Naomi Hirahara, "Crown City (A Japantown Mystery)" (Soho Crime, 2026)
In Crown City (A Japantown Mystery)" (Soho Crime, 2026), Ryunosuke “Ryui Wada is orphaned at 18, with no family or path left in Japan. He’s lucky when merchants from the states pay for him to get to ...
23 Jun 28min
Why Democracy’s Troubles Should Come as No Surprise
Why have so many democracies become more polarized, unstable, and vulnerable to authoritarianism? And why did so many political observers fail to see it coming? In this episode of the People, Power, P...
23 Jun 0s
Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer, "Boundaries of Belonging: Sectarianism and Statecraft in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Examining sectarian divergence in the early modern Middle East, Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer's study provides a fresh perspective on the Sunni–Shi'i division. Drawing on Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Eu...
23 Jun 1h 14min
Rachael Renae, "Prioritize Play: Express Your Creativity, Boost Your Confidence, and Foster Deeper Connection" (Balance, 2026)
In Prioritize Play: Express Your Creativity, Boost Your Confidence, and Foster Deeper Connection (Balance, 2026), host of the Chaotic Creatives podcast and play enthusiast Rachael Renae reveals that p...
23 Jun 44min
A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero
In Jewish memory, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi were heretics, false messiahs who rebelled against the rabbis and against normative Judaism. But a funny thing happened in the nineteenth and early twentieth c...
22 Jun 1h 4min
Robin Dembroff, "Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality" (Oxford UP, 2026)
In Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality (Oxford University Press, 2026), Robin Dembroff shows us that we don't just live in a patriarchal world. We live in a world that patriarchy taugh...
22 Jun 0s
Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken (Sydney Anne Bennett): A Young Woman Facing A Neurological Disorder Is A Case Study In Theodicy
At age 22, Sydney’s Bennett’s brain stopped communicating with her body correctly; she was suffering from Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a condition in which the nervous system stops sending ...
22 Jun 42min
Olivia Rodrigo Blends Past and Present in Her New Album
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and today we react to Olivia Rodrigo's new album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. We analyze the lyrics and the aesthetics of the album, including the notab...
22 Jun 30min
