New Books in Political Science
New Books Network
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com
Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/
Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 7, 2026 • 39min
Jon R. Lindsay "Age of Deception: Cybersecurity as Secret Statecraft" (Cornell UP, 2025)
Jon R. Lindsay, an associate professor at Georgia Tech and author of Age of Deception, explores cybersecurity as secret statecraft. He discusses how trust and institutions enable espionage and subversion. Case studies range from Bletchley Park to Israel’s 2024 pager operation. He reframes Stuxnet as covert action and teases consequences for policy, counterintelligence, and AI-era deception.
Feb 4, 2026 • 56min
Ning Leng, "Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China" (Cambridge, 2025)
Ning Leng, Assistant Professor at Georgetown specializing in Chinese political economy, explores how officials turn private firms into political instruments. She discusses visible infrastructure choices, why companies accept loss-making deals, the role of firms in controlling protests, and how promotion incentives reshape public services. The conversation also previews her work on Chinese firms in Latin America.
Feb 4, 2026 • 1h 1min
Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson, "A Black Woman for President: Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, and Kamala Harris" (UP of Mississippi)
Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson, scholar of womanist rhetorical criticism and Black women’s political rhetoric, explores presidential announcement speeches by Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, and Kamala Harris. She traces rhetorical legacies from Chisholm’s bold self-definition to Braun’s bridge-building and Harris’s contemporary framing. The conversation centers on womanist rhetoric, faith and HBCU influences, and close readings of these pivotal speeches.
Feb 3, 2026 • 1h 25min
Lisa Min et al. eds., "Redacted: Writing in the Negative Space of the State" (punctum books, 2024)
Frank Billet, a UC Berkeley cultural anthropologist/geographer studying borders and sovereignty, and Lisa Min, an anthropologist of visuality focused on North Korea, discuss redaction as a multimodal practice. They explore redaction’s origins in workshops and fieldwork, visual and poetic experiments, printing and design challenges, algorithmic constraints, ethical and safety tradeoffs in research, and how redaction creates ambiguous, generative spaces.
Feb 2, 2026 • 1h 4min
Jens Ludwig, "Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Jens Ludwig, a University of Chicago crime-and-policy scholar and director of the Crime Lab, discusses why many shootings stem from heated, fleeting interpersonal conflicts rather than premeditated malice. He explores neighborhood differences, behavioral causes like rapid System 1 reactions, low-cost preventive tactics, data-driven time-and-place targeting, and how community programs and policing can work together.
Jan 31, 2026 • 36min
Nathan Munier, "Zimbabwe's Diamond Trade: The State, Resource Politics and Development" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Dr. Nathan Munier, political scientist and author of Zimbabwe's Diamond Trade, studies resource politics and African political economy. He recounts Zimbabwe’s 2006 diamond surge and how portable alluvial gems reshaped ownership and smuggling. He explores shifting buyers and limits of the Kimberley Process. He links diamond control to regime resilience and compares regional resource politics.
Jan 31, 2026 • 45min
Blair Kelley, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class" (LIveright, 2023)
Dr. Blair L.M. Kelley, Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies and author of Black Folk, blends family memoir and archival research. She spotlights laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic and postal workers. Conversations cover how Black labor built institutions, reshaped unions and policy, and forged community and resistance.
Jan 28, 2026 • 60min
Betty Boyd Caroli, "A Slumless America: Mary K. Simkhovitch and the Dream of Affordable Housing" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Betty Boyd Caroli, historian and biographer of American social history, tells the life of Mary K. Simkhovitch, a settlement-house leader and early public housing advocate. They explore Greenwich House, Simkhovitch’s turn from European study to housing reform, her role in early federal housing policy, and the design and legacy of New Deal public housing projects.
Jan 27, 2026 • 46min
Colette Einfeld and Helen Sullivan, "How to Conduct Interpretive Research: Insights for Students and Researchers" (Edward Elgar, 2025)
Helen Sullivan, a public policy dean and interpretive research scholar, and Colette Einfeld, a postdoc and former supervisee focused on methods for early-career researchers. They talk about why they co-edited a book, choosing diverse contributors, defining interpretive research, embracing messiness and emotion, learning interpretive language, and hopes for the field’s future and AI’s role.
Jan 22, 2026 • 55min
Democracy and Its Inter-Connections
Laura Chinchilla, the former President of Costa Rica and a prominent political scientist, delves into the urgent challenges facing democracy today. She discusses the interconnected threats of disinformation and eroding institutions while emphasizing the pivotal role of youth in defending democratic values. Highlighting the importance of education and civic engagement, Chinchilla advocates for women's leadership qualities and the need for international cooperation. Her optimism about younger generations showcases their potential to rejuvenate democracy and drive positive change.
