Author Archives: jon

Marketing Meth with Henry Brownstein and Timothy Mulcahy

This is a special edition of Office Hours: we’re cross-posting the first interview from the all new Contexts Podcast. In this interview, Jessica Streeter speaks with Henry H. Brownstein and Timothy M. Mulcahy, co-authors of the Winter 2012 Contexts feature, Home Cooking: Marketing Meth.

If you like Office Hours, you probably already love Contexts magazine and now you’ve got another great podcast to subscribe to with the Contexts Podcast. So head over to contexts.org to subscribe and while you’re there, check out the new Spring 2012 issue of Contexts!

Download Office Hours #52!

Douglas Arnold on the Elsevier Boycott

This episode we talk with Douglas Arnold, McKnight Presidential Professor of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. Professor Arnold is active in the movement to boycott Elsevier for charging exorbitantly high prices, supporting measures such as SOPA, PIPA, and until last week, the Research Works Act, as well as for the publisher’s many ethical lapses. We discuss the start of the movement, the movement’s tactics, why this movement took hold in mathematics, in particular, and why those in other fields—such as the social sciences—should pay attention and join in.

Links discussed in the episode:

Download Office Hours #43.

Theda Skocpol on Civic Participation

This week we thought we’d dig back into the Office Hours archives a bit and revisit an interview we did with Theda Skocpol from 2009 on media, the Internet, and civic participation in the 2008 election. A few years later, we’reright in the middle of another election cycle and questions about the impact of traditional media and online social media are as pertinent as ever, so we thought it’d be a good time to think back to a time when a younger Barack Obama was striding into office with the promise of a new post-partisan era of American political engagement…

If you’re interested in what Skocpol has been up to in the time since this interview, check out her new book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.

Download Office Hours #38

Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen on The Society Pages

This episode we speak with Doug Hartmann and Chris Uggen, the dynamic duo behind our very own website, The Society Pages. Big things are happening at TSP and Chris and Doug are here to give us the scoop on the new features on the way in the coming weeks and months, such as The Reading List, more Special Features, and our exciting new collaboration with W.W. Norton.

Download Office Hours #37.

Monte Bute on Death and Dying

This episode we talk with Monte Bute, a backstage sociologist at Metropolitan State University. Last year, Monte was diagnosed with stage three pulmonary lymphoma. Rather than retreating quietly, however, Monte has turned his illness into a learning experience for students (he’s continued to teach) and into an opportunity to revisit some of the core questions of the human experience. We talk about the effect of Durkheim on sociology’s impoverished understanding of dying, and the ways in which literature and the humanities do a better job of grasping the existential realities of dying. Other topics include Monte’s Facebook page, his take on the Minnesota state shutdown, and why Monte has changed his opinion on Tuesdays with Morrie (following up on his discussion with John Hines).

Download Office Hours #30.