American Campus Podcast

WATCH this episode on our Patreon (free)! References and suggested readings: Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia University Press, 2025).  “ French student loses hand to grenade in unprecedented protests ,” CNN , October 6, 2026 Tom McCarthy, “ Paris moves to sue Fox News for false reporting on Muslim 'no-go zones&apos...

References and suggested readings: Omar Zahzah, Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle (The Censored Press, 2025) Omar Zahzah, “ A Question of Violence: Palestine in American Academia After October 7 ,” The Palestine Chronicle , April 3, 2026 Eman Ghanayem and Theresa Rocha Beardall, “ The University Is a Colony ,” Diacri...

Apologies for the mic difficulties on Lauren's end! References and suggested readings: Merle Eisenberg’s faculty page Infectious Historians podcast Dean O. Smith, How University Budgets Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) Dean O. Smith, University Finances: Accounting and Budgeting Principles for Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) Chris Newfield, The Great Mistake...

References and suggested readings: Phillip B. Levine, Hidden Tuition: An Insider's Guide to College Pricing and Financial Aid (University of Chicago Press, 2026) ON COST DISEASE: Dennis M. Hogan, Artificial Negligence: Why are college administrators so eager to adopt AI? Hedgehog Review , Summer 2026 Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for Peopl...

References and suggested readings: Austin J. Clements, ‘The Franco Way’: The American Right and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-9 , Journal of Contemporary History 57(2), 341-364 Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolutions in France Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump , 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2017) Katy Hull, The Machine Has a Soul: America...

References and suggested readings: Billy Fleming, Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2026). Marshall Terrill, “ ASU ranks No. 1 nationally, No. 2 globally for sustainability ,” ASU News , September 8, 2026. Davarian L. Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities (Bold Type, 2021). Kevin Kov...

References and suggested readings: Rod Flower. 2026. Drugs: The Story of Pharmacology . Yale University Press. On the CIA and LSD: MKUltra wiki Aldous Huxley. The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell . “ Celebrities Who’ve Shared Their Ayahuasca Experiences: From Chelsea Handler to Aaron Rodgers .” US Magazine. Freud’s monograph on cocaine: Sigmund Freud. 1894. Über Coca . Rod Flower’s faculty...

References and suggested readings: Film website: https://www.firsttheycameformycollege.com/   Rodrigo Diaz, “ 3 years later, the 'old' New College looks much better ,” Sarasota Herald Tribune, January 20, 2026 Joshua Janniere, “ At the front line of the culture war ,” American Reformer, May 1, 2023 Adam R Nelson, Dartmouth College V. Woodward: Colleges, Corporations, and the Common Good...

References and suggested readings: Amit Singh. 2026. Cancelled Futures: Class, Race, and Place in Post-Industrial Britain . Princeton University Press.  Paul Willis. Learning to Labor: How Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs . Arlie Russell Hochschild. 2018. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right . New Press. Lauren A. Rivera. 2016. Pedigree: How Elite Students...

References and suggested readings: Randy Boyagoda. 2026. Lords of Serendipity . Mariner Books. George Elliot. 1871. Middlemarch . Ralph Ellison. 1952. Invisible Man . Kiran Desai. 2025. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny . Hogarth. www.randyboyagoda.com   Randy Boyagoda’s faculty page Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

On the material history of the university References and suggested readings: William Whyte. 2026. The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood . Harvard University Press.  William Whyte’s faculty page , Twitter , and LinkedIn Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

References and suggested readings: Marshall Steinbaum and David Austin Walsh. 2026. How America’s Public Universities Stopped Being Public . Hedgehog Review. Robert A. Nesbit. 1996. The Degradation of the Academic Dogma . Routledge. Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta. December 2024. College Major Restrictions and Student Stratification . National Bureau of Economic Research. Maya Rosen. October 11,...

References and suggested readings: Karen Weaver. 2026. Understanding College Athletics: What Campus Leaders Need to Know About College Sports . Johns Hopkins University Press.  Karen Weaver. 2025. Sport Finance: Where the Money Comes From and Where the Money Goes, 2nd ed . Kendall Hunt. W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. 2026. The Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make t...

A deep-dive into the personal lives of the famed 20th century French theorists (all men) with their newest biographer. References and suggested readings: Emily Eakin. 2026. The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory . Penguin Press. Sarah Bakewell books Ross Douthat. November 2, 2022. How the Right Became the Left and the Left Became the Right . New York Times . James Miller. 2010. The Passion of Michel...

References and suggested readings: Peter Burke. 2026. The Connoisseur: A Cultural History . Reaktion Books.  Gore Vidal. 2000. Burr: A Novel . Vintage Books. Peter Burke’s website Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

On the origins of the German research university and what universities should be today. References and suggested readings: Chad Wellmon. 2016. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University . Johns Hopkins University Press. Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work . Johns Hopkins University Pr...

References and suggested readings: James Chandler. 2026. The Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning . Prickly Paradigm Press.  Robert Mackey. April 18, 2026. Trump’s antipathy for Pope may have roots in childhood Protestant church . The Guardian . Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America . Wendy Brown. 2017. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution . Zone Books. Sam Moy...

References and suggested readings: Trevor Griffey. 2007. “ The Strongest Chapter in WA: Bellingham's KKK .” The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. Allan J. Lichtman. 2008. White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement . Grove Press. Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) Lothrop Stoddard Wiki Perlstein’s mea culpa: Rick Perlstein. April 11, 2017. I Thought...

An intellectual history of inequality in the US. References and suggested readings: Kim Phillips-Fein. 2026. Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America . W. W. Norton. Kim Phillips-Fein. 2018. Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics . Picador. Kim Phillips-Fein. 2010. Invisible Hands: The B...

How Napoleon's École polytechnique inspired A&M universities on the Western US border (ft. some of our favorite topics: American imperialism, science, and social hierarchy) References and suggested readings: Sveinn M. Jóhannesson. 2026. The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government . University of Chicago Press.  James McNeill Whistler. 1879...

A century later, what did Veblen get right? References and suggested readings: Christian J. Churchill and Gerald Levy. 2011. The Enigmatic Academy: Class, Bureaucracy, and Religion in American Education . Temple University Press.  Thorstein Veblen. 1918. The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men . PDF. Thorstein Veblen. 1899. The Theory of the Leis...

On class rank, Latin honors, the 4.0 grading scale, and other old traditions References and suggested readings: Joshua R. Eyler. 2024. Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It . Johns Hopkins University Press.  Josh Eyler. February 26, 2024. The Origin of Grades in American Schools . Saturday Evening Post . Adam Laats. 2024. Mr. Lancaster’s System: The Failed Refor...

Muscular Christianity and its various forms on the campus References and suggested readings: Amy Laura Hall. 2026. Erecting the Pulpit: Muscular Christianity from Teddy Roosevelt to Donald Trump . Bloomsbury. Theodore Roosevelt. 1899.  The Strenuous Life speech. From the vault: [Lawrence] Wright talks to Alec Baldwin about Scientology and Tom Cruise . October 10, 2022. Darren Dochuk. 2019. Anointe...

References and suggested readings: Ira Halpern. 2026. Imagining Health: Medicine, Social Protest, and Modern American Literature . University of Massachusetts Press. Abraham Flexner. 1910. Medical Education in the United States and Canada:   A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching . Regina Kunzel. 2024. In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life . Univ...

On the origins of natural language processing and how corporations like IBM leaned into predictive algorithms. References and suggested readings: Xiaochang Li. 2026. Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture . University of Chicago Press . Anil Seth. July 15, 2026. “ Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study conscious...