New Books Network

Dr. Terence Keel, UCLA scholar of human biology, society, and African-American studies, examines how death investigators and records obscure in-custody deaths. He discusses origins of the book, barriers to autopsy and records access, reading autopsies against the grain, families forcing accountability, and the scale and suppression of police-related deaths.

Ruth Mandujano López, historian and author of Steamships Across the Pacific, studies Mexico’s trans-Pacific maritime ties, 1867–1914. She discusses voyage-centered storytelling, archival detective work across ports, migration and policy shifts, scientific and commercial trips, and how steamship routes reshaped mobility and networks between Mexico, China, and Japan.

Rishi Rajpopat, Research Assistant Professor and author of Panini’s Perfect Rule, studies Pāṇini’s Ashtadhyayi and Sanskrit grammar. He explains the decades-long puzzle of conflicting rules. He proposes a reinterpretation that reads “later” as right-hand in the word. He walks through concrete derivations and contrasts Pāṇini’s rule-based system with modern machine-learning approaches.

Dr Shingisai Chando, a Research Fellow at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child health. She examines what cultural safety in healthcare really means. Short takes on racism in workplaces, why trust and belonging matter, the limits of tokenism, and the need for place-based, community-led responses.

Adam Zeman, neurologist and author studying imagery and consciousness, explores how imagination is our brain’s default. He discusses perception as generative, aphantasia and hyperphantasia, mind-wandering, sleep and creativity, and how predictive brain processes create hallucinations, dreams, and shared mental worlds.

Jordan Treske, author and podcaster who studies Milwaukee Bucks history, walks through the team’s lightning-fast rise from expansion franchise to 1971 champions. He covers the coin flip that landed Kareem, Oscar Robertson’s arrival, Larry Costello and Wayne Embry’s leadership. He also traces Milwaukee’s sports identity, roster decisions, and why greatness proved fleeting.

Michael W. Tuck, historian of 18th-century Atlantic slavery, maps life on James (Kunta Kinteh) Island. He explores castle slaves’ skilled roles, family life, African naming, and women’s caregiving and healing. The conversation highlights archival recovery of named lives, daily survival, frequent escape attempts, and how a Creole community persisted under coercion.

Sam Kahn, writer and editor behind the Substack Castalia and Persuasion contributor, reflects on why literary fiction has lost cultural centrality. He discusses publishing’s structural problems, the rise of TV as a large-scale storytelling form, the promise of Substack and serialized fiction, and how attention shifts and industry incentives have reshaped what gets written and read.

Katharine K. Wilkinson, climate leader and author known for All We Can Save, offers a compassionate guide for navigating climate uncertainty. She discusses why maps fail, the book’s participatory “walk-with-you” format, inward practices like meditation and journaling, and tools for building community, joy, and sustained engagement.

Namwali Serpell, award-winning novelist and Harvard English professor, brings fresh readings of Toni Morrison. She discusses Morrison’s deliberate difficulty and modernist influences. Conversations cover The Bluest Eye’s avant-garde form, diasporic storytelling, humor and irony, misreading as a creative practice, and how to teach and write accessible literary criticism.