Podcasts about Wesleyan University

In Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Sandeep Vaheesan recounts the rather overlooked story of how electricity spread across the U.S. economy during the 20th century. This book sheds careful light on the varied institutions and interests mediating the process, including investor-owned utilities and the rural electric cooperative. Vaheesan does not hesitate to critique the successes and failures cropping up along the way; rather, he lays them all bare in service of paving an actionable path toward the decarbonization and democratization of power. Sandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads their legal research and advocacy, including the amicus program. He has written and spoken widely on antimonopoly law and policy and building a fair economy. Previously, he worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and American Antitrust Institute. Anna Olteanu is a senior in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, where she focuses on intellectual history. Her interests include political ecology, the history of economic thought, and literary criticism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Sandeep Vaheesan recounts the rather overlooked story of how electricity spread across the U.S. economy during the 20th century. This book sheds careful light on the varied institutions and interests mediating the process, including investor-owned utilities and the rural electric cooperative. Vaheesan does not hesitate to critique the successes and failures cropping up along the way; rather, he lays them all bare in service of paving an actionable path toward the decarbonization and democratization of power. Sandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads their legal research and advocacy, including the amicus program. He has written and spoken widely on antimonopoly law and policy and building a fair economy. Previously, he worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and American Antitrust Institute. Anna Olteanu is a senior in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, where she focuses on intellectual history. Her interests include political ecology, the history of economic thought, and literary criticism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Sandeep Vaheesan recounts the rather overlooked story of how electricity spread across the U.S. economy during the 20th century. This book sheds careful light on the varied institutions and interests mediating the process, including investor-owned utilities and the rural electric cooperative. Vaheesan does not hesitate to critique the successes and failures cropping up along the way; rather, he lays them all bare in service of paving an actionable path toward the decarbonization and democratization of power. Sandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads their legal research and advocacy, including the amicus program. He has written and spoken widely on antimonopoly law and policy and building a fair economy. Previously, he worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and American Antitrust Institute. Anna Olteanu is a senior in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, where she focuses on intellectual history. Her interests include political ecology, the history of economic thought, and literary criticism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gary W. Yohe, Professor Emeritus at Wesleyan University, is a climate change expert with 40 plus years' experience, Nobel Peace Prize-recognized, focusing on mitigation, adaptation, and economic impacts of environmental policy. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Climate policy and science must be iterative; decisions today should evolve as new data and realities emerge. 2. Not all climate risks can or should be measured purely in economic terms; human lives and ecosystems carry intrinsic value. 3. The future of climate impact comes down to three choices: mitigate, adapt, or suffer; and we will experience some of all three. Subscribe to Substack. Follow Gary for weekly insights - Climate Cafe on Substack Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Nexus Install - Have a high-ticket offer? Nexus Install builds you a custom LinkedIn prospect booking system designed to generate more quality sales calls. Email JLD at John@EOFire.com to learn more.  

Michael Roth, the President of Wesleyan University, will speak at the Monterey Meeting House in Monterey, MA on Sunday, August 9th. His talk is titled: 'From Neutrality to Democracy; How Higher Ed Can Defend Democracy.' Michael will join us later this morning.Michael Roth has been president of Wesleyan University since 2007. His most recent books are 'The Student: A Brief History and Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Guide to Free Speech, Affirmative Action, and Political Correctness on College Campuses,'and 'Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters.'He is currently focused on building a network of schools, Democracy 250, whose students defend democracy by participating in it. We welcome Michael Roth to the RT.

Synopsis: The guest on today's podcast is a representative of Braidwell LP, a registered investment adviser. Braidwell invests on behalf of its clients and either holds, or may in the future hold, positions in the securities discussed. His statements are not intended to provide investment advice, discuss comprehensive investment risks, or constitute an offer to transact in any security. The information presented is for general information purposes only and will not be updated. For years, AI has promised to transform drug discovery—but why hasn't that promise translated into more approved medicines? In this episode of Biotech 2050, host Rahul Chaturvedi sits down with Nick Myerberg, Partner and Head of Artificial Intelligence and Technology at Braidwell, for an in-depth discussion on where AI in biotech has succeeded, where it has fallen short, and why the next generation of AI-native drug discovery may finally deliver breakthrough therapies. Nick traces the evolution of computational biology—from early mathematical models to AlphaFold and today's emerging agentic AI systems—and explains why proprietary data, scientific judgment, and tightly integrated laboratory feedback loops are becoming the real competitive advantage. He shares how Braidwell evaluates AI-first biotech companies, what separates lasting platforms from hype, and why the future belongs to organizations that redesign discovery around AI rather than simply adding AI to existing workflows. The conversation also explores autonomous laboratories, AI-designed medicines, the changing economics of biotech, and the evolving role of scientists in an era where human expertise and machine intelligence increasingly work side by side. Whether you're an investor, biotech founder, researcher, or AI enthusiast, this episode offers a thoughtful roadmap for understanding how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of drug discovery. Biography: Nick Myerberg, Partner and Head of Artificial Intelligence and Technology, Braidwell Nick Myerberg is a Partner and Head of Artificial Intelligence and Technology at Braidwell, a life sciences investment firm dedicated to building and backing companies that transform human health. Working at the intersection of computation, biology, and capital allocation, Nick engineers systems that shape investment decisions and scientific discovery, and he invests in the scientists and founders forging AI-native approaches to biology. Before joining Braidwell, Nick built machine learning systems at Bridgewater Associates and at S&P Global's Kensho Technologies. He was also a founding volunteer at NeighborShare, a nonprofit that connects families in need with local donors. Nick was selected as a member of the inaugural 2026 cohort of the Aspen Institute's Technology Leaders Initiative, a fellowship within the Aspen Global Leadership Network bringing together senior leaders shaping the future of artificial intelligence and frontier technologies. Nick is broadly interested in how advances in computation reshape the pace and structure of scientific discovery, and in building the discovery infrastructure required to increase the world's scientific bandwidth. Nick earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University and later studied history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge.

Keva White and John Kepner look back to the tumultuous 1960's in this interview with Dr. Alford A. Young, Jr., University of Michigan Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies and Public Policy about his paper entitled Revolt of the Privileged: The Coming Together of the Black Community at Wesleyan University – 1965-1975, written years later while attending Wesleyan.

Send us Fan MailJoseph is desperate to find help for his troubled trans daughter, Charlotte. He seeks the counsel of a renowned transgender activist, Jenna. But Jenna is the trans woman he bullied in high school. She has never forgiven him.Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Noelle Evangelisti as Jenna, Gilbert Glenn Brown as Joseph, Gloria Tsai as Anne, and Camille Ameen as Clara.Sasha Cohen is the playwright. He is a student at Wesleyan University (class of '29) with a prospective double major in English and sociology. This is his first play.Support the showFounded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What's Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA. There's no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to  https://open...

Please enjoy this Summer Salon Series episode of Breaking Form Selects: Melvin Dixon.Support Breaking Form by reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.  Notes:Scholar, novelist, and poet Melvin Dixon was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a BA from Wesleyan University and an MA and a PhD from Brown University. His poetry collections include: Change of Territory (1983) and Love's Instruments (1995, published posthumously. He's the author of two novels, Trouble the Water (1989) and Vanishing Rooms (1991). Read Dixon's most-anthologized poem "Heartbeats" Watch Danez Smith read the poem here. CM Burroughs is joined by Adrian Metejka on this panel celebrating Melvin Dixon's work. Watch here (~30 min). CM Burroughs reads her essay published in Poetry Magazine, the text of which is here: "Poetic Kin: Meeting Melvin Dixon"Read "Looking Back: The AIDS Epidemic" for a bit more about the AIDS pandemic.Poems we read include:"Turning 40 in the Nineties""Change of Territory" "The 80s Miracle Diet""One by One""I'll Be Somewhere Listening for My Name"

Reflections from host Sarah Olivieri ... The Trap of Being the Most Capable Person in the Room There is a particular kind of nonprofit leader who is very good at almost everything. They can build the budget. They can write the grant. They can run the intake, fix the database, cover the front desk, and close the books when the bookkeeper leaves. When something breaks, they already know how to fix it, so they do. This is where nonprofit CEO leadership capacity quietly becomes the ceiling on the entire organization. When the most capable person keeps doing the work, the organization can only grow as large as that one person's hours. Everything routes through them. Every decision waits for them. And because they are competent, nobody notices the bottleneck until the organization is straining against it. This looks like a time management problem or a delegation problem, when in fact it's a leadership design problem. Let's talk about how to fix it. A Leader Who Has Made the Shift A version of this comes up almost every time I talk with a leader who is running a good organization and running themselves into the ground to do it. I had a conversation recently with Janelle Miller Moravek, who has led a growing mental health organization since 2009. She has been the fundraiser, the strategist, the operator, and the person who learned every function the hard way. And she has arrived somewhere most leaders need to go, but don't even realize yet. She knows how much to know, and she knows when to take her hands off. Know Enough to Be Dangerous There is a level of knowledge every CEO needs about every function of their organization. Not enough to run it. Enough to tell whether it is being run well. If you know nothing about your finances, you cannot tell a good accountant from a bad one. If you know nothing about your fundraising, you cannot tell whether your development director is stuck or coasting. You do not need to do the work. You need to know enough to provide real oversight. This is the balance that trips people up. Leaders tend to land at one of two extremes. Either they know a function so well that they cannot stop doing it, or they know it so poorly that they cannot supervise it. Neither one is oversight. Oversight lives in the middle, where you know enough to be dangerous and then let go of the doing. The truth is, most leaders overshoot toward doing because doing feels productive and supervising feels like nothing. Sitting in a meeting you do not strictly need to attend, reading a book, walking through the building, thinking about what is coming in eighteen months. None of that feels like work. All of it is the work. The Most Important Job Nobody Schedules The single most valuable thing a CEO can do is figure out what is around the corner that nobody else sees yet. When you plan for that, you are ahead of everyone. When you are ahead, your organization makes a bigger impact with less scramble. I call it brain time. The problem is that brain time never makes it onto the calendar, because everything else is louder. The payroll approval, the bank call that only the CEO is allowed to make, the fire that flared up this morning. Those tasks are real, and someone has to clear them so the rest of the team can move. But they are not the job. They are the price of admission to the job. When leaders let the loud, clearable tasks crowd out the quiet, high-value thinking, the organization loses its ability to see around corners. It becomes reactive. It handles what is in front of it and gets blindsided by what was predictable all along. Leadership You Can Buy Before You Can Afford It Here is the move that changes the math for organizations in the one-to-five-million range. You can bring in leadership without adding it to your management structure. When you outsource a function to a strong fractional or contracted firm, whether that is finance, HR, IT, or billing, you are not just buying task execution. You are buying leadership. A good outsourced finance team does not wait for you to direct them. They lead you. They tell you what you are missing. They bring a level of expertise you could never afford to hire full-time and could never provide yourself. This is what lets a leadership team stay lean. Janelle runs a nearly three-million-dollar organization with a management structure of two people, herself and a deputy director, because the CFO brain, the HR strategy, the billing compliance, and the fundraising all live with expert partners outside the building. The leadership is baked in. The payroll taxes, the turnover, the recruiting, the risk of getting a specialized compliance task wrong, all of that belongs to someone whose actual job it is. One line from that conversation has stayed with me: "It really hampered our growth before we outsourced." What I appreciate about this framing is that it names the mechanism. When a leader hoards functions they are not expert in, the organization does not just carry the cost of their learning curve. It carries the cost of everything that leader could have been doing instead. The growth that never happens is the most expensive line item, and it never shows up on any budget. Delegating Outcomes, Not Just Tasks There is a difference between handing someone a task and handing someone a result. Task delegation is "process this batch of invoices." Outcome delegation is "own our financial health and tell me when something is off." Most leaders get comfortable with the first and never make it to the second. So they stay busy checking work instead of free to lead. This is the shift from managing tasks to distributing outcomes and decisions across the organization. The shift usually becomes possible when the right person is in the right seat. And the right person is almost never the one with the most polished resume. It is the one with learning agility and curiosity, the one who can grow into responsibility you have not even defined yet. Hire for that, and you can eventually hand over not just the doing but the deciding. That is what frees a visionary leader to actually be one. I say this to clients constantly, and I had to learn it on myself first. For years my rule was that just because I can do something does not mean I should. I am a highly capable person. If I keep doing everything I am capable of, I will hold my own organization back, and I will not be a very happy human either. The capability is not the question. The choice about where to point it is. What Changes When You Stop Being the Doer When a leader stops being the doer, the whole organization stops waiting on one person. Decisions get made closer to the work. The team develops instead of stalling. And the leader finally has room for the thinking that only they can do. The heaviness that comes from being the answer to every question starts to lift. The work has not disappeared. It is finally sitting where it belongs. The organization stops being an extension of one person's stamina and starts being a system that can carry its own weight. That is what staying power actually looks like. It is not a heroic leader holding everything together. It is a structure built so that no single person has to. The Marathon This is not about doing less work. It is about doing the work that only you can do. Nonprofits can grow past the founder's capacity. They can build leadership they could not otherwise afford. They can run without one person anchoring every decision. Not by that person working harder. By building an organization that no longer needs them to. About the Guest Janelle Miller Moravek is a nonprofit leader & mental health advocate. She has led Youth & Family Counseling as Executive Director since 2009, driving its growth and impact across Lake County, Illinois. With a deep commitment to increasing access to mental health services, she oversees strategy, programming, and operations while fostering strong partnerships throughout the community. Janelle also plays a key leadership role in the region, serving on the board of the Lake County Alliance for Human Services and co-chairing the Lake County Behavioral Health Action Team. Her prior experience includes development roles at Carmel Catholic High School and Barat College. She holds a BA in French Studies from Wesleyan University and lives in Libertyville with her husband and three children. Connect with Janelle: Website: CounselingForAll.org/  LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/janelle-miller-moravek-903a815b/ Janelle's profile: accessspeakers.biz/speaker/janelle-miller-moravek-nonprofit-leader-mental-health-advocate/ Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Is it possible to live forever? And if so, should we even want to? This hour, we discuss the search for immortality, from ancient philosophers to the elixir of life. Plus, a look at immortalizing public figures through obituaries. Guests: Tushar Irani is a Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University studying Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy. Philip Ball is a freelance science writer and the author of “Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science” William McDonald recently retired as the obituaries editor for the New York Times, a position that he held for the past 20 years. Music featured (in order): Galahad – Aoife O’Donovan You Only Live Twice – Nancy Sinatra If We Were Vampires – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Alchemy – Cam Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants to Die) – Ellen McIlwaine CUT FOR TIME I Don’t Want to Die (In the Hospital) – Connor Oberst Fame – Irene Cara The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christina Anderson, a 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize recipient for Drama, talks with Michael Kelleher about Wallace Shawn's seminal, strange, and recently-revived 1990 monologue The Fever.Christina Anderson is a playwright, tv writer, screenwriter, and educator. Her work has been produced across the country including theaters such as Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, and Yale Rep. A Tony nominated writer for Outstanding Book of a Broadway musical, Anderson has received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the Horton Foote Prize, the United States Artists Fellowship, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert nomination, Barrymore Nomination for Outstanding New Play, and New Dramatist residency. She's taught playwriting at Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, Wesleyan University, Yale School of Drama, and served as the interim Head of Playwriting at Brown University. An avid photographer for nearly ten years, the Magnum award review described Christina's work as "compelling" and "poignant." Since 2019, she has produced hip hop instrumentals under the moniker Purely Magenta.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Middletown is located in the state of Connecticut and was once a prosperous port. Wesleyan University is here and it has a couple of haunted locations, including the historic Samuel Russell House. There are several other haunted locations in the town and an awful murder has left behind spiritual residue. Join us for the history and hauntings of Middletown. This Month in History features the birth of Peter Paul Rubens. Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com Show notes can be found here: https://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2026/06/hgb-ep-643-haunted-middletown.html Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump Music used in this episode: Main Theme: Creepy Carnival Theme  Created and produced by History Goes Bump Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (This Month in History) "In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music: The Backrooms Music Vol. 29 Produced by Sascha Ende Link: https://ende.app/en/song/13720-the-backrooms-music-vol-29  Video by Jacques Barrette from Pixabay

Bestselling author Amy Bloom is widely known for 2022 memoir “In Love.” The memoir follows her journey with her late husband, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The pair made a decision to travel to Switzerland to help him end his life. Bloom’s latest book is different. “Blunt Instrument” is a vivacious, and often hilarious, murder mystery that’s set in the world of academia. And it’s partly inspired by Wesleyan University. Bloom recently sat down with us to talk about her book and writing process. Where We Live is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CNBC's Senior Markets Commentator—and the show's first-ever repeat guest—on short selling, AI spending, market concentration, and why the bar is high for what's been working to keep working.Episode OverviewIn this episode of The World According to Boyar, Jonathan Boyar welcomes back CNBC Senior Markets Commentator Michael Santoli—the first repeat guest in the show's history, following his December 2020 appearance in the thick of COVID. Drawing on more than three decades covering Wall Street, Santoli breaks down his now-memorable on-air clash with Ryan Cohen over GameStop's bid for eBay, the return of meme-stock speculation, and the question hanging over everything: Is this market 2021, 1999, or something genuinely new?From AI capital spending and extreme market concentration to whether value and equal-weight stocks are finally due to lead, Santoli argues that today's extremes do not yet match the dot-com peak. But, as he puts it, being told by your doctor that “you're not literally the most unhealthy patient I've had in 30 years” does not mean “you're in great shape.” It's a clear-eyed, historically grounded read on the enduring mix of speculation and investment—what Santoli, invoking Buffett, calls “a casino attached to a church.”Key Topics Covered:Short sellers and the chilling effect: Why short selling is one of the most treacherous games in investing, the “alpha shorts” many hedge funds use, and why even legitimate short sellers have gone quiet.The Ryan Cohen/GameStop showdown: The backstory behind a tense, revealing on-air exchange over GameStop's bid for eBay—and what Santoli believes the Chewy-to-GameStop record reveals.2021, 1999, or both? The retail-trader empowerment of 2021, the narrow-leadership echoes of the dot-com peak, and Santoli's “unhealthy patient” analogy for today's market froth.AI spending and the hardware food chain: Why Santoli suspects the AI hardware complex may be overearning—and whether greater efficiency could eventually undermine today's hardware economics.Market concentration, reconsidered: Why a top-heavy S&P 500 may matter less than people fear—and how the bull case quietly shifted from “asset-light cash machines” to “asset-heavy, invest now, reap later.”Will value and equal weight finally lead? Why durable rotations do not happen “at a full gallop,” and what the October-to-February broadening did—and did not—prove.Why he doesn't pick stocks: How being restricted from owning individual securities became “liberating,” his “voluntary tax on the arrogant” take on sports betting, and his philosophy of staying involved while keeping expectations in check.The evolution of his CNBC role: From appearing on CNBC as a Barron's contributor to becoming a market “color commentator” and co-anchor of Closing Bell: Overtime—and where financial media is heading as the business shifts toward digital.The underreported story: The slow-moving demographic and global-population shifts—and the possibility that the Iran episode accelerates investment in renewables—that Santoli believes investors may be overlooking.About Michael Santoli:Michael Santoli is co-anchor of CNBC's Closing Bell: Overtime and the network's Senior Markets Commentator, with more than three decades of experience covering Wall Street. He began his career at Investment Dealers' Digest before moving to Dow Jones Newswires. He later spent 15 years as a columnist and feature writer at Barron's, where he wrote the Streetwise column, and was a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance before joining CNBC in 2015. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he lives in New York City.Unlocking Investment Opportunities Since 1975At the Boyar Value Group, we've dedicated nearly five decades to the pursuit of value on behalf of our clients. Founded in 1975, our firm has earned a reputation as a trusted source for uncovering undervalued opportunities in the stock market.To find out more about the Boyar Value Group, please visit www.boyarvaluegroup.com

David J. Garrow is a prize-winning historian. Since graduating from Wesleyan University in 1975 and completing his law degree at Duke in 1981, he has spent most of his time writing about civil rights. His best selling and most praised book is titled "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference," published in 1986. We last talked to David Garrow in May of 2017 about his book "Rising Star" – 1,472 pages about President Barack Obama. The book was limited to President Obama's life before his presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David J. Garrow is a prize-winning historian. Since graduating from Wesleyan University in 1975 and completing his law degree at Duke in 1981, he has spent most of his time writing about civil rights. His best selling and most praised book is titled "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference," published in 1986. We last talked to David Garrow in May of 2017 about his book "Rising Star" – 1,472 pages about President Barack Obama. The book was limited to President Obama's life before his presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/geography

In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, gender as well as understandings of global modernity. The coloniality of space dispossessed Indigenous, African, and mixed populations as it constructed new systems of control and movement. Deere demonstrates how these developments manifested, among other forms, in urban grid patterns imposed during the development of Spanish colonial cities as well as totalizing trade routes crisscrossing the Atlantic. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Enrique Dussel, Édouard Glissant, and Sylvia Wynter, Deere reveals how movement—who travels, who settles, and who is excluded—becomes an essential component of control under colonial rule. Against the violence of spatial reordering, Deere outlines how novel forms of resistance and insurgency geographies still take hold, particularly in the Caribbean, where landscapes remain excessive, eruptive, and uncaptured by the order of modernity. Don Thomas Deere is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Wesleyan University and received his PhD with distinction from DePaul University and BA from Cornell University. He is a Mellon Mays fellow and the recipient of a Mellon Career Enhancement Faculty Fellowship. His research focuses on the intersections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us Fan MailThis week on the podcast Gerald Everette Jones stops by the show again to discuss his latest release Jonathan's Journal. We talk about how some choices made in WW1 still affect us today and more. *****Gerald Everett Jones lives in Santa Monica. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Women's National Book Association, as well as a board member of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He is a Film Independent (FILM) Fellow. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There).”More about Jonathan's Journal: When a solitary art historian stumbles across a cryptic World War I diary among his mother's antiques, his life quietly implodes. In Jonathan's Journal, award-winning author Gerald Everett Jones invites readers on a richly emotional and historical journey that spans continents and generations. Through dual narratives—one modern, one set during the forgotten campaigns of the Great War in the Near East and India—Jones offers a haunting meditation on identity, duty, and the echoes of conflict that shape who we become.At the center of this literary novel is Jonathan Worthington, a middle-aged professor on sabbatical, whose discovery of an anonymous soldier's meticulously written journal ignites a quest for truth that blurs the line between past and present. The soldier, initially known only by the initials J.F.W., recounts experiences from the trenches of France to the deserts of Mesopotamia and India. As Jonathan deciphers the diary—with help from Elena, a mysterious librarian who abruptly left a position in the diplomatic corps—he suspects more than a historical connection; family secrets may lie hidden in Fred's sparse but emotionally loaded prose.Jones's fifteenth novel is both contemplative and adventurous, seamlessly blending historical research, literary fiction, and intimate personal reflection. Fans of Birdsong, The English Patient, and Possession will find themselves drawn into a world where archival mysteries illuminate inner truths.*****If you would like to contact the show Dauna@betertopodcast.comFollow us on Social MediaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriberInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedomSupport the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.NeedomSupport the showSupport the show

Haiti became the first black-ruled republic in the Americas in 1804, and music has mirrored, and at times shaped, the twists and turns of Haiti's politics and culture ever since. A primary source of Haitian culture is Dahomey, the birthplace of vodou--the most commonly held world view among Haitian people today. We explore how each of Haiti's rulers has championed his own preferred music. The Duvalier dictators favored compas dance music, and suppressed the most African-identified cultural expressions. When Baby Doc was run out of the country in 1986, African-derived racine, or roots, music exploded. Elizabeth McAlister, professor of religion at Wesleyan University, and Holly Nicolas--interweave music and history to tell a dynamic, and at times heart-breaking story. Included in the mix we'll hear the sweet sound of troubadour balladeers, as well as the exuberant tones of rara bands, the call and response of a capela kombit songs of work parties, impassioned choral music of evangelical churches, and the sophisticated, improvisational rhythms used in vodou rituals. Produced by Sean Barlow APWW #540

All Home Care Matters and our host, Lance A. Slatton were honored to welcome Seth Low-Tufo as guest to the show.   About Seth Low-Tufo, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer at A Place for Mom:   As Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of A Place for Mom, Inc., Seth Low-Tufo is focused on strengthening core operating processes and identifying opportunities to grow the business profitably. He is responsible for all aspects of the company's Finance function, including strategic planning, investor relations, controllership, accounting, tax, liquidity management, and treasury operations. In addition, Seth is responsible for the company's Legal, Human Resources, and Data & Analytics functions.   Seth is an experienced leader with proven ability to drive transformational change. He joined A Place for Mom following more than a decade at GE. Most recently, Seth was CFO of GE's Onshore Wind Americas business, the leading manufacturer of wind turbines in the U.S. In this role, he rebuilt the finance function and helped drive 50% revenue growth while improving operational efficiency and accountability. Earlier in his career, Seth was the Financial Planning leader for GE Capital's $200 billion asset disposition process and head of Pricing for its $90 billion commercial lending and leasing business. Seth earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from Wesleyan University.     About A Place for Mom:   A Place for Mom is the leading platform that guides families through every stage of the aging journey. We simplify the search for senior care by offering free, personalized support—and when families are ready, we refer them to partners from our network of over 15,000 senior living communities and home care agencies.   Our mission is to guide caregivers and their loved ones to a confident place, so families can focus on what matters most: their love for each other.

Ron Roman has written extensive travel, academic, and political articles for regional, national, and international publications. He studied both fiction and creative writing for his third graduate degree in Humanities from Wesleyan University. Ron has acted in numerous Korean TV dramas and motion pictures like Operation Chromite, portraying Admiral Forrest Sherman opposite Liam Neeson's General Douglas MacArthur. In 2025 Ron published his alternate-history apocalyptic doomsday thriller novel, Of Ashes and Dust, which was a Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Award in the Global Thrillers category.I've read Of Ashes and Dust and can tell you it's a highly entertaining story that explores the anarchy of an apocalyptic future that includes revelations about UFOs and governmental conspiracies all set against a crumbling society. If you enjoy reading about the potential societal challenges a deteriorating world may face, I highly recommend Ron's insight-filled book to you.Ron is also the recipient of The POET Magazine's “Poet of the Month” award for his contributions.  Also, check out for his book A Poetic Rhapsody of the Soul, which is published by Windtree Press. As an Associate Professor of English, English as a Second Language, and Humanities, Ron taught at the University of Maryland Global Campus-Asia. Ron resides in South Korea with his wife where he works on US military installations assisting US military retirees and dependents.   

