The Podcast for Social Research

The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
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From Plato to quantum physics, Walter Benjamin to experimental poetry, Frantz Fanon to the history of political radicalism, The Podcast for Social Research is a crucial part of our mission to forge new, organic paths for intellectual work in the twenty-first century: an ongoing, interdisciplinary series featuring members of the Institute, and occasional guests, conversing about a wide variety of intellectual issues, some perennial, some newly pressing. Each episode centers on a different topic and is accompanied by a bibliography of annotations and citations that encourages further curiosity and underscores the conversation's place in a larger web of cultural conversations.

  1. 12/19/2025

    Political Humiliation, Collective Struggle: A Conversation with Roxanne Euben

    Episode 94 of the Podcast for Social Research is a live recording of an event held at BISR Central to mark the publication of political theorist Roxanne Euben's Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary Politics (Princeton University Press). The text examining visual, verbal, and embodied rhetorics of humiliation across a wide variety of Arabic sources alongside related especially American examples, showing how humiliation is understood as the "imposition of impotence by those with undeserved power." Euben joins BISR faculty Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Suzanne Schneider for a wide-ranging conversation about the place of humiliation in contemporary politics. Together, the three ask: What sort of political projects does the experience of humiliation authorize? How does humiliation rhetoric encode and constitute gendered political subjects? And how might such rhetoric galvanize collective political struggle? The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky.

    1h 29m

  2. 11/26/2025

    Podcast for Social Research, Episode 93: Nature's Value — Alyssa Battistoni in Conversation with Nafis Hasan and Ajay Singh Chaudhary

    Episode 93 of the Podcast for Social Research is a live recording of an event held at BISR Central to mark the publication of political theorist Alyssa Battistoni's Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature (Princeton University Press). Battistoni joins BISR's Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Nafis Hasan to discuss how capitalism, as a logic of seemingly relentless commodification, has nevertheless failed to assign value to vital aspects of the nonhuman world, from natural agents in industry to environmental pollution, reproductive labor in the household, and natural capital in the biosphere. Along the way, the three consider the similarities between labor exploitation and ecological exploitation; the Green Revolution in agriculture; the romanticization of nature; the place of reproductive labor in ecofeminist thought; and the case for understanding capitalism as a "planet-making system." What would it mean, they ask, to live freely while valuing nature's gifts?

    1h 39m
  3. (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 19: Ghost of Yotei - A Specter is Haunting Ezo

    10/31/2025

    (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 19: Ghost of Yotei - A Specter is Haunting Ezo

    In episode 19 of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay are joined by fellow BISR faculty Joseph Earl Thomas to discuss Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch Productions' much-anticipated sequel to Ghost of Tsushima. To kick off the episode, Isi and Ajay chat about recent cultural news and highlights, from the Japanese government calling on OpenAI to refrain from using anime and manga as training data, to the #SwiftiesAgainstAI campaign, to Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another (2025). Turning to Ghost of Yotei, Isi, Ajay, and Joseph consider where the game succeeds (its strong start, visual beauty, sharp soundtrack, and the satisfying chunkiness and texture of its combat scenes) and where it doesn't (its loadout system, simplistic puzzles, dearth of opportunities for stealth mode, and social and political quandaries its narrative and design raise). They explore the films and television shows that influenced Yotei—from Lady Snowblood and Samurai Champloo to the films of Takashi Miike, Akira Kurosawa, and Sergio Leone) and ask whether and where the game successfully incorporates cinematic techniques and conventions into its storyline. Along the way, they discuss the game's dicey depiction of the Ainu and the colonization of Hokkaido, consider whether the pleasure of open-world gaming has diminished or transformed in the years between Yotei and Tsushima, and interrogate the shape of the game's revenge plot. (Pop) Cultural Marxism is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky. Show notes On Japan and OpenAI: https://www.ign.com/articles/japanese-government-calls-on-sora-2-maker-openai-to-refrain-from-copyright-infringement-says-characters-from-manga-and-anime-are-irreplaceable-treasures-that-japan-boasts-to-the-world One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (2025) Other Paul Thomas Anderson films mentioned: Phantom Thread (2017), Inherent Vice (2014), The Master (2012), There Will Be Blood (2007) Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions, 2025) Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions, 2020) Way of the Samurai (Acquire, 2002) Tenchu (Acquire/K2/FromSoftware, 1998-2009) Samurai Champloo (2004) Forspoken (Luminous Productions, 2023) South of Midnight (Compulsion Games, 2025) Infamous (Sucker Punch Productions, 2009-2014) Blue Eye Samurai (2023) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) Parul Sehgal, "The Case Against the Trauma Plot" (2021): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/the-case-against-the-trauma-plot Kuroneko, directed by Kaneto Shindo (1968) Lady Snowblood, directed by Toshiya Fujita (1973) Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, directed by Toshiya Fujita (1974) The Samurai Trilogy, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki (1954-1956)

    2h 52m
  4. Podcast for Social Research, Episode 92.5: Hangmen Also Die! — a Brief Film Guide

    10/24/2025

    Podcast for Social Research, Episode 92.5: Hangmen Also Die! — a Brief Film Guide

    In this shortcast edition of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR's Isi Litke and Jude Webre discuss Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1947). Loosely based on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and conceived by Lang and Bertolt Brecht mere weeks after his death, the film follows members of the Czech resistance as they attempt to shield Heydrich's killer from Nazi authorities in occupied Prague. Conversation ranges from Lang and Brecht's fraught collaboration to Hanns Eisler's unconventional score, the film's attempts to sell a war-averse American public on the antifascist cause, the nature of Popular Front cultural objects, and the film's connection to the Hollywood blacklist. To what extent does Hangmen Also Die! succeed as propaganda, as procedural, and/or as epic theater? How does the film embody the tensions intrinsic to Popular Front coalitions? And what might the film teach us about antifascist politics and propaganda in our current moment? The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky.

    54 min

  5. 09/19/2025

    (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 18: I Don't Know What You Did Last Summer

    In episode 18 of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay spend some time with a handful of big news items at the intersection of politics and media—from the Skydance-Paramount merger (and other instances of media market concentration) and its implications for American newsmedia (and its potential new gatekeepers); to Charlie Kirk's assassination, its aftermath, its mediations with mass cultural objects (like alleged HellDivers II bullet etchings or Nepalese protestors with One Piece flags); the culture industry's failure to perform even its therapeutic function; and the growing exclusivity of once-accessible arts venues and performance spaces! A wide ranging discussion of summer media diets follows, beginning with Isi's recent love affair with the Western genre. The two discuss their shared fondness for Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone's many collaborations and the unmatched brilliance of HBO's Deadwood. Turning to the world of gaming, Ajay considers tragic endings (Expedition 33, the Death Stranding franchise), slow gaming (Herdling), and the relationship between gaming and choreography (Split Fiction). Also under consideration: what Joe Wright's miniseries, Mussolini: Son of the Century, gets right about the fascist imaginary; what Len Wiseman's Ballerina gets wrong about the appeal of John Wick; and what Foundation and The Sandman suggest about the challenges of adaptation and the culture industry's recent predilection for a 21st century spin on classical tragedy. Along the way, they return repeatedly to a longstanding PCM preoccupation with medium-specificity as well as the general bleakness seeping into the cultural reflections of this historical moment.   (Pop) Cultural Marxism is produced by Ryan Lentini. Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky.

