New Books Network

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New Books Network episodes

July 18 Ambrogio Caiani, "Flirting with Evil: The Catholic Church in the Age of Total War and Globalisation" (Apollo, 2026)
It's a shadowy, ornate world of cover-ups and hidden motives. In Flirting with Evil: The Catholic Church in the Age of Total War and Globalisation (Apollo, 2026), Ambrogio Caiani lifts back the heavy velvet curtains of thechancel and peers behind the locked mahogany doors of the Vatican to reveal the shocking truths that make up a century of Catholic corruption.
For
many, Catholicism's flirtation with evil has become impossible to
ignore: a pope courting Nazi officials and, horribly, turning a blind
eye to the Holocaust; the Vatican becoming embroiled in a series of
dodgy financial dealings; the child abuse continuously perpetrated by
members of the clergy. Time and time again, Catholic figures have made
terrible choices in private and preached in public about goodness and
morality.
This is the first history that focuses exclusively on
Catholicism throughout the twentieth century, sketching not only
scandalous stories of corruption but also lively portrayals of
Catholicism's key characters—from a beret-clad communist revolutionary
priest to the bizarre morning routine of the pope who followed a daily
cold bath with dry unbuttered toast. Caiani, a critical Catholic
himself, takes a frank and sceptical look at the trajectory of global
Catholicism and wrestles with vital questions about the future of the
church. Taking in the wider socio-political contexts of a world at war
and the accumulating momentum of social progress, this brilliant
history traces the evolution of the Catholic church alongside the
development of our modern society right up to the election of Pope Leo
XIV in 2025.
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1 hr 5 min
July 18 Angela Frederick, "Disabled Power: A Storm, A Grid, and Embodied Harm in the Age of Disaster" (NYU Press, 2025)
A call to place disability at the center of climate and disaster responses
Every disaster is a disability disaster, argues Angela Frederick. Disabled Power: A Storm, A Grid, and Embodied Harm in the Age of Disaster (NYU Press, 2025) tells the stories of Texans with disabilities who endured the 2021 Texas power crisis, which forced millions of Texas residents to endure a dayslong winter storm without heat or water. Based on 58 in-depth interviews with disabled Texans and parents of disabled children, Frederick highlights how disabled people and those with chronic health conditions are uniquely harmed when basic infrastructure such as power and water systems fail. She argues that the vulnerability people with disabilities experienced during this disaster was not an inevitable consequence of individual disabled bodies. Rather, disability vulnerability was “produced” by policies that “disabled” vital infrastructure.
Frederick also emphasizes another meaning of the phrase “disabled power:” the individual and collective resilience and creativity Texans with disabilities exercised to survive the disaster. Despite common perceptions of people with disabilities as passive victims, Frederick shows how many found strategies to survive and to provide and receive care within their communities. Ultimately, the implications of this disaster extend far beyond Texas and underscore our increased vulnerability to infrastructural failures as extreme weather events become more common. Disabled Power offers a blueprint for reimagining vulnerability and resilience to center people with disabilities in disaster research and emergency response.
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37 min
July 18 Laura B. McGrath, "Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction" (Princeton UP, 2026)
In this interview, we speak with Laura B. McGrath, an Assistant Professor of English at Temple University and the author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction (Princeton University Press, 2026). Her writings have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and The Atlantic.
Middlemen rewrites
literary history from the perspective of one of its most important but
least visible figures: the literary agent. Chronicling the story of
agents in the United States from the 1950s to today, Laura McGrath
uncovers their critical role in the making of American literature. From
the famed three-martini lunch to the Frankfurt Book Fair, Middlemen
takes readers behind the scenes to show how agents influence what we
read. Along the way, it explains why many debut novelists never publish
another book, why agents champion short story collections even though
they sell poorly, how agents advocate for writers of color in a system
that values whiteness, and why there are so many New York novels.
