Month: January 2023

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NBN Book of the Day - Rens Bod, “A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present” (Oxford UP, 2014)

Many histories of science have been written, but A New History of the Humanities (Oxford UP, 2014) offers the first overarching history of the humanities from Antiquity to the present. There are already historical studies of musicology, logic, art history, linguistics, and historiography, but this volume gathers these, and many other humanities disciplines, into a single coherent account.

Its central theme is the way in which scholars throughout the ages and in virtually all civilizations have sought to identify patterns in texts, art, music, languages, literature, and the past. What rules can we apply if we wish to determine whether a tale about the past is trustworthy? By what criteria are we to distinguish consonant from dissonant musical intervals? What rules jointly describe all possible grammatical sentences in a language? How can modern digital methods enhance pattern-seeking in the humanities? Rens Bod contends that the hallowed opposition between the sciences (mathematical, experimental, dominated by universal laws) and the humanities (allegedly concerned with unique events and hermeneutic methods) is a mistake born of a myopic failure to appreciate the pattern-seeking that lies at the heart of this inquiry.

A New History of the Humanities amounts to a persuasive plea to give Panini, Valla, Bopp, and countless other often overlooked intellectual giants their rightful place next to the likes of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein.

Rens Bod is a professor of humanities at the University of Amsterdam.


Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel. Twitter.

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In God We Lust - Wondery Presents: Frozen Head

Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid.

When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence and others like him have signed up to be frozen and brought back to life in the future. And that belief will pull multiple generations of the Pilgeram family into a cryonics soap opera filled with dead pets, gold coins, grenades, fist fights, mysterious packages, family feuds, Hall of Fame baseball legends, and frozen heads — lots of frozen heads. From Wondery, comes a story about life, death, and what comes next.

Follow Frozen Head on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery+ in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery App. 

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The NewsWorthy - Dance Studio Mass Shooting, ‘Time’s Up’ No More & Movie Milestone- Monday, January 23, 2023

The news to know for Monday, January 23, 2023!

We're talking about a mass shooting in California and how what could have been a second shooting was stopped nearby.

Also, we'll tell you what the FBI found in a 12-hour search at President Biden's home and why economists say laid-off workers won't stay unemployed for long after thousands more job cuts.

Plus, millions of Americans get ready for another round of snow, refunds aren't expected to be quite as big this tax season, and one Hollywood director just made history at the box office.

Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!

Head to www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes for sources and to read more about any of the stories mentioned today.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.com/newsworthy and GreenChef.com/newsworthy60

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What A Day - Another American City In Mourning

The city of Monterey Park, California is reeling after a gunman opened fire inside a dance studio Saturday night, killing 10 people and injuring 10 others. Though authorities have not determined a motive, the mass shooting happened on Lunar New Year’s Eve in one of the largest Asian American communities in the U.S.

Sunday marked 50 years since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision – and nearly seven months since the current Supreme Court overturned it. Morgan Hopkins, the president of All Above All, joins us to discuss the state of abortion access across the country, and the policies we need to protect it.

And in headlines: six people were arrested in Atlanta during protests over a controversial police training facility, Ron Klain plans to step down as President Biden’s chief of staff, and officials in Peru closed off access to Machu Picchu amid growing political unrest.

Show Notes:

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The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Michael Cunningham on Why We Should Care About China’s Shrinking Population

For the first time in six decades, the most populous country in the world has a shrinking population.


Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, says "this is a crisis that's been decades in the making" and it will likely shock the global economy. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)


"Really since at least the 1990s China has known that its population was going to decline," Cunningham says. "For decades it has had this draconian policy, this population control policy. For most of the time, it was people were limited to one child only, and so in many cases, they would fine people if they had more than one child."


"In some cases, authorities at the local level would sterilize people, force them to have abortions and so they're controlling it this entire time. For all these years, the population growth rate was really high and then it just plummets," he says.


Cunningham continues:


And then it has now reached this time where they have negative population growth. We've never had a country then go from negative population growth up to the replacement level, so it is a crisis.China is going to have to deal with it for the foreseeable future.


Cunningham joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss more about China's shrinking population, why it will almost certainly impact the global economy, and the Middle Kingdom's battle against COVID-19. 


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Cities’ Wetter, Wilder Future

California going from drought-to-downpour this month was a vivid illustration of the future we’re facing: with more dramatic weather in a warmer, wetter climate. But how can cities—built for a world where hundred-year floods happened only once a century—adjust to a new reality? 


Guest: Henry Grabar, staff writer for Slate, author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. 


If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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Strict Scrutiny - Cosplaying an Investigation

Kate and Leah were live from the University of Pennsylvania in Strict Scrutiny's first live show of 2023! Penn Law Professor Jasmine E. Harris joined the hosts to recap arguments in a case that could impact disability rights. Kate and Leah recap two other arguments, in a case about immigration law and another about the ability to criminally prosecute corporations owned by foreign states. Plus, a major update about the Supreme Court's "investigation" into who leaked the draft opinion of Dobbs last spring. And Temple University Law School Dean Rachel Rebouche joined the hosts to talk about some concerning updates in abortion access-- an unfortunately commemoration of the 50th  anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

  • Here’s the report summarizing the Supreme Court's investigation into who leaked the Dobbs opinion. (TLDR: they still don't know who did it, but they tried their best? Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said so.)

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Opening Arguments - OA680: The Pathetic SCOTUS Leak Investigation Fizzles

THEY DIDN'T EVEN ASK ALITO about the allegations of him leaking a prior decision. These weren't like, tabloid Occupy Democrats allegations either. These were in the New York gdamn Times. Didn't even look into it. Then, Reynal not sanctioned in CT but like, he might as well have been. And Dersh is STILL lying his ass off. This isn't a repeat. It's a new more pathetic set of lies every episode almost.

Click here for full links and show notes!

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Short Wave - Fossil CSI: Cracking The Case Of An Ancient Reptile Graveyard

This mystery begins in 1952, in the Nevada desert, when a self-taught geologist came across the skeleton of a massive creature that looked like a cross between a whale and a crocodile. It turned out to be just the beginning.

Ichthyosaurs were bus-sized marine reptiles that lived during the age of dinosaurs, when this area of Nevada was underwater. Yet paleontologists found few other animals here, which raised the questions: Why were there so many adult ichthyosaurs, and almost nothing else? What could have killed them all?

Paleontologist Neil Kelley says that recently, there has been a major break in the case—some new evidence, and a hypothesis that finally seems to fit. Neil talked with Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott about his theory of the case, and why it matters to our understanding of the past.

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘You Just Need to Lose Weight’ aims to change your thinking about being ‘fat’

Author and podcast host Aubrey Gordon brings up an important reminder early in today's episode: In the United States, the average size is plus-sized. And yet there's an overwhelmingly negative connotation attached to both the word "fat" and to fat bodies. Gordon explores those societal taboos – as well as some of the misinformation surrounding them – in her new book, You Just Need to Lose Weight. She tells NPR's Juana Summers that there's a lot of power in reframing concerns about body image, especially when it comes to addressing judgments we may hold against ourselves.