Their tongues are ashes when they’d speak to us. David Ferry, “Resemblance” The underworld, that repository of the Shades of the Dead, gets a lot of traffic from time to time, especially from heroes (Gilgamesh, Theseus, Odysseus, Aeneas) and poets (Orpheus, Virgil, Dante). Some come down for information or in hopes of rescuing or just … Continue reading "55 David Ferry, Roger Reeves, and the Underworld"

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Crossover Month continues with a scintillating Australian fiction episode from Novel Dialogue, a new podcast hosted by the awesome Aarthi Vadde of Duke, and RTB’s own JP. If you like what you hear, please share the love by recommending it to friends, tagging @noveldialogue in your tweets, and subscribing to it via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Helen Garner … Continue reading "54 Crossover Month #3: Novel Dialogue with Helen Garner (Elizabeth McMahon, JP)"

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Crossover Month continues with something completely different, and only a little bit incestuous. Novel Dialogue is a new podcast hosted by the awesome Aarthi Vadde of Duke, and RTB’s own JP. John and Aarthi serve as the third wheel (or if you prefer the social lubricant) for a scholar and a novelist who sit down … Continue reading "53 Crossover Month #2: Novel Dialogue (Orhan Pamuk, Bruce Robbins, JP)"

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Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu share an office at the English department of NYU–and now they also share High Theory a podcast where you can “get high on the substance of theory.” Their lovable podcast always identifies a single manageable topic and asks three magic questions (what is your quest? is not one of them). … Continue reading "52 Crossover Month #1: “High Theory” and the Pastoral (Kim, Saronik, JP)"

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Is Thomas Piketty the world’s most famous economic historian ? A superstar enemy of plutocratic capitalism who wrote a pathbreaking bestseller, Capital in the 21st Century? Or simply a debonair and generous French intellectual happy to talk redistributive justice? Join John and Adaner Usmani (star of RTB’s episode 44: Racism as idea, Racism as Power … Continue reading "51 Recall This Buck 3: Thomas Piketty on Inequality and Ideology (Adaner, JP)"

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Continuing our conversation on the events at the Capitol and the end of the Trump era, John and Elizabeth spoke with Brandeis historian Greg Childs. He is an expert in Latin American political movements and public space; his Seditious Spaces: Race, Freedom, and the 1798 Conspiracy in Bahia, Brazil is forthcoming from Cambridge. His historical … Continue reading "50 Greg Childs on Seditious Conspiracy; or, Why Words Matter"

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We first heard from the sociologist of American racism David Cunningham in Episode 36 Policing and White Power. Less than a week after the horrors of January 6th, he came back for an extended conversation about “asymmetrical policing” of the political right and left–and of White and Black Americans. His very first book (There’s Something … Continue reading "49 The Capitol Insurrection and Asymmetrical Policing: David Cunningham (EF, JP)"

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The eternal challenge (obsession) of translation: “how not to get lost in translation”. However, the award-winning translator and literary scholar at Emory University Lisa Dillman suggests that we may be missing the truly challenging and exhilarating part of translation in this endless and “elitist” obsession. In fact, not “losing” original meaning may not be what … Continue reading "48 Transform, Not Transfer: Lisa Dillman on Translation (PW, EF)"

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For this scientific conversation, John is joined once again by Brandeis neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano (think ep 4 Madeline Miller; think ep 2 Addiction!). And because Gael’s work proves that a picture can be worth far more than a thousand words, our RTB post is more picturesque than usual. Start by checking out Digizyme‘s image of … Continue reading "47 Glimpsing COVID: Gael McGill on Data Visualization (GT, JP)"

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Mentioned in the episode: Patrick Mc Donnell, A Perfectly Messed-Up Story “Association copy”–e.g. Frida Kahlo’s goofily annotated and illustrated Works of Edgar Allen Poe. Mo Willem, We Are in a Book! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) Manners with a Library Book Dorothy Kunhardt, Pat the Bunny Erica Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Peggy Rathmann, Ten … Continue reading "46 Leah Price on Children’s Books: Turning Back the Clock on “Adulting” (EF, JP)"

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