Weaving
together original archival research, data analysis, and interviews with
scores of agents and other publishing professionals, Middlemen demonstrates
that agents—eighty percent of whom are in fact women—are much more than
“middlemen.” As intermediaries between author and publisher, agents act
as advocates, matchmakers, negotiators, and tastemakers, and they must
balance artistic values with the commercial imperatives of publishing
conglomerates. The book describes the decisive role agents have played
in celebrated novels—from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist—but
also in the creation of entire literary categories like the debut
novel, the story collection, postmodernism, multiethnic fiction, and
world literature.
Featuring profiles of agents past and present
such as Sterling Lord, Lynn Nesbit, Candida Donadio, Marie Brown, and
Andrew Wylie, along with perspectives from agents at all stages of their
careers, Middlemen is an entertaining and eye-opening account of how literary fiction—and the literary canon—is made.
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1 hr 4 min
July 18 Gretchen Heefner, "Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Deserts,
the Arctic, outer space—these extreme environments are often seen as
inhospitable places at the edges of our maps. But from the 1940s through
the 1960s, spurred by the diverse and unfamiliar regions the US
military had navigated during World War II, the United States defense
establishment took a keen interest in these places, dispatching troops
to the Aleutian Islands, North Africa, the South Pacific, and beyond. To
preserve the country’s status as a superpower after the war, to pave
runways and build bridges, engineers had to understand and then conquer
dunes, permafrost, and even the surface of the moon.
Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments
(University of Chicago Press, 2025) by Dr. Gretchen Heefner explores
how the US military generated a new understanding of these environments
and attempted
to master them, intending to cement America’s planetary power.
Operating in these regions depended as much on scientific and cultural
knowledge as on military expertise
and technology. From General George S. Patton learning the hard way
that the desert is not always hot, to the challenges of constructing a
scientific research base under the Arctic ice, to the sheer
implausibility of modeling
Martian environments on Earth, Dr. Heefner takes us on a wry expedition
into the extremes and introduces us to the people who have shaped our
insight into these extraordinary environments. Even decades after the
first manned space flight,
plans for human space exploration and extraplanetary colonization are
still based on what we know about stark habitats on Earth.
An entertaining survey of the relationship between environmental history and military might, Sand, Snow, and Stardust
also serves as a warning about the further transformation of the
planet—whether through desertification, melting ice caps, or attempts to
escape it entirely.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
51 min
July 18 Bradford A. Bouley, "The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)
In 1644 four norcini
or pork butchers were accused of killing not pigs, but seven of their
fellow citizens, stripping the meat from the bones, then combining it
with pig to make sausages, which were then sold to Romans from their
shop behind the Pantheon. In the multiple pamphlets describing this
supposed crime, the authors of this accusation blamed residents of Rome
themselves, who had become so obsessed with meat that they turned a
blind eye to
such horrendous acts. This fabricated story points to an underlying
reality—that in the early seventeenth century, a series of popes
dramatically increased the amount of food and wine consumed by Romans,
culminating in a per capita consumption of over a pound of meat per day
during the reign of Pope Urban VIII (d. 1644).
The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy (University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2026) traces the efforts and
activities of a range of actors who strove to bring meat to the Roman
table. Dr. Bradford A. Bouley shows how Rome’s preoccupation with food
was the result of papal policy in the aftermath of the Reformation;
food, and especially meat, served as religious and political propaganda,
symbolizing the correctness of the Catholic faith and demonstrating the
extent of papal power. Dr. Bouley details the dramatic reorganization
of Roman foodways needed to satisfy this demand for meat, as large herds
of animals had to be funneled from the countryside to the city. This
consumption was ultimately not sustainable, triggering a crisis that
fueled sensational rumors
of murder and cannibalism and eventually, Dr. Bouley contends, sparked
the outbreak of civil war, as vassals rebelled against papal oversight.

The Barberini Butchers
recovers this significant episode in food, environmental, and cultural
history, one that brings early modern politics and history into
conversation with concerns over human use of natural resources and
consumption of animal products that continue to resonate clearly today.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
50 min
July 17 Susanne Paola Antonetta, "The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today" (Catapult, 2025)
The Devil’s Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today (Catapult, 2025) delves into the forgotten history of eugenics and links it to present-day psychiatry to explain how we as a culture continue to get mind care so wrong.
