Best Benjamin Phillips Podcasts (2025)

1
Stephen R. Platt, "The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II" (Knopf, 2025) 48:13

4h ago48:13

48:13

The extraordinary life of forgotten World War II hero Evans Carlson, commander of America’s first special forces, secret confidant of FDR, and one of the most controversial officers in the history of the Marine Corps, who dedicated his life to bridging the cultural divide between the United States and China “He was a gutsy old man.” “A corker,” sai…

1
M. Myrta Leslie Santana, Transformismo: Performing Trans/Queer Cuba" (U Michigan Press, 2025) 58:47

4h ago58:47

58:47

In Transformismo, M. Myrta Leslie Santana draws on years of embedded research within Cuban trans/queer communities to analyze how transformistas, or drag performers, understand their roles in the social transformation of the island. Once banned and censored in Cuba, transformismo, or drag performance, is now state-sponsored events. Transformismo su…

1
Nicholas Barry et al., "Constitutional Conventions: Theories, Practices and Dynamics" (Routledge, 2025) 51:34

4h ago51:34

51:34

Constitutional Conventions: Theories, Practices and Dynamics (Routledge, 2025) is an excellent edited volume exploring the various ways in which governments and constitutional structures operate in the spaces that are not necessarily articulated in law, edict, or formal documents. This is not a text about the folks who gathered together in 1787 in …

1
Postcript: Calibrating the Outrage-Democratic Erosion, Legality, and Politics 44:25

4h ago44:25

44:25

We’ve been focusing on the dynamics of democratic backsliding in the United States and beyond. In this episode of Postscript: Conversations on Politics and Political Science, Susan talks the co-founder and co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, Dr. Robert Blair about how the Consortium offers FREE resources to teachers, students, journal…

1
Emily Leachman and A. Garrison Libby, "A Complete Guide to Training Library Staff: From Onboarding to Offboarding" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 58:39

4h ago58:39

58:39

Written for library managers and training leaders, A Complete Guide to Training Library Staff (2025, Bloomsbury) presents a comprehensive lifecycle for staff development with a focus on tools and techniques to build a sustainable training program, set staff up for success in their positions, and develop a positive and supportive community across th…

1
Julia McClure, "Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire" (Oxford UP, 2025) 42:51

4h ago42:51

42:51

Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Julia McClure examines how changing concepts of poverty in the long-sixteenth century helped shape the deep structures of states and empires and the contours of imperial inequalities. While poverty is often understood to have become a politic…

1
Sébastien Tremblay, "A Badge of Injury: The Pink Triangle as Global Symbol of Memory" (de Gruyter, 2023) 1:03:27

4h ago1:03:27

1:03:27

Sébastien Tremblay is a historian specialized in queer, global, and conceptual history. Born in Montreal / Tiohtià:ke, he received his PhD at the DFG Graduate School 'Global Intellectual History' at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute in 2020. He is currently a Postdoc at the Department for History and Didactics of History at the University of Flensbu…

1
Maureen Stanton, "The Murmur of Everything Moving: A Memoir" (Columbus State UP, 2025) 23:08

4h ago23:08

23:08

Maureen Stanton’s new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. She meets and falls for Steve, an electrician who at 27 is the father of three children going through a divorce. They are deeply in love, now back in …

1
Z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi: "The Kabbalistic Tree of Life" and "The Anointed" 24:22

4h ago24:22

24:22

The late Z'ev Ben Shimon HaLevi (Warren Kenton 1933-2020) wrote The Kabbalistic Tree of Life (KS Books, 2025), a metaphysical scheme based on ancient, medieval and modern views of its principles, which describes the structure and dynamic of cosmic laws that operate throughout the four Worlds of Jacob's Ladder and humanity. HaLevi also wrote The Ano…

1
Quentin Skinner, "Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 57:23

4h ago57:23

57:23

What does liberty entail? How have concepts of liberty changed over time? And what are the global consequences? Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal (Cambridge UP, 2025) surveys the history of rival views of liberty from antiquity to modern times. Quentin Skinner traces the understanding of liberty as independence f…

1
Classic Episode: April 6, 2008 — UFO Disclosure: Stephen Bassett 1:51:56

20m ago1:51:56

1:51:56

Outspoken UFO activist and UFO disclosure advocate and lobbyist Steve Bassett returned to The Paracast to discuss UFO disclosure and the X-Conference 2008. The real question is, after many years of proclaiming imminent disclosure, has anything actually changed since then? You decide! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podc…

