New Books Network

A discussion about how science fiction reimagines the early colonial archive and the idea of novelty tied to conquest. They explore narrative strategies like time travel, inversions, and indigenous mapping that rewrite contact stories. Conversations trace how sixteenth century writing, bureaucracy, and mining shaped colonial modernity and how speculative rewritings open anti-colonial imaginaries.

A playful dive into a 1990s crime-comedy that satirizes Hollywood and the movie-making machine. They explore the film’s meta approach to storytelling and its jazz-like, improv energy. Conversation highlights the movie’s stylish 90s vibe, standout comedic set pieces, and how confidence drives characters through chaotic plots.

Elias V. Messinas, architect and historian who has spent decades documenting and restoring Jewish synagogues in Greece. He recounts encounters with ruined sacred spaces and traces Romaniote and Sephardi architectural layers. He describes rediscovering lost surveys, puzzling features like multiple bimahs, and different restoration philosophies. He reflects on memory, community reactions, and the work’s personal impact.

Michael L. Satlow, professor of Judaic and Religious Studies at Brown, studies lived religion in late antiquity. He describes a world alive with divine agents, protective amulets, and practical ritual specialists. He traces shared sacred spaces, contested holy objects, and how everyday people navigated spirits and heavenly intermediaries in daily life.

Nico Slate, historian of democracy and social movements and professor at Carnegie Mellon, explores U.S.–India transnational connections. He discusses why the transnational scale matters. He examines how language and translation reshape race and caste. He traces race–colony and race–caste analogies and debates the limits of broad comparisons for solidarities.

Barry Eichengreen, economic historian and Berkeley professor, maps 2,500 years of cross-border money. He traces coins from ancient Lydia and Rome to the Florentine florin, Spanish silver, and the rise of the pound and dollar. He discusses why the euro and renminbi struggle to displace the dollar and how CBDCs and tokenized deposits could reshape global payments.

Gabriel S. Estrada, a Caxcan/Xicanx scholar and professor of Religious Studies known for work on queer spirituality and Indigenous media, discusses queer Indigenous film across the Americas, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. He explains using Indigenous directional mapping to organize analyses. Topics include Navajo healing films, Kanaka Maoli directionality and mahu, residential school reckonings, jingle dress reclamations, and contemporary LA Indigenous filmmaking.

Emily M. Bender, a linguist who critiques claims that language models 'understand,' and Alex Hanna, a sociologist studying AI’s social harms, discuss how Big Tech shapes AI narratives. They unpack hype that hides limits, labor costs, and data colonialism. Short takes on universities under pressure, biased datasets, and grassroots strategies for resisting misleading AI claims.

Matthew Bothwell, an observational astronomer and science communicator, guides listeners through the hidden cosmos beyond visible light. He explores the full electromagnetic spectrum, infrared views that pierce dust, spectroscopy as a cosmic detective tool, black holes and pulsars seen indirectly, radio mapping of hydrogen, gravitational waves, dark matter and dark energy, and the next generation of telescopes.

Alberto Galasso, economist studying innovation and IP, explains technology capital and how firms create and manage it. Short takes cover patents, tradeoffs between protecting vs creating tech, experimentation and portfolio choices, startup IP mistakes, and using patent analytics for competitive intelligence.