In The Devil’s Castle, Susanne Paola Antonetta weaves a haunting narrative that confronts the darkest chapters of psychiatric history while offering a bold vision for the future of mental health care. In 1939, the eugenics movement growing throughout the West did its worst in Nazi Germany. Through the Aktion T4 euthanasia program, five asylums and an abandoned jail were transformed into gas chambers. Tens of thousands of lives—predominantly adults with neuropsychiatric conditions—were extinguished in those structures, ultimately paving the way for the horrors of the Holocaust.
Interlacing her experiences of psychosis with the complex history of psychiatry, Antonetta sheds light on the intersections of madness and societal perceptions of mental difference. She brings to life the stories of Paul Schreber and Dorothea Buck, two historical figures who act as models for mind care and acceptance. This gripping exploration traverses the spectrum of neurodiversity, from the devastating consequences of dehumanization to the transformative potential of understanding and acceptance.
With The Devil’s Castle, Antonetta not only unearths the failures of our past, but also envisions a more compassionate, enlightened approach to consciousness and mental health care. This is a story of tragedy, resilience, and hope—a rallying cry for change that dares to challenge the limits of how we define and support the human mind.
Susanne Paola Antonetta is the author of The Devil's Castle: Eugenics, Nazi Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Hurts Us Now. She is also the author of The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here, Make Me a Mother, Entangled Objects, Body Toxic, A Mind Apart, and four books of poetry. Her awards include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, an Amazon Best Memoir of the Year award, and others. Her essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, Ms., The Huffington Post, The UK Independent, The Hill, Orion, Psychology Today, and The New Republic and have been featured on CNN as well as the CBC Ideas documentary series. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
For more information about her work please visit her website here and sign up for notifications about her regular contributions to Psychology Today.
Elizabeth Cronin, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and mindfulness meditation teacher in Massachusetts. You can follow her on Instagram, Insight Timer, YouTube (@drelizabethcronin) or visit her website.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
1 hr 3 min
July 17 Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, "Animals and the Right to Politics" (Oxford UP, 2026)
The assumption that only humans can engage in politics—that only
humans are 'zoon politikon'—is foundational to the Western tradition of
political philosophy. While there is increasing recognition of animals'
moral status (both within moral philosophy and at the level of public
opinion), animals are not recognized as political subjects. This
carefully researched but accessibly written volume—following on from the
authors' earlier book Zoopolis—argues that animals too have a
right to politics: a right to be recognized as political subjects and
agents, and as members of political communities entitled to collective
self-determination. ⁠Animals and the Right to Politics⁠
(Oxford University Press, 2026) draws on recent scientific work on
animal societies, cultures, and decision-making, as well as recent work
by political theorists rethinking ideas of agency and
community—especially the significance of emplaced and embodied
encounters and relationships to the activity of politics. Sue Donaldson
and Will Kymlicka draw a picture of what it would mean to create spaces
and practices, not only for politics conducted by humans on behalf of
animals, but also politics with and by animals on their own terms. It
then explores how this approach could inform a wide range of
contemporary debates in human-animal relations, including wildlife
conservation, urban planning, and animal labour.
⁠Sue Donaldson⁠
is a Canadian author and animal advocate. She has published more than
40 academic articles, and is the co-author, with Will Kymlicka, of Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights
(Oxford University Press, 2011) which won the Canadian Philosophical
Association Book Prize in 2013, and has been translated into 11
languages. She is co-convenor of the Animals in Philosophy, Politics,
Law and Ethics research group at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
⁠Will Kymlicka⁠ is the author of seven books published by Oxford University Press, including Contemporary Political Philosophy (2nd ed., 2001), Multicultural Citizenship (1996), and Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights
(co-authored with Sue Donaldson; 2011). He is currently the Canada
Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University, a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Institute for
Advanced Research, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a
Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. His works have been
translated into 34 languages.
⁠Kyle Johannsen⁠ is Sessional Faculty Member in the Department of Philosophy at Trent University. His most recent authored book is Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering (Routledge, 2021).
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
1 hr 49 min
July 17 Rory Cormac, "Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line (Oxford UP, 2026) reveals the rise and fall of the mavericks running Britain's Cold War forgery empire. Their secret mission was audacious: to disrupt and discredit adversaries across the world using phantom groups, fake sources, and counterfeit documents.
The leader was a remarkable character, wrestling with personal and professional dilemmas: Hans Welser. An Austrian refugee and one-time MI5 suspect interned behind barbed wire, Welser was a great survivor who rose to become special operations adviser to the Foreign Office, working hand in glove with MI6. His second in command was an eccentric, hard drinking, and high-flying journalist-turned-propagandist called John Rayner. Brought out of semi-retirement, for one final posting. Their team of bowler-hatted refugees, voluble ex-journalists, trailblazing women, and licentious literary sorts navigated loyalty and betrayal — both professionally and romantically — from the diplomats' attic, in the most sensitive part of the Foreign Office's secret propaganda department.
The newly declassified files expose an array of plots, some comically absurd and others dangerously controversial. The forgery empire impersonated everything from hippies and ghosts to Islamists and ballet composers in their campaign to smear hostile politicians, stir tensions among adversaries, and even stymie the career of a contentious British historian. All took place against a high stakes backdrop — both overseas as states competed beneath the looming threat of nuclear war and in the corridors of power at home where grey-suited bureaucrats circled, keen to shut down the team for good.
With timely insight into how propaganda works and how to respond to disinformation, Fakers is a thrilling journey into a secret world where nothing was as it seemed.
Rory Cormac is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
1 hr
July 17 Paul Stangl, "San Francisco Seafood: A History from Ocean to Table" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
For early San Franciscans, seafood was an important source of
nutrition and a feature of social life, inspiring culinary developments
that remain components in California cuisine more than a century later.
Consumers interested in flavorful alternatives to meat and associated
health benefits could follow recipes for nearly fifty types of marine
life from state waters, such as salmon, flounder, and oysters. Others
are no longer available, out-of-vogue, or simply forgotten. Further,
overfishing and environmental damage decimated many local seafood
stocks, providing a cautionary tale with global significance.
In San Francisco Seafood: A History from Ocean to Table (Bloomsbury,
2026), Dr. Paul Stangl traces the development of San Francisco's
fisheries, seafood markets, cookery, and dining culture from the Gold
Rush to the 1920s. Migrants from around the world imported fishing
techniques and cuisines, then slowly adapted as they came to understand
local resources and each other. Newcomers found the tastiest fish
through trial and error and assimilated the “best” into a new cuisine.
Different ethnic and occupational groups collaborated, fought, and
learned from one another as they irreversibly altered the natural world
around them. By the end of the First World War, San Francisco's seafood
cuisine scarcely resembled that of the 1850s, due to cultural
adaptation, technological advancements, and changes to the natural
environment. It was no longer derivative of New England and France, but
included influences from the Southern states, Asia, and South America.San Francisco Seafood
chronicles the city's transformation from a fish-barren town-where
restaurants served canned, pickled, and dried fish from the East
Coast-to a seafood-rich metropolis that harvested seafood from Mexico to
Alaska. He emphasizes how the impacts on nature and local labor serve
as a necessary cautionary tale for today's global seafood trade. This is
a thorough and insightful history of a once emerging, and now
essential, cuisine for food and history buffs alike.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
1 hr 5 min
July 17 Fenwick McKelvey, "SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers" (MIT Press, 2026)
This book is available open access.
For
more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will
revolutionize politics, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers
(MIT Press, 2026), Dr. Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of
politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how
programmers, consultants, academics, political scientists, and peace
activists all worked—sometimes in tandem, sometimes not—to build
simulations to win campaigns, predict coups, forecast the future, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet.
Drawing
on novel archival and historical research, Dr. McKelvey recounts the
history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections,
voters, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United
States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international
affairs, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the
two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of
exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics, while
presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
52 min