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Gerald Everett Jones, author of the book Jonathan's Journal. Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who resides in Santa Monica, California. He writes mystery-thrillers and literary fiction for adults interested in intriguing stories. Jonathan's Journal is my fifteenth novel. I have 20+ book awards I am a board member of Writers & Publishers Network (WPN). Jones has received 20+ book awards, including six in 2020, seven in 2021, and six in 2022. His works often explore themes of morality, justice, humor, and human complexity across multiple genres and settings. Jones holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Wesleyan University, where he studied under notable novelists. He is also the host of the GetPublished! Radio Show and has contributed to the literary community as a book reviewer and radio host. His blog and podcast, Thinking About Thinking, continue to provide insights for readers and writers alike.   In my book review, I stated Jonathan's Journal is a dual timeline historical fiction by Gerald Everett Jones. We meet Jonathan Worthington, an art historian, as he tries to discover why his mother had a WWI diary from a man with his initials. What was the connection? Jonathon hires Elena to help him understand the history. We also meet the man in the diary, a WWI soldier who Jonathan nicknames Fred.   Through the reading of the journal, Jonathan and Elena's thoughts on what they've read and their knowledge of the history, and even Fred's inner thoughts that were never written down, the reader takes a journey to more thoroughly understand the war that didn't end all wars.   But we also get to see the personal journey of Fred as he comes to terms with who he is and what he wants out life while simultaneously experiencing the same for Jonathan. Although touted as historical fiction, Jonathan's Journal has a lot in common with literary fiction speckled with splashes of romance and a bit of intrigue. This was a fun read.   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   You can follow Author Gerald Everett Jones Website: https://geraldeverettjones.com/ FB: @geraldeverettjones IG: @geraldeverettjones/?hl=en X: @superscribbler1   Purchase Jonathan's Journal on Amazon: Ebook: https://amzn.to/3Q7EWu2   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #geraldeverettjones #jonathansjournal #historicalfiction #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women's Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever worried you're missing your shot at breakthrough growth because your leadership team is stuck in old patterns?This episode is a raw look inside the mind of Sheldon Cummings, former Chief Operating Officer at Mailchimp and current President and General Manager at Smarsh, who's steered brands across continents and navigated acquisition into one of the world's most powerful tech companies. Cameron Herold digs deep into resilience, ruthless prioritization, and the magic of connecting culture to results, all delivered with a straight-shooter's clarity. If you're tired of shallow “success stories” and want the playbook for leading teams through uncertain times, this is your urgent reality check.Don't wait for your competitors to outpace you. Listen now! The invisible skills (and mistakes) revealed here will save you from costly setbacks, wasted energy, and slow, silent failure. These exclusive insights aren't recycled elsewhere. Your team (and your sanity) can't afford to miss this.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – The one moment that reset Sheldon Cummings's entire career path… and how he engineered opportunity from chaos06:42 – How a bold toolkit-first mindset kept propelling him up—across continents, industries, and uncertain times11:07 – “Can you run a business you don't ‘make'?” The surprising truth from global CPG frontlines17:05 – The #1 underdog advantage in modern marketing—why Mailchimp doubled down on it during COVID18:36 – What nobody tells you about integrating remote teams after a billion-dollar acquisition22:58 – Ruthless prioritization in product roadmap: When discipline trumps ideas (and keeps customers loyal)24:41 – Find the real numbers that matter: How top execs slice through data noise (and ignore 9,000 distractions)35:40 – How to unfreeze middle management and create instant buy-in during relentless changeAbout the GuestSheldon Cummings is the former Chief Operating Officer for Mailchimp. Before stepping into his leadership role at Mailchimp, he had a dual role as a VP Intuit Sales in addition to serving as Intuit's Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (CDEIO). Since joining Intuit in 2017, Sheldon has led a number of leadership positions across Intuit's Sales, Marketing, Global Partnerships, and Global Operations teams. Prior to Intuit Sheldon has had a number of roles across industries and countries, including leading a European business for 6 years headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Sheldon, a native of New York City, graduated with a BA from Wesleyan University, and received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management with concentrations in Finance, Marketing, and Strategy. He is currently the President and General Manager of Smarsh.

Ron Kuivila of Wesleyan University and Lovely Music joins us for a wide-ranging and decades-spanning conversation. We do a bit of Lovely Music story time encountering friends along the way like Nicolas Collins, Éliane Radigue, and David Tudor, and we talk installations, early work with Supercollider, and the duties that come with being a teacher. www.patreon.com/basecampbeta

Across the state, non-profit organizations work tirelessly to improve the lives of Connecticut residents. Today we will be hearing from two of those organizations. Lisa Hammersley of the Connecticut School + State Finance Project is here to discuss education funding and how to fix it. But first we are going to talk with Elizabeth Kaesar from the Connecticut River Museum about their upcoming Environmental Summit, held in conjunction with Wesleyan University.

