Perpetrators of mass violence are commonly regarded as evil. Their violent nature is believed to make them commit heinous crimes as members of state agencies, insurgencies, terrorist organizations, or racist and supremacist groups. Upon close examination, however, perpetrators are contradictory human beings who often lead unsettlingly ordinary and uneventful ... Show More
Apr 2025
Amy Zhang, "Circular Ecologies: Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China" (Stanford UP, 2024)
After four decades of reform and development, China is confronting a domestic waste crisis. As the world's largest waste-generating nation, the World Economic Forum projects that by 2030, the volume of household waste in China will be double that of the United States. Starting in ... Show More
1h 7m
Yesterday
Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024)
In 2009, the body of a former president of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, was stolen from his grave. The Time of the Cannibals reconsiders this history and the public discourse on it to reconsider how we think about conspiracy theory, and specifically, what it means ... Show More
1h 30m
Nov 23
Sarah Hoiland, "Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club" (Temple UP, 2025)
A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club (Temple UP, 2025) is Dr. Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ... Show More
44m 53s
Oct 2023
Resentment: The Complexity of an Emotion and its Effect on Politics
In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey interviews Rob Schneider, Professor of History at Indiana University-Bloomington, about the political effects of resentment. Schneider begins by discussing the psychological complexity of resentment and then delv ... Show More
39m 8s
Nov 2021
Oliver Rollins, "Conviction: The Making and Unmaking of the Violent Brain" (Stanford UP, 2021)
Exposing ethical dilemmas of neuroscientific research on violence, this book warns against a dystopian future in which behavior is narrowly defined in relation to our biological makeup. Biological explanations for violence have existed for centuries, as has criticism of this kind ... Show More
1h 10m
Sep 2023
Stephen Ramsay, "On the Digital Humanities: Essays and Provocations" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)
Stephen Ramsey's On the Digital Humanities: Essays and Provocations (University of Minnesota Press, 2023) is a witty and incisive exploration of the philosophical conundrums that animate the digital humanities. Since its inception, the digital humanities has been repeatedly attac ... Show More
52m 9s
Nov 2018
Robert Greene || The Laws of Human Nature
<p>Today we have Robert Greene on the podcast. Robert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of <em>The 48 Laws of Power</em>, <em>The 33 Strategies of War</em>, <em>The Art of Seduction</em>, and <em>Mastery</em>, and is an internationally renowned expert on power strategie ... Show More
1h 12m
May 2024
449. Trauma and the Demolition of Faith | Ronnie Janoff-Bulman
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with social psychologist and author, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman. They discuss how most implicit beliefs are consciously unknown to those who hold them; the human reactions to fear, disgust, pain, and the destruction of hope; why people blame themselves ... Show More
1h 23m