The Chatterbox

Stéphane Dufoix is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris-Nanterre (Sophiapol research center) and a Senior member of the Institut universitaire de France. He also teaches about world sociologies in the doctoral curriculum of the University of Paris and at the EHESS.  His research focus includes globalization theory, historical sociology of social science, sociological and historical semantics of concepts, and political sociology of national identity discourses. Among his recent publications: Le Tournant global des sciences sociales (co-edited with Alain Caillé), 2013 ; Pierre Bourdieu dans l’espace des disciplines (co-ed. with Christian Laval), 2018. Décolonial, 2023. For about years, he has been the co-coordinator (with Eric Macé and now with Marie Salaün), of a seminar devoted to non-hegemonic world sociology that is being hosted by the Collège d’études mondiales (FMSH) and the Global Research Institute of Paris (University of Paris). He has been interested in the history of sociology in the Arab world and generally speaking his work is so relevant to the Arab world. His two forthcoming books are: Transnational History of Sociology (Palgrave-McMillan); How to decolonize Sociology (Sage).

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Agustín Fuentes about biological sex. They talk about the history of sex evolution, the importance of gametes, intersex individuals, and history of sex binary. They talk about gonads and hormones, sex variation in the animal kingdom, spectrum question, gender, gender and sports, gender and bathrooms, and many other topics.

Agustín Fuentes is an anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Princeton University. His research focuses on the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. He has his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. He has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes is an active public scientist, a well-known blogger, lecturer, tweeter, and an explorer for National Geographic. Fuentes was recently awarded the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Sex Is A Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary.

The early 2000s preached “girl power” to the masses — but that often looked like sex and plastic surgery. Sophie Gilbert, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what coming of age in the early aughts meant for young women in an atmosphere of highly sexualized body image, how porn manifested itself into pop culture, and what society had to say about powerful women. Her book is “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves.”

Josh Cohen’s new book, All the Rage (Granta), explores anger, in all its permutations - social media arguments, political divides, road rage, passive aggression – in the words of Deborah Levy, ‘brilliantly investigating what it is when we are enraged’. What should we make of our anger; to what use can we put it? 

Cohen’s previous books include Not Working and The Private Life. He was in conversation with the sociologist and political economist William Davies, whose most recent book is Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World.

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In this seminar Prof. Douglas Guilfoyle analyzes the oceans as a global commons, detailing the legal frameworks like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that define maritime zones such as the high seas and exclusive economic zones. He explores the historical development of these laws, the inherent conflicts between national interests, resource exploitation, environmental protection, and the "common heritage of mankind," alongside emerging critical perspectives challenging traditional ocean governance.

The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion.

A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlFRj3piiR0

The seminar took place over Zoom on 29 April 2025, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1

In 1968, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, asserting his control of China 15 years later, Deng Xiaoping launched the reform and opening up period, putting China on the path to becoming an economic powerhouse.

But what happens in between these two critical periods of Chinese history? How does China go from Mao's Cultural Revolution to Deng's embrace of reforms?

Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian together fill in this history in The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform (Yale University Press: 2024)

Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. His books include The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge University Press: 2012), winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 (Basic Books: 2012).

Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU and NYU Shanghai and Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include China’s Road to the Korean War (Columbia University Press: 1994), Mao’s China and the Cold War (The University of North Carolina Press: 2001), and Zhou Enlai: A Life (Harvard University Press: 2024).

You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of The Great Transformation. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.

Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.

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International law operates in a world of rapid technological transformation. From the battlefield to the border, from online content moderation to open-source investigation, from humanitarianism to development, from counterterrorism to migration management, practices of central concern to international lawyers are progressively altered by the introduction of new technological tools. Many of these developments are troubling. The use of advanced algorithmic targeting tools used by Israel in Gaza instantiates both the tremendous civilian harm that data-driven technologies amplify and inflict, as well as the limitations of our existing legal repertoire in registering the nature, depth and scale of such harms. These injustices are layered onto the entrenched hierarchies, inequalities and sanctioned forms of violence in international law, but they also take on novel shapes as power and authority are routed along digital paths. 

In this episode, Dimitri Van Den Meerssche (Queen Mary University of London) is joined by Angelina Fisher (Guarini Global Law and Tech initiative, NYU) and André Dao (Laureate Program in Global Corporations, Melbourne Law School). Their conversation, drawing on a recent EJIL book review symposium, spans the co-constitutive relations between international law and technology, the limits of human rights, and new avenues for legal critique and resistance that reclaim a shared, collective future against its algorithmic appropriation.

Other scholarship mentioned in the course of the episode includes: Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation (translated by B. Wing) (1997); Sally Engle Merry, Human Rights and Gender Violence – Translating International Law into Local Justice (2005); Fleur Johns, Non-Legality in International Law: Unruly Law (2013); Ratna Kapur, Gender, Alterity and Human Rights – Freedom in a Fishbowl (2020); Yuk Hui, The Question Concerning Technology in China: An Essay in Cosmotechnics (2021); Henning Lahmann, ‘Self-Determination in the Age of Algorithmic Warfare’ (2025) European Journal of Legal Studies 161–214.

Some people think we live in an age of decline. Matthew Sweet investigates, with guests including political journalist Tim Stanley, art critic Louisa Buck, Professor Jane Desmarais who is head of the decadence research centre at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Neville Morley, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

For four four decades, George Monbiot has been one of Britain's strongest voices speaking out on the environment.

After starting his career with the BBC, Monbiot is now best known for his books and his weekly column in The Guardian, winning a reputation as a tireless and passionate advocate for the natural world, as well as making plenty of enemies along the way. He joins James Fisher on this week's episode of the Country Life Podcast to talk about farming, development, nature and neoliberalism. Covering a huge amount of ground — from developers and corporations pushing their agenda on government, to how flawed farming practices have created monoculture deserts across huge swatches of Britain — it's a fascinating listen.

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You may not always agree with him, but his commitment to making the world a better place is fierce and unwavering. His passion isn't just directed towards the environment, but also society as a whole — something explored in his recent book on neoloberalism, The Invisible Doctrine, which he recently spoke about at the Cambridge Literary Festival.

You can find out more about George and his work at monbiot.com.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher

Guest: George Monbiot

Editor and producer: Toby Keel

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

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The author of "Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492 to 1614," delves into the complex history of Muslim Spain, starting from the arrival of Muslims in Spain in 711 under a North African general, the formation of al-Andalus, and its eventual decline. Matthew Carr explains how the Spanish Christians perceived the conquest of Granada in 1492 as a divine and final victory, leading to the expulsion of Jews and Muslims. The discussion highlights the forced conversions, the life of the Moriscos (converted Muslims) under Christian rule, and the extreme measures taken by the Spanish Inquisition to ensure religious uniformity. Carr also reflects on the modern parallels of ethnic cleansing in Palestine and societal intolerance, linking historical events to contemporary issues.

00:00 Introduction: The Concept of Blood and Faith
01:10 Historical Context: Muslim Arrival in Spain
02:24 The Fall of Granada and Its Aftermath
03:37 Carr's Inspiration for Writing the Book
03:59 The Moriscos: A Forgotten History
05:20 The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain
18:49 The Concept of Purity of Blood
22:54 The Fall of Granada: A Religious and Political Triumph
31:07 The Aftermath of 1492: Forced Conversions and Rebellions
34:15 Forced Conversions in Spain
34:50 Muslim Workers in Valencia
37:48 Christian Intolerance and Inquisition
40:38 Cultural Resistance and Rebellion
45:27 The Expulsion of the Moriscos
54:32 Historical Reflections and Modern Parallels

Matthew Carr is a writer, journalist, and author of several books of nonfiction, including Blood and Faith :The Purging of Muslim Spain. He has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Observer, The Guardian and others.

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