Best Bristol University Press Podcasts (2024)

1
David Pozen, "The Constitution of the War on Drugs" (Oxford UP, 2024) 58:55

8d ago58:55

58:55

David Pozen is the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the author of the new book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs (Oxford UP, 2024). An expert in constitutional law, Pozen argues that the drug war has been an unmitigated disaster, in terms of money, efficacy, and human rights. But even as activists peel off the …

1
Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration 50:13

11d ago50:13

50:13

Today’s book is: Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration (Common Threads Press, 2024), by Dr. Isabella Rosner, which considers how for centuries, people have stitched in good times and in bad, finding strength in the needle moving in and out of fabric. Stitching Freedom explores the embroidery made in prisons and mental health hospitals — t…

1
Can the law deliver racial justice? 51:13

15d ago51:13

51:13

Racial justice is never far from the headlines, but, although the ideals of the legal system such as fairness and equality seem allied to the struggle, campaigners have been all too often let down by the system. In this episode Jess Miles and Bharat Malkani, author of ‘Racial Justice and the Limits of the Law’, talk through cases like those of the …

1
Ieva Jusionyte, "Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border" (U California Press, 2024) 56:40

21d ago56:40

56:40

American guns have entangled the lives of people on both sides of the US-Mexico border in a vicious circle of violence. After treating wounded migrants and refugees seeking safety in the United States, anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte boldly embarked on a journey in the opposite direction—following the guns from dealers in Arizona and Texas to crime s…

1
Should we be aiming to improve prisons, or abolish them? 31:25

26d ago31:25

31:25

In this episode, George Miller talks to the author of What are Prisons for?, prison inspector and visiting professor of law at Oxford Hindpal Singh Bhui, about why we lock so many people up. Prison populations have increased hugely in the past fifty years and vast sums of money are spent to keep over 11.5 million people behind bars, so you might th…

1
Dave Mac Marquis and Moira Marquis, "Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement" (U Georgia Press, 2024) 57:26

1M ago57:26

57:26

Co-edited by Dave Mac Marquis and Moira Marquis, two activists with deep experience in organizing prison books programs (PBPs), Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement (University of Georgia Press, 2024) introduces readers to PBPs and their decentralized organization. PBPs are a grassroots-level and nationwide activist movement c…

1
Class inequality and denied ambition in our schools 54:26

2M ago54:26

54:26

Jessie Abrahams' new book reveals the extent of class inequality in schools in the UK. By telling Jessie's story and that of one of the young people in her research, this episode untangles the role aspiration plays for young people in school and the significance of the different choices that are available to different pupils in different schools. J…

1
Alke Jenss, "Selective Security in the War on Drugs: The Coloniality of State Power in Colombia and Mexico" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) 43:58

2M ago43:58

43:58

Paramilitaries, crime, and tens of thousands of disappeared persons—the so-called war on drugs has perpetuated violence in Latin America, at times precisely in regions of economic growth. Legal and illegal economy are difficult to distinguish. A failure of state institutions to provide security for its citizens does not sufficiently explain this. S…

1
Caitlin Davies, "Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths" (The History Press, 2023) 1:13:43

2M ago1:13:43

1:13:43

Dismissed as ‘Mrs Sherlock Holmes’ or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the mid-nineteenth century – everything from theft and fraud to romance scams and murder. In Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths (The History Press, 2023), Caitlin Davies traces the h…

1
Emotions and the ‘truths’ of contentious politics 40:50

2M ago40:50

40:50

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Anna Durnova, one of the guest editors for the Emotions and Society special issue on 'Emotions and the ‘Truths’ of Contentious Politics: Advances in Research on Emotions, Knowledge, and Contemporary Contentious Politics'. They discuss the weaponisation of truth, the important difference between being told y…

1
Mara Albrecht and Alke Jenss, "The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures" (Manchester UP, 2023) 1:06:26

2M ago1:06:26

1:06:26

The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures (Manchester UP, 2023) asks how the city, with its spatial and temporal configuration and its rhythms, produces and shapes violence, both in terms of the built environment, and through particular 'urban' social relations. The book builds on the insight that violence it…

1
Jack Levin and Julie B. Wiest, "Covert Violence: The Secret Weapon of the Powerless" (Bristol University Press, 2023) 51:08

3M ago51:08

51:08

Covert violence occurs in all social institutions—including families and close relationships, education, workplaces, politics, mass media, and healthcare—each with its own unique power dynamics that shape the incidence and patterns of these vicious acts. Covert Violence: The Secret Weapon of the Powerless (Bristol University Press, 2023) by Dr. Jac…

1
Max Ward, "Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan" (Duke UP, 2019) 1:11:35

3M ago1:11:35

1:11:35

Max Ward’s Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan (Duke University Press, 2019) analyzes the trajectory and transformations of the implementation of Japan’s 1925 Peace Preservation Law from its conception until the early years of the 1940s. The law, which began as a state effort to tamp down radicalism and “dangerous thought” (mo…

1
Laurence Ralph, "Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him" (Grand Central Publishing, 2023) 48:50

3M ago48:50

48:50

In September of 2019, Luis Alberto Quiñonez—known as Sito— was shot to death as he sat in his car in the Mission District of San Francisco. He was nineteen. His killer, Julius Williams, was seventeen. It was the second time the teens had encountered one another. The first, five years before, also ended in tragedy, when Julius watched as his brother…

1
Max Felker-Kantor, "DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools" (UNC Press, 2023) 1:02:15

3M ago1:02:15

1:02:15

With its signature "DARE to keep kids off drugs" slogan and iconic t-shirts, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was the most popular drug education program of the 1980s and 1990s. But behind the cultural phenomenon is the story of how DARE and other antidrug education programs brought the War on Drugs into schools and ensured that the velvet gl…

1
Marisol LeBrón, "Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico" (U California Press, 2019) 1:05:41

3M ago1:05:41

1:05:41

Marisol LeBrón’s new book, Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico (University of California Press, 2019), examines the rise of and resistance to punitive governance (tough on crime policing policies) in Puerto Rico from the 1990s to the present. As in the United States, LeBrón shows how increased investment in polici…

1
Have research universities lost their way? 38:35

3M ago38:35

38:35

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Nigel Thrift, author of The Pursuit of Possibility: Redesigning Research Universities, about research universities and what makes them different. They discuss the importance of free speech at universities, the many threats research universities face and what can be done about these threats to ensure a thriv…

1
Calvin John Smiley, "Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition" (U California Press, 2023) 1:04:57

3M ago1:04:57

1:04:57

In Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition (University of California Press, 2023), Calvin John Smiley explores the lives of people who were formerly incarcerated and the many daunting challenges they face. Those being released from prison must navigate the reentry process with diminished legal rights and amplified social stigmas, in a j…

1
Matthew D. Lassiter, "The Suburban Crisis: White America and the War on Drugs" (Princeton UP, 2023) 59:36

3M ago59:36

59:36

Most accounts of post-1950s political history tell the story of of the war on drugs as part of a racial system of social control of urban minority populations, an extension of the federal war on black street crime and the foundation for the "new Jim Crow" of mass incarceration as key characteristics of the U.S. in this period. But as the Nixon Whit…

1
The myth of post-racial Britain 40:16

3M ago40:16

40:16

In this episode, we talk about postracialism and colourblind narratives with Paul Warmington, Visiting Professor at Coventry University, Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths and author of ‘Permanent Racism’. Britain’s current postracial perspectives are facile so we need to reconceptualise critical race theory from a British standpoint. This mean…

1
Maryam Kashani, "Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival" (Duke UP, 2023) 1:09:16

3M ago1:09:16

1:09:16

From the Black Power movement and state surveillance to Silicon Valley and gentrification, Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival (Duke UP, 2023) examines how multiracial Muslim communities in the San Francisco Bay Area survive and flourish within and against racial capitalist, carceral, and imperial logics. Weaving expansive histor…

1
Damien Sojoyner, "Against the Carceral Archive: The Art of Black Liberatory Practice" (Fordham UP, 2023) 43:37

3M ago43:37

43:37

Against the Carceral Archive: The Art of Black Liberatory Practice (Fordham UP, 2023) is a meditation upon what author Damien M. Sojoyner calls the “carceral archival project,” offering a distillation of critical, theoretical, and activist work of prison abolitionists over the past three decades. Working from collections at the Southern California …

1
Leanne Trapedo Sims, "Reckoning with Restorative Justice: Hawai'i Women's Prison Writing" (Duke UP, 2023) 29:56

4M ago29:56

29:56

In Reckoning with Restorative Justice Hawaii Women's Prison Writing (Duke University Press, 2023), Dr. Leanne Trapedo Sims explores the experiences of women incarcerated at the Women’s Community Correctional Center, the only women’s prison in Hawaii. Adopting a decolonial and pro-abolitionist lens, she focuses mainly on women’s participation in the…

1
Scott Gac, "Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America" (Cambridge UP, 2023) 39:01

4M ago39:01

39:01

Scott Gac's Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America (Cambridge UP, 2023) investigates one of history's most violent undertakings: The United States of America. People the world over consider violence in the United States as measurably different than that which troubles the rest of the globe, citing reasons including gun culture, the Ameri…

1
Why do people take performance enhancing drugs? 43:43

4M ago43:43

43:43

In this episode, Jess Miles speaks with Nick Gibbs, author of ‘The Muscle Trade’, about the rise in the use of image and performance enhancing drugs, why people take them and how they get them. They talk about how the reasons for people taking these drugs goes beyond sporting skill and physical prowess, the difference between online and offline sup…

