Love and Literature

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Rachel Rodgers.

Dr. Rachel Rodergs is an associate professor at the Northeastern University at the College of Health and Sciences. Her interests areas are body image, disordered eating and adolescent/young adult psychopathology, in particular focusing on socio-cultural influences on body image and eating concerns. Her research aims both to examine socio-cultural determinants of health-related behaviors but also to generate research which may inform public policy. She is the author of over 50 journal articles and book chapters.

In today's episode, she will be telling us more about the body image of ourselves in relation to social media.

Thank you Dr. Rachel Rodgers and thank you all for listening!

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Judy Young.

Young is an Australian-born performance artists based in Amsterdam. She has a Bachelor degree in Performance Studies from Curtin University, Australia and Kingston University, London. She currently studies TCM at Shenzhou University in Amsterdam (2025-2027). Additionally, she has founded Young Hoops in 2017 blending theatre, circus and poetic storytelling to create performances and immersive shows. Her artistic vision is deeply influenced by Yin Yang philosophy and cultural community awareness, shaped by her Asian-Western heritage.

In today's episode, she will be telling us about Chinese Medicine and her experiences with love.

Thank you Judy Young and thank you all for listening.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Thomas Palaima.

Thomas G. Palaima is a Mycenologist, the Robert Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics emeritus and the founding director of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP) at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States. He is now Rawson Visiting Scholar of Classics at the University of Cincinnati where the extensive PASP archives have a permanent home. His knowledge and expertise are broad and diverse including: his own poems, scholarly articles on Mycenaean and classical Greek texts, many, many commentaries and book reviews on history and contemporary culture, on Bob Dylan's music, and on the human experience of war and violence. On this episode he will be guiding and providing us with an understanding of love in the ancient times in history. I would like to thank Professor Thomas Palaima for his time, dedication and knowledge and thank you all for listening.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jeroen Kooijmans.

Jeroen Kooijmans (born 1967, Schijndel, The Netherlands) is a renowned artist and filmmaker whose work is at the intersection of art and cinema. With a passion for visual storytelling and a unique artistic vision, he has built a multifaceted career interweaving both visual art and film.

In this episode, his latest film LOVE 22 LOVE is being discussed and explored as a navigation for love.

I would like to thank all of your for listening and thank you Jeroen Kooijmans

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Desta Haile.

Bangkok-born British-Eritrean, Desta is a vocalist, educator, researcher, and Creative Director of Languages through Music. She has build cross-cultural, multilingual, creative learning experiences rooted in social justice, won prizes for her writing, started a business and beyond all is spreading her passion and love.

In this episode, she explains how her journey of going through archives, which took longer than 10 years, has been an act of love and creativity.

I would like to thank all of your for listening and thank you Desta Haile.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Rupankar Dey.

Rupankar Dey is a doctoral researcher whose qualitative work explores sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among people with diverse disabilities living in Uganda’s island communities, with case studies from Kalangala and Buvuma Islands on Lake Victoria. Drawing on in-depth interviews and lived experiences, his research examines how the unique spatial and socioeconomic realities of island life intersect with disability, gender, sexuality, and class to shape sexual and reproductive lives, opportunities, and rights.

In this episode, we will discuss what love means in relation to his research field and how it acts as a form of power.

Thank you, Rupankar Dey, and thank you all for listening.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jacqueline Olds.

Jacqueline Olds is an associate Professor of Psychiatry at the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.  She has worked at McLean actively since 1974, when she started her child psychiatry fellowship. She had a full-time job in child psychiatry until 1980, and then became a part-time teacher in both the adult and child residency programs until the present. Dr. Olds also has a psychiatry practice in Cambridge, as well as a creative partnership with her husband, Dr. Richard Schwartz, in which they have written three books and made one patented invention.

In this episode, she will talk about the emotion of love and what it does to the brain.

Thank you, Dr. Olds, and thank you all for listening.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jorim Tielbeek.

Jorim Tielbeek is an Assistant Professor at Amsterdam UMC, affiliated with the VU University, and works in the Department of Psychiatry. His research focuses include neuroscience and criminology, and he has been recognized for his educational contributions, such as coordinating an honours programme under the title "The art and science of loving". This course aims to reclaim love as a deliberate practice: one that can shape how we lead, relate and create change together.

In this episode, we talk about Erich Fromm's international bestseller "The art of loving" as well as the course that Jorim Tielbeek organized and additional conversations regarding the art of love.

Thank you all for listening, and thank you Jorim Tielbeek!

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak to Victoria Rowe Holbrook.

Victoria Rowe Holbrook is a scholar and translator and has taught various courses at different universities worldwide.  She has studied at Harvard and Princeton, obtaining a PhD from the latter in 1985. Her research areas include philosophy, surrealism, world literature, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Studies, Islamic Philosophy, Plato and Platonism, and many more.

Her speciality in Seyh Galip has led her to translate his work into English, titled "Beauty and Love". This work of hers will be discussed along with the diverse paths in her life.

Thank you all for listening, and a special thanks to Victoria Rowe Holbrook.

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak to Imke Rietdijk.

Imke Rietdijk is an art historian and is currently working in the cultural field. She has received a bachelor's degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands and completed her master's degree in Edinburgh. Her focus in art revolves mainly around modern and contemporary art.

In this episode, Imke will be exploring two artworks: Gustav Klimt's Kiss and Rodin's sculpture, The Kiss. Both works will be analyzed and looked into. Since this episode talks about these art pieces, it might be useful to look both of the works up.

Thank you all for listening and thank you Imke.