:Daniel Kalder's The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of LiteracyDive into Turkmenbashi's Ruhnama, if you dare.Daniel Kalder reviews Saddam Hussein's prose—he “tortured metaphors, too”—or you can read it yourselfOr check out Kalder's dispatches from The Guardian's “Dictator-lit” archivesWhile we couldn't find a video of Fidel Castro's four-hour-and-29-minute address to the United Nations in 1960, you can read it hereTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.