In 1808, an American merchant ship happened upon an uncharted island in the South Pacific and unwittingly solved the biggest nautical mystery of the era: the whereabouts of a band of fugitives who, after seizing their vessel, had disappeared into the night with their Tahitian companions. Seven generations later, the island is still inhabited by descendants o ... Show More
Dec 22
Matthew Scobie and Anna Sturman, "The Economic Possibilities of Decolonisation" (Bridget Williams Books, 2024)
What do the economics of decolonisation mean for the future of Aotearoa? This question drives the work of Dr. Matthew Scobie and Dr. Anna Sturman as they explore the complex relationship between tangata whenua and capitalism in The Economic Possibilities of Decolonisation (Bridge ... Show More
55m 59s
Dec 20
Joanna Siekiera, "International Law and Security in Indo-Pacific: Strategic Design for the Region" (Routledge, 2025)
International Law and Security in Indo-Pacific: Strategic Design for the Region (Routledge, 2025) edited by Dr. Joanna Siekiera uses an interdisciplinary approach to discuss international law and conflict in the Indo-Pacific region, covering topics such as maritime security, clim ... Show More
1h 5m
Dec 11
Charlotte Macdonald, "Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire" (Bridget Williams Books, 2025)
The pivotal year of 1870 brought down the curtain on the redcoat garrison world at both the metropolitan and colonial ends of the empire . . . In fewer than forty years, less than a lifetime, Aotearoa had gone from being a Māori world in which rangatira dominated, to a colony in ... Show More
1h 12m
Jun 2023
Playback: Rooting, from Into the Depths
National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts is inspired by the stories of the Clotilda, a ship that illegally arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in 1860, and of Africatown, created by those on the vessel—a community that still exists today. The archaeologists and divers leading the search ... Show More
44m 52s
Apr 2019
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas
It is an all-time adventure classic, a novel by Jules Verne that started life in serialized form 150 years ago and has gripped readers ever since, making it one of the most translated works in publishing history (and yes, the original French title says 'seas' in plural). It also ... Show More
39m 36s
Oct 2022
Faleeha Hassan, "War and Me" (Amazon Crossing, 2022)
An intimate memoir about coming of age in a tight-knit working-class family during Iraq's seemingly endless series of wars.
Faleeha Hassan became intimately acquainted with loss and fear while growing up in Najaf, Iraq. Now, in a deeply personal account of her life, she remembers ... Show More
42m 56s
Mar 2022
Daniel Y. Kim, "The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War" (NYU Press, 2020)
In this episode I talk with Daniel Y. Kim, Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Brown University, about his 2020 book Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War, published by New York University Press.
Though often considered “the forgotten war,” ... Show More
45m 17s
Jun 2022
One Island, Two Men and Lots of Big Questions
<p>Karen Jennings’s novel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/books/review/an-island-karen-jennings.html" target="_blank">“An Island,”</a> which was on the longlist for the Booker Prize in 2021, is set on a fictional unnamed island off the coast of Africa, where a man nam ... Show More
53m 24s
May 2020
Enemy of All Mankind | A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt | S30-E1
<p>On September 11th, 1695, two ships confronted each other in the middle of the Indian Ocean: one an enormous treasure ship owned by the Grand Mughal of India, and the other a much smaller British pirate ship led by Henry Every. </p><p>What happened next changed the w ... Show More
36m 19s