Erica Fox Brindley‘s recent book explores the centrality of music to early Chinese thought. Making broad use of both received and newly excavated texts, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China (SUNY Press, 2012) offers readers a history of harmony in early China. Brindley shows how the concept was integral to integrating what might other ... Show More
Aug 10
Christopher Campo-Bowen, "Visions of the Village: Ruralness, Identity, and Czech Opera" (Oxford UP, 2025)
The Bartered Bride, a comic opera by Bedrich Smetana, premiered in Prague on March 30, 1866. Its pastoral love story and setting in a rural Czech village eventually became an enduring symbol of Czech nationalism. In Visions of the Village: Ruralness, Identity, and Czech Opera (Ox ... Show More
1h 12m
Jul 30
Elijah Wald, "Rock ‘N’ Roll: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Rock 'n' roll appeared in the 1950s as the high-energy, electrically amplified music of young dancers and listeners, first in the United States and then around the globe, and from the beginning it symbolized more than music. First popularized as a marketing rubric to sell African ... Show More
50m 34s
Jul 17
Stacey Copeland, "Lavender Sounds: From Lesbian Radio to Queer Feminist Soundwork" (U Michigan Press, 2026)
Stacey Copeland, Assistant Professor of Cultural Heritage and Identity at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen, joins Jana Byars to talk about Lavender Sounds: From Lesbian Radio to Queer Feminist Soundwork (University of Michigan Press, 20 ... Show More
53m 11s
Apr 2013
Erica Fox Brindley, “Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China” (SUNY Press, 2012)
Erica Fox Brindley‘s recent book explores the centrality of music to early Chinese thought. Making broad use of both received and newly excavated texts, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China (SUNY Press, 2012) offers readers a history of harmony in early Ch ... Show More
1h 11m
Feb 2016
Erica Fox Brindley, “Ancient China and the Yue: Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, c.400 BCE-50 CE” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
Erica Fox Brindley‘s new book is a powerful study of the history of conceptions of ethnicity in early China that focuses on the Hua-xia and the peoples associated with its southern frontier (Yue/Viet). Informed by a careful accounting of extant textual, linguistic, and archaeolog ... Show More
1h 4m
Nov 2020
A Song a day keeps the doctor away
Research shows that music is very powerful and it has the ability to affect people in a number of ways, namely, their mood.
Have you ever heard of listening to music to improve your health and wellness?
In this episode, the founder of health and wellness music Liu Ziwei exp ... Show More
40m 18s
Sep 2023
Jeremy Eichler on his new book 'Time's Echo'
Jeremy Eichler's new book, Time's Echo, just out from Faber (HB; £25) tangles with memory – what we choose to remember, what to forget – as history takes hold, and he argues that music can become in many ways the most powerful form of memorial. To illustrate this argument, he eng ... Show More
30m 34s
Nov 2022
Two books examine how we listen to music and why it resonates with us
The two books in today's episode explore how we construct meaning from the music we listen to. First, record producer Susan Rogers talks to WBUR's Robin Young about her book, This Is What It Sounds Like, which breaks down the science behind what draws different types of listeners ... Show More
20m 24s
May 2021
The music of Tibet: Healing and purifying the soul
Ye Yunchuan, executive producer of Rhyomi Music, takes us on a musical journey to southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region to explore its sacred landscape, fascinating culture, and wealth of music.
26m 20s