1
How to make climate stories impossible to ignore | Katherine Dunn 9:46

3h ago9:46

9:46

In environmental reporting, “it's not always about the big climate story,” says journalist Katherine Dunn. She challenges newsrooms to rethink how they cover climate change, connecting to the things readers love — whether that’s jobs, football or even a good mango — with three actionable tips for making overlooked stories irresistible.…

1
How to make climate stories impossible to ignore | Katherine Dunn 9:46

8h ago9:46

9:46

In environmental reporting, “it's not always about the big climate story,” says journalist Katherine Dunn. She challenges newsrooms to rethink how they cover climate change, connecting to the things readers love — whether that’s jobs, football or even a good mango — with three actionable tips for making overlooked stories irresistible.…

1
Should Artists Lock In to LinkedIn? (The Benefits That Creators Don't Recognize) 9:30

14h ago9:30

9:30

Tap to send us a text! Think LinkedIn is just for job seekers or corporate professionals? That perspective might be costing you daily, every time you don't show up there. In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on why LinkedIn is quickly becoming one of the most powerful platforms available to creators — musicians, podcasters, writers, and …

1
Yosie Levine, "Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate" (Littman Library, 2024) 41:43

1d ago41:43

41:43

My recent interview with Rabbi Dr. Yosie Levine about his book, Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate (Littman Library, 2024), illuminated the dynamic interplay between Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions-a theme that resonates deeply with our mission at the Unity Through Diversity Institute. From the outset, Rabb…

1
Alan Strathern, "Converting Rulers: Global Patterns, 1450-1850" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 1:21:01

1d ago1:21:01

1:21:01

Why did so many rulers throughout history risk converting to a new religion brought by outsiders? In his award-winning Unearthly Powers (2019), Dr. Alan Strathern set out a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between religion and political authority based on a distinction between two kinds of religion - immanentism and transcendent…

1
Andrew Ofstehage, "Welcome to Soylandia: Transnational Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado" (Cornell UP, 2025) 46:19

1d ago46:19

46:19

Following a group of US Midwest farmers who purchased tracts of land in the tropical savanna of eastern Brazil, Welcome to Soylandia: Transnational Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado (Cornell University Press, 2025) by Dr. Andrew Ofstehage investigates industrial farming in the modern developing world. Seeking adventure and profit, the transplanted f…

1
From Hal to Siri: How Computers Learned to Speak 54:27

1d ago54:27

54:27

Today we learn how computers learned to talk with Benjamin Lindquist, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University’s Science in Human Culture program. Ben is the author “The Art of Text to Speech,” which recently appeared in Critical Inquiry, and he’s currently writing a history of text-to-speech computing. In this conversation, we explore:…

1
Kai Shmushko, "Multiple Liminalities of Lay Buddhism in Contemporary China: Modalities, Material Culture, and Politics" (Leiden UP, 2024) 1:04:04

1d ago1:04:04

1:04:04

In the past decades, various forms of Buddhism have emerged in-between, above, and beyond conventional conceptions of religious and spiritual life in China. Multiple Liminalities of Lay Buddhism in Contemporary China: Modalities, Material Culture, and Politics (Leiden UP, 2024) is a qualitative study exploring manifestations of the massive revival …

1
Helen Thompson on Disorder and the Analysis of Contemporary Geopolitics 1:16:20

1d ago1:16:20

1:16:20

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and co-host of the great podcast, These Times, about her approach to geopolitical analysis and the centrality of energy geopolitics in that approach. The pair start by talking about Thompson’s book, Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st C…

1
Richard Calis, "The Discovery of Ottoman Greece: Knowledge, Encounter, and Belief in the Mediterranean World of Martin Crusius" (Harvard UP, 2025) 1:01:51

1d ago1:01:51

1:01:51

In the late sixteenth century, a German Lutheran scholar named Martin Crusius compiled an exceptionally rich record of Greek life under Ottoman rule. Although he never left his home in the university town of Tübingen, Crusius spent decades annotating books and manuscripts, corresponding with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, and interviewing Greek Orth…

1
Book Talk 66: Political Hope, with Loren Goldman 1:29:13

14h ago1:29:13

1:29:13

How to find hope in these times? I spoke with political scientist Loren Goldman about the principle of political hope: why we should have hope, how to have hope in dark times, and how political hope differs from naïve optimism, faith in progress, or passive reliance on a hidden logic that will save us in the end. Goldman, who is Associate Professor…

