In this episode we talk with Michael Schudson, author of The Sociology of News, recently released in its second edition. Schudson is the author of seven books and co-editor of three others concerning the history and sociology of the American news media, advertising, popular culture, Watergate and cultural memory. We discuss the changing nature of journalism, the effect of emerging technology on traditional news practices, and his new research on transparency as American value and policy.
This episode we talk with Jay Gabler, sociologist, journalist, and creator of the play, Ivory Tower Burning. The play imagines a meeting between Talcott Parsons and C. Wright Mills where an intense debate about social theory and human nature ensues. We discuss bringing sociology to the theater and the role of sociology in the broader culture.
You can watch a preview clip on YouTube and see the entire play live August 4-11 at the Minnesota Fringe festival.
This episode, we talk with Jennifer Lena about her book, Banding Together. Lena explores the developmental patterns that different musical genres take—from rap and bluegrass to death metal and South Texas Polka. Why do some genres become massively popularly while others thrive in small niches? Listen in to find out.
Also, our host for the week, Sarah Lageson, recently produced a documentary for KFAI radio on the bluegrass revival in the Twin Cities. If you enjoy this interview with Jennifer Lena, you’ll enjoy Sarah’s documentary, too. KFAI describes it as:
For the last several years, a bluegrass revival has been taking place in and around the Twin Cities. KFAI producer Sarah Lageson talks to musicians Quillan Roe of the Roe Family Singers, Kevin Kniebel of Pert Near Sandstone, radio host Phil Nusbaum, and banjo player Liz Olds. This documentary examines the local bluegrass resurgence, what it means for musicians and fans, and the divide between purists and progressives.
Go on, check it out!
This week, we talk with Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp, co-editors of Sociological Images. Gwen and Lisa were in Minneapolis to receive the Public Sociology Award at the University of Minnesota Sociology Department’s annual Sociology Research Institute.
This episode we talk to Joel Best, author of popular, accessible sociology books such as Damned Lies and Statistics, Everyone’s a Winner, and hot off the presses, a brand new Social Problems textbook from W.W. Norton.
This week we talk with David Garland about his new book, Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition. Garland discusses why capital punishment persists in the US while it does not in other Western countries, from the structure of our political system to the role of public opinion.
Our Teaching TSP team has also written up a series of classroom questions and exercises to be used alongside this interview. You can check them out here.
In this episode we discuss the social science of political humor with Heather LaMarre. This conversation is part of our latest Roundtable.
This week we talk with Corey Shdaimah, author of Negotiating Justice: Progressive Lawyering, Low-Income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change. Shdaimah examines how the themes central to progressive lawyering—autonomy, collaboration, transformation, and social change—look on the ground, in the legal services office. We discuss the ethnographic methods she used for this research, and how lawyers and clients navigate their relationships with one another.
This episode on Office Hours, we talk with Megan Comfort about her book, Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. The book is the outcome of her ethnographic research at San Quentin Prison, studying how intimate relationships are sustained while male partners are incarcerated.
For this episode, Sarah met up with Charis Kubrin at the 2010 American Society of Criminology meetings, where they talked about about public criminology, culture, and measurement strategies.