New Books in Public Policy

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.

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Science
Social Sciences
2101
Isaac Campos, “Home Grown: Marijuana and the Or...
Isaac Campos is the author of Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs (University of North Carolina Press, 2012). Campos is an assistant professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.
37 min
2102
Jesse Rhodes, “An Education in Politics: The Or...
Jesse Rhodes‘ book An Education in Politics: The Origin and Evolution of No Child Left Behind (Cornell University Press, 2012). The book synthesizes nearly forty years of US political history. It tells the story of the development and passage of the No...
31 min
2103
Barry Schwartz, “The Paradox of Choice: Why Mor...
Is there such a thing as too much choice? In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less – How the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction (Harper Perennial, 2005), author Barry Schwartz answers with a resounding yes.
43 min
2104
David Linen, “The Compass of Pleasure: How Our ...
What happens in our brains when we do things that feel good, such as drinking a glass of wine, exercising, or gambling? How and why do we become addicted to certain foods, chemicals and behaviors? David Linden, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins,
35 min
2105
Elizabeth Brake, “Minimizing Marriage: Marriage...
From the time we are children, we are encouraged to see our lives as in large measure aimed at finding a spouse. In popular media, the unmarried adult is seen as suspicious, unhealthy, and pitiable. At the same time,
64 min
2106
Sally Pipes, “The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways ...
In her new book, The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways to Dismantle and Replace Obamacare (Regnery Publishing, 2012), Sally C. Pipes, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Research Institute, argues that the Obama health care law will make ou...
35 min
2107
Lynn Stout, “Cultivating Conscience: How Good L...
Lynn Stout‘s pathbreaking book Cultivating Conscience:How Good Laws Make Good People (Princeton University Press, 2010) represents a much-needed update to the discipline of law and economics. Using current social science and discarding threadbare premi...
57 min
2108
Naomi Schaefer Riley, “The Faculty Lounges: And...
In her new book The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get The College Education You Pay For (Ivan R. Dee, 2011), Naomi Schaefer Riley, former Wall Street Journal editor and affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values,
41 min
2109
David Feith, “Teaching America: The Case for Ci...
In his new book, Teaching America: The Case for Civic Education (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2011), David Feith, Chairman of the Civic Education Initiative and assistant editor at The Wall Street Journal,
45 min
2110
David Horowitz, “A Point in Time: The Search fo...
In his new book, A Point in Time: The Search for Redemption in This Life and the Next (Regnery Publishing, 2011), David Horowitz, long ago editor of Ramparts magazine and creator of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture,
41 min
2111
Ron Christie, “Acting White: The Curious Histor...
In his new bookActing White: The Curious History of a Racial Slur (Thomas Dunne Books, 2010), former White House aide Ron Christie recounts the history of the pejorative term “acting white.” He traces its lineage from the present day through the Black ...
38 min
2112
Samuel Zipp, “Manhattan Projects: The Rise and ...
If you’ve ever lived in New York City, you know exactly what a “pre-war building” is. First and foremost, it’s better than a “post-war building.” Why, you might ask, is that so? Well part of the reason has to do with wartime and post-war “urban renewal...
76 min
2113
Alan Jacobs, “The Pleasures of Reading in an Ag...
In his new book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford University Press, 2011), Alan Jacobs, Clyde S. Kilby Chair Professor of English at Wheaton College, discusses the state of reading in the United States.
37 min
2114
Mikaila Lemonik Arthur, “Student Activism and C...
Colleges and universities have a reputation for being radical places where tenured radicals teach radical ideas. Don’t believe it. Consider this: the set of academic departments that one finds in most “colleges of liberal arts and sciences”–history,
53 min
2115
Mara Hvistendahl, “Unnatural Selection: Choosin...
The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they’re in for some unpleasant topics: sex trafficking, domestic violence, mass rape in wartime.
52 min
2116
Ben Shapiro, “Primetime Propaganda: The True St...
In his new book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV (Broadside Books, 2011), Ben Shapiro, who is the youngest person ever to get a nationally syndicated column in the U.S.,
51 min
2117
Elaine Sciolino, “La Seduction: How the French ...
In her new book, La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life(Times Books, 2011), Elaine Sciolino, Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, explores the role of seduction in the French way of life. Sciolino argues that seduction plays an integra...
27 min
2118
Max Singer, “History of the Future: The Shape o...
In his new book, History of the Future: The Shape of the World to Come Is Visible Today (Lexington Books, 2011), Max Singer, Senior Fellow and co-founder of the Hudson Institute, argues that the human race is undergoing an enormous transition,
39 min
2119
Tamara Metz, “Untying the Knot: Marriage, the S...
Marriage is at the center of some of our fiercest political debates. Here are some recent developments regarding marriage in the United States. Earlier this year, the Justice Department announced that it would no longer defend the federal Defense of Ma...
63 min
2120
Kimbrew McLeod and Peter DiCola, “Creative Lice...
One hallmark of important art, in any medium, is a thoughtful relation with artistic precursors. Every artist reckons with heroes and rivals, influences and nemeses, and the old work becomes a part of the new.
69 min
2121
Dov Zakheim, "A Vulcan's Tale: How the Bush Adm...
An interview with Dov Zakheim
44 min
2122
Scott Cleland with Ira Brodsky, “Search and Des...
In their new book Search and Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google (Telescope Books, 2011), Scott Cleland, President of Precursor LLC, and Ira Brodsky, founder of Datacomm Research, aim to expose the unethical internet behemoth they believe to be hiding ...
46 min
2123
Eric C. Schneider, “Smack: Heroin and the Ameri...
When I arrived at college in the early 1980s, drugs were cool, music was cool, and drug-music was especially cool. The coolest of the cool drug-music bands was The Velvet Underground. They were from the mean streets of New York City (The Doors were fro...
73 min
2124
William Damon, “Failing Liberty 101: How We Are...
In his new book, Failing Liberty 101: How We Are Leaving Young Americans Unprepared for Citizenship in a Free Society, (Hoover Institution Press, 2011) William Damon, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution,
45 min
2125
Michael Auslin, "Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultu...
An interview with Michael Auslin
52 min