Smarty Pants

The most groundbreaking ideas in modern physics—the Earth is round, special relativity, the uncertainty principle—were once seen as shocking, impossible, even deviant (recall Galileo’s trial). Even today, wild ideas can be laughed out of a conference, especially if they come from someone perceived as an outsider. Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander, one such self-identified outsider, joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Fear of a Black Universe, and his own experiences as a Black man in science who has made major contributions, “not in spite of [his] outsider’s perspective, but because of it.”

Go beyond the episode:

• Stephon Alexander’s Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics
• Read an excerpt from his first book, The Jazz of Physics
• Listen to the whole of Here Comes Now, Stephon Alexander’s album with Rioux
• Science writer Priscilla Long explains what’s so great about the Higgs boson
• Medical doctor Robert Lanza steps out of his lane to propose “A New Theory of the Universe”
• Jethro K. Lieberman bemoans the state of physics education in “The Gravity of the Situation”
• Math and philosophy team up in Cristopher Moore and John Kaag’s exploration of “The Uncertainty Principle”

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

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As of this summer’s Tokyo Games, skateboarding is an Olympic sport—and those of us who didn’t grow up popping ollies and skinning our knees might be wondering how that happened. Originally known as “sidewalk surfing,” skateboarding was invented in midcentury California and Hawaii by surfers looking for something to do when the waves weren’t great. Since the first commercial skateboard was sold in 1962, the sport has ballooned to a billion-dollar industry including magazines, movies, and merchandise. Kyle Beachy, the author of The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life, and a devoted skateboarder and skateboarding critic, joins the podcast to explain how the pastime became a global sensation.

Go beyond the episode:

• Kyle Beachy’s new book, The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life
• Behold: skateboarding at the Olympics
• For a taste of feature-length skate documentaries, try Dogtown and the Z-Boys (2001) or Minding the Gap (2018)

Three “high-reward skate films” recommended by our guest:

• Mouse: Spike Jonze directs a street skateboarding video from the latter days of the so-called “golden era” of the mid ’90s. A perfect example of what the traditional “skate video” form can yield. 
• Paving Space: A 12-minute documentary about a collaborative art project between the Isle skateboard team and artist Raphael Zarka.
• Atlantic Drift Episode 11: Jacob Elliot Harris has defined a style for his Atlantic Drift project, and this one, featuring his lifetime friend Tom Knox, reveals just how vital the relationship between filmmaker and skater-subject is. 

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

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Black Beauty, Flicka, Secretariat, National Velvet, Misty of Chincoteague, and all the rest—horse books are a genre unto themselves, occupying an entire shelf (or more, should you add the 112 books in The Saddle Club series) of girls’ bedrooms everywhere. For all of the girls who lived and breathed horses (on the page or in the barn), the infatuation meant something that is difficult—or even embarrassing—to explain outside of the stable. Horse Girls, edited by Halimah Marcus, the executive director of Electric Literature, smashes all the stereotypes you might hold about riders and the way they relate to their horses, with diverse essays from the literary likes of horsewoman Jane Smiley and aspiring horse girl Carmen Maria Machado.

Go beyond the episode:

• Horse Girls: Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond, edited by Halimah Marcus (read her introduction here)
• “I Hate Horses” by T Kira Madden, excerpted from the book
• “How Horses Helped My Ancestors Evade Colonizers, & Helped Me Find Myself” by Braudie Blais Billie, another excerpt
• “Horse girl energy” (and all the memes) explained
• Though during the pandemic many people turned to riding—during which riders stayed six feet apart long before social distancing—horse fever has a long history
• Our host outed herself as a horse girl once before, in an interview with The Age of the Horse author Susanna Forrest

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you were to distill the story of King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot down to its essence, you might alight on three nouns: Sword Stone Table. That’s the title of a new collection of Arthurian retellings, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington, that imagines the legends of yore in a London coffee shop, a dystopian Mexico City, Anishinaabe country, and even on Mars. Krishna and Jenn Northington join the podcast to talk about the Arthurs, Merlins, Guineveres, Lancelots, Morgans, and more who populate the once and future land of our imagination.

Go beyond the episode:

• Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington
• Reacquaint yourself with the magic of Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy
• Even the BBC wants to know: King Arthur and Camelot—Why the cultural fascination?
• The boy king is no stranger to television, but “good adaptations of the King Arthur myth to screen are far out-numbered by the unsuccessful ones”
• A good one from the Arthur extended universe: The Green Knight

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Music featured from Strobotone (“Medieval Theme 02”), courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.

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In her cover story for the magazine’s summer issue, Lucy Jones writes about “a renaissance of love for nature” that took place during the pandemic in the midst of so much isolation and death. Why is it, exactly, that going into nature is so therapeutic? Jones’s new book, Losing Eden, examines the wealth of scientific literature on the psychological effects of nature, from neurons to the whole nervous system. She joins us on the podcast to talk about her research into what we lose when we lose contact with nature.

