The MIT Press Podcast

Our contributors discuss their work in the arts and sciences, which is showcased in the new article collection, Water Is in the Air: Physics, Politics, and Poetics of Water in the Arts. Water Is in the Air explores the ways that artists, from all over the world, working at the cutting edge of science and engineering, create work that addresses critical issues of water in culture and society. This...

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere... Marla R. Miller and Paula D. Hunt discuss Sybil Ludington, material culture, and American mythmaking. Although there is no primary evidence supporting Sybil’s historic ride, she has become an increasingly popular figure tied to the American Revolution. This conversation was recorded on March 30, 2015. Correction: At (28:41...

As Lucas Kello reveals, it is far easier to attack than to defend when it comes to cyber war. Listen as Kello and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss the dangers of cyber war, review recent cases of cyber attack, and offer security advice for policymakers. This conversation is based on Kello’s article “The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution: Perils to Theory and Statecraft,” which appears in the Fall 2013 issue...

Our contributors discuss the connections between science, specifically chemistry, and art, and talk about how materials traditionally identified with science can be used to create art. This conversation was recorded on January 24, 2013. Tami Spector, Professor of Chemistry at the University of San Francisco. Philip Ball, freelance science writer, lecturer, and author of several popular science boo...

As Mary Sarotte reveals in her Fall 2012 article in International Security, the actions of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests nearly split the Communist Party of China. Listen as Sarotte and International Security Editor Sean Lynn-Jones discuss internal party reactions to the event, how it affected relations between the US and China, and lessons the CCP may have learned fr...

Maximilian Schich, Isabel Meirelles, and Roger Malina discuss the contents and creation of the new article collection, Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks, which explores the application of the science of complex networks to art history, archeology, visual arts, the art market, and other areas of cultural importance. This conversation was recorded on April 26, 2012. Maximilian Schich, DFG fello...

Bill Fowler, member of the editorial board of The New England Quarterly, Mary Babson Fuhrer, and Robert A. Gross discuss Fuhrer's recent NEQ article, “The Revolutionary Worlds of Lexington and Concord Compared” and Gross's 1976 book, The Minutemen and Their World. Our panelists discuss the two colonial towns, their similarities and differences, and key factors that led to the famous battles betwee...

Edward Mead Earle was a historian, scholar, professor, and international relations expert; he was also a founding father of the field we know as Security Studies. Listen as David Ekbladh and International Security Editor Sean Lynn-Jones discuss Earle's contributions to the field, his views on what Security Studies should be, his seminar at the Institute for Advanced Study, and what he might think...

Contributing artists to PAJ 100 recorded podcasts based on their pieces for the issue, responding to PAJ editor Bonnie Marranca's four statements on major themes Belief, Being Contemporary, Performance and Science, and Writing and Performance. Read about the contributors and themes here.

Much has been made of the rise of China's economy, and some fear that China will surpass the United States as the world's largest economy in the coming years. Michael Beckley goes against the grain in his article "China's Century? Why America's Edge Will Endure" (International Security, Winter 2011/12), arguing that the size of a nation's economy doesn't necessarily dictate its global power, and t...

Bill Fowler, member of the editorial board of The New England Quarterly, Professor Dick Brown, and Governor Michael Dukakis discuss Brown's recent NEQ article, “'Tried, Convicted, and Condemned, in Almost Every Bar-room and Barber's Shop': Anti-Irish Prejudice in the Trial of Dominic Daley and James Halligan, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1806". Our panel touches on the evolution of our judicial sys...

In this podcast, Claire MacDonald and Sarah Parry discuss the history of recording, the sharing of sound art between artists, how recording has shaped communities, the impact of technology on artists and their publics, and the artist's voice and the different genres it inhabits. About the Contributors: Claire MacDonald is a curator, writer, and editor whose work focuses on the intersections of per...

