In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nathan Thrall about Palestinians living in Jerusalem. They discuss using narrative to discuss the Palestinian experience in Jerusalem, provide an overview of the geography, wall, and West Bank. They talk about sovereign rights, home, color ID cards for Palestinians in the West Bank, 1st intifada of 1987, October 7, future of Israel-Palestine relations, and many other topics.

Nathan Thrall is is an American writer living in Jerusalem. In 2024, he received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of. A Jerusalem Tragedy. An international bestseller, it was translated into more than two dozen languages, selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and named a best book of the year by over twenty publications, including The New Yorker, The Economist, and Time. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Review of Books and has been cited in the United Nations Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council, as well as in reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. His books have been longlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize and the PEN Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, selected as a finalist for The Moore Prize, and shortlisted for The Orwell Prize. His commentary is often featured in print and broadcast media, including the Associated Press, BBC, CNN, Democracy Now!, The Economist, Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, PRI, Reuters, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Website: https://www.nathanthrall.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lauren Oakes about forest and trees and the impact of climate change. They talk about the Global Tree Restoration study of 2019, impact of forests on the planet, and how we obtain data on forests. They talk about what is a forest, reforestation and afforestation, forest transition, and the Carboniferous period. They talk about the Land Gap Report, carbon accounting, offsets, incentive structures, ecosystem services, urban forests, and many more topics.

Lauren E. Oakes is an ecologist and writer who writes on forests, climate, the complex relationship humans have with nature. She has her Ph.D. from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for Environment and Resources at Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Emergence Magazine, Nautilus and other media outlets. Her first book, In Search of the Canary Tree, was selected as one of Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2018. In 2019, it won second place for the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was a finalist for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award. She is the author of the most recent book, Treekeepers.

Website: https://leoakes.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michel Brahic about prions. They provide an overview of proteins, prion proteins, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and importance of cells and ribosomes. They also talk about neuroanatomical regions relevant for prions, Lewy Body, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, memory, future of medical research, and many more topics.

Michel Brahic, an expert in viral and prion infections of the brain, is Professeur Honoraire at Institut Pasteur in Paris. He has been Directeur de Recherche at CNRS and Consulting Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. His work has been published in Nature, Cell, New Scientist, and other journals. He is the author of the latest book, The Power of Prions: The Strange and Essential Proteins that can cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sarah B. Hrdy about a natural history of fathers. They discuss fathers as caregivers, different roles, role of prolactin with male care, decrease of testosterone in new fathers, alloparenting, grandmother hypothesis, attachment in fathers, fatherhood in the 21st century, and many more topics.

Sarah B. Hrdy is an anthropologist and primatologist who is professor emerita at the University of California-Davis. She has her PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. She is a former Guggenheim fellow and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the California Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. She is the author of numerous award-winning books such as That Woman That Never Evolved, Mother Nature, Mothers and Others, and her most recent, Father Time.

Website: https://www.citrona.com/hrdy

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Geoffrey Wawro about the Vietnam War. They discuss why the U.S. chose to get involved in Vietnam, Eisenhower’s approach, JFK’s approach, and the attempted coups in Vietnam. They talk about the domino theory, McNamara, U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1964/1965, the draft, high casualties of 1967/1968, public sentiment, LBJ not running for re-election, Nixon’s approach, legacy of the Vietnam War, and many other topics.

Geoffrey Wawro is Distinguished Research Professor of Military History and Founding Director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas. He has previously served as professor of strategy & policy, and strategic studies at the U.S. Naval War College and was a Fullbright Scholar in Vienna. He has his Bachelors from Brown University, his MPhil and PhD from Yale University. He is the author of several books, including the most recent, The Vietnam War: A Military History.

Website: https://geoffreywawro.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Lloyd about the Eastern Front of World War I. They discuss the Eastern Front and why it has been neglected in popular understanding, major players and landscape of the Eastern Front, and the role of Galicia. They discuss 1915 and fall of Serbia, impact of the Russian Revolution, final years of the war, and many more topics.

Nick Lloyd is Professor of Modern Warfare at King's College London based at the Joint Services Command & Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshire. He has PhD from the University of Birmingham. He is the author of five books including the most recent book, The Eastern Front: A History of The Great War, 1914-1918.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robin Waterfield about his new English translation of Aesop’s Fables. They discuss the timeless nature of Aesop’s fables, translating the fables, selecting the 400 fables, and authorship of the fables. They also discuss categorizing the fables, their structure, morals and ethics in the fables, comparisons with other fables, and many other topics.

Robin Waterfield is a British classical scholar, translator, and editor, specializing in Ancient Greek philosophy. He has written and/or translated many works, including the recent English translation of Aesop’s Fables.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paula Fredriksen about the various Christianities in the early 1st and 2nd centuries. They discuss how there are many Christianities, contradictions within the New Testament, integration of Jews and pagans in the Mediterranean in the 1st century, and Jewish diaspora. They also talk about the crucifixion of Jesus, the idea of Israel, and persecution of early Christians. They discuss early eschatology, early church fathers, Constantine, Asceticism, and many more topics.

Paula Fredriksen is fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University and Distinguished Visiting Professor emerita in the Department of Comparative Religions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has degrees from Wellesley College, Oxford University and Princeton University and is published widely on the social and intellectual history of ancient Christianity and on pagan-Jewish-Christian relations in the Roman Empire. She is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ben Goldfarb about road ecology. They define road ecology, discuss current landscape of roadways in the U.S., and discuss road crossings. They talk about the human impact of animal roadkill, Banff National park, current state of road crossings, Federal and State involvement, road crossings in cities, future of road crossings, and many more topics.

Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist who has written fiction and non-fiction in various outlets such as The Atlantic, Science, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Guardian, Outside Magazine, Smithsonian, Audubon Magazine, Scientific American, and other publications. His non-fiction work was also anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is the author Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and the recent book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet, named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times.

Website: https://www.bengoldfarb.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alex Christofi about the history of Cyprus. They discuss Cypriot identity, Greek and Turkish involvement, and the origins and mythology of Cyprus. They talk about olive culture and royal purple, Cyprus in the Bible, Islam, the Ottomans, British involvement, independence, the 1974 coup d’etat, present and future of Cyprus, and many more topics.

Alex Christofi is Editorial Director at Transworld Publishers. He is the author of numerous essays, reviews, and short pieces that have appeared in the Guardian, New Humanist, Prospect, New European, The White Review, The Brixton Review of Books and The London Magazine. He is the author of Dostoevsky In Love and the latest, Cypria: A Journey to the heart of the Mediterranean.

Website: https://alexchristofi.com/