Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
How both of today’s guests became involved in higher education in prison.
Why this work is personal to them.
Funding and representation issues in higher education in prison.
The complexities of supporting students who are incarcerated without supporting the carceral system.
And a discussio ... Show More
Yesterday
Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them
Rural students are unlikely to pursue degrees from private, selective schools. Why? And what happens to the handful of rural students who do attend elite colleges, colleges that may feel worlds away from home? Educated Out shows how geography shapes rural, first-generation studen ... Show More
45m 28s
Yesterday
Nina Bandelj, "Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Parents are exhausted. When did raising children become such all-consuming, never-ending, incredibly expensive, and emotionally absorbing effort? In this eye-opening book, Nina Bandelj explains how we got to this point--how we turned children into financial and emotional investme ... Show More
1 h
Feb 2
Arnoud S. Q. Visser, "On Pedantry: A Cultural History of the Know-it-All" (Princeton UP, 2025)
A lively and entertaining cultural history of a supremely annoying intellectual vice Intellectuals have long provoked scorn and irritation, even downright aggression. Many learned individuals have cast such hostility as a badge of honor, a sign of envy, or a form of resistance to ... Show More
34m 12s
Feb 2023
Inside Story: Life in Prison, As Told by Formerly Incarcerated People
For people who have not experienced it, life in prison can seem unimaginable. So reporters who have themselves been incarcerated can offer an important perspective when covering the prison system. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Lawrence Bartley, host of the new series Inside Story ... Show More
10m 40s
Sep 2017
Sarah Haley, “No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity” (UNC Press, 2016)
Recent popular and scholarly interest has highlighted the complex and brutal system of mass incarceration in the United States. Much of this interest has focused on recent developments while other scholars have revealed the connections between the development of the prison system ... Show More
55m 44s