Best Defining Duke Podcasts (2026)

1
#261 | We Dare To Dream About Xbox's 2026... 2:27:30

3d ago2:27:30

2:27:30

After 2025, it's safe to say the years of saying "next year is their year" are over for Xbox. When it comes to the prior 24 months, it has not gone according to the Duke's plans whatsoever. With that in mind, we have dared to look ahead in spite of all of that. The games, the unimaginable business decisions, and yes, even hardware. What is in store…

1
Best Bits | Ozempic, Is It Worth It? 20:30

19m ago20:30

20:30

Ozempic stories from those using it, losing weight or questioning the trend. Plus, flights turned back mid-air for volcanoes, forgotten blankets and even missing cats. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Nova Podcasts

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Peter Krask: From PhD Dropout to Hollywood Producer—Building Myth Merchant and Finding Creative Freedom 1:01:46

10m ago1:01:46

1:01:46

Peter Krask, creator of Myth Merchant and former Hollywood producer, shares his journey from quitting grad school to producing reality TV to building a business around storytelling and mythology. After realizing a PhD wasn't his path, Krask dove into the entertainment industry, learning the business side of creativity—budgets, staff, international …

1
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism with Thea Riofrancos 1:13:52

39m ago1:13:52

1:13:52

Lithium, a crucial input in the batteries powering electric vehicles, has the potential to save the world from climate change. But even green solutions come at a cost. Mining lithium is environmentally destructive. We therefore confront a dilemma: Is it possible to save the world by harming it in the process? Having spent over a decade researching …

1
Chris Dietz, "Self-Declaration in the Legal Recognition of Gender" (Routledge, 2022) 1:13:23

39m ago1:13:23

1:13:23

Self-Declaration in the Legal Recognition of Gender (Routledge, 2023) is a socio-legal study that offers a critique of what it means to self-declare with regard to legal gender. Based on empirical research conducted in Denmark, the book engages in some of the most controversial issues surrounding trans and gender diverse rights. The theoretical ana…

1
Helen J. Nicholson, "Women and the Crusades" (Oxford UP, 2023) 35:30

7m ago35:30

35:30

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military exp…

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Theodore J. Karamanski, "Great Lake: An Unnatural History of Lake Michigan" (U Michigan Press, 2026) 38:38

7m ago38:38

38:38

Theodore Karamanski joins fellow Lake Michigan enthusiast Jana Byars to talk about his new book, Great Lake: An Unnatural History of Lake Michigan. Looking down from outer space a vast expanse of blue appears in the heart of North America. Of the magnificent chain of inland seas, only one of those bodies of water--Lake Michigan--is entirely within …

1
T. R. Johnson, "New Orleans: A Writer's City" (Cambridge UP, 2023) 38:13

39m ago38:13

38:13

New Orleans is an indispensable element of America's national identity. As one of the most fabled cities in the world, it figures in countless novels, short stories, poems, plays, and films, as well as in popular lore and song. T. R. Johnson's book New Orleans: A Writer's City (Cambridge UP, 2023) provides detailed discussions of all of the most si…

1
Susanna Elm, "The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Rule in Late Antiquity" (U California Press, 2025) 1:21:11

7m ago1:21:11

1:21:11

In this (open-access) book, Susanna Elm radically changes our understanding of imperial rule in the later Roman Empire. As she shows, the so-called eastern decadence of the Emperor Theodosius and his successors was in fact a calculated revolution in masculinity and the representation of imperial power. Here, the emperor's hard yet soft, mature yet …

1
Mike Jay, "Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind" (Yale UP, 2023) 43:43

39m ago43:43

43:43

Mike Jay's Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind (Yale UP, 2023) is a provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind. Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on them…

1
Erica Brown, "Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning" (Maggid, 2023) 21:00

7m ago21:00

21:00

Ecclesiastes has long been viewed as the great existential work of the Hebrew Bible, containing the famous cry "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." As part of a search for enduring meaning, it questions the nature of work, mortality, happiness, justice, goodness, and life itself. Abounding with careful observations, disappointments, and insights, E…

1
Miriam Udel, "Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children's Literature" (Princeton UP, 2025) 59:38

7m ago59:38

59:38

As migration carried Yiddish to several continents during the long twentieth century, an increasingly global community of speakers and readers clung to Jewish heritage while striving to help their children make sense of their lives as Jews in the modern world. In her book, Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children's Literature (Princeton U…

1
Alexa Hagerty, "Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains" (Crown, 2023) 1:03:54

7m ago1:03:54

1:03:54

In Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains (Crown, 2023), anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for marks of torture and fatal wounds—hands bound by rope, machete cuts—and also for signs of identity: how life shapes us down to the bone. A weaver is recognized from the t…

1
Peter Frankopan, "The Earth Transformed: An Untold History" (Knopf, 2023) 53:45

1h ago53:45

53:45

The Earth Transformed. An Untold History (Knopf, 2023) is a captivating and informative book that reveals how climate change has been a driving force behind the development and decline of civilizations across the centuries. The author, Peter Frankopan, takes readers on a journey through history, showcasing how natural phenomena such as volcanic eru…

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Step One : The Journey with Ariana Prather | Xavier Cooks 18:57

2h ago18:57

18:57

Xavier reflects on his upbringing, the competitive drive that made basketball his life, and the surreal moments of sharing the court with NBA superstars. Helping to deliver the Sydney Kings to back-to-back championships and earning both league MVP and Finals MVP honours. This is Xavier's Journey brought to you by Step One. See omnystudio.com/listen…

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NBL NOW | Phoenix flex as Kings left licking wounds 25:38

7h ago25:38

25:38

NBL NOW | Everything NBL Aron Baynes & Jowl Peterson Take away from an exciting three weeks of games. Defensive strategies are crucial for winning championships. Nathan Sobey's dedication to fitness is paying off at 35. DJ Mitchell's impact off the bench is significant. What the Kings need to adjust. HoopsFest is almost here! Brisbane Bullets face …

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The Holiday Check-In | Inside Those ‘Massage Parlours' 7:53

12h ago7:53

7:53

WARNING: ADULT THEMES Behind the flashing lights of the massage parlour we unpack the awkward encounters that maybe should have been kept a secret! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Nova Podcasts

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Best Bits | Bogus Qualifications Exposed! 20:19

22h ago20:19

20:19

Fake licenses, fake courses and fake security guards, we hear about the qualifications that wernt legit. Plus, weddings called off at the last possible second… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Nova Podcasts

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Oliver Burkeman: Why Positive Thinking Fails and the Paradox of Pursuing Happiness 54:08

17h ago54:08

54:08

Oliver Burkeman, author of "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," dismantles the self-help industry's obsession with optimism and goal-setting. Raised as a Quaker with pro-social parents, Burkeman explores why chasing happiness often makes us miserable, how negative visualization (imagining worst-case scenarios) bui…

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Thomas J. Mazanec, "Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China" (Cornell UP, 2024) 1:14:58

1d ago1:14:58

1:14:58

Poet-Monks focuses on the literary and religious practices of Buddhist poet-monks in Tang-dynasty China to propose an alternative historical arc of medieval Chinese poetry. Combining large-scale quantitative analysis with close readings of important literary texts, Thomas J. Mazanec describes how Buddhist poet-monks, who first appeared in the latte…

1
Lesley Nicole Braun, "Congo's Dancers: Women and Work in Kinshasa" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023) 47:06

1d ago47:06

47:06

Today I spoke with Lesley Nicole Braun to talk about her new book on Congo's dancers. Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the various genres popular in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congolese rumba occupies a special place and can be count…

1
Jason Isralowitz, "Nothing to Fear: Alfred Hitchcock and the Wrong Men" (Fayetteville Mafia Press, 2023) 1:00:12

1d ago1:00:12

1:00:12

In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock focused his lens on an issue that cuts to the heart of our criminal justice system: the risk of wrongful conviction. The result was The Wrong Man, a bracing drama based on the real-life false arrest of Queens musician Christopher “Manny” Balestrero. Manny's ordeal is part of a larger story of other miscarriages of justice …

1
David Morris, "Stealing The Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia" (Watkins Media, 2025) 59:41

1d ago59:41

59:41

Stealing the Future is the first book to tell the true and full story of Sam Bankman-Fried and his historic crimes. It chronicles the $11 billion FTX fraud with the detail and nuance of a financial fraud expert and cryptocurrency insider – but unlike any book before it, it also traces the ideas that enabled the crime. “Effective Altruism” and relat…

1
What happens when liberalism stops feeling like a victory and starts feeling like an exhaustion? 1:25:32

1d ago1:25:32

1:25:32

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI Director (acting) Eli Karetny speaks with philosopher Alexandre Lefebvre about liberalism not merely as a political doctrine, but as a lived way of life. Against the backdrop of rising populism, nationalism, and post-liberal regimes, Lefebvre revisits the liberal tradition—from Locke and Mill to Rawls …

1
Paul J. Gutacker, "The Old Faith in a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past" (Oxford UP, 2023) 43:40

1d ago43:40

43:40

Conventional wisdom holds that tradition and history meant little to nineteenth-century American Protestants, who relied on common sense and "the Bible alone." The Old Faith in a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past (Oxford UP, 2023) challenges this portrayal by recovering evangelical engagement with the Christian past. Even when…

1
Robert D. Bland, "Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry's Lost Political Generation" (UNC Press, 2026) 1:00:23

1d ago1:00:23

1:00:23

The promise of Reconstruction sparked a transformative era in American history as free and newly emancipated Black Americans sought to redefine their place in a nation still grappling with the legacy of slavery. Often remembered as a period of failed progressive change that gave way to Jim Crow and second-class citizenship, Reconstruction’s tragic …

1
Florentine Koppenborg, "Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance" (Cornell UP, 2023) 42:56

1d ago42:56

42:56

Florentine Koppenborg’s Japan’s Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance (Cornell UP, 2023) begins with the understated observation that the triple disaster of March 2011 “exposed severe deficiencies in Japan’s nuclear safety governance.” This is the starting point for the rather curious story of the regulatory reforms taken up in the…

1
Kelsey Klotz, "Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:09:36

1d ago1:09:36

1:09:36

How can we—jazz fans, musicians, writers, and historians—understand the legacy and impact of a musician like Dave Brubeck? It is undeniable that Brubeck leveraged his fame as a jazz musician and status as a composer for social justice causes, and in doing so, held to a belief system that, during the civil rights movement, modeled a progressive appr…

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