Nicolas Collins, editor of Leonardo Music Journal and Chair of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, answered our questions about the 20th anniversary issue of LMJ. The issue's theme was improvisation. In the podcast, Nic explains how he chose the theme and shares insights about putting the issue together, as well as about how improvisation and composition have evolved during his te...

Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games (MIT Press, 2023) by Dr. Mary Flanagan & Dr. Mikael Jakobsson is a striking analysis of popular board games' roots in imperialist reasoning—and why the future of play depends on reckoning with it. Board games conjure up images of innocuously enriching entertainment: family game nights, childhood pastimes, cooperative...

Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History and Acting Chair, Department of History at Yale University, chats with Rebecca Federman, Culinary Collections Librarian at the New York Public Library. Paul provides insight into 19th-century American restaurant dining based on his recent article in The New England Quarterly, "American Restaurants and Cuisine in the Mid–Nineteenth Century" (Marc...

Michael Gurevich, lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at the Queen’s University, Belfast School of Music and Sonic Arts, serves as guest editor of the Winter 2010 issue of Computer Music Journal. In this podcast, Michael discusses the fields of Computer Music and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). He describes how these fields intersect and what they can learn from each other, touching on ho...

Sean Lynn-Jones, editor of International Security, interviews author John Schuessler, whose article "The Deception Dividend: FDR's Undeclared War" appears in the Spring 2010 issue of the journal. Their conversation tackles the question of whether FDR willfully deceived the American public in order to persuade them to support WWII – and touches on perceptions of warring democracies as well as compa...

In light of J.D. Salinger's recent passing and on reflection of his literary contributions, The New England Quarterly took a trip back to its December 1997 issue (70:4) and one of the journal's most popular articles. Pulitzer Prize-winner and NEQ editorial board member, Louis Menand interviews author Stephen J. Whitfield on his article "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher...

Mary Kelley, member of the NEQ editorial board, interviews Deirdre Clemente about her article "'Prettier Than They Used to Be': Femininity, Fashion, and the Recasting of Radcliffe's Reputation, 1900-1950" which appears in the December 2009 issue of The New England Quarterly. The conversation was recorded on December 21, 2009.

Samuel Jay Keyser, Editor-in-Chief of Linguistic Inquiry, has shared a campus with Noam Chomsky for 40-odd years via MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The two colleagues sat down in Mr. Chomsky's office to discuss ideas on language evolution and the human capacity for understanding the complexities of the universe. The unedited conversation was recorded on September 11, 2009.

Bill Fowler, Chair of NEQ's Board of Directors, speaks with Bob Gross about the events leading up to Shays's Rebellion and how they relate to today's circumstances. Mr. Gross's article, "A Yankee Rebellion? The Regulators, New England, and the New Nation" appears in the March 2009 issue of The New England Quarterly. The discussion was recorded at Northeastern University on April 10, 2009.

Artist Jan Harrison's work explores the connections between human and animal psyches and takes the form of painting, pastel, sculpture, and performance. Jan's essay in the current (January 2011) issue of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, called "Singing in Animal Tongues: An Inner Journey", describes the origins and scope of Jan's work, including her ability to speak and sing in "Animal Tongu...

The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whether we interact with video games or spreadsheets or social media, playing with software shapes every facet of our lives. In Playing Software: Homo Ludens in Computational Culture (MIT Press, 2023), Miguel Sicart delves into why we play with computers,...

Bill Fowler, Chair of The New England Quarterly Board of Directors, and author David Naumec discuss his article "From Mashantucket to Appomattox: The Native American Veterans of Connecticut's Volunteer Regiments and the Union Army". The article appears in the December 2008 issue of The New England Quarterly. The conversation was recorded at the MIT Press on December 12, 2008.

In this episode, Martin Erwig show us how we can find computational concepts inside some of our favorite stories. Picture a computer scientist, staring at a screen and clicking away frantically on a keyboard, hacking into a system, or perhaps developing an app. Now delete that picture. In Once Upon an Algorithm, Martin Erwig explains computation as something that takes place beyond electronic comp...