New Books Network
Science, Technology, and Society
Christian Studies February 26, 2021

@ Worship

Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds

Teresa Berger

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Digital dualism, or a sharp division between online and offline activity as "virtual" or "real" has long been a feature of liturgical studies and discussions around worship gatherings for theorists and …

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National Security February 26, 2021

Reset

Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society

Ronald J. Deibert

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
Ronald Deibert is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and the Director of The Citizen Lab, a public interest research organization that uncovers privacy and human …
Science February 25, 2021

Gory Details

Adventures from the Dark Side of Science

Erika Engelhaupt

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Would your dog eat you if you died? What are face mites? Why do clowns creep us out? In this illuminating collection of grisly true science stories, journalist Erika Engelhaupt …
Neuroscience February 24, 2021

The Puzzle Solver

A Scientist's Desperate Hunt to Cure the Illness That Stole His Son

Tracie White and Ronald W. Davis

Hosted by Victoria Reedman
Based on a viral article, the gripping medical mystery story of Ron Davis, a world-class Stanford geneticist who has put his career on the line to find the cure for …
Science, Technology, and Society February 24, 2021

The Innovation Delusion

How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most

Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell

Hosted by Matthew Jordan
It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto …
Science February 22, 2021

Viral BS

Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them

Seema Yasmin

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Can your zip code predict when you will die? Should you space out childhood vaccines? Does talcum powder cause cancer? Why do some doctors recommend e-cigarettes while other doctors recommend …
Medicine February 19, 2021

The Filth Disease

Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England

Jacob Steere-Williams

Hosted by Claire Clark
Typhoid fever is a food- and water-borne infectious disease that was insidious and omnipresent in Victorian Britain. It was one of the most prolific diseases of the Industrial Revolution. There …
National Security February 18, 2021

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

The Cyberweapons Arms Race

Nicole Perlroth

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
For years, cybersecurity experts have debated whether cyber-weapons represent a destabilizing new military technology or merely the newest tool in the spy’s arsenal. In This Is How They Tell Me …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight February 18, 2021

Probable Impossibilities

Musings on Beginnings and Endings

Alan Lightman

Hosted by Dan Hill
Imagination with a Straight Jacket Alan Lightman is a writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and …
Economics February 18, 2021

The Spotify Play

How CEO and Founder Daniel Ek Beat Apple, Google, and Amazon in the Race for Audio Dominance

Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud

Hosted by Tim Jones
Fifteen years ago in Stockholm, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon had a big idea. The music industry was playing a desperate game of whack-a-mole with piracy via file sharing but …
Neuroscience February 17, 2021

On Task

How Our Brain Gets Things Done

David Badre

Hosted by Joseph Fridman
On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done (Princeton UP, 2020) is a look at the extraordinary ways the brain turns thoughts into actions—and how this shapes our everyday lives.  …
Animal Studies February 17, 2021

Phallacy

Life Lessons from the Animal Penis

Emily Willingham

Hosted by Emily Anthes
The fallacy sold to many of us is that the penis signals dominance and power. But this wry and penetrating book reveals that in fact nature did not shape the …
History February 16, 2021

Forbidden Knowledge

Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy

Hannah Marcus

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we speak to Hannah Marcus, Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about her new monograph, Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science …
Biography February 16, 2021

Vera Rubin

A Life

Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Few astronomers in the 20th century did as much to expand our understanding of the universe as Vera Rubin. To tell her remarkable story in their biography Vera Rubin: A …
Communications February 12, 2021

How Information Warfare Shaped the Arab Spring

The Politics of Narrative in Egypt and Tunisia

Nathaniel Greenberg

Hosted by Marci Mazzarotto
On January 28 2011 WikiLeaks released documents from a cache of US State Department cables stolen the previous year. The Daily Telegraph in London published one of the memos with …
History February 12, 2021

A History of the 20th Century

Conflict, Technology & Rock'n'roll

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Jeremy Black – professor of history at Exeter University, and one of the world’s most prolific writers – has just published an outstanding illustrated history of the twentieth century, in A …
Medicine February 10, 2021

The Future of Brain Repair

A Realist`s Guide to Stem Cell Therapy

Jack Price

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
A scientist assesses the potential of stem cell therapies for treating such brain disorders as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Stem cell therapies are the subject of enormous hype …
National Security February 10, 2021

How to Lose the Information War

Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict

Nina Jankowicz

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
Barely a month after the riot on the Capitol Building, the United States is no more adept at fending off foreign information operations than it was four years ago, when …
Science February 8, 2021

The Experimental Fire

Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700

Jennifer M. Rampling

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
A four-hundred-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. Tracing the development of alchemy in England from the beginning of …
Animal Studies February 5, 2021

A Plea for the Animals

The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion

Matthieu Ricard

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Today I talked to Matthieu Ricard about two books. The first is A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion (Shambhala, 2016) It is a …