April 4, 2023

Rob Verchick in Conversation with Robyn Massey About The Octopus in the Parking Garage

In November 2016, Richard Conlin discovered an unexpected guest in his parking garage: an octopus. The photos he took quickly went viral, but to Rob Verchick, a leading climate law scholar and the author of The Octopus in the Parking...

January 17, 2023

Q&A: David Bordwell on Perplexing Plots

The art of storytelling is an ever-evolving relationship between writers and their audiences that gets more complex over time. For instance, nonlinear story lines, once considered complex, are now part of mainstream films and mystery and suspense thrillers. David Bordwell,...

December 9, 2022

Q&A: Kenneth D. Frank in Conversation with Robyn Massey about Sex in City Plants, Animals, Fungi, and More

From the garden in the back of his downtown rowhouse, Kenneth D. Frank observed the cornucopia of organisms that interacted and mated before his eyes. These observations made him wonder: how does the city interfere with these organismal orgies? In...

November 15, 2022

Q&A: Reed Brody on To Catch a Dictator

What does it take to make a dictator answer for his crimes? Hissène Habré, the former despot of Chad, terrorized, tortured, and killed on a horrific scale while enjoying full American and Western support. After his overthrow, his victims and...

September 8, 2022

Q&A: Giuseppe Caruso on The Botany of Beer

Pour a pint, and read about its incredible plant origins. Giuseppe Caruso’s The Botany of Beer: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 Plants Used in Brewing provides a lovely look into the raw materials that can spice up your...

August 16, 2022

Q&A: Eva von Redecker and Lucy Duggan on Praxis and Revolution

The concept of revolution marks the ultimate horizon of modern politics. In Praxis and Revolution: A Theory of Social Transformation, Eva von Redecker reconsiders critical theory’s understanding of radical change in order to offer a bold account of how revolution...

August 3, 2022

Daniel Graham in Conversation with Lindsey Bell About An Internet in Your Head

The metaphor of the brain as a computer has defined the neuroscience field for much of the modern era. Whether we realize it or not, we think of our brains as computers. But as neuroscientists increasingly reevaluate their assumptions about...

June 17, 2022

Robert G. O’Meally in Conversation with Justin Liang About Antagonistic Cooperation

From the collages of Romare Bearden and the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat, to the fiction of Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison, to the music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, in Antagonistic Cooperation: Jazz, Collage, Fiction, and the Shaping of...

March 4, 2022

Stephanie D. Preston in Conversation with Robyn Massey About The Altruistic Urge

From the Good Samaritan to Wesley Autry, who jumped in front of a train to save another, stories of altruism fascinate people for many reasons. We are struck by these self-sacrificing acts, and moved by such heroism. Why do ordinary...

March 2, 2022

Jon Wilson in Conversation with Alisa Freedman on Japan on American TV

The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Asia Shorts book series—distributed by Columbia University Press—offers concise, engagingly written titles by highly qualified authors on topics of significance in Asian Studies. Topics are intended to be substantive, generate discussion and debate within...

February 25, 2022

Andy Secher in Conversation with Robyn Massey about Travels with Trilobites

For thirty years before delving more fully into the Paleozoic world of trilobites, Andy Secher was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the rock and roll industry. He was not only the long-time editor of the popular and influential hard rock...

February 18, 2022

Anne Skomorowsky in Conversation with Robyn Massey about The Carriers

A tiny mutation on the X chromosome is a relatively common but still little-known genetic condition that can shape a family’s history. Passed down from a “carrier” parent to a child, fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause...