The Chatterbox

In his new book, Blueprints, Marcus du Sautoy traces the connections between mathematics and art and the ways in which creatives use numbers to underpin their work – unconsciously or otherwise. From the earliest stone circles to the unique architecture of Zaha Hadid, du Sautoy shows us that there are blueprints everywhere and how logic and aesthetics are intrinsically intermingled.

Sophie Pavelle is also interested in connections and her forthcoming book, To Have or To Hold, explores symbiotic relationships in nature. Focusing on eight key examples, Sophie Pavelle explains how these mutually beneficial connections are crucial for the survival of our natural world and how they play an integral role in regulating ecosystems and strengthening resilience. She asks if we are capable of restoring and nurturing our environment or will we continue to exploit the Earth’s resources, till death do us part?

The British Museum’s new exhibition illuminates the captivating work of the nineteenth-century Japanese artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (from 1st May to 7th September 2025). He was fascinated by the natural world and many of his pictures take flora and fauna as their subject matter. Hiroshige was one of Japan’s most talented, prolific and popular artists and his influence was not only felt in his home country, but spread globally – influencing artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and contemporary artists such as Julian Opie. The curator of the exhibition, Alfred Haft, shines a light on the oeuvre of Hiroshige, his techniques and enduring legacy.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-American author, born in Argentina. He is a prominent human rights activist who worked as press and cultural advisor to Salvador Allende in the final months before the 1973 military coup, and later spent many years in exile. He is the Walter Hines Page Emeritus Professor of Literature at Duke University and the author of many books including his latest, Allegro: A Novel.

The post Ariel Dorfman on the Role of Beauty During Times of Chaos appeared first on KPFA.

Recorded on April 23, 2025, this event marked the 150th anniversary of the Page Act of 1875, one of the first federal laws to restrict immigration to the United States — especially Asian immigration, as the law prohibited the importation of Asian contract workers, prostitutes (a provision targeted against Chinese women), and criminals.

The interdisciplinary panel of UC Berkeley professors discussed their current work related to race, gender, or labor in US immigration history or Asian American Studies, and their thoughts on the legacies of the Page Act and related issues for the United States today. Panelists included Catherine Ceniza Choy, Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley; Cybelle Fox, Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley; Leti Volpp, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley; and Matrix Faculty Fellow Hidetaka Hirota, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley and Thomas Garden Barnes Chair in Canadian Studies.

The panel was co-sponsored by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology, the Department of History, Department of Ethnic Studies, the Asian American Research Center, and the Center for Race and Gender.

A transcript of this panel is available at https://matrix.berkeley.edu/research-article/page-act.

There is nothing natural about the way we arrange families under capitalism—in fact, there are many who would argue that there is something quite unnatural about narrowing the experience of romance and child-rearing into the rigid form of the nuclear family. That there are much better ways of arranging these things might come as a surprise to some—but for those who have researched it, it's no shock: there are much better ways of arranging things, and there's quite a bit of evidence to back this up.

Kristen Ghodsee is Professor of Russian and East European Studies and a member of the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the critically acclaimed author of Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons From Five Revolutionary Women.

In today's episode, Part 2 of our ongoing series on Post Capitalist Parenting, we take a deep dive into Kristen Ghodsee's work around the family and parenting. What restraints and barriers are imposed upon us through the capitalist nuclear family? What do the pro-natalists get wrong about the obsession with birthrates and the "return to tradition" when it comes to childrearing? And what alternative arrangements are out there which can provide parents and children alike with an experience that is arguably much more healthy and sustainable than the way we do things now? These are just some of the questions we explore in this conversation with Kristen Ghodsee.

This episode was produced in collaboration with EcoGather, an experimental educational project focused on heterodox economics, collective action, and belonging in an enlivened world. EcoGather hosts gatherings to bring some Upstream episodes to life—this is one of those episodes. The EcoGathering for this episode will be held on Sunday, May 25th from 11-12:30pm ET. Find out more at ecogather.ing.

Further resources:

• Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Kristen Ghodsee
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen Ghodsee
• Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons From Five Revolutionary Women by Kristen Ghodsee
• The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind by Melissa S. Kearney
• "Women's Unpaid Labor is Worth $10,900,000,000,000" by Gus Wezerek and Kristen R. Ghodsee

Related episodes:

• Listen to our ongoing Post Capitalist Parenting series
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee
• Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee
• A Socialist Perspective on Abortion with Diana Moreno & Jenny Brown
• Post Capitalism w/ Alnoor Ladha

Intermission music: "Venus (feat. Alex Mansour)" by Stratøs

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"Living Currency" syllabus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OeUT0XSZdIQ9VpgLaqjuw0sP3blJZySG/view?usp=drive_link

What happens when queer liberation becomes entangled with the myths of the nation-state? In this episode, we speak with Alexander Stoffel about his new book Eros and Empire, which traces the transnational roots of sexual freedom movements in the U.S. From gay liberation to Black lesbian feminism and AIDS activism, Stoffer shows how desire has been both constrained by and mobilized against imperial and capitalist systems. Together, we explore how a Marxist approach to desire can open new paths for solidarity beyond the boundaries of the bourgeois state.

