This episode we catch up with Gregory Hooks and Brian McQueen about their article, American Exceptionalism Revisited, winner of the ASA Political Sociology section Best Article award. Our conversation touches upon racial migration, defense spending, and how the post-World War II era was a critical juncture in the American social welfare state.

Download Office Hours #46

This episode is the first Drop In: a new, shorter style of Office Hours episodes that we’ll be mixing into the podcast every so often alongside our longer episodes. Our first Drop In guest, Matt Snodgrass, discusses his recent Criminology article, Does the Time Cause the Crime?

Download Office Hours #42

This week we talk with Gary Alan Fine. We discuss his recent article in Contexts, Uncertain Knowledge, on how rumors shape our world and explain why some people still think we have a Kenyan President.

Office Hours #35.

This week, Frances Fox Piven stops by Office Hours for a discussion of the impact of labor on the American Left. Topics include labor history, globalization and labor, and the future of labor strikes.

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Everyone knows the private sector is hurting thanks to the economic crisis, but what about non-profit institutions like universities, art museums, and social service & charitable organizations?

Special Guest Co-Host Wes Longhofer and Arturo Baiocchi talk to Woody Powell about the troubled state of non-profits during today’s economic downturn.

Plus, Arturo shares a discovery from Social Psychology Quarterly on the relationship between income, happiness and marriage.

Download episode #14 now!

What’s the difference between “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”? Both are terrible crimes, so why does the distinction matter? John Hagan addresses just this question in his new book, Darfur and the Crime of Genocide. While Hagan was on campus at the University of Minnesota for a lecture about the book, we sat down with him to discuss the meaning of genocide, the role of language in creating the conditions for genocide and the politics of numbers.

Also, Kristin Haltinner shares a fascinating discovery about how white power activists manage their identity.

Download episode #12 now!

In this episode, Jesse and Arturo learn about women from our Fall 2008 batch of Discoveries and also sit down for an interview with Jen’nan Read, author of Muslism in America in our Fall 2008 issue.

Download episode #2 now!

If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe! If you have iTunes installed, just go to the iTunes Store and search for “Contexts” (or just follow this link). If you’re using another podcatcher, our RSS feed is thesocietypages.org/podcast/feed/. If you’re not sure what podcasting is, watch Podcasting in Plain English…and then subscribe to our podcast!

Next Week: we interview Francesca Polleta about Storytelling in Politics.

In this inaugural episode of the Contexts Podcast, we look at a few Discoveries from our brand new Fall 2008 issue of Contexts that explore the effects of religion on people’s lives. Also, we talk with Andrew Perrin about his Contexts article, Why you voted, as well as how polls are “productive fictions”.

We’re new to podcasting here at Contexts, but we’re planning on bringing these episodes to you on a biweekly basis from here on out, so subscribe to our podcast feed or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes. (Note: we’re new to iTunes, so you can’t find us by searching yet, so you need the direct link for now.)

Download episode #1 now!

Next Week: we interview Jen’nan Read about her article, Muslims in America.

Music credits: this week’s episode features music from Drop Trio, available at Magnatune.com.