Best Interviews by Alissa Podcasts (2025)

1
Bulent Gokay and Lily Hamourtziadou, "Human Costs of War: 21st Century Human (In)Security from 2003 Iraq to 2022 Ukraine" (Routledge, 2024) 31:35

4h ago31:35

31:35

Human Costs of War: 21st Century Human (In)Security from 2003 Iraq to 2022 Ukraine (Taylor & Francis, 2024) documents and analyses the direct and indirect toll that war takes on civilians and their livelihoods, taking a human security approach exploring personal, economic, political and community security in Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine, in the co…

1
Ünver Rüstem, "Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul" (Princeton UP, 2019) 1:14:03

1d ago1:14:03

1:14:03

In Istanbul, there is a mosque on every hill. Cruising along the Bosphorus, either for pleasure, or like the majority of Istanbul’s denizens, for transit, you cannot help but notice that the city’s landscape would be dramatically altered without the mosques of the city. In Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanb…

1
Ilana Rosen, "Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State" (Academic Studies Press, 2025) 1:02:42

4d ago1:02:42

1:02:42

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli…

1
Ashley Howard, "Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement" (UNC Press, 2025) 1:14:42

4d ago1:14:42

1:14:42

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest …

1
All Things BMX Show With Premier National Racing Team 1:47:47

4d ago1:47:47

1:47:47

This Week on the All Things BMX Show: Premier National Racing Team Takes Over! Get ready for a powerhouse episode as we welcome the dynamic duo of Catherine and Tyler Shutts of Premier National Racing Team to the show! We’re talking about the 2025 UCI World Championships, the road to qualification, team goals, rider prep, and everything in between.…

1
The Art of Feeling Known - Bruno Viterbo - Defining Hospitality - Episode #209 1:13:30

5d ago1:13:30

1:13:30

Ever wondered how a space can make you feel genuinely cared for? Bruno Viterbo, Vice President of Design at Irvine Company, shares his profound insights into 'the sense of being known' and how it transforms hospitality design at every scale. Bruno shares his extensive experience in the design and real estate industries, including insights from his …

1
Linda Quiquivix, "Palestine 1492: A Report Back" (Wild Ox Books, 2024) 1:13:57

5d ago1:13:57

1:13:57

Hello, I'm Eric LeMay, a host on the New Books Network. Today I speak with Linda Quiquivix, author of the new book Palestine 1492: A Report Back (Wild Ox Books, 2024). This is a book that so many of us need right now, and by "right now," I mean that I am recording this in July of 2025, when Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of mass starvation a…

1
Ory Amitay, "Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: Myth and History" (Oxford UP, 2025) 46:26

6d ago46:26

46:26

When I sat down with Dr. Ory Amitay, his passion for myth, history, and ancient cultures was infectious. Our conversation about his new book, Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: Myth and History, Oxford University Press, 2025, quickly revealed that for Ory, the real intrigue isn’t whether Alexander literally visited Jerusalem, but how and why this st…

1
Marc Herman, "After Revelation: The Rabbinic Past in the Medieval Islamic World" (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) 55:05

7d ago55:05

55:05

After Revelation: The Rabbinic Past in the Medieval Islamic World offers a dynamic new perspective on medieval Jewish legal thought and its integration in the wider Islamic world. Here, Marc D. Herman demonstrates that Jews were fully conversant in their contemporaries' ideas about revelation, law, and legal interpretation. Bookended by the two lum…

1
M’hamed Oualdi, "A Slave between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa" (Columbia UP, 2020) 41:41

8d ago41:41

41:41

In light of the profound physical and mental traumas of colonization endured by North Africans, historians of recent decades have primarily concentrated their studies of North Africa on colonial violence, domination, and shock. The choice is an understandable one. But in his new monograph, A Slave between Empires: A Transimperial History of North A…

1
A Seat at Aggie's Table - Aggie Zamir - Defining Hospitality - Episode #208 57:57

10d ago57:57

57:57

“We love the one-off projects, but our real passion and what we're really looking for are ownership groups where we can do a project with them, forge a relationship, build that trust, and then we grow alongside them.” Joining Dan is Aggie Zamir, Vice President of National Hospitality and Gaming at Cumming Group. They discuss Aggie's insights into t…

