To seek asylum, people often have to cross borders undocumented, embarking on perilous trajectories. Due to the war in Afghanistan, the rule of the Taliban, and severe human rights violations, over the past decades thousands of people have risked their lives to seek safety. By what means do they make these journeys, especially when they lack money and passpo ... Show More
Yesterday
Make China Great Again: Online Alt-History Fiction and Popular Authoritarianism with Rongbin Han (Columbia UP, 2026)
Rongbin Han is a Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia, where he studies Chinese politics and the internet. Han’s latest book—and the topic of this New Books Network episode—is Make China Great Again: Online Alt-History Fiction and Popular Authoritariani ... Show More
53m 10s
Oct 30
Eating Grasshoppers: Chapulines and the Women Who Sell Them with Jeffrey H. Cohen (U Texas Press, 2025)
Eating Grasshoppers: Chapulines and the Women Who Sell Them (U Texas Press, 2025) is an approachable ethnography of how grasshoppers are harvested, sold, and consumed in Oaxaca.Chapulines (toasted grasshoppers) are not a delicacy in Oaxaca. They are just food—good food—and a prot ... Show More
57m 42s
Oct 29
Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census with danah boyd (U Chicago Press, 2026)
In this episode, danah discusses proposed changes to the census that could lead to population undercounts, distort congressional apportionment, and have other far-reaching consequences. The public comment period closes November 2, 2026. You can submit a comment here.Data Are Made ... Show More
45m 41s
Oct 2025
Hannah Pool, "The Game: The Economy of Undocumented Migration from Afghanistan to Europe" (Oxford UP, 2025)
To seek asylum, people often have to cross borders undocumented, embarking on perilous trajectories. Due to the war in Afghanistan, the rule of the Taliban, and severe human rights violations, over the past decades thousands of people have risked their lives to seek safety. By wh ... Show More
48m 34s
Oct 2025
Hannah Pool, "The Game: The Economy of Undocumented Migration from Afghanistan to Europe" (Oxford UP, 2025)
To seek asylum, people often have to cross borders undocumented, embarking on perilous trajectories. Due to the war in Afghanistan, the rule of the Taliban, and severe human rights violations, over the past decades thousands of people have risked their lives to seek safety. By wh ... Show More
48m 34s
Oct 2021
The Migration Lessons of Afghanistan and Syria
In 2015, over a million people fleeing conflict arrived at Europe’s borders. The continent showed itself to be woefully underprepared, struggling to address the unfolding catastrophe at its doorstep: as decision makers wrangled over asylum quotas, a humanitarian crisis escalated ... Show More
28m 19s
Aug 2022
Women crossing borders and seeking refuge
<p>According to the United Nations, at the end of 2021, 89.4 million people around the world had been forced to flee their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, human rights violations or other events. Among them are nearly 27.1 million refugees. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two ... Show More
28 m