    2h 30m

  6. 08/29/2025

    Podcast for Social Research, Episode 92: No Borders: Folk, Fusion, and Tradition — Ghost Peppers in Concert

    Episode 92 of the Podcast for Social Research features fusion folk trio Ghost Peppers in concert at BISR Central, playing songs old and new, including selections from their newly released EP Red. After the performance (44:00), the three Ghost Peppers — tabla player Ritam Bhowmil, guitarist Kevin Meehan, and vocalist (and BISR faculty) Amrita Ghosh — sat down with BISR's Hannah Leffingwell and scholar Sara Kazmi for a wide-ranging conversation about cultural and musical fusion, and the histories, both personal and political, that surround it. What happens when classical South Asian rhythms are "fused" to rock, reggae, or Americana song structures? What kind of sonic imaginaries does fusion music evoke or produce, both across regions and within a partitioned South Asia? How can we distinguish fusion from cultural appropriation? Amidst political (and geopolitical) inequality, can musical traditions be combined "equally"? Finally, can Tagore be sung in a bar? The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini.  Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky. Artwork: Bharti Kher, Algorithm for Hiding

    1h 41m

  7. 08/21/2025

    Faculty Spotlight: Alfred Lee and Xafsa Ciise on AI, Big Tech, Race, and Histories of Trauma

    In this episode of Faculty Spotlight, hosts Mark and Lauren sit down with faculty Alfred Lee and Xafsa Ciise, colleagues whose shared concerns—with race, bias, politics, human consciousness, and the history of science—have cultivated a fascinating and fruitful cross-disciplinary conversation. Xafsa, a social psychologist by training, kicks off the conversation with description of how she found her way into a historical investigation of trauma and its discourses, after which Alfred, a physicist by training and data scientist in practice, details the social and political questions that animate his concern with digital innovation and data applications. Along the way, their conversation touches on the surprising origins of trauma in mesmerism and animal magnetism; the experimenter's effect; simulation and deception in both trauma studies and AI discourse; scientism's bracketing of politics, and politics' return by way of history; conflicting concepts of "intelligence"; contextuality and relationality versus the conceit of universality; Freud, Fanon, and how psychoanalysis thinks about Blackness; the return of eugenics and race IQ discourses; longtermism and what a view to the far-distant future implies about the present; and the dangerously autarkic character of big tech.  The Podcast for Social Research is produced by Ryan Lentini.  Learn more about upcoming courses on our website. Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky.

    1h 12m

  8. 08/15/2025

    Podcast for Social Research, Episode 91: The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 Years Later

    Episode 91 of the Podcast for Social Research is a live recording of an event marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with BISR faculty Jude Webre, Suzanne Schneider, Hannah Leffingwell, and Alfred Lee each offering thoughts on the manifold legacies—literary, scientific, political (and geopolitical)—of August 6th and 9th, 1945. How, specifically, did the atomic bombs work, and what, specifically, did they do to the target cities and peoples? How did U.S. anti-war and feminist movements work to recover repressed domestic memories of the atomic bombings—and how do the politics of mourning (whose lives are eligible to be mourned?) impinge on the politics of race, gender, and class? Who gets to own nuclear weapons—and what justifies that ownership? Who is permitted to proliferate—and on what moral or political authority? What sort of historical rupture did the inauguration of nuclear weapons affect? Why do nuclear weapons resist prudential human control? Indeed, how do discourses of "inevitability," so often employed in debates around weaponry and A.I., inhibit democratic politics and practice?

    1h 28m
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4.2
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34 Ratings

About

From Plato to quantum physics, Walter Benjamin to experimental poetry, Frantz Fanon to the history of political radicalism, The Podcast for Social Research is a crucial part of our mission to forge new, organic paths for intellectual work in the twenty-first century: an ongoing, interdisciplinary series featuring members of the Institute, and occasional guests, conversing about a wide variety of intellectual issues, some perennial, some newly pressing. Each episode centers on a different topic and is accompanied by a bibliography of annotations and citations that encourages further curiosity and underscores the conversation's place in a larger web of cultural conversations.

Information

  • Creator
    The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2025
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
  • Show Website
    The Podcast for Social Research

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