New Books Network

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.

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.

Dana Mele, YA author of The Beast You Let In, writes tense queer coming-of-age horror. She discusses twins and dual identity, rural isolation shaping queer danger, spiritualism and Ouija research, crafting Veronica’s voice through diary poems, multiple POVs and portraying neurodivergence authentically.

Katharina Gensch, a doctoral candidate studying language learning among older adults, explores why seniors in Berlin take English classes. She discusses motivations like travel and culture. She examines how English’s ubiquity shapes belonging, sparks irritation, or is rejected as ageist. She highlights learning as a way for older adults to stay socially engaged and retain agency.

Dr. Andrew Park, historian of international relations and author of a book on Sarah Wambaugh, explores the rise and fall of plebiscites in the interwar world. He discusses archival sleuthing, Wambaugh’s rulebook for voting under international supervision, contested cases like Upper Silesia and the Saar, and how democratic tools became entangled with violence and appeasement.

Mark Blacknell, Zen practitioner, former Marine, and author of Just Stare at the Damn Wall!, brings a blunt, down-to-earth take on meditation. He talks about simple, body-centered practice, community work with prisoners and seniors, and why forgetting enlightenment can be useful. Expect frank talk on safety, practicality, and how repetition reshapes fear and stability.

Leslie Barnes, Associate Professor of French Studies at ANU who studies Cambodian and Vietnamese literature and film. She discusses how fiction and film stage ambivalence around sex work under imperialism. Topics include colonial and rescue narratives, Rithy Panh’s documentary strategies, debates over terminology, sex tourism, cross-border marriage, and archival oral histories.

Melissa Butcher, a professor and program director who conducted extensive fieldwork across the US, explores how competing meanings of freedom polarize Americans. She discusses rural/urban divides, the El Paso border crossings, conservative youth organizing, COVID-related medical freedom, and local efforts that bridge deep disagreements.

Michaela Hulstyn, Associate Director at Stanford who studies phenomenology and French/Francophone literature. She talks about altered states that unsettle selfhood. Discussion covers global French perspectives, loss versus transcendence of the self, narrative choices for portraying unselfing, ethical stakes around empathy, and multilingual and traumatic transformations.