Eros and Empire: https://www.sup.org/books/politics/eros-and-empire

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On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome Emily Herring, a writer based in Paris, to the program. They discuss her new book, Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People. The conversation delves into Henri Bergson's philosophy and its enduring relevance, particularly concerning contemporary anxieties surrounding the mechanization of the world, the dehumanizing potential of algorithms and artificial intelligence, the dangers of quantification and rigid categorization, and the perceived erosion of human creativity and the more enjoyable aspects of human experience.

With H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez.

This is the final installment of our three-part mini series, 'Beyond the Ballot Box', which explores some of the major political currents in US politics today.

Chris Browne and James Kelly are joined by H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez for a conversation about life in times of fascism. We explore concepts such as state addiction, anti-democracy, ungovernability and democratic living. We also touch on the work of Cedric Robinson, and what we can learn from Black abolition feminist praxis.

Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living is out now. Podcast listeners can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com using the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

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H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. She is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World and editor of Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance.

Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator based at the University of California-Riverside, where he works in the Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of a number of books including White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Emil Draitser — Soviet satirist turned American memoirist — joins Suzi to talk about his new book, Laughing All the Way to Freedom: The Americanization of a Russian Émigré. It's a sharp, funny, and moving account of his journey from censorship and conformity in the USSR to the chaotic freedoms of the 1970s United States.

We explore how satire served as both survival and resistance in the Soviet Union, and how his identity was reshaped — culturally, politically, and personally — through the messy process of becoming American.

Emil reflects on the welcome once extended to Cold War refugees like himself, and the stark contrast with today's hostile climate for immigrants. We also touch on the uneasy “friendship” between Putin and Trump, imperialists determined to redefine the character of politics.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Borders between countries are often dangerous, violent places. From the sands of the Sahel to the islands of the Mediterranean, borders allow governments to define who can enter a country – often deciding whether a person can find refuge or is left behind.  

Increasingly, borders are also spaces for governments and private companies to test new technology. But how is that technology being used? And what impact is it having for people on the move?  

Petra Molnar’s new book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in The Age of Artificial Intelligence offers a sweeping portrait of how new tech, from surveillance drones to lie detection software, is transforming borders around the world. 

A lawyer and anthropologist, Petra specializes in migration and human rights. She co-runs the Refugee Law Lab at York University and is a faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. 

Just Security Podcast host Paras Shah recently sat down with Petra to discuss the book, which is available now from The New Press and wherever books are sold. 

Show Notes: 

• Petra Molnar (@_PMolnar)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Petra’s book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in The Age of Artificial Intelligence published by The New Press
• Just Security’s Technology coverage
• Just Security’s Migration coverage
• Just Security’s Artificial Intelligence coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)
• Music: “Two Acres” by “Arend” from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/arend/two-acres (License code: TSVLNHC2S7MBCVQS)

In Episode 416 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Financial Times correspondent Patrick McGee about the integral role Apple played in helping to build China's advanced manufacturing ecosystem—and the geopolitical interdependencies and national security risks now baked into that relationship.

McGee's book "Apple in China" tells two stories. First, it chronicles Apple's ascent from being nearly bankrupt in the mid‑1990s to becoming the world's most valuable company within just 15 years. Second, it traces China's historic transformation from an underdeveloped economy with Third‑World cost structures and armies of unskilled laborers to the world's largest economy (by purchasing power parity) and the hub of the most advanced manufacturing base on the planet.

By the time this episode is over, you will have learned exactly how Apple off-loaded almost all its manufacturing to Asia by the late 1990s and early 2000s and then consolidated that entire operation inside mainland China. You will also learn how the same supply chain mastery that turned Apple into the world's most valuable company has left it existentially dependent on a single authoritarian state whose political goals now diverge sharply from Washington's.

It's an incredible story with profound implications for all of us who depend on China's manufacturing prowess and intricate supply networks to sustain our way of life. Whether we can extricate ourselves from this web of interdependencies—and the extent to which we should even want to—is one of a number of topics we explore extensively in the episode's second hour.

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Episode Recorded on 05/01/2025