Recall This Book

John sits down with Columbia University professor Sharon Marcus to discuss her latest book, The Drama of Celebrity, a tour-de-force argument about how stars are born, publicized, and in time devoutly scrapbooked by adoring fans. They tackle a question at least as old as Sarah Bernhardt: who or what makes a star? Rather than crediting … Continue reading "20 The Drama of Celebrity with Sharon Marcus (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode John and Elizabeth sit down with Brandeis string theorist Albion Lawrence to discuss cooperation versus solitary study across disciplines. They sink their teeth into the question, “Why do scientists seem to do collaboration and teamwork better than other kinds of scholars and academics?” The conversation ranges from the merits of collective biography … Continue reading "19 Scientists, collaboration, and groupthink with Albion Lawrence (EF, JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John travelled to Odense, Denmark for a conference called “Love Etc.” (RTB is for it…) and fell into this conversation about empathy, identification and “uncritical reading” with the novelist Namwali Serpell and literary theorist Rita Felski. Hannah Arendt’s distrust of too much feeling, not enough thinking loomed large; so did Zadie Smith’s recent article in … Continue reading "18 Fictional Empathy. Rita Felski and Namwali Serpell (with JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The British filmmaker Mike Leigh puts the move into movies: he never stops changing, never stops inventing. In nearly 50 years of filmmaking, he has ranged from comic portrayals of ordinary life amid the social breakdowns of Thatcher’s Britain (Life is Sweet, High Hopes) to gritty renditions of working-class constraint and bourgeois hypocrisy (Meantime, Abigail’s Party, … Continue reading "17 In Focus: Mike Leigh (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a blustery fall morning, RTB welcomed Christine Walley, anthropologist and author of Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago. In the early 1980s Chris’s father, along with thousands of other steel workers, lost his job when the mills in Southeastern Chicago closed. The book is part of a multimodal project, including the documentary … Continue reading "16 de/industrialization with Christine Walley (EF and JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zadie Smith touched down at Brandeis because Swing Time was this year’s New Student Book Forum selection. It made for a busy day: on top of the podcast, she spoke to faculty and undergraduates at two different events. So, lots of material to discuss. We do our best to unpack Zadie Smith’s take on sincerity, … Continue reading "15x Afterthoughts on Zadie Smith (John and Elizabeth)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, John interviews the celebrated British writer Zadie Smith. Zadie’s horror at the idea of rereading her own novels opens the show; she can more easily imagine rewriting one (as John’s beloved Willa Cather once did) than having to go through them all again. From there the conversation quickly moves through Brexit (oh, … Continue reading "15 In Focus: Zadie Smith (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In May, John and Pu interviewed SF superstar Cixin Liu (you will want to listen to that episode before this one). In August they entered the studio again to work on the final edits for that interview in both its Chinese and English versions. While they were there, they took some time to reflect on … Continue reading "14x Afterthoughts about the Cixin Liu interview (Pu Wang and John)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, John and Brandeis professor Pu Wang talk with the bestselling science fiction author Cixin Liu. Mr. Liu is the author of The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death’s End, and other works. When he visited Brandeis to receive an honorary degree, Liu paid a visit to the RTB lair to record … Continue reading "14 In Focus: Cixin Liu (in English, with Pu Wang, JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This is the original Chinese interview with Cixin Liu; to hear the English translation, go to Episode 14] 今年5月18日，前来Brandeis大学接受荣誉博士学位的科幻小说家刘慈欣接受了John Plotz和王璞两位教授的专访。这次独具深度、异常精彩的访谈，已经整理为中英双语两个版本，想听刘慈欣中文原声的科幻迷们，请点这里！也请有兴趣的朋友们多多关注Recall This Book。 收听音频，请戳—— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices