Raj Balkaran speaks with Wendy Doniger about her new book Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and History (University of Virginia Press, 2021), along with her translation of the final four books of the Mahābhārata's Critical Edition translation project, the power of the purāṇas, cultural appropriation, and more!
Raj Balkaran is a scholar ... Show More
Feb 22
Anne Mendelson, "Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood" (Columbia UP, 2023)
Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the population is lactose-intolerant? Why are gigantic new dairy farms permitted to deplete the sparse water resources of desert ecosystems? ... Show More
1h 5m
Feb 21
Josh Milburn, "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" (Oxford UP, 2023)
How would we eat if animals had rights? A standard assumption is that our food systems would be plant-based. But maybe we should reject this assumption. Indeed, this book argues that a future non-vegan food system would be permissible on an animal rights view. It might even be de ... Show More
1h 16m
Feb 19
Thomas Zeitzoff, "No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis" (Oxford UP, 2026)
An authoritative history of the radical environmental movement in the United States, No Option But Sabotage explores how far activists are willing to go to defend the planet in the face of repression and the escalating climate crisis. After 9/11, the radical environmental movemen ... Show More
58m 22s
Mar 2022
Ira Mukhoty, "Song of Draupadi" (Aleph Book Company, 2021)
The Mahabharata is one of the central works of Indian literature—its characters, lessons, and tropes are widely known and referenced in Indian popular culture, literary discussions and political debate.
And like all classic works, it’s ripe for reinterpretations, deconstructions ... Show More
43m 21s
Apr 2022
Manu Pillai, "False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma" (Juggernaut, 2021)
It can be easy to think of the recent history of India—especially for those who aren’t from there—as a straight line, from the Mughal Empire, through the British Empire, to independent India.
That, of course, is hugely simplistic, missing the mess of competing polities, interests ... Show More
48m 25s
Aug 2018
Master Herder: Horse-inspired insights for Healing, Caring and Leading with Linda Kohanov #248
<p>Linda Kohanov is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and pioneer in the field of equine-facilitated learning, where horses help teach people leadership, nonverbal communication, relationship, creativity and other advanced human development skills. Her organization E ... Show More
1h 11m
Jun 2015
Tenzin Chogyel (trans. Kurtis R. Schaeffer), “The Life of the Buddha” (Penguin Books, 2015)
Kurtis R. Schaeffer‘s new translation of Tenzin Chogyel’s The Life of the Buddha(Penguin Books, 2015) is a boon for teachers, researchers, and eager readers alike. Composed in the middle of the eighteenth century, The Life of the Buddha (or more fully rendered, The Life of the Lo ... Show More
1h 3m
May 2023
MALAKA GHARIB | Belonging, Divorce, & Summer in Egypt | Book Club
<p>In this episode of Book Club, Malika Gharib joins us to share her musings on what it means to be an artist, the symbiotic relationship between journalism and comics, as well as what the 'American Dream' truly means. She reflects on growing up as a first-generation Filipino Egy ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2021
Supriya Gandhi, "The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India" (Harvard UP, 2020)
In her magnificent and lyrical new book, The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India (Harvard UP, 2020), Supriya Gandhi reorients and adds unprecedented depth to our understanding of the much memorialized but less understood Mughal prince and thinker Dara Shukoh (d. 16 ... Show More
1 h
May 2022
LAILA LALAMI | The Other American & The Moor's Account | Conversations
<p>Laila Lalami talked about her award-winning books, The Other American, The Moor’s Account, Secret Son, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits & Conditional Citizens.</p><p><strong>Laila Lalami</strong> was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. ... Show More
56m 16s
Nov 2021
Ananda Devi : « La fiction est le moyen de parler de moi sans vraiment le faire »
C’est au milieu des cannes à sucre, en plein cœur de l’océan Indien, qu’est née Ananda Devi. Une enfance à Maurice durant laquelle elle a découvert l’imbrication des identités et des langages. Français, créole, hindi. Autant de langues qu’on retrouve aujourd’hui dans ses livres. ... Show More
27m 4s