Colleen M. Grogan, "Grow and Hide: The History of America's Health Care State" (Oxford UP, 2023)
A sweeping history of the American health care state that reveals the public has been intentionally misled about the true role of government. The US government has always invested federal, state and l...
2 Aug 202340min
Powering American Farms: A Conversation with Richard Hirsh
Richard Hirsh, Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about his book, Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022), with Peoples & Things hos...
31 Jul 20231h 13min
Alice E. Marwick, "The Private Is Political: Networked Privacy and Social Media" (Yale UP, 2023)
Online privacy is under constant attack by social media and big data technologies. But we cannot rely on individual actions to remedy this—it is a matter of social justice. In The Private Is Politica...
30 Jul 202337min
When Did We See You a Stranger and Welcome You? (with Ben Metcalf)
The poor have always been with us, even in a rich country and a prosperous time. I ask Ben Metcalf, former Secretary of Housing and Community Development in California, about the challenges and succes...
27 Jul 202353min
Postscript: Is it Unconstitutional to Take Guns Away from Domestic Abusers?
The Supreme Court recently wrapped up their term – and announced that they will hear a very controversial case about domestic abuse, the power of Congress, and the right to keep and bear arms called U...
24 Jul 202354min
Brendan O'Brien, "Homesick: Why Housing Is Unaffordable and How We Can Change It" (Chicago Review Press, 2023)
Nobody who sits in traffic on Sedona, Arizona's main stretch or stands shoulder-to-shoulder in its many souvenir shops would call it a ghost town. Neither would anyone renting a room for $2,000 a mont...
18 Jul 202337min
Anne Phillips, "Unconditional Equals" (Princeton UP, 2021)
For centuries, ringing declarations about all men being created equal appealed to a shared human nature as the reason to consider ourselves equals. But appeals to natural equality invited gradations o...
18 Jul 202358min
Juliet Schor, "After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win It Back" (U California Press, 2021)
When the "sharing economy" launched a decade ago, proponents claimed that it would transform the experience of work--giving earners flexibility, autonomy, and a decent income. It was touted as a cure ...
17 Jul 202354min