1
Lily Hamourtziadou, "Body Count: The War on Terror and Civilian Deaths in Iraq" (Bristol UP, 2021) 31:00

12d ago31:00

31:00

Body Count: The War on Terror and Civilian Deaths in Iraq (Bristol University Press, 2021), Lily Hamourtziadou’s investigation into civilian victims during the conflicts that followed the US-led coalition’s 2003 invasion of Iraq provides important new perspectives on the human cost of the War on Terror. From early fighting to the withdrawal and ret…

1
Alissa Walter, "Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad" (Stanford UP, 2025) 33:07

12d ago33:07

33:07

Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad (Stanford UP, 2025) offers a history of state-society relations in Baghdad, exploring how city residents managed through periods of economic growth, sanctions, and war, from the oil boom of the 1950s through the withdrawal of US troops in 2011. Interactions between citizens and their r…

1
Alissa Walter, "Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad" (Stanford UP, 2025) 33:07

12d ago33:07

33:07

Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad (Stanford UP, 2025) offers a history of state-society relations in Baghdad, exploring how city residents managed through periods of economic growth, sanctions, and war, from the oil boom of the 1950s through the withdrawal of US troops in 2011. Interactions between citizens and their r…

1
Cat Dawson, "Monumental: How a New Generation of Artists Is Shaping the Memorial Landscape" (MIT Press, 2025) 40:40

13d ago40:40

40:40

For centuries, monuments have telegraphed the values and origin myths of dominant culture in public space and on massive scale. They have signaled both who is part of a culture and who is not, often overlooking histories that complicate the stories they tell. Yet in the last 50 years in the United States, the role of monuments has changed significa…

1
Charles Glass, "Syria: Civil War to Holy War?" (OR Books, 2024) 41:02

14d ago41:02

41:02

In December 2024, the long and bloody stalemate in Syria broke down. In a transformation breathtaking for its suddenness and speed, President Bashar al-Assad, the beating heart of Arab authoritarianism, fled to Russia, his dungeons emptying as rebels overcame the Syrian army with scarcely a fight. Euphoria at the collapse of a government people nev…

1
Juliet Rix, "London's Statues of Women" (SafeHaven Books, 2025) 50:12

14d ago50:12

50:12

No-one can fail to notice how many statues of Great Men there are around London: stern politicians, military generals, imperial adventurers . . . But what about women? As shown by Juliet Rix in London's Statues of Women (SafeHaven Books, 2025), women are surprisingly well represented amongst London’s statues. Recent years have seen new statues of V…

1
Laurie Denyer Willis, "Go with God: Political Exhaustion and Evangelical Possibility in Suburban Brazil" (U California Press, 2023) 48:05

17d ago48:05

48:05

Through deep attention to sense and feeling, Go with God grapples with the centrality of Evangelical faith in Rio de Janeiro's subúrbios, the city's expansive and sprawling peripheral communities. Based on sensory ethnographic fieldwork and attuned to religious desire and manipulation, this book shows how Evangelical belief has changed the way peop…

1
Yardena Schwartz, "Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict" (Union Square, 2024) 49:54

17d ago49:54

49:54

In this interview, Yardena Schwartz discusses her book Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict, offering a nuanced exploration of the 1929 Hebron massacre and its enduring impact on the region’s history and present-day realities. Through a conversation that weaves personal narrative, historical an…

1
Shain Shapiro, "This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better" (Watkins Media Limited, 2023) 23:45

18d ago23:45

23:45

This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better (Watkins Media Limited, 2023) explores how music can make cities better. This Must Be the Place introduces and examines music's relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed, and governed. …

1
All Things BMX Show With Travis Johnston 1:51:10

18d ago1:51:10

1:51:10

We’re getting down in the dirt with the mastermind behind one of the most epic trail events in BMX — Travis Johnston from the Ohio BMX Trail Jam Series is joining tonight!!1 From shovel to shred, Travis has helped build one of the rawest and most rider-driven events in the Midwest, and he’s bringing the behind-the-scenes stories, the stoke, and the…

1
Siri Schwabe, "Moving Memory: Remembering Palestine in Postdictatorship Chile" (Cornell UP, 2023) 49:58

19d ago49:58

49:58

Two juxtaposed years frame the subject matter of Moving Memory: Remembering Palestine in Postdictatorship Chile. In one, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s troops stormed Chile’s presidential palace. In the other, 1948, Zionist militias expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. That 1973 should move memories in Chile is obvi…

1
Fadi Zaghmout, "The Man of Middling Height" (Syracuse UP, 2025) 19:49

20d ago19:49

19:49

What if our society’s deepest prejudices weren’t about race, gender, or sexuality—but height? In his groundbreaking allegorical novel, acclaimed Jordanian author and activist Fadi Zaghmout imagines just such a world, crafting a powerful meditation on discrimination and desire that speaks directly to our contemporary debates about identity and inclu…

1
Michael Amoruso, "Moved by the Dead: Haunting and Devotion in São Paulo, Brazil" (UNC Press, 2025) 1:13:00

22d ago1:13:00

1:13:00

In the sprawling city of São Paulo, a weekly practice known as devotion to souls (devoção às almas) draws devotees to Catholic churches, cemeteries, and other sites associated with tragic or unjust deaths. The living pray and light candles for the souls of the dead, remembering events and circumstances in a rite of collective suffering. Yet contemp…

1
John Bardes, "The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930" (UNC Press, 2024) 48:57

23d ago48:57

48:57

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and pr…

1
Sounds of the City Collapsing 49:30

24d ago49:30

49:30

In the fourth episode of Soundscapes NYC, host Ryan Purcell and music historian Jesse Rifkin tour a constellation of seedy bars and venues in the 1970s that nurtured bands during the early days of punk rock. These spaces include well-known clubs like CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City and lesser-known haunts like the Mercer Arts Center and Mother’s that s…

1
Pamela Karimi, "Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran" (Leuven UP, 2024) 1:01:08

24d ago1:01:08

1:01:08

Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran offers an insightful look at the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran, sparked by the tragic murder of Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of the “morality police” for violating hijab rules. Beyond its feminist undertones and the remarkable courage of the young protesters, what sets this upri…

1
S2 E42 | Ride with Alissa Hale: From Alabama to Florida, Alissa Hale's Country Music Journey 1:10:40

25d ago1:10:40

1:10:40

Send us a text Meet Alissa Hale, a rising country star who's redefining what it means to be a modern artist. Born and raised in Alabama with a 12-year background in gymnastics and ballet, Alissa's path to music came through an unexpected intersection of talent, determination, and a mother who believed in her enough to talk her up to a music produce…

1
Crafting Generational Memories - Derek De Salvia - Defining Hospitality - Episode #207 48:01

25d ago48:01

48:01

“ It's a core tenant of who we are, and it's called put people first. We take care of our people.” Derek De Salvia, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Hilton Grand Vacations, joins Dan today to dive into the world of vacation ownership. The discussion covers the personal and professional aspects of hospitality, the evolution and…

1
Bridging History, Policy and Place with Bruce Harvey 1:15:06

25d ago1:15:06

1:15:06

Bruce Harvey is a historian and photographer based in Syracuse, NY, who works at the intersection of memory, place, and public history. As an independent consultant, he helps both public and private clients document historic sites--shaping how we remember, preserve, and sometimes say goodbye to the built environment. In this episode, Bruce reflects…

1
All Things BMX Show With Josh & Alissa from Rum River BMX 1:31:22

25d ago1:31:22

1:31:22

We are BACK!!!—and tonight we have another blockbuster couple of guests you do not want to miss… The ATB Krew coming to you live from "The Ethan Clark" studios that are brought to you by the good people at Motor City Harley-Davidson in Farmington Hills Michigan. Chris and I are at the Get-O Wear News Desk. For the coolest lifestyle apparel out ther…

1
Michael Cook, "A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity" (Princeton UP, 2024) 1:19:02

26d ago1:19:02

1:19:02

A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity (Princeton UP, 2024) by Michael A. Cook This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the book takes readers from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth cen…

1
Rebecca Jo Kinney, "Mapping AsiaTown Cleveland: Race and Redevelopment in the Rust Belt" (Temple UP, 2025) 1:13:37

26d ago1:13:37

1:13:37

In this episode we challenge the ideas about invisibility of Asian Americans in the urban Midwest by discussing Rebecca Jo Kinney’s Mapping AsiaTown Cleveland: Race and Redevelopment in the Rust Belt (Temple University Press, 2025). Mapping AsiaTown Cleveland links the contemporary development of Cleveland’s “AsiaTown” to the multiple and fragmente…

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