Best Nicholas Hobbs Podcasts (2025)

1
David Zweig, "An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions" (MIT Press, 2025) 57:39

1d ago57:39

57:39

An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions (MIT Press, 2025) is a devastating account of the decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century—the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. In fascinating and meticulously reported detail, David Zweig shows how…

1
Jenn Hobbs, "Bodily Fluids, Fluid Bodies and International Politics: Feminist Technoscience, Biopolitics and Security" (Bristol University Press, 2024) 1:04:05

6d ago1:04:05

1:04:05

In recent years, security actors have become increasingly concerned with health issues. Bodily Fluids, Fluid Bodies and International Politics: Feminist Technoscience, Biopolitics and Security (Bristol University Press, 2024) by Dr. Jenn Hobbs reveals how understandings of race, sexuality and gender are produced/reproduced through healthcare policy…

1
Carol A. Heimer, "Governing the Global Clinic: HIV and the Legal Transformation of Medicine" (University of Chicago Press, 2025) 1:05:30

11d ago1:05:30

1:05:30

HIV emerged in the world at a time when medicine and healthcare were undergoing two major transformations: globalization and a turn toward legally inflected, rule-based ways of doing things. It accelerated both trends. While pestilence and disease are generally considered the domain of biological sciences and medicine, social arrangements—and law i…

1
40. How do you decide whether law enforcement and national security operations are ethically justified? With Joe Fogarty 49:43

11d ago49:43

49:43

Joe Fogarty has spent over 30 years working in national security and law enforcement, in the UK and elsewhere. He's currently working on cyber-security risks and organised crime for the UK's central government, as the Head of the Government's Cyber Resilience Centre. Recently, he's been looking at security and law enforcement through a philosophica…

1
Joshua Howe and Alexander Lemons "Warbody: A Marine Sniper and the Hidden Violence of Modern Warfare" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025) 1:10:24

12d ago1:10:24

1:10:24

A friendship between an environmental historian and a chronically ill US Marine yields a powerful exploration into the toxic effects of war on the human body. Alexander Lemons is a Marine Corps scout sniper who, after serving multiple tours during the Iraq War, returned home seriously and mysteriously ill. Joshua Howe is an environmental historian …

1
Nicholas Chesterley, "Future-Generation Government: How to Legislate for the Long Term" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025) 36:28

13d ago36:28

36:28

Our impact on future generations has never been greater, and the challenges we face are increasingly long-term. Future-Generation Government proposes ways that we can reward our governments for making durable policy decisions that anticipate future crises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
39. How Should We Motivate Cosmopolitanism? With Luke Ulas and Josh Hobbs 46:08

25d ago46:08

46:08

Luke Ulas from the University of Sheffield and Josh Hobbs from the University of Leeds are both interested in cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism is a name used for a few different political ideas, but the core thought, according to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, is "the idea that all human beings, regardless of their political affiliation,…

1
Michael Buser, "Ecologies of Care in Times of Climate Change: Water Security in the Global Context" (Policy Press, 2024) 36:41

1M ago36:41

36:41

Ecologies of Care in Times of Climate Change: Water Security in the Global Context (Policy Press, 2024) investigates and analyses places in Europe, North America and Asia that are facing the immense challenges associated with climate change adaptation. Presenting real-world cases in the contexts of coastal change, drinking water and the cryosphere,…

1
38. Should We Be Using AI to Predict Patient Preferences? With Nicholas Makins 43:53

1M ago43:53

43:53

This episode is part of what's becoming a bit of an informal series of Ethics Untangled episodes, on ethical issues relating to artificial intelligence applications. The particular application we're looking at this time comes from a healthcare setting, and is called a Patient Preference Predictor. It's a proposed way of using an algorithmic system …

1
Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin, "Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America" (Island Press, 2025) 47:19

1M ago47:19

47:19

This is the shocking true-life story of how PFAS—a set of toxic chemicals most people have never heard of—poisoned the entire country. Based on original, shoe-leather reporting in four highly contaminated towns and damning documents from the polluters’ own files, Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America (Island Press, 2025) tr…

1
Chloe Ahmann, "Futures After Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 36:32

1M ago36:32

36:32

Factory fires, chemical explosions, and aerial pollutants have inexorably shaped South Baltimore into one of the most polluted places in the country. In Futures After Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore (U Chicago Press, 2024), anthropologist Chloe Ahmann explores the rise and fall of industrial lifeways on this edge of the city a…

1
Caitlin Killian, "Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 1:07:52

2M ago1:07:52

1:07:52

In today's post-Roe v. Wade world, U.S. maternal mortality is on the rise and laws regarding contraception, involuntary sterilization, access to reproductive health services, and criminalization of people who are gestating are changing by the minute. Today I’m joined by Dr. Caitlin Killian, the editor of and one of the contributors to a new book fr…

1
37. What Is Relationship Anarchy? With Natasha McKeever and Luke Brunning 53:04

2M ago53:04

53:04

Relationship anarchy is a radical approach to relationships that goes beyond just rejecting traditional monogamy. Relationship anarchists believe that relationships should never involve having power over each other, in the form of holding each other to obligations. So, for example, relationship anarchists reject the idea of restricting one's partne…

1
Daniel A. Rodriguez, "The Right to Live in Health: Medical Politics in Postindependence Havana" (U North Carolina Press, 2020) 51:58

2M ago51:58

51:58

Daniel A. Rodriguez's history of a newly independent Cuba shaking off the U.S. occupation, The Right to Live in Health: Medical Politics in Postindependence Havana (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), focuses on the intersection of public health and politics in Havana. While medical policies were often used to further American colonial power…

1
Jonathan D. Cohen, "Losing Big: America's Dangerous Sports Gambling Boom" (Columbia Global Reports, 2025) 59:01

2M ago59:01

59:01

In 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the floodgates for states to legalize betting on sports. Eager for revenue, almost forty states have done so. The result is the explosive growth of an industry dominated by companies like FanDuel and DraftKings. One out of every five American adults gambled on sports in 2023, amounting to $121 billion…

1
Pandemic Power: The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy - A Liberal Critique 1:05:20

2M ago1:05:20

1:05:20

In this episode, host Andrea Talabér (CEU Press) sat down with Muriel Blaive to talk about her new book with CEU Press, Pandemic Power: The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy - A Liberal Critique. In the podcast we talked about the (failure of the) pandemic response, the necessity of critique, being shadowbanned on Facebook, censorship, an…

1
36. Is Drag Problematic? With Simon Kirchin 52:53

2M ago52:53

52:53

Drag is a type of performance which uses clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles. It's an activity with a long and varied history, and continues to be a very popular form of entertainment, as attested by TV shows such as Ru Paul's Drag Race. It's also distinctive in having faced criticism from s…

1
Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women's Health 1:01:58

2M ago1:01:58

1:01:58

Black people, and especially Black women, suffer and die from diseases at much higher rates than their white counterparts. The vast majority of these health disparities are not attributed to behavioral differences or biology, but to the pervasive devaluation of Black bodies. Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women’s Health…

1
Tiffany D. Joseph, "Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Health Care Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025) 1:09:04

2M ago1:09:04

1:09:04

Despite progressive policy strides in health care reform, immigrant communities continue to experience stark disparities across the United States. In Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Health Care Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025), Tiffany D. Joseph exposes the insidious contradiction of Massachusetts' advanced health care …

1
Jeremy Brown, "The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:03:17

2M ago1:03:17

1:03:17

In The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19 (Oxford UP, 2023), Brown investigates the relation between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, to the special vulnerabilities Jewish immigrants faced in the US as result of pr…

1
Mara Mills et al., "How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic" (NYU Press, 2025) 1:22:43

3M ago1:22:43

1:22:43

How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic is the first book to document the experiences of those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City—disabled people. Diverse disability communities across the five boroughs have been disproportionately impacted by city and national policies, work and housing conditions, stigma, racism, and violence—as much …

1
Amy Adamczyk, "Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:00:20

3M ago1:00:20

1:00:20

Most people think about abortion in the context of the country they live in. In the U.S., abortion fuels debate, elections, and legislation. In China, abortion is often treated as a settled issue. Why and how do abortion attitudes vary across the world? In her new book, Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion (Ox…

1
Episode 117 - Creighton Hobbs, Christian Fiorella and Brent Peek - A WAY OUT 42:06

3M ago42:06

42:06

The last time I had writer/director Creighton Hobbs join me on this show, he discussed his riveting drama Binded By Tragedy - a film about an ex-con’s desperate fight to escape from his dangerous criminal past. Now with his latest feature, the chilling thriller A Way Out, he looks at a crisis that continues to threaten lives and marriages - domesti…

1
In Covid’s Wake: How our Politics Failed Us--A Conversation with Stephen Macedo (Part 2) 52:57

3M ago52:57

52:57

This week on Madison’s Notes, we continue our discussion with Stephen Macedo, co-author of In COVID’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us (Princeton UP, 2025). The book examines the institutional failures during the pandemic, including the politicization of science, inconsistent messaging, and the disproportionate impacts of policies. We cover key que…

1
35. What Should We Do About Disruptive Speech? With Carl Fox 47:36

3M ago47:36

47:36

Misinformation, fake news, hate speech, satire, the arts, political protest. These are all examples of what you might call disruptive speech. A free speech absolutist would say that all of these forms of speech should be tolerated, if not welcomed. On the other hand, it does look as though some of them are disruptive in a good way, and others are d…

1
Jade S. Sasser, "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question" (U California Press, 2024) 59:55

3M ago59:55

59:55

Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a rapidly growing field, but most researchers overlook a closely related concern: reproductive anxiety. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question (U California Press, 2024) is the first comprehensive study of h…

1
In Covid’s Wake: How our Politics Failed Us: A Conversation with Frances Lee 45:57

3M ago45:57

45:57

In the first part of our two-part conversation on Madison’s Notes, we speak with Frances Lee, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, about her co-authored book In COVID’s Wake (Princeton UP, 2025). The book offers a comprehensive and candid political assessment of how institutions performed during the pandemic. It explore…

1
34. Is AI Stealing Artists' Labour? With Trystan Goetze 47:52

3M ago47:52

47:52

Recent developments in AI, including image generation and large language models, have created huge excitement and opened up some really interesting possibilities. But they've also attracted significant criticisms, not least of which is the accusation that they involve large scale theft. This is because they are trained on huge datasets that include…

1
Christos Lynteris, "Visual Plague: The Emergence of Epidemic Photography" (MIT Press, 2022) 1:17:33

3M ago1:17:33

1:17:33

How epidemic photography during a global pandemic of bubonic plague contributed to the development of modern epidemiology and our concept of the “pandemic.” In Visual Plague: The Emergence of Epidemic Photography (MIT Press, 2022), Christos Lynteris examines the emergence of epidemic photography during the third plague pandemic (1894–1959), a globa…

1
Mathew Forstater & Geoffrey Ingham: Tax-Driven Money and Credit Theory of Money 10:05

4M ago10:05

10:05

Notebook LM generated. The Credit Theory posits that money's essence is not as a physical commodity, but as a social relation representing debt/credit. All participants in a monetary system engage in these relations, settled by transferring abstract value. The Tax Driven Money approach, a specific form of credit theory, argues that the government's…

1
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan 30:54

4M ago30:54

30:54

This AI generated podcast delves into Hobbes' classic treatise on liberty, emphasizing that true freedom isn’t an inherent quality but rather the absence of external constraints. An Obama-esque reflection ties these philosophical concepts to the Founding Fathers, showing how such debates continue to shape American political thought by balancing ind…

1
Emine Ö Evered, "Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity" (U Texas Press, 2024) 56:25

4M ago56:25

56:25

Historian Emine Ö. Evered’s Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity (University of Texas Press, 2024) investigates the history of alcohol, its consumption, and its proscription as a means to better understand events and agendas of the late Ottoman and early Turkish republican eras. Through a comprehensive examination of archival…

1
33. Is Internet Access a Human Right? With Merten Reglitz 45:46

4M ago45:46

45:46

When I was doing my undergraduate degree back in the 90s, the Internet was a bit of a novelty. It was fun to play with, and you could see theoretically how it was probably going to be quite important. I'm not sure I would have predicted how completely it now pervades every area of human life, though: work, civil society, leisure and social interact…

1
Nicholas Kaldor: The Expenditure Tax 23:48

4M ago23:48

23:48

Google Notebook LM generated: This document by Nicholas Kaldor provides an overview of the concept of an expenditure tax, as detailed in the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations' 1974 report. The report examines the historical context, theoretical underpinnings, administrative feasibility, and potential applications of an expenditure …

1
Max Weber: The Methodenstreit 12:49

4M ago12:49

12:49

Google LM generated:This article examines Max Weber's approach to the Methodenstreit, a late 19th-century debate in economics about methodology. It contrasts Weber's integrated method, which combines historical context, empirical evidence, and theoretical models, with the more deductive and ahistorical views of economists like Carl Menger and Ludwi…

1
Chris Hayes: Hip Heterodoxy 14:09

4M ago14:09

14:09

An 2007 Nation article by Chris Hayes about the current state of the economics discipline read using the Kokoro AI generated voice.By Tschäff

1
The Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies 30:45

4M ago30:45

30:45

A Google NotebookLM generated podcast: The Cambridge capital theory controversies debated the validity of neoclassical economics' aggregate production functions and the measurement of capital, ultimately questioning whether the rate of return on capital is determined by its marginal productivity, and whether comparative statics can adequately analy…

1
L. Randall Wray: The Value of Money: A Survey of Heterodox Approaches 25:39

4M ago25:39

25:39

Google LM generated podcast: This Levy Economics Institute working paper surveys heterodox economic theories of money's value, rejecting orthodox views linking it solely to scarcity or price levels. The paper integrates several heterodox approaches: reinterpretations of Marx's labour theory of value by Graeber and Foley; Keynes's liquidity preferen…

1
Daniel Oberhaus, "The Silicon Shrink: How Artificial Intelligence Made the World an Asylum" (MIT Press, 2025) 59:34

4M ago59:34

59:34

AI psychiatrists promise to detect mental disorders with superhuman accuracy, provide affordable therapy for those who can't afford or can't access treatment, and even invent new psychiatric drugs. But the hype obscures an unnerving reality. In The Silicon Shrink: How Artificial Intelligence Made the World an Asylum (MIT Press, 2025), Daniel Oberha…

1
Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation 11:40

4M ago11:40

11:40

This excerpt from Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation explores the concept of simulation and its impact on reality. Baudrillard argues that simulation has superseded representation, creating a hyperreal where signs no longer refer to a deeper meaning but exist as self-referential systems.By Tschäff

1
Patricia A. Roos, "Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction" (Rutgers UP, 2024) 1:16:12

4M ago1:16:12

1:16:12

In 2015, Patricia Roos’s twenty-five-year-old son Alex died of a heroin overdose. Turning her grief into action, Roos, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, began to research the social factors and institutional failures that contributed to his death. Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction (Rutgers UP, 2024) tells h…

1
32. Where's the Harm in Health and Safety? With Simon Cassin 46:07

4M ago46:07

46:07

After time in the army and the fire service, Simon Cassin became a health and safety professional, and is now the managing director of a training and development consultancy called Ouch. Unusually for someone working in health and safety, he's dedicated some serious study to understanding the deep philosophical ideas underlying the profession, focu…

1
Erica Borgstrom and Renske Visser, "Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement" (Routledge, 2024) 59:34

5M ago59:34

59:34

Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement (Routledge, 2025) by Professor Erica Borgstrom & Dr. Renske Visser is the first of its kind to examine key topics in death, dying, and bereavement through a critical lens, highlighting how the understanding and experience of death can vary considerably, based on social, cultural, historical, polit…

1
Casey Golomski, "God's Waiting Room: Racial Reckoning at Life's End" (Rutgers UP, 2024) 1:12:32

5M ago1:12:32

1:12:32

Can older racists change their tune, or will they haunt us further once they're gone? Rich in mystery and life's lessons, God's Waiting Room: Racial Reckoning at Life's End (Rutgers University Press, 2024) considers what matters in the end for older white adults and the younger Black nurses who care for them. An innovation in creative nonfiction, C…

1
31. Why is Sex Work So Gendered? With Natasha McKeever 40:16

5M ago40:16

40:16

*CONTENT WARNING: This podcast contains some frank discussion of sex and sex work.* While there are all kinds of sex work, by far the most common scenario involves a man paying a woman for sex. It is, in other words, a highly gendered activity. Why? It turns out the answer to this question isn't as obvious as it might at first seem. It turns out, i…

1
David Lyon, "Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2024) 59:41

5M ago59:41

59:41

Surveillance is everywhere today, generating data about our purchasing, political, and personal preferences. Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2024) shows how surveillance makes people visible and affects their lives, considers the technologies involved and how it grew to its present size and prevalence, and explores…

1
30. What Should Doctors Be Doing With Your Data? With Jon Fistein 49:07

5M ago49:07

49:07

Do you know what medical information is held about you? Do you know who is allowed to have access to it? Doctors collect lots of data - often quite personal - about their patients. This data needs to be collected, stored, and shared, sometimes quite widely, so that the patients can receive effective care, but also so that the medical profession can…

1
Michael Bresalier, "Modern Flu: British Medical Science and the Viralisation of Influenza, 1890-1950" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) 1:07:43

6M ago1:07:43

1:07:43

Ninety years after the discovery of human influenza virus, Modern Flu: British Medical Science and the Viralisation of Influenza, 1890—1950 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) by Dr. Michael Bresalier traces the history of this breakthrough and its implications for understanding and controlling influenza ever since. Examining how influenza came to be define…

1
Episode 116 - CLUTCH Writer/Star Bryan G. Thompson 42:42

6M ago42:42

42:42

This week, the amazing and talented actor/filmmaker Bryan G. Thompson is my guest on the show. I'm honored to have him join me to talk about his new action drama CLUTCH, in which he stars as an ex-police investigator - named Clutch - who's driven to solve a complicated unsolved case that's troubled him for years: the kidnapping of several young wom…

1
Episode 115 - SEX DATE Writer/Director Mike Nicholas 35:11

6M ago35:11

35:11

This week, The Viewfinder Podcast welcomes writer/director Mike Nicholas, whose romantic comedy short film SEX DATE recently won both Best Film and a cash prize of $50,000 at the 2024 Louisiana Film Prize in Shreveport. Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X: @ViewfinderPod On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast Music by Audionautix…

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Nicholas Hobbs Podcasts

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