Go beyond the episode:

• Lucy Jones’s Losing Eden: Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World and Its Ability to Heal Body and Soul
• Read her Summer 2021 cover story, “Rewilding Our Minds” and an essay in Emergence on “The Druid Renaissance”
• A 2020 instance of a white woman calling the police on a Black birdwatcher sparked new studies and stories on the problems minorities face in parks and other public spaces, but racism in outdoor pursuits is nothing new. Groups like Outdoor Afro aim to make nature more welcoming.
• Find solace (and food!) in foraging responsibly: @blackforager Alexis Nikole on Instagram, “Wildman” Steve Brill on your bookshelf, Falling Fruit on the map, meetups in your own back yard
• Call us Smarty Plants: some of our other favorite nature-centric episodes include an interview with forestry legend Suzanne Simard, rewilding queen Isabella Tree, plant messiah Carlos Magdalena, and cherry blossom enthusiast Naoko Abe.

Tune in every two weeks to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org.

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The experimental archaeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern, known casually as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages,” and Sam Calagione, master brewer and founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, have spent years resurrecting the beverages of the past. In 2017, we sat down with them before an event at the Smithsonian to discuss what it takes to turn millennia-old booze samples at the bottom of a jug into mead fit for a king—or jiahu for an emperor—or tahenket for a pharaoh.

Go beyond the episode:

• Try not to spill any beer on your copy of Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-Created
• Explore Dr. Pat’s work on the intoxicating science of alcohol at the University of Pennsylvania Museum
• Watch Patrick McGovern and Sam Calagione work on a recipe for a new ancient ale
• And if you’re in the area … pop over to Dogfish Head Brewery to check out what’s on tap

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

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Love it or hate it, sweat is the reason why you don’t die of heatstroke in the summer—though you might want to die of embarrassment if you work up too much of it. But perspiration also contains a trove of secrets about our body’s inner workings, from sexy pheromones and disease markers to what we had for lunch. In her new book, The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration, science journalist Sarah Everts explores what it reveals about our biology and behavior, debunking overheated myths—and maybe even some stigma—along the way.

Go beyond the episode:

• Sarah Everts’s The Joy of Sweat
• Dip into the world of custom perfume, which can smell quite different depending on who wears it
• Don’t cancel your gym membership, but do give your heart a workout in the sauna
• Yes, you really do smell your hand after shaking someone else’s: here is the experiment with the videos to prove it
• Try out the first “mail odor dating service”

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For something that seems so simple, the act of adorning one’s face with a smudge of lip color or a flick of eyeliner can mean getting a promotion, getting home safely, and being taken seriously—or not. As journalist Rae Nudson writes in her new book, All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian, makeup has, for better or worse, shaped cultural narratives and standards of beauty for centuries. Red lipstick is patriotic—and it’s an act of protest—and it’s a sign of sex appeal—all depending on when you lived, and who and where you are. Nudson joins us on the podcast to talk about the choices we make when we wear makeup, and whether those choices are ever entirely ours to make.

Go beyond the episode:

• Rae Nudson’s All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian
• Nudson wrote about the camouflage paint industry and the the makeup mogul crafting the U.S. Army’s exclusive supply
• Read more about Sabella Nitti, whose 1920s makeover saved her from the death penalty
• For decades, women have been inspired by Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic blue eyeshadow from Cleopatra–which she applied herself
• “Everything We Know About Beauty We Learned From Drag Queens,” writes Kristina Rodulfo in Elle

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In her 25 years as a music journalist, Jessica Hopper has profiled the doyennes of modern rock and pop music: Björk, Kacey Musgraves, St. Vincent, Liz Phair, Robyn, and many more. Her reviews run the gamut from the latest Nicki Minaj album and the “mobile shopping mall that is the Vans Warped Tour” to the only album by D.C.’s first all-women punk band, released three decades after they broke up. The new second edition of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic expands on the 2015 one. That the provocative (and mostly accurate) title still works six years later points out that rock criticism has even fewer women in it than rock music does. Hopper joins us on the podcast to discuss her writing, from her beginnings as a local Chicago critic to her expansive oral histories of Hole and the women who transformed Rolling Stone in the 1970s.

Go beyond the episode:

• Jessica Hopper’s The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
• Read “Building a Mystery,” her oral history of Lilith Fair, and her reflections on Joni Mitchell’s Blue, 50 years on
• Listen to her eclectic playlist of music that came out of Chicago
• Hopper hosted Season 2 of KCRW’s Lost Notes podcast, looking at artistic legacies of the likes of The Freeze and Cat Power

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you were a small child who grew up near a coastline—or maybe especially if you didn’t—nothing was more enchanting about summer than collecting seashells on the beach. People have been using conches and scallops and whelks as musical instruments, jewelry, canvas, and even money, pretty much since we evolved enough to pick them up. But the future of seashells and the creatures who make them is uncertain. The smallest shells are dissolving in an acidifying ocean, and today mollusks that have survived 500 million years of ice ages and heat waves are facing an enemy undeterred by their hardened exteriors: humans, and the climate change we've created. Science writer Cynthia Barnett's new book, The Sound of the Sea, is a plea to listen to what shells are telling us, both about the ocean and ourselves.

Go beyond the episode:

• Cynthia Barnett’s The Sound of the Sea (watch the book trailer here)
• Listen to the haunting sound of the conch horn found in the temple of Chavín, and read about Miriam Kolar’s archaeoacoustic investigations into the instruments
• Ever wonder how a mollusk repairs its shell?
• Evolutionary biologist Gary Vermeij explains how to read a seashell
• Probably most famous poem about a shell ever written: “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • Acast

Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.