Foreign Exchanges: the Podcast

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Stories from Israel-Palestine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, and elsewhere

The Left had little influence on Joe Biden's foreign policy and will have none over the next four years. How can leftists build the capacity to carry a foreign policy message into 2026 and beyond?

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and elsewhere

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere

Stories from Syria, Sudan, Austria, and elsewhere

Hello Foreign Exchanges fans and welcome to another entry in our very irregular podcast series! This time around I’m delighted to welcome to the show Dr. Eleanor Janega. Dr. Janega is a medieval historian, specializing in sexuality, propaganda, apocalypticism, urbanity, and empire in the late medieval and early modern periods. You may have heard her on one of her popular history podcasts, Gone Medieval and We’re Not So Different (check out their fantastic two part Ibn Battuta program) and her many guest appearances on other shows (like American Prestige, not once but twice), or read her blog, Going Medieval. She is also author of The Middle Ages: A Graphic History and the book we’re talking about in this interview, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society. We’ll talk about women in medieval literature, whether women are actually inside-out men, and how babies are really made. And we’ll talk a lot about medieval men being weird about women. So very, very weird. We’ll also discuss how life for modern women has, and has not, changed. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Jake Aron of American Prestige for producing the show, and as always our music is Cambodian Odyssey by Kevin Macleod (CC by 3.0).

Please pick up Dr. Janega’s book, available now in hardcover and paperback as well as audiobook. And if you haven’t checked out Foreign Exchanges please do that too:

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine, and elsewhere

Stories from Syria, South Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere

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