In 1999, the Makahs went out on the Pacific for their first whale hunt in over seventy years. The event drew protests from animal rights activists and local (mostly white) Washingtonians. But to the Makahs, the event was a cause for celebration. Why did the whale hunt hold such divergent meanings for different people along the Northwest Pacific Coast? Joshua ... Show More
Mar 2025
Tom Lynch, "Outback and Out West: The Settler-Colonial Environmental Imaginary" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)
People make sense of the world through stories, and stories about places inevitably shape how we treat, live on, and use those places. In Outback and Out West: The Settler Colonial Environmental Imaginary (U Nebraska Press, 2022), emeritus professor of English at the University o ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 22
Becky M. Nicolaides, "The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945" (Oxford UP, 2024)
The adoption of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965, triggered a wave of immigration to the U.S. not seen since before the First World War. But these newcomers were now far less likely to have come from Europe than Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. And they were far more likely to s ... Show More
38m 43s
Sep 30
Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Anita Huízar-Hernández eds., "meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts" (U Arizona Press, 2025)
Community voices are often an underrepresented aspect of our historical and cultural knowledge of the U.S. Southwest. In this episode, we sit down with Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Anita Huízar-Hernández, editors of meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts ... Show More
22 m
Jun 2018
69 Interwar International Naval Policy
<p>Today what I thought we'd investigate the interwar naval treaties which aimed to prevent conflict, but at the same time, what they did was help shape the navies of the world, in the run up to WWII.</p> <p>In this episode I'm talking to Craig Symonds. Craig is the Enest J King ... Show More
37m 16s
Apr 2025
The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History
Geographic labels are sometimes misnomers. The Dead Sea’s name is not, for the most part. Its high salinity levels kill most forms of life, barring a couple hardy microbes and algae—and even these are threatened by environmental change. Except the Dead Sea has been part of human ... Show More
38m 45s
Oct 2024
Season 3, Episode 12: Christina Gerhardt, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean; With Special Guest, Simona Marinescu
Send us a textJoin Professors Jeffrey Sachs, Christina Gerhardt and UN Senior Advisor on Small Island Developing States, Simona Marinescu as they discuss human induced global warming, the implications of rising sea levels, and Gerhardt’s book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a ... Show More
37m 34s
Nov 2023
Laleh Khalili, "Corporeal Life of Seafaring" (MACK, 2023)
The body of the seafarer is a fulcrum upon which global systems of power, longstanding maritime traditions, and gendered and racialised pressures all rest. In this vital new essay, scholar Laleh Khalili draws on her ongoing research and experiences of travelling on cargo ships to ... Show More
47m 27s
Aug 15
Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)
<p>For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out w ... Show More
37m 32s
Jun 2025
Pilot: Aboard the podcast
Dr. Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, political anthropologist, associate professor at the American University of Beirut, amateur sailor and host of the InsurgenSeas project, sets the stage for a new conversation about oceans and the politics of oceanic change. Drawing from decades of resea ... Show More
6m 18s
Sep 13
Nidhi Mahajan, "Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean" (U of California Press, 2025)
Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean (U of California Press, 2025) follows sailors from the Gulf of Kachchh in India as they voyage across the Indian Ocean on mechanized wooden sailing vessels known as vahans, or dhows. These voyages produce capital through moorin ... Show More
1h 4m