Will Jawando, "My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole" (FSG, 2022)
Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian na...
1 Aug 202248min
Paisley Currah, "Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity" (NYU Press, 2022)
Every government agency in the United States, from Homeland Security to Departments of Motor Vehicles, has the authority to make its own rules for sex classification. Many transgender people find them...
29 Jul 202231min
Erica Gies, "Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
Trouble with water – increasingly frequent, extreme floods and droughts – is one of the first obvious signs of climate change. Meanwhile, urban sprawl, industrial agriculture and engineered water infr...
29 Jul 202253min
Elisabeth R. Anker, "Ugly Freedom" (Duke UP, 2022)
Freedom is often considered the cornerstone of the American political project. The 1776 revolutionaries declared it an inalienable right that could neither be taken nor granted, a sacred concept upon ...
28 Jul 20221h
Anthony Abraham Jack, "The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students" (Harvard UP, 2019)
The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to adm...
28 Jul 202258min
Michael S. Roth, "Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses" (Yale UP, 2021)
From the president of Wesleyan University, a compassionate and provocative manifesto, Safe Enough Spaces (Yale UP, 2021) on the crises confronting higher education In this bracing book, Michael S. Rot...
27 Jul 202248min
Heejung Chung, "The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation" (Polity Press, 2022)
Why are we working harder? In The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads To (Self-)Exploitation (Polity Press, 2022), Heejung Chung, a professor of sociology and social policy at the Universi...
26 Jul 202239min
The Grift of Meritocracy: All About Grifting (Inside and Outside of the Academy)
Our society is dominated by grifters. Cheats, cons, frauds: people who don’t really believe what they tell you. They’re just what they need to do to get ahead or to sell you something. Isn’t that that...
26 Jul 202255min