1
Emily Brooks, "Gotham’s War Within a War: Policing and the Birth of Law-and-Order Liberalism in World War II-Era New York City" (UNC Press, 2023) 1:08:14

4M ago1:08:14

1:08:14

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, members of the NYPD had worked to enforce partisan political power rather than focus on crime. That changed when La Guardia took office in 1934 and shifted the city's priorities toward liberal reform. La Guardia's approach to low-level policing anticipated later trends in law enforcement…

1
Experiencing the menopause at work 38:07

4M ago38:07

38:07

There has been a growing interest in talking about menopause over the last decade, but the impact is still rarely discussed in management and organisation studies, despite having profound implications in this area. In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Vanessa Beck and Jo Brewis, co-editors of ‘Menopause Transi…

1
Emma Kuby, "Political Survivors: The Resistance, the Cold War, and the Fight against Concentration Camps After 1945" (Cornell UP, 2019) 1:02:53

4M ago1:02:53

1:02:53

Emma Kuby’s new book, Political Survivors: The Resistance, the Cold War, and the Fight against Concentration Camps After 1945 (Cornell UP, 2019) traces the fascinating history of the International Commission Against the Concentration Camp Regime (CICRC) established in 1949 by the French intellectual and Nazi camp survivor David Rousset. In the wake…

1
Gary Shiffman, "The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, Insurgency, and Terrorism" (Cambridge UP, 2019) 56:55

4M ago56:55

56:55

Dr. Gary Shiffman’s book The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, Insurgency, and Terrorism (Cambridge UP, 2020) serves as a fantastic introduction to anyone interested in thinking critically about terrorist, insurgency, and criminal groups of all sorts. Using case studies from multiple continents, ideologi…

1
Justin Marceau, "Beyond Cages: Animal Law and Criminal Punishment" (Cambridge UP, 2019) 1:05:26

4M ago1:05:26

1:05:26

For all the diversity of views within the animal protection movement, there is a surprising consensus about the need for more severe criminal justice interventions against animal abusers. More prosecutions and longer sentences, it is argued, will advance the status of animals in law and society. In Beyond Cages: Animal Law and Criminal Punishment (…

1
Bryan McCann, "The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era" (U Alabama Press, 2017) 1:02:50

5M ago1:02:50

1:02:50

On this episode, Dr. Lee Pierce (she/they)--Asst. Prof. of Communication at SUNY Geneseo--interviews Bryan McCann (he/his)--Associate Professor of Communication at Louisiana State University--on a dope new work of cultural criticism The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era (University of Alabama Press, 2017).…

1
Emily Horowitz, "From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts, Not Fear" (Bloomsbury, 2023) 1:00:07

5M ago1:00:07

1:00:07

In her book From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts, Not Fear (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), Emily Horowitz shows how current sex-offense policies in the United States create new forms of harm and prevent those who have caused harm from the process of constructive repentance or contributing to society after punishment. Horowitz…

1
Tom Buitelaar, "Assisting International Justice: Cooperation Between UN Peace Operations and the International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:02:00

5M ago1:02:00

1:02:00

Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) - as the only permanent international court that addresses crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes - has important potential to end impunity and find justice for victims of atrocities, it is dependent on others for almost all aspects of its functioning. The Court has frequently relied on the…

1
Julian Go, "Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US" (Oxford UP, 2023) 53:37

5M ago53:37

53:37

The police response to protests erupting on America's streets in recent years has made the militarization of policing painfully transparent. Yet, properly demilitarizing the police requires a deeper understanding of its historical development, causes, and social logics. Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain a…

1
Mark Munsterhjelm, "Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of Indigenous Peoples" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023) 33:15

5M ago33:15

33:15

Forensic genetic technologies are popularly conceptualized and revered as important tools of justice. The research and development of these technologies, however, has been accomplished through the capture of various Indigenous Peoples' genetic material and a subsequent ongoing genetic servitude. In Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of …

1
The Future of Predictions: A Discussion with Christopher E. Mason 32:18

5M ago32:18

32:18

Predictive algorithms are changing the world – that is the claim of Christopher E. Mason who has co-authored (with Igor Tulchinsky) the book The Age of Prediction: Algorithms, AI, and the Shifting Shadows of Risk (MIT Press, 2023). Listen to him in conversation with Owen Bennett Jones. Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A form…

1
Has the university experience failed millennials? 48:54

5M ago48:54

48:54

In this episode, Ann-Marie Bathmaker, co-author of The Degree Generation: The Making of Unequal Graduate Lives, talks about the transition to the graduate labour market, examined through the eyes of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. They discuss the changing nature of the graduate labour market, the promise of upward mobility…

1
Sinae Hyun, "Indigenizing the Cold War: The Border Patrol Police and Nation-Building in Thailand" (U Hawaii Press, 2023) 1:02:30

5M ago1:02:30

1:02:30

Historians have tended to view the Cold War as a global ideological confrontation between an expansionist communist Soviet Union and a capitalist United States which sought to contain communism. And this confrontation was fought out by their proxies in the Third World. But in recent years, a new generation of scholars, many of them from Asian count…

1
Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison 54:23

5M ago54:23

54:23

Why are college programs offered in some prisons? How are the students selected? Where do the professors come from? What are the logistics of preparing to teach, and to learn, behind the wall? How does the digital divide affect these students? Today’s book is: Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison (Brandeis UP, 2022) edi…

1
The dangerous growth of governmental power 43:56

6M ago43:56

43:56

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Alison Young, author of Unchecked Power, about the growth of governmental power and erosion of checks and balances over the last 4 years. They discuss the difference between constitution and law, how the ‘will of the people’ is being homogenised all over the world and how a…

1
Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP) 42:02

6M ago42:02

42:02

In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence (U Chicago Press, 2020). The book relates the decades-long history in which hundreds of people (mostly Black men) were tortured by the Chicago Police. Fascinatingly, i…

1
What can you do to combat child poverty? 44:18

6M ago44:18

44:18

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Olivier De Schutter, Hugh Frazer, Anne-Catherine Guio and Eric Marlier, authors of The Escape From Poverty, about child poverty and intergenerational poverty and things we can do as individuals to make change. They talk about the evidence in the book, how poverty impacts de…

1
Towards plantification by normalising less meat-intensive diets 46:19

6M ago46:19

46:19

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Rebecca Megson-Smith speaks to Arve Hansen, Ulrikke Wethal, Sophia Efstathiou and Johannes Volden, editors of the special issue of Consumption and Society called ‘Towards Less Meat-intensive Diets? Exploring Everyday Practices of Meat Consumption, Reduction and Substitution’. They discuss the pre…

1
Frederick V. Engram, "Black Liberation Through Action and Resistance: MOVE" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) 38:35

6M ago38:35

38:35

Black Liberation through Action and Resistance: MOVE (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) serves as a call to action for Black millennials and co-conspirators who are immersed in the work of Black liberation or want to begin their own journey toward anti-racism. Its central mission is to provide additional context to an ongoing discussion regarding Black l…

1
Nicole Nguyen, "Terrorism on Trial: Political Violence and Abolitionist Futures" (U Minnesota Press, 2023) 55:48

7M ago55:48

55:48

Rather than functioning as a final arbiter of justice, U.S. domestic courts are increasingly seen as counterterrorism tools that can incapacitate terrorists, maintain national security operations domestically, and produce certain narratives of conflict. Terrorism on Trial: Political Violence and Abolitionist Futures (University of Minnesota Press, …

1
Welcome to the Transforming Society podcast 0:45

7M ago0:45

0:45

Meet the hosts of the Transforming Society podcast and discover more about the podcast. Browse Transforming Society: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/ Intro music: Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US Hosted on Acas…

1
Open access at a mission-led university press 26:15

7M ago26:15

26:15

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Julia Mortimer, Journals Director and Head of Open Access at Bristol University Press. They discuss recent developments in Open Access, including funder mandates, community-led models and the direction Bristol University Press are heading in. In addition, they offer advice …

1
Campbell F. Scribner, "A Is for Arson: A History of Vandalism in American Education" (Cornell UP, 2023) 1:00:44

7M ago1:00:44

1:00:44

In A Is for Arson: A History of Vandalism in American Education (Cornell UP, 2023), Campbell F. Scribner sifts through two centuries of debris to uncover the conditions that have prompted school vandalism and to explain why attempts at prevention have inevitably failed. Vandalism costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year, as studen…

1
Immo Rebitschek and Aaron B. Retish, "Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev: The Phantom of a Well-Ordered State" (U Toronto Press, 2023) 1:13:38

7M ago1:13:38

1:13:38

How did the Soviet Union control the behaviour of its people? How did the people themselves engage with the official rules and the threat of violence in their lives? In Immo Rebitschek and Aaron B. Retish's book Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev: The Phantom of a Well-Ordered State (U Toronto Press, 2023), the contributors examine how soci…

1
Matthew Guariglia, "Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York" (Duke UP, 2023) 1:01:15

7M ago1:01:15

1:01:15

During the years between the Civil War and World War II, police in New York City struggled with how to control a diverse metropolis. In Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York (Duke UP, 2023), Matthew Guariglia tells the history of the New York Police Department to show how its origins were built upon and ins…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Bristol University Press Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide