How are contemporary pop culture ideas about resilience used by Neoliberal capitalism? Robin James addresses this question using philosophy of music (and by doing philosophy through music) in her new book Resistance and Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, and Neoliberalism (Zero Books, 2015). The book opens with a discussion of Calvin Harris (& Florence Welch’s ... Show More
Today
Wendy Brown, "States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity" (Princeton UP, 2025)
A sympathetic critique that attempts to free Left politics from its own snares, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton University Press, 2025) explores how woundedness became a basis for contemporary political identity. Without condemning identity politi ... Show More
41m 11s
Yesterday
Sari Hanafi, "Against Symbolic Liberalism: A Plea for Dialogical Sociology" (Liverpool UP, 2025)
In an era of deepening polarization, Sari Hanafi examines how social scientists often reproduce the very injustices they seek to challenge, taking entrenched positions while dismissing alternative perspectives. He introduces the concept of symbolic liberalism - a contradiction in ... Show More
50m 5s
Feb 2024
Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner, "Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher's Guide" (Routledge, 2022)
Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey: A Teacher’s Guide provides concrete information and approaches that will help instructors include women and people of color in the typical music history survey course and the foundational music theory classes. This book provide ... Show More
33m 16s
Aug 2017
Marxist Feminism: The Struggle Against Capitalist Patriarchal Hegemony
Raechel Anne Jolie is an educator, an activist, a yogi, a Media Studies PhD, a vegan, a podcaster, and a writer. Her writing has been featured in Bitch Magazine, The Daily Dot, The Huffington Post, (and more), and she's been interviewed as an expert in her field for Rolling Stone ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2023
Adam Blum et al., "Here I'm Alive: The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis" (Columbia UP, 2023)
Today we have a group session (read: an hour and a half) with the authors Adam Blum, Peter Goldberg, and Michal Levin discussing their new book Here I’m Alive: The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis (Columbia University Press, 2023). Acknowledging that “We’re not the first to thin ... Show More
1h 37m
Mar 2022
Toward a Revolutionary Feminism: a Continuum of Women's Work
Tai Lee joins the show to discuss feminist theory, marxist v. liberal feminism, patriarchal realism, gender abolition, historical and dialectical materialism, why the "gender critical" movement is fundamentally anti-Marxist, key feminist thinkers, and much more! Follow Tai on Twi ... Show More
1h 29m
Dec 2019
Paper Planes, Chandelier & What the #@%! is Timbre? (with Constance Grady)
We hand over the hosting duties to Constance Grady, book reviewer for Vox.com, to discuss our new book/baby - Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, and go deep on two specific concepts we haven’t touched nearly enough on the show: timbre (with the help of S ... Show More
38m 43s
Nov 2023
Economic fact in literary fiction
Some of the most influential and beloved novels of the last few years have been about money, finance, and the global economy. Some overtly so, others more subtly. It got to the point where we just had to call up the authors to find out more: What brought them into this world? Wha ... Show More
26m 22s
Dec 2019
Jane D. Hatter, "Composing Community in Late Medieval Music: Self-Reference, Pedagogy, and Practice" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
There are a handful of pieces from the Medieval and Renaissance periods that most music students learn about in their introductory history courses; among them are Guillaume Du Fay’s, Ave regina celorum III and Johannes Ockeghem’s Missa Prolationum. Some of these foundational comp ... Show More
56m 58s
