So What?

In this episode, drawing on his current book project, podcast co-host Sean Johnson Andrews talks about concepts like safe space, cancel culture, and trigger warnings. Sean argues that these are not “merely cultural” concerns but are part of a larger, longer struggle over which subjects get to feel safe in our society.  Show Notes We don’t quite get around to talking about this essay by Roxanne Gay...

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Lisa Brock, a historian, radical intellectual and activist who became known as a leader of the Chicago Anti-apartheid movement while in graduate school. She shared her account of one of the first campaigns she organized once she got here: helping coordinate the Chicago movement to boycott the South African Rugby team, which was supposed to play a game here in the...

This is a very special episode. Instead of only one boring adult expert, we have five separate interviews with kids. For a few minutes each, they talk to us about a thing that they know more than a little something about. EJ, B, Iris, Atlas, and KCS talk to us about baseball and TikTok, about Pokemon, planets, and soccer formations. It is a fun episode, but these experts take their topics very ser...

In this episode, we speak with Debra Riley Parr about her research in scent studies and especially the cultural significance of fragrance and odors as both indexes of hierarchy and means of resistance against them. Debra is Associate Professor Emerita of Art and Design History and Theory at Columbia College Chicago.  https://www.debrarileyparr.com/   Sources / Show Notes In the episode, Debra refe...

In this episode, we speak with Wailin Wong about the importance of accurate data - and the threat of its politicization in the current era. In particular, she talks about what is commonly referred to as the “jobs report,” produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  https://www.bls.gov/ Wailin is the host of The Indicator podcast from Planet Money on National Public Radio.  https://www.npr.org/pod...

In this episode, we speak with Chris Shaw, who is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Columbia College Chicago.  https://www.colum.edu/academics/faculty/detail/christopher-shaw.html He wanted to talk about the concept of the golden ratio, which is often used as an index of perfect proportion and symmetry in art, architecture, beauty, and nature. But, given that it applies to few of the things th...

In this episode we talk with Kathalene Razzano about the history and implications of the argument that “children need fathers,” how this has been repeatedly (and especially recently) reappropriated by politicians, and how it can be seen in popular television talk show tropes where DNA tests solve paternity disputes. Katy is a media and cultural studies scholar who teaches atUniversity of Maryland,...

In this episode, Sean and Madhurima speak with the biographer and science fiction writer Alec Nevala-Lee about a short story he says has a deeper significance than even he understood for his first thirty years as a fan of it. Jorge Luis-Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” was first published in 1940, but Nevala-Lee argues it is even more important today.  https://www.nevalalee.com/ https://en.wik...

Sean Johnson Andrews and Madhurima Chakraborty are starting a podcast where they talk to experts about one thing in their field that they will try to convince us is important. For Episode Zero, they talk about Exotica musician from the mid twentieth century, Korla Pandit, who wasn't exactly what he seemed. Sources / Show Notes In the episode, we discuss R. J. Smith’s 2001 Los Angeles magazine arti...