New Books Network

Gina Turrigiano, neuroscientist and MacArthur Fellow who studies brain plasticity and sleep, joins to explore addiction from biological, anthropological, and literary angles. Short takes cover whether addiction is a habit or disease. They discuss neural ruts and recovery, how drugs fill social and emotional voids, shared brain reward pathways across behaviors, and distinctions between dependence and compulsion.

Tom Wells, historian and author of The Kissinger Tapes, presents edited transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s secretly recorded phone calls. He walks through selecting revealing conversations. He highlights topics from Vietnam and Cambodia to China, Pakistan, Watergate, wiretaps, and Kissinger’s political maneuvering. Short, revealing snapshots that illuminate Kissinger’s tactics and era.

Tulasi Srinivas, an anthropologist of religion and urban life, explores contemporary beauty parlors in Bangalore as sites of social life and meaning. She discusses how salons connect technology, mythology, and gender through stories of goddesses and ethical practice. Conversations cover methods, class and caste dynamics, and how beauty practices shape moral imaginaries.

Maya Kornberg, Senior Fellow at the NYU Brennan Center and author of Stuck, explores why Congress remains immobilized. She traces three freshman reform waves and examines how campaign money, social media incentives, and rising political violence block change. Short takes on relationship-building, institutional staffing, and concrete reforms round out the conversation.

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College and military historian, discusses his Oxford University Press book on the Battle of Manila. He covers Manila’s place in the late Pacific War. He examines MacArthur’s decisions and the strategies behind the Luzon campaign. He explores brutal urban combat, Japanese choices to defend the city, and the devastation and civilian toll.

Marika Duczynski, a Gamilaraay and Mandandanji writer and Indigenous Heritage Curator, discusses community-led curation and repatriation. She explores cultural competence in colonial institutions. Conversation covers ICIP frameworks, culturally respectful care of collections, rights of response, and opening museum spaces as living, community-guided places.

Crystal Simone Smith, award-winning poet who remakes foundational texts through erasure, discusses her book Common Sense (1776): Addressed to Today's Citizens of America. She explains why she chose Paine's pamphlet and her redaction method. Listeners hear about form, performance, accessibility, tone, and how the work reframes who counts in America as the nation nears its 250th anniversary.

Davy Ellison, director of training and Old Testament lecturer from Northern Ireland and author of Hope for a New David, argues the Psalter is a crafted narrative promising a renewed Davidic future. He traces a five-book shape, reads lament and restoration as stages, and highlights Psalms 110 and 132 as anchors for Zionic and royal hope.

Crystal Simone Smith, award-winning poet who uses erasure and visual poetry, reworks Thomas Paine’s text into a mirror for today. She discusses why Common Sense invited redaction, her visual and performative design choices, how the erasures disrupt Paine’s exclusionary rhetoric, and the craft and revision process behind making the work speak to modern citizens.

Sarah Jaffe, journalist and labor reporter who studies work and social movements, explores how labeling work a “labor of love” lets employers justify low pay and exploitation. She traces this across teaching, care, retail, nonprofits, tech, creative fields, and sports. The conversation highlights precarity, emotional labor, unpaid internships, crunch culture, and why collective organizing matters.