Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture, yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism (The New Press, 2020), Laura Gómez, a leading expert on race, law, and society, illuminates the fascinating race-making ... Show More
Today
Alisa Kessel, "Rape Fantasies: Rape Culture and the Persistence of Sexual Violence" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Political theorist Alisa Kessel (University of Puget Sound) has an important and impressive new book, Rape Fantasies: Rape Culture and the Persistence of Sexual Violence. Kessel’s research grew out of her work on questions of consent and how consent is embedded within the social ... Show More
1h 13m
Yesterday
Daniel A. Bell, "Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Daniel A. Bell joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future (Princeton UP, 2026). This isn't your standard, dusty history — it’s a series of modernized dialogues that grew out of Bel ... Show More
1h 5m
Yesterday
Lia Kent, "The Unruly Dead: Spirits, Memory, and State Formation in Timor-Leste" (U Wisconsin Press, 2024)
“What might it mean to take the dead seriously as political actors?” asks Lia Kent in this exciting new contribution to critical human rights scholarship The Unruly Dead: Spirits, Memory, and State Formation in Timor-Leste (U Wisconsin Press, 2024). In Timor-Leste, a new nation- ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2021
George J. Sánchez, "Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy" (U California Press, 2021)
The vision for America’s cross-cultural future lies beyond the multicultural myth of the "great melting pot." That idea of diversity often imagined ethnically distinct urban districts—the Little Italys, Koreatowns, and Jewish quarters of American cities—built up over generations ... Show More
1h 6m
Sep 2024
Estados Unidos: Could Latinos sway the US election?
November’s presidential election could highlight the political power of the largest minority group in the United States. Roughly one in five people in the US identifies as Latino, and in a close race, which way they vote could prove crucial, particularly in several swing states b ... Show More
26m 36s
Jul 2018
Flexin' Our Grit Muscles
Maria and Julio talk about the news with two all-stars: Callie Crossley, host of Under the Radar on WGBH Radio, and Gabby Rivera, writer, artist, activist and our resident nerdberger. They discuss midterm elections, the latest on immigration policy and the spike of racist hate cr ... Show More
44m 10s