1
Tamara Lea Spira, "Queering Families: Reproductive Justice in Precarious Times" (U California Press, 2025) 1:06:09

1d ago1:06:09

1:06:09

Envisioning queer futures where we lovingly wager everything for the world's children, the planet, and all living beings against all odds, and in increasingly precarious times. Tamara Lea Spira's Queering Families: Reproductive Justice in Precarious Times (U California Press, 2025) traces the shifting dominant meanings of queer family from the late…

1
Chana B. Getter, "Mapito: Embrace Yourself" (BookBaby, 2025) 55:45

1d ago55:45

55:45

In Mapito: Embrace Yourself (BookBaby, 2025), Chani Getter presents both a collection of stories and a personal guide to becoming your most authentic self. Through a collection of memorable stories―sometimes funny, often poignant―this trailblazing trauma expert reveals profound truths about the human experience. "Mapito" reconnects you to what real…

1
Episode 090: You Lucky Bastard... 1:31:58

1d ago1:31:58

1:31:58

Ladies and gents, your two favorite knuckleheads are back with the Ninety Edition of the Halfway House Podcast. On this episode, you'll hear us recap the NBA Draft Lottery, the majority of the second round of the NBA Playoffs, as well as discuss the future of some potential NBA championship contenders, including the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Ca…

1
Andrew Holter, ed., "Going Around: Selected Journalism / Murray Kempton" (Seven Stories Press, 2025) 1:02:49

2d ago1:02:49

1:02:49

From 1949 until his death in 1997, Murray Kempton was a distinct presence in New York City journalism. Peddling around town on a three-speed bicycle wearing a three-piece suit, he wrote about everything from politics to jazz to the Mafia. His writing was eloquent, his perspective unique, and his moral judgements driven by a profound sympathy for lo…

1
Todd Reisz, "Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai" (Stanford UP, 2021) 42:31

2d ago42:31

42:31

Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (Stanford UP, 2020) by Todd Reisz is a critical historical account of Dubai’s transformation into a global urban spectacle. Reisz examines how architecture, master planning, and international expertise contributed to the construction of Dubai’s modern image, focusing particularly on the period between the…

1
The Politics of Andor (Season 2, Episodes 10-12): Freedom and Order 58:57

2d ago58:57

58:57

It’s the UConn Popcast, and we continue our analysis of Andor season 2 with the conclusion to the series. We break down, analyze, and explain the political themes in these finale episodes, focusing on freedom, order and their interconnectedness in both the rebellion and the Empire. We explore the extent to which farce is an operative mode of storyt…

1
Manahil Bandukwala, "Heliotropia" (Brick Books, 2024) 33:44

1d ago33:44

33:44

In this NBN episode, host and poet Hollay Ghadery speaks with Manahil Bandukwala about her second collection, Heliotropia (Brick Books, 2024). This book of poems is a meditation on love during times of social and political upheaval. As a sunflower’s growth reaches toward the sun, so, she suggests, is a lover’s growth compelled by the gravitational …

1
Dennis Ross, "Statecraft 2.0: What America Needs to Survive in a Multipolar World" (Oxford UP, 2025) 54:54

2d ago54:54

54:54

In a multipolar world where America wields less relative power, the United States can no longer get away with poor statecraft. To understand how the US can approach future national security challenges, I spoke with Dennis Ross, a senior US diplomat and the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East…

1
Betsy Bird, "Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme" (Union Square Books, 2025) 49:18

2d ago49:18

49:18

Betsy Bird is the Collection Development Manager of Evanston Public Library and the former Youth Materials Specialist of New York Public Library. She writes for the School Library Journal blog A Fuse #8 Production and reviews for Kirkus. She is the host of the Story Seeds podcast as well as the co-host of the Fuse 8 n' Kate podcast that she creates…

1
Qingfei Yin, "State Building in Cold War Asia: Comrades and Competitors on the Sino-Vietnamese Border" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 47:15

2d ago47:15

47:15

Departing from conventional studies of border hostility in inter-Asian relations, Yin Qingfei explores how two revolutionary states - China and Vietnam - each pursued policies that echoed the other and collaborated in extending their authority to the borderlands from 1949 to 1975. Making use of central and local archival sources in both Chinese and…

1
Dionne Koller, "More Than Play: How Law, Policy, and Politics Shape American Youth Sport" (U California Press, 2025) 32:52

2d ago32:52

32:52

Tens of millions of children in the United States participate in youth sport, a pastime widely believed to be part of a good childhood. Yet most children who enter youth sport are driven to quit by the time they enter adolescence, and many more are sidelined by its high financial burdens. Until now, there has been little legal scholarly attention p…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Benjamin Phillips Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen