Sociology Ruins Everything

I know what you might be thinking: Sociology and sports? Remember this podcast is called Sociology Ruins Everything, not Sociology Ruins Some Things. But to be fair, some people might not be familiar with how sociologists study sports. Don’t racquet your brain. In this month’s episode, I’ll present the briefest overview before talking to Danielle Thomas, a sociology professor at Louisiana State University, who has thought a lot about sports, particularly youth sports, and how they tie into the community.

Show notes:

Giulianotti, R. (2015). Routledge handbook of the sociology of sport (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203404065

Tomlinson, A. (2004). Pierre Bourdieu and the Sociological Study of Sport: Habitus, Capital and Field. In: Giulianotti, R. (eds) Sport and Modern Social Theorists. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523180_11

This month's episode dives into the origins and definitions of the "sexiest job of the 21st century": Data science. I look at the most recent data to uncover how and why it emerged, and how it organized as a profession in a way that's completely different from our understanding of how professions are created. Joining me in this discussion is Philipp Brandt, assistant professor of sociology at SciencesPo and Centre for the Sociology of Organisations, who wrote the book, Inside Data Science: Hackers and the Making of a New Profession.

Show Notes

Brandt, P. (2026). Inside data science: Hackers and the making of a new profession. Columbia University Press. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/inside-data-science/9780231560184/

What exactly is legend tripping? Is it truly about finding ghosts and cryptids, or is it a ritual designed to create unbreakable social bonds? This month's episode dives into the three-part structure of a legend trip—from the initial tale to the retrospective reflection—and reveals how "expectation produces experience" to create the perfect legend.

Show notes

Debies-Carl, Jeffrey (2023). If You Should Go at Midnight. (2023). University Press of Mississippi https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/I/If-You-Should-Go-at-Midnight

‌McNeill, L. S., & Tucker, E. (2018). Legend Tripping: A Contemporary Legend Casebook. University Press of Colorado. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1vbd1wh

Miles, Tiya (2017). Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War era. University of North Carolina Press. https://uncpress.org/9781469636146/tales-from-the-haunted-south/

‌"On the job with a ghost walk tour guide." The Canadian Press, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTYZv0JTrP0

Happy New Year, listeners! This month's episode deals with trust. When we think of trust, we tend to place this issue within the realm of psychology. It’s often seen as a complicated construct in our relationships that determines whether we believe those we know will act reliably, honestly, and supportively. But in sociology, we might think of trust in terms of social networks and ties. We might even think about trust in institutions. Can you trust an institution?

Dana Williams, a sociology professor at California State University, Chico and author of Who Do We Trust?, joins me to unpack issues around trust and how we can practice radical trust in 2026.

Show Notes

Williams, Dana. Who Do We Trust? - Pluto Press. (2025, December 23). Pluto Press. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/who-do-we-trust/

Cook, K. S., & Santana, J. J. (2020). Trust: Perspectives in Sociology. Routledge EBooks, 189–204. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315542294-15

Eileen, A., & Rosemary, B. (2020, September 9). Working Paper: Financialization in Health Care: The Transformation of US Hospital Systems. Center for Economic and Policy Research. https://cepr.net/publications/working-paper-financialization-in-health-care-the-transformation-of-us-hospital-systems/

Media clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX3C2A9bck0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FegvO38Qa44

https://www.tiktok.com/@cbsnews/video/7568308533385596174

The season finale of Sociology Ruins Everything explores the intersection of robotics and reproductive labor, highlighting the potential risks of deploying technology without considering societal implications. This episode, likely the geekiest to date, examines these themes through the lens of popular culture. Colette Searls, author of A Galaxy of Things: The Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond, joins the discussion.

Show Notes:

Searls, C. (2023). A galaxy of things: The power of puppets and masks in star wars and beyond. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/A-Galaxy-of-Things-The-Power-of-Puppets-and-Masks-in-Star-Wars-and-Beyond/Searls/p/book/9780367684419

Vincent, J., Taipale, S., Sapio, B., Fortunati, L., & Lugano, G. (Eds.). (2015). Social Robots from a Human Perspective (2015th ed.). Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-15672-9

You pay your taxes, you vote, and you follow the laws. Does that make you a good citizen? If you said yes, according to a 2019 Pew Center Research survey, most Americans agree with you. However, do these things make you civically engaged? This episode explores what it means to be a civically engaged social scientist and how we now need engaged researchers more than ever.

Show Notes

Philip Cohen on social media

⁠https://bsky.app/profile/philipncohen.com⁠

⁠https://x.com/familyunequal⁠

Cohen, Philip (2025). Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists.

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen-scholar/9780231204194/

Lynd, Robert (2016). Knowledge for what: The Place of Social Science in American Culture.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691648088/knowledge-for-what?srsltid=AfmBOooZ52chxPtWIMMbwPgf9X8f6qHRJd5S_3CajC0cA-svipnDrOEq

Putnam, Robert (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

http://bowlingalone.com/

SocArXiv

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv

What can a sociology podcast say about fire? This episode delves into the social and cultural dimensions of fire and the institutions that have changed our relationship with it. While it touches on climate change, this episode is more about the power dynamics, social inequalities, and cultural values that influence decision-making and resource allocation in fire and forest management. Today's wildfires are a tragedy in the making, going back over 100 years. Patrick Wright, the director of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Taskforce, joins me as we talk about the vital next steps in protecting communities.

Show notes

California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Taskforce

https://wildfiretaskforce.org/

Treatment Dashboard

https://wildfiretaskforce.org/treatment-dashboard/

Sedlar, Matthew. Living with Disaster: Risk, Housing Instability, and Post-Disaster Migration. N.p., 2022. Print.

https://mars.gmu.edu/items/bd414407-1351-4220-8bc2-a9db39dbe89a

This month, I want to tell you a story about Concord Park, a suburb of Philadelphia. Concord Park was intentionally designed to combat the systemic forces that fostered segregation and inequality in postwar American cities. So when more and more people were being separated, Concord Park brought people together. But geography, or putting people in homes next to each other, isn’t enough. Communities are built on interaction, shared interests, and experiences. In the case of Concord Park, it was through the Wonderland Puppet Theater. That’s right. This month, we’re talking about puppets. But also housing, inequality, and community. This is a sociology podcast, after all. Paulette Richards joins the podcast as we talk about how art can bring community together.

Show Notes

Richards, P. (2024). Object performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Object-Performance-in-the-Black-Atlantic-The-United-States/Richards/p/book/9781032054865

Patterson, Orlando.  Slavery and Social Death:  A Comparative Study.  Cambridge:  Harvard UP, 1982. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674986909

Piggot, W. Benjamin and W. Benjamin Pigott. “The ‘Problem’ of the Black Middle Class: Morris Milgram's Concord Park and Residential Integration in Philadelphia's Postwar Suburbs” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Apr., 2008, Vol. 132, No. 2 (Apr., 2008), pp. 173-190 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093996

Sociologist Stephanie Canizales joins the podcast to discuss the complex realities unaccompanied migrant youth face, the factors that lead them to embark on such journeys, the risks they encounter, and the challenges they face in adapting to new surroundings. The episode also discusses how communities and organizations can provide support and opportunities for these vulnerable youth.

Show notes

Canizales, Stephanie. 2024. Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/sin-padres-ni-papeles/paper

Places are unique to us. We become attached to them. And when you ask people to name a place that means a lot to them, there’s a good chance they’ll talk about home. Our homes are full of stuff, from practical items like vacuum cleaners and chairs to sentimental treasures such as photo albums and heirlooms inherited through generations. All these objects help make a space a place. But what happens when we lose them? And how does the loss of even mundane objects, seemingly insignificant items, impact our emotional well-being? Surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot of research in this area.

This episode examines furniture poverty. What is it, how does it affect people and their ability to connect with others, and what can we do about it?