What happens when the mental health system is quietly crumbling — and the woman holding it together has been doing so for 25 years? In episode 257 of Joy Found Here, Janelle Miller Moravek, Executive Director of Youth & Family Counseling, pulls back the curtain on America's behavioral health crisis — from a shrinking workforce and impossible pay rates to the hidden toll social media is taking on our kids. Hopeful yet eye-opening, this conversation is a reminder that access to mental health care is not a luxury.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(3:54) How a French major stumbled into 25 years of nonprofit leadership(7:49) Why loving your work makes it harder to switch off(10:39) What nonprofit fundraising really looks like(17:47) Why the mental health crisis didn't start with COVID(20:05) The workforce shortage driving therapists out of behavioral healthcare(22:57) How social media is rewiring kids' tolerance for discomfort(30:16) The wrestling mat conversation that led to her son's ADHD diagnosis(36:48) The "atlas" project helping people navigate to the right care(38:22) Why one person getting help creates a community ripple effect(39:30) What Medicaid rollbacks mean for mental health nonprofits in 2026Janelle Miller Moravek is the Executive Director of Youth & Family Counseling (YFC), a nonprofit mental health organization serving Lake County in the Chicagoland area. A Wesleyan University graduate, she joined YFC in 2000 as its first-ever development director and has spent over two decades building it into a leading provider of affordable, accessible mental health services — including bilingual care and Medicaid-covered options — for children, teens, adults, and families. In this episode, Janelle Miller Moravek brings 25 years of nonprofit leadership to a candid conversation about the growing gap between mental health need and workforce capacity — tracing the roots to chronically low reimbursement rates, a lengthy therapist training pipeline, and COVID-era burnout. She connects social media's rise to a surge in adolescent mental health struggles, shares a personal story about parenting a son with ADHD that deepened her advocacy, and makes the case for treating behavioral health literacy as common knowledge. She also introduces YFC's "atlas" project — a navigation tool to help people find the right care — while sounding an honest alarm about what Medicaid rollbacks could mean for organizations like hers in 2026.Connect with Janelle Miller Moravek:LinkedInYouth & Family Counseling websiteLet's Connect:WebsiteInstagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen in as Jakob Shaw and Bernadette Fiaschetti share their zest to end animal cruelty. They discuss why French Bulldogs and Pugs should never be bred, why buying birds and holding them captive is cruel, the first ban on glue traps; and first in the nation…Wesleyan University memorial plaque for animals killed for dining hall meals. Jakob Shaw is the manager of strategic initiatives for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.In this role, Shaw advances PETA's animal protection mission through legislative advocacy, youth outreach, colorful demonstrations, multimedia projects, installations such as The Council of Animals (What to Do About the Humans) featured on the National Mall, and more.  His work has led to the first ban on glue traps—which ensnare small animals indiscriminately and cause prolonged suffering—as well as the introduction of both federal and state bills banning the cruel devices.  He also helped secure the passage of a groundbreaking ordinance in Ojai, California banning the breeding of French Bulldogs and other breathing-impaired dogs and cats who suffer from a lifetime of respiratory issues and other chronic ailments. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, the food industry, the clothing trade, and the entertainment business. Website: www.peta.org

Listen in as Jakob Shaw and Bernadette Fiaschetti share their zest to end animal cruelty. They discuss why French Bulldogs and Pugs should never be bred, why buying birds and holding them captive is cruel, the first ban on glue traps; and first in the nation…Wesleyan University memorial plaque for animals killed for dining hall meals. Jakob Shaw is the manager of strategic initiatives for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.In this role, Shaw advances PETA's animal protection mission through legislative advocacy, youth outreach, colorful demonstrations, multimedia projects, installations such as The Council of Animals (What to Do About the Humans) featured on the National Mall, and more.  His work has led to the first ban on glue traps—which ensnare small animals indiscriminately and cause prolonged suffering—as well as the introduction of both federal and state bills banning the cruel devices.  He also helped secure the passage of a groundbreaking ordinance in Ojai, California banning the breeding of French Bulldogs and other breathing-impaired dogs and cats who suffer from a lifetime of respiratory issues and other chronic ailments. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, the food industry, the clothing trade, and the entertainment business. Website: www.peta.org

Are your SAT/ACT scores not what you had hoped for? Host Tasha (formerly at Boston University and USC) and IvyWise counselor Chris (formerly at Wesleyan University) discuss how to present your strengths and remain competitive, even without a perfect standardized testing score.

Since the start of the second Trump administration, American colleges and universities have been subject to intense political scrutiny by the White House. Both public and private institutions have negotiated settlements at the expense of DEI programs, admissions, and hefty fines and fees. Law firms, media outlets, and even cultural institutions have also been targeted.rnrnWesleyan University President Michael S. Roth is a widely recognized defender of academic freedom, democracy, and a leading voice in discussions about the future of colleges and universities. His seventh book, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses (2021), addresses some of the most contentious issues in American higher education, including affirmative action, safe spaces, and questions of free speech. More recently, his bylines in The Bulwark and MS NOW, fiercely defended higher education, and called on civil society to remain steadfast in opposition to extortion under the guise of dealmaking. His efforts have awarded him the 2025 PEN/Benenson Courage Award for "his unwavering commitment to defending academic freedom, protecting protest rights, and resisting attempts to silence dissent in higher education."

This Hip Deep episode is Part 1 of a two-part series comparing and contrasting approaches to musical improvisation. Beginning and ending with bebop and free jazz, Part 1 takes sidetrips into Ghanaian percussion traditions, Mande string and vocal music, and solo taqsim improvisation in Arabic music. With insights from UCLA's A.J. Racy and Wesleyan University's Eric Charry, among others, we launch a provocative and revealing meditation on spontaneity in the world's music traditions. APWW #454 Produced by Banning Eyre

