Interviews with Scholars of Critical Theory about their New Books Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory
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The Pill Pod is hosted by a group of PhDs offering their irreverent (and unsolicited) takes on critical theory, philosophy, culture, and politics.
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What are the crucial conflicts of our time? What hopes and wishes for a better future are expressed within these conflicts? The podcast Critical Theory in Context combines analysis of the present with perspectives on societal transformation. We host conversations with theorists and activists about social crises and the possibilities of their emancipatory overcoming.
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A series of podcasts on the Caribbean critical theory tradition, from Suzanne Césaire through the creolist movement.
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Podcasted conversation on critical and literary theory, drawing on a range of theorists from Europe, the United States, Caribbean, and Latin America. Our title is drawn from Audre Lorde's essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," where she writes that poetry fashions a language where words do not yet exist. How does theory make words and world new, attuned, and embedded within inventive and inventing lived-experience, tradition, and cultural production?
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Tune in to the Always Already Podcast for indulgent conversations about critical theory (in the broadest read of the term!). Our podcast consists of two episode streams. The first is a discussion of texts spanning critical theory, political theory, social theory, and philosophy. We work through and analyze main ideas, underlying assumptions, connections with other texts and theories, and occasionally delve into the great abyss of free association, ad hoc theory jokes, and makeshift puns. The ...
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I'll talk about everything from politics to entertainment and philosophy. I'm also a part-time entertainment writer and working-class from the UP of Michigan, so that might come up occasionally. Oh, and I make weird experimental music and sometimes host a college radio show.
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Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.
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Writers, anime fans, communists, and childhood friends Mo Black and Rag talk about anime, weeb culture, and leftism!
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Natalie Cline, member of the Utah State School Board explains how she became a target of the BLM when she denounced Critical Race Theory implementation in the Utah School System. She goes on to explain the evil designs of these tenets and how it is positioned to indoctrinate our children into hating the foundational principles of this country and making them vindictive activists for the cause of the left.
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Matt Mahmoudi, "Migrants in the Digital Periphery: New Urban Frontiers of Control" (U California Press, 2025)
57:44
As the fortification of Europe's borders and its hostile immigration terrain has taken shape, so too have the biometric and digital surveillance industries. And when US Immigration Customs Enforcement aggressively reinforced its program of raids, detention, and family separation, it was powered by Silicon Valley corporations. In cities of refuge, w…
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The exciting topic of Balancing Work Life and Family in a "lean and mean" world.
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Is this an episode of Real Housewives of the Wizarding World? No, just an episode about ole Voldy V- the ultimate diva. From his obsession with power to his need for an audience at every major moment, we unpack how his insecurities, delusions, and over-the-top theatrics make him one of the most absurd villains in fiction. We revisit the iconic grav…
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Tommie Shelby im Gespräch mit Rahel Jaeggi und Robin CelikatesIn this episode, the Centre Directors Rahel Jaeggi and Robin Celikates speak with this year’s Benjamin Chair, Tommie Shelby, about his beginnings as a philosopher, his particular approach to philosophy, Marxism, the Black Radical Tradition, about solidarity and his plans for the Benjamin…
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Amanda M. Greenwell, "The Child Gaze: Narrating Resistance in American Literature" (UP of Mississippi, 2024)
41:54
The Child Gaze: Narrating Resistance in American Literature (UP of Mississippi, 2024) theorizes the child gaze as a narrative strategy for social critique in twentieth- and twenty-first-century US literature for children and adults. Through a range of texts, including James Baldwin’s Little Man, Little Man, Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear…
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Talking about one of the Midwest’s finest contributions to hardcore punk — The Zero Boys.
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Rahul Rao, "The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire" (Pluto Press, 2025)
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From Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond, statues have become sites of resistance and contestation of our imperial past and postcolonial present. The Psychic Lives of Statues by Rahul Rao offers an insightful exploration of these global controversies, demonstrating that beneath their surface lie deeper struggles over race, caste, and the politics of …
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Dimwits, Dipsh*ts, Dufuses, and Dullards (Ep. 12); U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, Town Hall-phobic!
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Over 150 residents from the Houghton area gathered at the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Bridge Street for a grassroots town hall aimed at addressing U.S. Representative Jack Bergman’s (R-Watersmeet) record. Despite being invited two weeks prior, Bergman did not attend, leaving constituents to express their frustrations to an empty c…
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Colby Gordon, "Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
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Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature (U Chicago Press, 2024) offers a prehistory of transness that recovers early modern theological resources for trans lifeworlds. In this striking contribution to trans history, Colby Gordon challenges the prevailing assumption that trans life is a byproduct of recent medical innovation by lo…
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Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, "Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana" (UNC Press, 2023)
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Every year between 1998 to 2020 except one, Louisiana had the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the nation and thus the world. Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) is the first detailed account of Louisiana's unprecedented turn to mass incarceratio…
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"The Velvet Underground & Nico" was groundbreaking in its raw, avant-garde approach to rock.
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Today I talked to Mark Neocleous about his new book Pacification: Social War and the Power of Police (Verso, 2025). For more than two decades, Neocleous has been a pioneer in the radical critique of policing, security, and warfare. Today we will discuss his newest work on the theory and practice of pacification, which, he argues, is “social warfare…
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In his new book, Nathan K. Hensley describes a mood or a vibe or an intuitive response to the contemporary moment when one feels powerless in the face of collapsing societal systems. Given the entrenched nature of the present crisis, with compulsory happiness being marketed by the culture industry, how does one work within systems from which no tru…
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Maggie M. Cao, "Painting US Empire: Nineteenth-Century Art and Its Legacies" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
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Painting US Empire: Nineteenth-Century Art and Its Legacies (University of Chicago Press, 2025) by Dr. Maggie Cao is the first book to offer a synthetic account of art and US imperialism around the globe in the nineteenth century. In this work, art historian Dr. Cao crafts a nuanced portrait of nineteenth-century US painters’ complicity with and re…
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Harriet Atkinson, "Showing Resistance: Propaganda and Modernist Exhibitions in Britain, 1933-53" (Manchester UP, 2024)
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How did exhibitions become a vital tool for public communication in early twentieth century Britain? Showing resistance reveals how exhibitions were taken up by activists and politicians from 1933 to 1953, becoming manifestos, weapons of war and a means of signalling political solidarities. Drawing on dozens of examples mounted in empty shops, work…
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Today, we’re diving into The Unheard, a 2023 psychological horror film directed by Jeffrey A. Brown. You might recognize his work from The Beach House (2019), a slow-burning horror gem that left a lasting impression on genre fans. Does The Unheard live up to that standard among fans?
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President Donald Trump has announced that the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil may be the first in a series of actions targeting campus demonstrations against Israel and the Gaza conflict. Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident and former Columbia University graduate student, was detained by federal immigration agents in New York and transferr…
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Tahrir Hamdi, "Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
53:20
Tahrir Hamdi is a Professor of Resistance Literature at the Arab Open University in Jordan. She is the author of the award-winning Imagining Palestine and serves as an assistant editor of Arab Studies Quarterly. National identities are inherently fluid, shaped as much by collective beliefs and cultural practices as by official borders and territory…
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Dimwits, Dipsh*ts, Dufuses, and Dullards (Ep. 11); EPA's Lee Zeldin - Polluters Win, People Lose
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has unveiled a comprehensive plan to dismantle 31 environmental regulations, including pivotal climate change policies. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Zeldin declared his intent to "drive a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion..." And yes, that is Zeldin next to …
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Karl Berglund, "Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Streaming Age" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
38:42
What is the future of reading? In Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Digital Age (Bloombury, 2024), Karl Berglund, Assistant Professor in Literature at Department of Literature and Rhetoric at Upsala University, examines the rise of audiobooks as a new mode of reading books. The analysis draws on digital humanities methods and a detaile…
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Nima Bassiri, "Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
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Uncovers a powerful relationship between pathology and money: beginning in the nineteenth century, the severity of mental illness was measured against a patient’s economic productivity. Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value (U Chicago Press, 2024) reveals the economic norms embedded within psyc…
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In this lively and deeply engaging episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble responds to the fiery post-episode discussion about Tom Riddle. From dissecting the many hilarious and shady nicknames the CMT community bestowed upon Voldemort to unpacking the complexities of his insecurities, Julian dives deep into what makes Tom Riddle …
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Today, we’re diving into Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter from 1984, the fourth installment in the iconic slasher franchise. And despite what the title claims, this was far from the final chapter. In fact, Jason Voorhees was just getting started.
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Today, I'm talking about a band that electrified the punk and electronic music scenes with their unapologetic feminist anthems and high-energy performances. That’s right—we’re talking about Le Tigre.
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Today, we’re looking at A Beautiful Mind (2001), a critically acclaimed biographical drama directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe as the brilliant yet tormented mathematician John Nash.
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If you've ever felt like your boss is pushing you to the edge, this episode is for you!
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