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
Jul 4
Sadiah Qureshi, "Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction" (Penguin, 2025)
Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass ... Show More
39m 46s
May 30
Christos Lynteris, "How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)
Today, rats are nearly synonymous with plague, but this association is surprisingly recent. For centuries, plague devastated populations without being linked to animals. So how did the rat become the symbol of one of history's deadliest diseases? In How Plague Got Rats: Mastering ... Show More
49m 11s
May 14
Kenneth G. Zysk, "South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology" (Brill, 2025)
South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology (Brill, 2025) examines the history and practice of animal omen divination in South Asia, comparing it to similar traditions in Mesopotamia and classical antiquity. It provides critical editions and translations of relevant texts ... Show More
40m 48s
Jul 2023
Brenda E. F. Beck, "Hidden Paradigms: Comparing Epic Themes, Characters, and Plot Structures" (U Toronto Press, 2022)
Brenda Beck discusses her lifelong work on a Tamil folk legend, resulting in a graphic novel, an English translation and Hidden Paradigms: Comparing Epic Themes, Characters, and Plot Structures (U Toronto Press, 2022) which identifies important symbolic patterns connecting this t ... Show More
47m 4s
Aug 2018
Master Herder: Horse-inspired insights for Healing, Caring and Leading with Linda Kohanov #248
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 Epon ... Show More
1h 11m
May 2023
Conversations: Jason as Colonizer, Rewriting Medea w/ Savage Beasts Author Rani Selvarajah
Liv is joined by Rani Selvarajah to talk about her Medea retelling set in colonial India ( and gods, so much more!). Follow Rani on Twitter and Instagram. Order Savage Beasts in the UK (and Commonwealth aside from Canada) wherever you get your books, or from Blackwell's who ship ... Show More
1h 25m
Jan 2024
Tulasi Srinivas, "Wonder in South Asia: Histories, Aesthetics, Ethics" (SUNY Press, 2023)
Tulasi Srinivas' edited volume Wonder in South Asia: Histories, Aesthetics, Ethics (SUNY Press, 2023) brings together historians and ethnographers of South Asia, including leading and emerging scholars, to consider the place and meaning of wonder in such varied joyful, tense, and ... Show More
57m 15s
Oct 2020
#288 Dr Pragya Agarwal: How Do You Judge Other People?
Today's guest is Dr Pragya Agarwal, a behavioural and data scientist, and the bestselling author of SWAY: Unravelling Unconscious Bias which came out this year. Her writing on bias and prejudice, motherhood, gender and racial inequality and mental health has appeared in The Guard ... Show More
30m 2s
Dec 2024
Victoria Soyan Peemot, "The Horse in My Blood: Multispecies Kinship in the Altai and Saian Mountains" (Berghahn Books, 2024)
A fascinating interspecies relationship can be seen among the horse breeding pastoralists in the Altai and Saian Mountains of Inner Asia. Growing up in a community with close human-horse relationships, in The Horse in My Blood: Multispecies Kinship in the Altai and Saian Mountain ... Show More
1h 1m