From Public Books and Type Media Center, this is Primary Sources, the show where writers and intellectuals talk about some of the greatest influences on their work. Primary Sources is hosted by Eyal Press.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is best known for his writing about racism in America – in particular, his 2014 essay “The Case for Reparations,” and his 2015 book, Between the World and Me. Ta-Nehisi's readers know that the toll racism has inflicted on the bodies of Black people, and the enduring power of white supremacy, have long preoccupied him. On this show, however, he’ll be talking about a subject—or rather an influence—that few people associate with his work.

That influence is the late Tony Judt, a British historian. In 2005, Judt published his magnum opus, Postwar, a sweeping, 933-page history of modern Europe.

In this conversation, which was recorded last fall, Ta-Nehisi talks about why Postwar had such a profound impact on him. He explores the preface he wrote to Ill Fares the Land, another of Judt's books, which has just been reissued by Penguin. He also talks about the power of language to help us imagine a better world, whether he identifies as an Afro-pessimist, and what it’s like to grow up in a nationalist household.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

This season, Public Books is partnering with Novel Dialogue, a podcast where a novelist and a literary critic talk about novels from every angle: how we read them, write them, publish them, and remember them. 

Originally founded and hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz, Novel Dialogue is introducing some fresh new voices into the mix. This season, John and Aarthi welcome Chris Holmes, Emily Hyde, Tara Menon, and Sarah Wasserman as guest hosts. And they have brought a series of scintillating conversations with them!

In our series premiere, Sarah sits down with acclaimed novelist Chang-rae Lee and Anne Anlin Cheng, renowned scholar of American literature and visual culture at Princeton. The conversation goes small and goes big: from the shortest short story to the totalizing effects of capitalism.

To listen to the rest of the season, subscribe to Novel Dialogue on Apple, Spotify, or Stitcher. 

In the final episode of our season, "Becoming Data," scholars Sareeta Amrute and Emiliano Treré join our host, Natalie Kerby, to discuss the concept and lived reality of racial capitalism. The episode explores how data-centric systems perpetuate racial capitalism, and how different communities, particularly in the Global South, have resisted this datafication.

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Scholars Laura Forlano and Ranjit Singh join our host, Natalie Kerby, to explore the different infrastructures that data interacts with and flows through. Whose values get embedded into the algorithms that increasingly govern our lives? How are these data infrastructures complicating what it means to be human? 

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Researchers Arthur Gwagwa and Deb Raji join our host, Natalie Kerby, to discuss data, AI, and automation, and the different ways they operate across geopolitical contexts such as the US and Africa. The episode covers not only the harms that can result from these systems, but also how we might address and prevent those harms.

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Interdisciplinary researcher Shaka McGlotten and scholar/activist Chris Ramsaroop join our host, Natalie Kerby, to discuss data in the context of labor. The episode addresses the historical ways that data has been used to organize labor and the different ways that people, and more specifically workers, are resisting datafication.

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

In the first episode of our new season, "Becoming Data," artist Mimi Onuoha and data journalist Lam Thuy Vo join our host, Natalie Kerby, to consider what is lost when human life becomes translated into data. How do people show up in data, and what are some of the inequalities that result from data collection?

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Welcome to season 3 of Public Books 101! This season, “Becoming Data,” is produced in partnership with Data & Society, a research institute that studies the social implications of data-centric technologies and automation. Our host is Natalie Kerby, a media producer, editor, researcher, and currently, the digital content associate at Data & Society.

How long has human life been quantified as data, and in what contexts? What are some major implications of humanity being measured as data? How are people pushing back against the datafication of human life, work, health, and citizenship? With her guests, Natalie will be exploring these questions and more.

This season, "Becoming Data," is a partnership between the magazine Public Books and the research institution Data & Society. Follow us on Twitter @PublicBooks and @DataSociety.

Two emergency-room physicians, Dr. Jay Baruch and Dr. Rishi Goyal, join our host, Nicholas Dames, to consider how novels can inform the practice of medicine.

When a patient enters the ER, they may be experiencing one of the most dramatic moments in their life story. For the doctor, it may be just one of many cases they'll encounter that day. How does narrative affect the way doctors treat patients? And how can reading novels like Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go help medical providers navigate the "narrative disaster zone" of the ER? 

You can find complete show notes here and purchase books from our independent-bookshop partner, Harvard Book Store, here.

Novelist Heidi Julavits and scholar Leah Price join our host, Nicholas Dames, to consider how novels help us make sense of catastrophe.

When Ling Ma's Severance was published in 2018, the idea of an airborne global plague seemed theoretical. In hindsight, it appears eerily prescient. How do novels like Severance guide us to understand our place in historical time—to process events like pandemics alongside the mundanity of everyday working life?

You can find complete show notes here and purchase books from our independent-bookshop partner, Harvard Book Store, here.