New Books in Public Policy

Interviews with Scholars of Public Policy about their New Books

Science
Social Sciences
1551
Bill Ivey, “Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Fo...
Bill Ivey’s Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America (Indiana University Press, 2018) advances the idea that we are entering a post-enlightenment world increasingly characterized by alternative facts, fake news,
69 min
1552
Candice Delmas, “A Duty to Resist: When Disobed...
According to a long tradition in political philosophy, there are certain conditions under which citizens may rightly disobey a law enacted by a legitimate political authority.  That is, it is common for political philosophers to recognize the permissib...
65 min
1553
Nicholas Carnes, “The Cash Ceiling: Why Only th...
In 2018, much attention has been drawn to candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Randy Bryce: candidates for Congress who’ve made a living doing working class jobs. They are unusual because Congressional candidates are almost always drawn from wh...
19 min
1554
Ken Ilguas, “This Land is Our Land: How We Lost...
Author, journalist and sometime park ranger Ken Ilgunas has written an argument in favor a “right to roam.”  This concept, unfamiliar to most Americans, is one of an ability to traverse public and private property for purposes of enjoying nature.
48 min
1555
Elana Buch, “Inequalities of Aging: Paradoxes o...
How are the vulnerabilities of older adults in need of care and their care workers intertwined? In Inequalities of Aging: Paradoxes of Independence in American Home Care (New York University Press, 2018), Elana Buch considers this question and more.
49 min
1556
Joshua Sharfstein, “The Public Health Crisis Su...
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein has learned a lot as from his years of experience as a public health leader. He has dealt with everything from a rabid raccoon, to protestors, to potentially losing refrigeration on the city of Baltimore’s stock of vaccines.
41 min
1557
Alyshia Gálvez, “Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Poli...
The North American Free Trade Agreement—or NAFTA, as we Americans call it—is very much in the news of late, primarily because President Trump has decided to make good on what he famously called “the single worst trade deal” that the United States has e...
53 min
1558
Freeden Blume Oeur, “Black Boys Apart: Racial U...
How do schools empower but also potentially emasculate young black men? In his new book, Black Boys Apart: Racial Uplift and Respectability in All-Male Public Schools (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), Freeden Blume Oeur uses observational and inte...
66 min
1559
J. Lester, C. Lochmiller, and R. Gabriel, “Disc...
The study of education policy is a scholarly field that sheds light on important debates and controversies revolving around education policy and its implementation. In this episode, we will be talking with three scholars who have made substantial contr...
50 min
1560
Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams, “What’s Maki...
Pediatrician and integrative medicine practitioner Michelle Perro, MD, has been treating an increasing number of children with complex chronic illnesses that do not fit into our usual diagnostic boxes. She has spent years treating and disentangling why...
86 min
1561
Devin Fergus, “Land of the Fee: Hidden Costs an...
Politicians, economists, and the media have put forth no shortage of explanations for the mounting problem of wealth inequality – a loss of working class jobs, a rise in finance-driven speculative capitalism,
39 min
1562
Richard S. Hopkins, “Planning the Greenspaces o...
Beginning in the mid-1800s, Paris experienced an unprecedented growth in the development of parks, squares, and gardens. This greenspace was part of Napoleon III’s plan for a new, modern Paris and a France restored to glory on the international stage.
49 min
1563
Ana Raquel Minian, “Undocumented Lives: The Unt...
In the 1970s, the Mexican government acted to alleviate rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions crossed into the United States to find work that would help them survive as well as sustain their families in Mexico.
61 min
1564
Beth Macy, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the...
“Appalachia was among the first places where the malaise of opioid pills hit the nation in the mid-1990s, ensnaring coal miners, loggers, furniture makers, and their kids.” This is how journalist Beth Macy premises her new book, Dopesick: Dealers,
31 min
1565
Lessie B. Branch, “Optimism at All Costs: Black...
Optimism at All Costs: Black Attitudes, Activism, and Advancement in Obama’s America (University of  Massachusetts Press, 2018) takes as its point of departure and central preoccupation the notion of “paradoxical ebullience,” by which author Lessie B.
45 min
1566
Paul Offit, “Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Po...
You should never trust celebrities, politicians, or activists for health information. Why? Because they are not scientists! Scientists often cannot compete with celebrities when it comes to charm or evoking emotion.
49 min
1567
Matthew T. Hora, “Beyond the Skills Gap: Prepar...
How can educators ensure that young people who attain a postsecondary credential are adequately prepared for the future? Matthew T. Hora and his co-authors, Ross Benbow and Amanda Oleson, explain that the answer is not simply that students need more sp...
41 min
1568
Julie A. Cohn, “The Grid: Biography of an Ameri...
Though usually a background concern, the aging U.S. electric grid has lately been on the minds of both legislators and consumers. Congress wants to ensure the technological security of this important infrastructure.
20 min
1569
Steven Alvarez, “Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immi...
In this episode, I speak with Steven Alvarez about his book, Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies (SUNY Press, 2017). This book highlights a grassroots literacy mentorship program that connects emerging bilin...
27 min
1570
Thomas Mulligan, “Justice and the Meritocratic ...
Thomas Mulligan’s new book, Justice and the Meritocratic State (Routledge Press, 2018), posits a theory of justice that is based on the allocation of valuable goods (jobs and appropriate income) according to merit.
51 min
1571
Jacob Levine, “Cannabis Discourse: Facts and Op...
What is the landscape of our cannabis knowledge? In his new book Jacob Levine author of the Cannabis Discourse: Facts and Opinions in Context (Jacob Levine, 2018) gives readers an overview of the perceptions, opinions,
65 min
1572
Timothy J. Lombardo, “Blue-Collar Conservatism:...
President Donald Trump is not sui generis. Populist impulses and political actors have been pulsating in the American soul since the nation’s founding. Timothy J.  Lombardo’s excellent book, Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Popu...
58 min
1573
Suzanne Mettler, “The Government-Citizen Discon...
One of the paradoxes of US politics today is the widely dispersed benefits, but overall distrust, of government. Citizens enjoy many types of social policy, yet reject the process that provides for much aid to individual health, income, and education.
22 min
1574
Annie Lowrey, “Give People Money: How a Univers...
How can we end the scourge of poverty? How we can sustain ourselves once robots eliminate the need for many jobs? Annie Lowrey offers an answer in the title of her book, Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty,
35 min
1575
Heather Schoenfeld, “Building the Prison State:...
How did prisons become a tool of racial inequality? Using historical data, Heather Schoenfeld’s new book Building the Prison State: Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration (University of Chicago Press, 2018)  “answers how the United States became a...
59 min