The Chatterbox

he Atlantic World is one of the major concepts in academic history, a way of linking together all the various places around the fringes of the great ocean during a time of extraordinary change, the early modern period. Professor Keith Pluymers joins me once more to discuss the Atlantic World and how the concept is useful to us in trying to make sense of a massively important time in human history.

Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA

And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge.

Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

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Margaret Atwood is joined in conversation with author Elif Batuman to unfold the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat's Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid's Tale. As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art, and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.

Podcast Credits:

Live event programmed by Michael Green Live event produced by Nikki Konomos Live event stage managed by Kait Samuels Live event produced and mixed by Jeff Kolar Production assistance by Rebecca Dose Podcast edited and mixed by Katherine Kermgard Voiceover by Anthony Fleming III Transcription assistance by Micquela Washington

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Matt’s Chitchats – Uncomfortable words and the vocabulary of desire – A Conversation with Marco Scarcelli

Words create worlds, and in the digital age, they also create and constrain how we love. In this extended second instalment, Matt is back with sociologist Marco Scarcelli to decode the language of modern intimacy.

We often think of "sex" as a biological act, but as Marco explains, it’s a linguistic minefield shaped by society and culture. From the power of euphemisms to the new terminology of online subcultures, this episode explores how the words we choose can define the relationships we have.

In this episode, we translate the unspoken rules:

· "Sex" vs. "Sesso": Why is the English word for sex considered "sexy" and "novel" in Italy, while the Italian word sesso is seen as "dangerous" and "aggressive"?

· Defining the "Sexademic": Marco unpacks this neologism and what it means to carry the label of a scholar working in the "dirty" corners of academia.

· The Grammar of Gamification: What happens when we reduce intimacy to the metrics of sex-tracking apps? We look at how "trophies" and "performance scores" are rewriting the definition of "good sex".

· The Euphemism Trap: Why do we hide behind smooth words like "intimacy" to avoid the reality of "sex" and "sexuality"?

It’s a conversation about the power of naming, the risks of doing research on sex in institutional settings and the new lexicon of love in a digital world.

This episode of Matt’s Chitchats features an academic discussion regarding sex, sexuality, and digital culture. The conversation includes sociological analysis of adult themes, including pornography and online subcultures. Listener discretion is advised.

Matt's Chitchats is a mini-series of The Secret Life of Language, a podcast from the University of Melbourne’s School of Languages and Linguistics. The series is produced by Matt Absalom and Gavin Nebauer. Recorded and mixed by Gavin Nebauer at the Horwood Recording Studio, the University of Melbourne.

The Secret Life of Language is licensed under Creative Commons.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is often seen as the problematic byproduct of modern lifestyles that threatens our planet's stability – at least within conversations among environmentalists. But this perspective overlooks the fundamental role of CO2 in everything on Earth, from the food we eat to the houses we live in to our bodies themselves. Despite this reality, the carbon cycle as we know it has been interrupted in ways never before seen in Earth's history. How could understanding the deep history of CO2, as well as humanity's relationship with this controversial and vital molecule, help us prepare for the planetary changes ahead?

In this episode, Nate is joined by science journalist Peter Brannen, who reframes CO2 from an industrial pollutant to a miraculous substance whose critical role within the carbon cycle makes Earth habitable. Peter traces our planet's history through the lens of CO2, including mass extinctions, Snowball Earth events, and the surprisingly stable Holocene period that has cradled human civilization. Peter also addresses humanity's current impact on the carbon cycle, the complexity and resilience of Earth's ecosystems, and the challenges we face as we push climate systems we don't fully understand into unknown territory.

How is the carbon cycle unexpectedly connected to the origins of oxygen, dozens of major and minor mass extinctions, and even the beginning of civilizations? How do humanity's current CO2 emissions compare to those of Earth's past? And could understanding the deep time of geology inspire both cosmic wonder and precautionary action, subsequently pushing us towards better decisions for the future?

(Conversation recorded on September 23rd, 2025)

About Peter Brannen:

Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist and contributing writer at The Atlantic, with particular interests in geology, ocean science, deep time, and the carbon cycle. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Aeon, The Boston Globe, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. His book, The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything, was published earlier this year by Ecco, who also published his previous book, The Ends of the World, about the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history.

Peter was a 2023 visiting scholar at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and is an affiliate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He was formerly a 2018 Scripps Fellow at CU-Boulder, a 2015 journalist-in-residence at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center at Duke University, and a 2011 Ocean Science Journalism Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA. His essays have been featured in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series and in The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg.

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on YouTube

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Are we seeing the emergence of a new conjuncture for urbanism? The final part of our mini series asks whether authoritarian neoliberalism has created the conditions for a more illiberal and distinct type of urban governance . Authoritarianism is not new to neoliberalism – the Pinochet regime, Thatcherism in the UK – these were evidently authoritarian and neoliberal, and given crises and stagnation it is no surprise to see these tendencies re-animated. But is something more also happening? The high point of neoliberal hegemony was associated with the development of technocratic, often obscure, market systems as well as notions of ‘sustainable development and even at times ‘participation’ and ‘consensus’ even if these were highly circumscribed. When we look at some new urban projects today, and those envisaged by leading powers, there seems to be less room for both markets, preventing climate breakdown or ‘woke’ notions of democracy and instead a more naked focus on iconoclastic real estate projects regardless of the social and ecological cost.

On Trump & radical right ideology.

Jean-François Drolet, a leading researcher into the 'World of the Right', talks to Alex and Lee about Donald Trump's coveting of Greenland, and puts the move into its ideological context.

What is the paleoconservative worldview, how is it different from the neoconservative one, and which is more influential in the Trump regime?

How does paleoconservatism translate into actual foreign policy? What's in Trump's new National Security Strategy?

Are we back to a 19th century-style 'spheres of influence' arrangement?

Does the radical right's foreign policy lead back to a populist kind of isolationism – or to a 'civilisational nationalism'?

Will Trump solidify the transatlantic alliance, or generate a rift?

Links:

/461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams

World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024).

International Relations and the Geopolitics of the European New Right, European Journal of International Relations, JF Drolet

From Critique to Reaction: The New Right, Critical Theory and International Relations, Journal of International Political Theory, JF Drolet & Michael C. Williams

Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy: Goodbye, Liberal International Order; Hello, Radical Right, Lee Jones, American Affairs (forthcoming

As the 2026 World Cup approaches, how will geopolitics, migration policy and fan culture shape the tournament across the United States, Mexico and Canada? In this episode of FootPol, Guy Burton is joined by Pete Watson (University of Leeds) and Roger Magazine (Universidad Iberoamericana) to unpack the political fault lines running through the next World Cup, from US intervention in Venezuela and FIFA’s alignment with Donald Trump to visa regimes, immigration enforcement and security-heavy hosting models. Focusing on Latin American perspectives, the discussion explores rivalries, national memory, diaspora fandom and the risk that surveillance, ticket pricing and border controls could suppress the carnival atmosphere that defines World Cups. With Mexico navigating a secondary hosting role, US venues poised to dominate the later stages and Canada largely out of the spotlight, the episode asks whether 2026 will be remembered as a festival of football — or a case study in how power, politics and security reshape the world’s biggest sporting event.

On the 27th of September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford, a Professor at Palo Alto University, appeared in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to testify against Brett Kavanaugh, who was at the time a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, for sexually assaulting her at a high school party they both attended thirty-six years earlier.

Visibly shaken, she went on to describe how Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, removed her clothes, and covered her mouth as she tried to scream: “It was hard for me to breathe,” she told the Committee, “and I thought that Brett was going to accidentally kill me.”

Not long after, Kavanaugh submitted a letter to the Committee calling her testimony nothing but a “smear” and affirming that he would “not be intimidated into withdrawing from the process”. Despite public outrage towards this trial, Kavanagh was still confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by a narrow victory of 50 – 48, and President Trump was quick to offer his sympathy: “What they put him through – the Democrats – over the last few weeks, it’s horrible. If you look at what he’s had to endure – horrible. False – statements. It doesn’t get any worse. But the beautiful thing is he is now in, and he’s going to be there for a long time.”

The interesting thing about this case is that both sides claim to be the victim: Mrs. Ford claims she is a victim of sexual assault, while Mr. Kavanaugh claims he is a victim of a defamatory smear campaign. But are these claims to victimhood equally valid? And how can we adjudicate between the two to determine who the real victim is?

Hamza King sits down with Lilie Chouliaraki to discuss these questions. Lilie is a Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of Wronged: The Weaponization of Victimhood (2024).

➡️ London School of Economics and Political Science: https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/lilie-chouliaraki

➡️ Wronged: The Weaponisation of Victimhood (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/wronged/9780231550239/

#philosophy #podcast #ethics

0:00 - Introduction

2:27 - What got you interested in victimhood?

6:01 - Why did you decide to write this book?

7:04 - How has victimhood been understood throughout history?

11:10 - How is victimhood portrayed in the film Forrest Gump?

17:18 - Did reverse victimhood play a role in the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in June 2022?

21:40 - What is the difference between vulnerability can victimhood?

28:25 - How can we evaluate the legitimacy of claims to victimhood?

33:03 - Who is the real victim: Christine Blasey Ford or Brett Kavanaugh?

37:40 - Outro

A top Russian archaeologist is currently under arrest in Poland. Alexander Butyagin is waiting for courts to decide on a request from Ukraine for him to be extradited. He is a scholar at the Hermitage, Russia's largest art museum in St Petersburg, and has been digging in an ancient site in Crimea since 1999. Ukrainian authorities claim that he is criminally damaging and looting the site, making the most of Russian occupation, Butyagin himself denies all charges. It is a story that Grigor Atenesian of BBC Russian has been looking into.

The Kalbeliya community is a nomadic tribe from Rajasthan in India, known for its distinctive folk music and the Kalbeliya dance form. Traditionally, Kalbeliya families have led a nomadic life, though some have settled permanently over the years. They follow a type of Hinduism in which burial, rather than cremation, is a religious requirement after death. Community members say that even those who are settled often do not have legal access to land for burial, leaving families struggling to perform last rites. Ashay Yegde, who reports for the BBC in India, recently travelled to meet the Kalbeliya to hear their story.

AI-generated caricatures of middle-aged men decked out in street wear, clutching an iPhone have gone viral on social media in South Korea. They are being called 'Young 40s' by younger generations. Teasing of an older person is very unusual in South Korea, where age difference, even by a year, forms the basis of social hierarchy. But the Young 40 memes also represent Korean youth's growing scepticism of this reverence for elders. Hyojung Kim of BBC Korean has been looking into the internet phenomenon, and shares what it tells us about South Korean society today.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Presented by Faranak Amidi

Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. Spanning 30 city blocks and home to tens of thousands of monolingual Chinese residents, its endurance is remarkable—especially given how close it came to erasure.

In Chinatown: San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake and the Paradox of American Immigration Policy (JHU Press, 2026), Dr. Dafeng Xu uncovers the contested history of this vibrant community, focusing on the transformative period surrounding the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed 80 percent of the city, including Chinatown. White San Franciscans saw the disaster as an opportunity to permanently displace the neighborhood. Instead, Chinatown was rebuilt—but not without conflict or consequence. Using detailed census data and other historical documents, Dr. Xu examines how this rebuilt Chinatown differed socially and physically from its earlier form—and the many ways it stayed the same. He explores whether the earthquake shifted patterns of segregation, if and how Chinese immigrants navigated pressure to assimilate—including adopting English, changing their names, and leaving ethnic neighborhoods—and whether they gained economic ground in the city's new landscape.

Dr. Xu's study reveals a striking contradiction: while Chinese Americans were often criticized for not assimilating, systemic barriers made that very process nearly impossible. The post-disaster Chinatown became a symbol of cultural resilience, shaped by both community agency and persistent exclusion. Rich in insight and original research, Chinatown offers a powerful look at how disaster, racism, and resistance shaped one of America's most storied immigrant neighborhoods.

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.

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