Today's guest on The Long View is Pat Dorsey. Pat is the founder of Dorsey Asset Management, a boutique asset manager serving institutional clients. From 2000 to 2011, Pat was the director of equity research for Morningstar, where he led the growth of Morningstar's equity research group from 20 to 90 analysts. Pat was instrumental in the development of Morningstar's economic moat ratings, as well as the methodology behind Morningstar's framework for analyzing competitive advantage. Pat is also the author of two books, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, and The Little Book That Builds Wealth. Pat holds a master's degree in political science from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in government from Wesleyan University. Pat is a CFA charterholder. Episode Highlights 00:00:00 Defining Economic Moats and Moat Source Mistakes 00:05:34 Shifting Landscape for Returns on Invested Capital as a Metric 00:07:52 Inevitable vs. Noninevitable Moats 00:09:36 Moat Durability, Network Effects, and Lessons From PayPal 00:13:46 Management Quality, Founders, and Pricing Discipline 00:24:02 High-Quality Companies, “Too Hard” Bucket, and AI Uncertainty 00:29:29 Premortem, Behavioral Edge, and Opportunity Cost More From Morningstar AI Isn't an Economic Moat Killer, but It Will Disrupt Industries Lawrence Lam: ‘The Types of Companies That Attract Me Are Founder-Led and Profitable' How to Measure a Company's Competitive Advantage If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com. Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine's weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances. If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 346 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, presented by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports, features a pair of Olympians: gold-medal winner Aerin Frankel from Team USA and Rei Halloran from Team Japan.  In the feature interview presented by NHL Sense Arena, Frankel shares insights from her gold-medal winning experience at the Olympics and success with the Boston Fleet after an outstanding college career, including advice on managing pressure on a big stage. And in our second feature interview, Halloran talks about her unique path the 2026 Winter Games with Team Japan as something of a late bloomer who did a lot of different sports, including horse back riding which has some interesting ties to goaltending, before playing Div. 3 NCAA at Wesleyan University, then professionally in Norway and Sweden, as well as the occasional practice fill-in stint with the Fleet. In the Parent Segment, presented by Stop it Goaltending U the App, we build on a recent post-game interview with Devin Cooley of the Calgary Flames and revisit the importance of finding wins within the game regardless of results. We also review this week's Pro Reads, presented by Vizual Edge, featuring the return of veteran Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes and a breakdown on how to play a 2-on-1 pass higher in the zone compare to in tight.  And in our weekly gear segment, we head to The Hockey Shop Source for Sports, for a look at the new True Catalyst Nitro pads and their patent pending Post Connection System, a large, uniquely shaped toe bridge design to improve post play. 

When people think of craft, certain images might come to mind, like knitting in a rocking chair by a warm fireplace. People often think of it as a quiet, solitary activity— one that doesn’t make much of a public statement. But crafts like knitting can be radical. The rocking chair by the fireplace isn’t just quiet and solitary— it can also be a site of real political change. This hour, we’re listening back to our episode about the power of craft. We’ll hear from a crafter who helped popularize the term "craftivism." It refers to a movement that combines craft with activism. We’ll also talk to a local potter who hopes to spread awareness of the indigenous Wangunk people. They are not recognized as a tribe by the federal or state government. GUESTS: Betsy Greer: writer and maker. She’s editor of the book Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism and author of Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change Stitch by Stitch. She helped popularize the term "craftivism." Gary Red Oak O'Neil: a Wangunk Elder, potter, and educator. He’s been a member of Wesleyan Potters since 1968. His solo exhibition, Excavations, was on view at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in fall 2025, and a current exhibition, The Art of Wangunk Elder Gary Red Oak O'Neil is on view at Wesleyan potters until March 22; This episode originally aired on August 22, 2025.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bradley Whitford, a classically trained stage actor, gained fame as “Josh Lyman,” on NBC's 'The West Wing,' which earned him his first Emmy award in 2001. He went on to win Emmys in 2015 and 2019 for his work in 'Transparent' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' and is grateful to have had the opportunity last year to direct the show's fifth season penultimate episode, “Allegiance.” He is currently filming “The Diplomat” alongside his West Wing co- star, Allison Janney. Whitford appeared in AMC's limited series 'Parish' alongside Giancarlo Esposito, a drama about a taxi driver whose life is upended after picking up a Zimbabwean gangster. He also starred in the independent film 'I'll Be Right' There with Edie Falco and completed work on Netflix's limited series 'The Madness,' opposite Colman Domingo. He is also known for his work in the Oscar-nominated films 'Get Out,' 'The Post,' 'Scent of a Woman,' and Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'tick, tick… BOOM!' Whitford also produced the documentary, 'Not Going Quietly,' about the life of progressive activist Ady Barkan. Other notable film credits include Warner Bros' 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters,' Disney's 'Saving Mr. Banks,' and HBO's Lyndon B. Johnson biopic, 'All The Way,' among many others.  TV credits include Apple TV+'s 'Echo 3,' NBC's 'Perfect Harmony,' which he executive produced and starred in; FOX/Netflix's 'Brookline Nine-Nine,' Showtime's 'Happy-ish,' ABC's 'Trophy Wife,' CBS' 'The Mentalist,' FOX's 'The Good Guys,' and NBC's 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,' among others. Growing up in Wisconsin, Whitford studied theater and English literature at Wesleyan University and attended the Juilliard Theater Center. He has appeared on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin's 'A Few Good Men' and in 'Boeing, Boeing' with Mark Rylance. Off-Broadway credits include 'Curse of the Starving Class,' 'Measure for Measure' at Lincoln Center, and 'Three Days of Rain' at Manhattan Theatre Club. Regional credits include the title role in 'Coriolanus' at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Oberon and Theseus in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Hartford Stage. In 2021, Whitford starred in the Old Vic's production of 'A Christmas Carol' at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles as “Ebenezer Scrooge.” Also at the Ahmanson, in 2023, Whitford recently played the scene-stealing “Narrator” in the hit farce 'Peter Pan Goes Wrong.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices