Office Hours

G. William Domhoff on Pension Fund Capitalism

Rahsaan Mahadeo — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:02:42 +0000

This episode we speak with G. William Domhoff. Domhoff is author of sociology bestseller, Who Rules America?, and is co-author, with recent Office Hours guest Richard L. Zweigenhaft, of The New CEOs. Today we’re talking with Domhoff about his most article, Pension Fund Capitalism or Wall Street Bonanza? A Critique of the Claim That Pension Funds Can Influence Corporations.

Download Office Hours #71

David Leonard on Jason Collins

Kyle Green — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:20:13 +0000

This week we are joined by David J. Leonard, professor of Critical Culture, Gender, & Race Studies at Washington State University and author of After Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness. We discuss the significance of Jason Collins’s article in Sports Illustrated announcing that he is gay, the media’s reaction to him coming out, and sport as a site key site for the performance of gender and sexuality.

Download Office Hours #70

Catherine Squires on Race and the Media

Rahsaan Mahadeo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:00:52 +0000

This week we talk with Catherine Squires about her September 2012 article in American Quarterly, Coloring in the Bubble: Perspectives from Black-Oriented Media on the (Latest) Economic Disaster.

Download Office Hours #69

Shai Dromi on Beggars and Morality

Kyle Green — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:25:50 +0000

This episode we talk with Shai Dromi about his recent article, Penny for your Thoughts: Beggars and the Exercise of Morality in Daily Life . Dromi argues that past studies of the city have mischaracterized interactions between people passing by and people asking for money due to the focus on risk, fear, and crime. Instead, for many people in Shai’s study, homeless people’s requests for money provided a dimension of moral reflection to the urban landscape.

Download Office Hours #68

William Alexander on Fantasy and Social Theory

Kyle Green — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:30:55 +0000

In this episode, we have a conversation with William Alexander. He is slightly different type of social theorist than we normally have on the podcast. Will teaches in the English Department at the Minnesota College of Arts and Design and last November he won the prestigious national book award for his first novel Goblin Secrets and the Earphones Award for narrating his book. Today Will is joining us to discuss the powers and politics of fantasy, and the relationship between fiction and the social world.

Download Office Hours #67

Mary Joyce on Digital Activism

Kyle Green — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:30:46 +0000

This week we continue our investigation into the world of online politics by talking with Mary Joyce about digital activism. We discuss what qualifies as digital activism, the value of research that focuses on the big picture, and the relationship between these new technologies and more traditional forms of social organizing.

Download Office Hours #66

Gabriella Coleman on Anonymous

Kyle Green — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:00:10 +0000

This week we talk with Gabriella Coleman about her current research on Anonymous and her recently published book, Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, which you can download for free under a Creative Commons license. We discuss the rise of Anonymous, how to research a web-based collective whose members hide their identity, the art of “trolling”, and the political significance of the group.

The Society Pages’ Community Page Cyborgology has also written a review of Coding Freedom, which can be read here.

Download Office Hours #65

Joshua Newman and Michael Giardina on NASCAR Nation

Kyle Green — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:00:50 +0000

This week we talk with Joshua I. Newman and Michael Giardina about their recent book [Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation: Consumption and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberalism]. Our conversation covers topics including the whiteness of stock car racing, religion and rebellion at the race track, and the production and consumption of Southern identity. We also discuss the value of researching NASCAR, sports, and other popular culture activities.

Download Office Hours #64

Shadd Maruna and Fergus McNeill on The Road From Crime

Sarah Esther Lageson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:30:21 +0000

This week we talk with Shadd Maruna and Fergus McNeill about their documentary project, The Road From Crime. This documentary was produced as part of the larger Discovering Desistance Project, which aims to share knowledge and improve understanding of why people desist from crime. First, we hear a clip from the opening sequence of the film, then we talk with Shadd and Fergus themselves as they describe the process of producing this project.

Download Office Hours #63.

Law Enforcement and Science with David Harris

Sarah Esther Lageson — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:31:29 +0000

In this episode, we talk with University of Pittsburgh School of Law Professor David Harris about his new book Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science. We discuss the cultural and organizational resistance to adopting scientific techniques into police and prosecutorial practices, and what social scientists can do about it.

Download Office Hours #62.

Shehzad Nadeem on Outsourcing in India

Jon Smajda — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:00:31 +0000

This week we talk with Shehzad Nadeem, author of Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves. We discuss what it’s like to work at a call center in India, what Indians think about outsourcing, and the social and cultural challenges faced by both labor and management in outsourcing firms.

Download Office Hours #61.

Michael Schudson on The Sociology of News

Sarah Esther Lageson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:00:20 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #60.

Natalie Boero and C.J. Pascoe on Pro-Anorexia Communities

Kyle Green — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:00:10 +0000

This episode we speak with Natalie Boero and C.J. Pascoe about their co-authored article, Pro-Anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-ana Body Online. We discuss what a pro-anorexia community is, how members establish authenticity within online groups, and the importance of moving beyond the individual in understanding anorexia.

Download Office Hours #59

Jay Gabler on Ivory Tower Burning

Sarah Esther Lageson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:04:35 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #58

Katherine Newman and The Accordion Family

Kia Heise and Lisa Gulya — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:00:02 +0000

Our guest this episode is Katherine S. Newman, and our topic is her new book, The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition. In the world’s wealthiest countries, an increasing number of adults in their twenties and thirties are moving back in with Mom and Dad. What’s driving this trend, and what are the consequences? Listen in to find out.

Download Office Hours #57

Jennifer Lena on Banding Together

Sarah Esther Lageson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:55:29 +0000

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!

Download Office Hours #56

Enid Logan on The New Politics of Race

Kia Heise and Lisa Gulya — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:30:55 +0000

This episode, we talk with Enid Logan about her book, “At This Defining Moment”: Barack Obama’s Presidential Candidacy and the New Politics of Race. Logan reflects back on race and gender in the 2008 campaign and also looks at how things have, and have not, changed for the current 2012 campaign.

Download Office Hours #55

Richard L. Zweigenhaft on The New CEOs

Rahsaan Mahadeo — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:35:51 +0000

This episode we speak with Richard L. Zweigenhaft about his research, with G. William Domhoff, on diversity in the power elite and their new book, The New CEOs: Women, African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies. While Fortune 500 CEOs are still predominantly white males, a growing number of women and people of color have become CEOs in the past two decades. What has caused this increased diversity and what impact has it had? What does this tell us about gender, race, ethnicity, and class in American politics? Listen in to find out.

Download Office Hours #54

Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp on Public Sociology

Sarah Esther Lageson — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:40:59 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #53

Marketing Meth with Henry Brownstein and Timothy Mulcahy

Jessica Streeter — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:49:14 +0000

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!

David Grusky on the Great Recession

Sarah Shannon — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:00:05 +0000

This episode with talk with David Grusky about the social and economic effects of the great recession and what every citizen should know about inequality in the United States.

Download Office Hours #51

Joel Best on Social Problems

Sarah Esther Lageson — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:23:12 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #50.

David Garland on the Death Penalty

Sarah Esther Lageson — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:34:53 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #49

Suzanne Mettler on The Submerged State

Sarah Shannon — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:25:35 +0000

This episode we talk with Suzanne Mettler about her new book, The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy. Mettler explains how indirect incentives, subsidies, and tax breaks have come to dominate US social policy, but remain unseen and underappreciated by most Americans.

Download Office Hours #48.

Robert Sampson on The Neighborhood Effect

Sarah Shannon — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:51:33 +0000

This episode we talk with Robert Sampson about his new book, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. In the face of globalization and the widespread belief that the “world is flat,” Sampson shows how the world is actually very uneven, and that local communities make a great difference in how people live their lives across a wide range of phenomenon, from homicide and child health, to leadership networks, teenage pregnancy, altruism, and home foreclosures.

Download Office Hours #47.

American Exceptionalism with Gregory Hooks and Brian McQueen

Jesse Wozniak — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:26:59 +0000

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

Eric Klinenberg on Going Solo

Arturo — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:28:22 +0000

This week we talk with Eric Klinenberg about his new book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. Also be sure to check out Klinenberg’s New York Times article, One’s a Crowd.

Download Office Hours #45

Amy Finnegan on Uganda and Kony 2012

Shannon Golden — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:27:05 +0000

This week we talk with Amy Finnegan about Uganda and Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign. For the past dozen years, Finnegan has been teaching and doing research in Uganda. In particular, Finnegan has studied the relationship between outside groups like Invisible Children and local Ugandan activists. How are campaigns like Kony 2012 received in Uganda? And do they help or hurt the cause of indigenous Ugandan activists? Listen up to find out.

UPDATE: Since recording this interview, Finnegan and other academics have gone the extra mile to get information out to the public about the context and current events in Uganda—as well as how to talk, teach, and do something about it—at their new website, MakingSenseofKony.org. Please do check it out!

Download Office Hours #44

Douglas Arnold on the Elsevier Boycott

Jon Smajda — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:47:21 +0000

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.

Drop In: Matt Snodgrass on Prison and Reoffenders

Jesse Wozniak — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:35:13 +0000

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

Neal Caren and Sarah Gaby on the Occupy Movement

Kyle Green — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:13:41 +0000

In this epsiode, we talk with Neal Caren and Sarah Gaby about their research on the Occupy Movement’s presence on social networking sites. Topics include the methodological promises and challenges of studying popular sites like Facebook as well as the potential of online social networking for fostering social change. This conversation was part of a Roundtable discussion on The Society Pages on social scientists studying social movements.

Download Office Hours #41.

Heather LaMarre on Politics and Humor

Sarah Esther Lageson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:29:48 +0000

In this episode we discuss the social science of political humor with Heather LaMarre. This conversation is part of our latest Roundtable.

Download Office Hours #40.

Robert Agnew on Crime and Climate Change

Sarah Shannon — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:32:54 +0000

This episode we talk with Robert Agnew about his new article, Dire forecast: A theoretical model of the impact of climate change on crime. Professor Agnew argues that climate change may become one of the biggest drivers behind rising crime rates in the 21st century.

Download Office Hours #39.

Theda Skocpol on Civic Participation

Jon Smajda — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:47:16 +0000

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

Jon Smajda — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:34:39 +0000

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.

Bartholomew Ryan on Baby Marx

Sarah Shannon — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:00:56 +0000

Baby Marx in production

This week we talk with Bartholomew Ryan from the Walker Art Center and co-curator of the Baby Marx exhibition. We chat about what happens when you combine social theorists, puppetry, and a trip to Occupy Wall Street.

Download Office Hours #36.

Gary Alan Fine on Rumors

Jesse Wozniak — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:00:29 +0000

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.

Joe Soss on Poverty Governance

Sarah Shannon — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:58:28 +0000

Today we talk with Joe Soss, author of the forthcoming book, Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race, co-authored with Richard C. Fording and Sanford F. Schram. Soss traces the major changes and continuities in welfare provision and poverty governance in the United States over the past 40 years, and the racial, political, and economic factors in creating these policies.

Download Office Hours #34.

Corey Shdaimah on Progressive Lawyering

Sarah Esther Lageson — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:00:38 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #33

Elijah Anderson on Cosmopolitan Canopies

Arturo — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:15:36 +0000

This week we talk with Elijah Anderson, author of The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. With urban ethnographies like Streetwise, A Place on the Corner, and Code of the Street, Anderson has captured the racial micropolitics that occurs in everyday urban life, highlighting the subtle rules and norms that guide interaction between whites, African Americans, and members of other ethnic groups. In his new book, Anderson returns to familiar territory, though this time he calls attention to parts of the city where more inclusive street behaviors are taking form. “Cosmopolitan canopies” are unique urban spaces that have a street culture that celebrates civility and mutual respect for difference, and Anderson argues they contribute to a broader cultural acceptance around race and diversity.

Sorry, we had to remove this episode. Watch this post for a replacement in the future.

Megan Comfort on Prison and Families

Sarah Esther Lageson — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:42:41 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #31

Monte Bute on Death and Dying

Jon Smajda — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:15:17 +0000

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.

Tom Stone on American Outsiders

Jon Smajda — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:11:58 +0000

This episode we speak with Tom Stone, the documentary photographer behind the evocative images featured in Mark Rank’s Spring 2011 feature Rethinking American Poverty. The photos are drawn from Stone’s “American Outsiders” series, which you can view online at tomstonegallery.com/art or on flickr.

Download Office Hours #29.

Annette Lareau on Unequal Childhoods

Kia Heise and Jack Lam — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:32:19 +0000

This week on Office Hours: Annette Lareau, who was at the University of Minnesota a few weeks back to give a talk at the Sociology Department’s annual Sociological Research Institute. While Lareau was in town, we had a chance to chat with her about her current research on how parents decide where to live and where to send their kids to school, and on the success of her bestselling book, Unequal Childhoods, as well as giving us a preview of the forthcoming second edition.

Download Office Hours #28.

Nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey on Theorizing the Web

Jon Smajda — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:36:52 +0000

This episode we speak with Nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey from Cyborgology. We talk about their Theorizing the Web conference, a conference the two organized this past April and—possibly—again in the future.

Download Office Hours #27.

Hazem Kandil on Revolution in Egypt

Sinan Erensu — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:34:29 +0000

Imagine you’ve been doing research on the possibility of revolution in Egypt and you’ve just published a paper asking why revolutions in Egypt have failed to materialize and then, two weeks after publication: revolution in Egypt. That’s the situation Hazem Kandil found himself in these past few months, and in this episode Kandil, who is a PhD candidate in the UCLA sociology department, talks with Sinan Erensu about the causes and consequences of revolution in Egypt and how sociology can help us better understand what happened and is happening still.

Download Office Hours #26.

Lisa Dodson, Wendy Luttrell, and Stefanie Mollborn on Motherhood

Sarah Shannon — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:43:13 +0000

This episode we talk with three authors of two articles from the Winter 2011 issue of Contexts: Lisa Dodson and Wendy Luttrell, authors of Families Facing Untenable Choices, and Stefanie Mollborn, author of “Children” Having Children. We discuss why Americans are so tough on single moms and teen moms, the untenable choices that they face, and why supporting moms is a smart social investment.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Download Office Hours #25

Hans Rosling on the Beauty of Data

Sarah Shannon — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:48:41 +0000

We sit down with Hans Rosling for a discussion about how visual graphics can unveil the underlying beauty of data. Highlights include a discussion of the history behind Rosling’s gapminder, who is leading the pack on adopting a “fact-based worldview,” the work that goes into Rosling’s famous TED Talks, and the historical relationship between Sweden and the US (and Minnesota, in particular).

A special thanks goes to the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. Rosling spoke at Minnesota as part of their Momentum 2011 series and they were kind enough to allow us to interview him as well.

Download Office Hours #24

Richard Lachmann on American Decline

Jon Smajda — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:00:36 +0000

This week we talk with Richard Lachmann, author of the article, The Roots of American Decline in the Winter 2011 issue of Contexts. Lachmann addresses common misunderstandings we Americans tend to have about our government’s spending, particularly military spending, and the current “fiscal crisis”. Lachmann compares the decline of American dominance with past empires and offers some lessons about what we might do to have a graceful decline as opposed to a painful, violent one.

Download Office Hours #23

Maria Kefalas on Meth and Young Adulthood

Arturo — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:47:34 +0000

This week we talk about meth, Iowa and the dystopia of modern young adulthood, with Maria Kefalas from St. Joseph’s University.

Our discussion is centered on Dr. Kefala’s recent book review in Contexts on Nick Redding’s Methland: the Life and Death of an America Small Town. Because the content of Redding’s book pairs well with Kefala’s own fieldwork in Iowa, we discuss the premise that social problems like the use of meth in rural America are really the “symptoms” of the gradual decline these communities have been experiencing in the wake of de-industrialization. Moreover, while issues of crime and drugs tend to be understood as urban issues, Kefalas argues that rural America is experiencing its own decline in term of the opportunities it can offer young people. We conclude with Kefala’s suggestion that we “re-imagine” young adulthood and the types of educational and training opportunities made available to young people in the new global economy.

We also discuss our latest podcast, New Books in Sociology, a joint venture between us here at The Society Pages and the New Books Network.

Download Office Hours #22

Nathan Palmer on Teaching Online

Jon Smajda — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:04:11 +0000

This week we talk with Nathan Palmer about teaching sociology in the internet age. Nathan talks about Sociology Source, the Soc101 Class Pack, and how we should be excited, not scared, about what the internet can do for our teaching.

Download Office Hours #21

Dylan Brody on Stories, Humor, and Politics

Jon Smajda — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:20:42 +0000

This episode we talk with humorist Dylan Brody about the power of humor and storytelling to transform the way people look at the world around them. Brody discusses the effects of television on political comedy, the sad state of heroes in our storytelling today, and how he incorporates his political knowledge and ideals into the personal stories he tells before audiences.

After you listen, be sure to check out Brody’s albums:

Download Office Hours #20

Charis Kubrin on Criminology and Culture

Sarah Esther Lageson — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:35:31 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #19!

Dan Winchester on the Good, the Bad, and the Social

Arturo — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:20:47 +0000

This week we talk with Dan Winchester co-author of a feature piece in the 2010 fall edition of Contexts, on the sociological study of morality– aptly called The good, the bad and the social.” In the interview we first talk to Dan about how a sociology of morality can contribute to recent neurological and biological studies on the topic. We also discuss how sociologists since Durkheim to Goffman have long considered morality as a crucial mechanism to how societies and communities form and stick together. In closing we discuss how sociologist go about studying such controversial issue and how, and if, sociologist can really suspend their own believes about what is right and wrong to objectively study how morals are constructed and followed.

So stick and around and listen to this podcast–it’s the right thing to do.

Download Office Hours #18

Francesco Duina on Winning

David Phillippi — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:34:15 +0000

This episode, new Office Hours contributor David Phillippi interviews Francesco Duina about his book, Winning: Reflections on an American Obsession. Topics include competition in sports, raising children, and comparing America’s culture of competition with Denmark. What are we trying to gain by being so competitive? And are we getting it? Listen in to find out.

Download Office Hours #17

Shamus Khan on Inequality and the Elite

Jon Smajda — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 14:44:04 +0000

This week we talk with Shamus Khan about his new book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School. One the one hand, elite social institutions—such as St. Paul’s—have opened up to women and minorities in recent decades, but on the other hand, inequality has increased and wealth is more concentrated now than since the 1920s. What explains this apparent contradiction between increasing openness yet rising inequality? Khan draws on his experiences as a student and then researcher at St. Paul’s to help answer this question.

Download Office Hours #16

Orit Avishai on Women and Religion

Sarah Esther Lageson — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:10:33 +0000

Orit Avishai talks about her Fall 2010 Contexts article, Women of God. People often assume that conservative religions are bad for women, but Avishai shows us the ways in which women within fundamentalist religions can have empowering experiences as well.

(The audio quality’s pretty rough on the interview this time — sorry about that!)

Download Office Hours #15

Tom O’Connell on Jane Addams and Hull-House

Sarah Esther Lageson — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:01:51 +0000

This week, Tom O’Connell stops by Office Hours to talk about the history of Hull-House and how to bring community service to the social sciences. O’Connell is the author of Jane Addams’s Democratic Journey from the Fall 2010 issue of Contexts.

Download Office Hours #14

Janet Hankin on 50 Years of Medical Sociology

Arturo — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:55:28 +0000

This episode we talk with Janet Hankin, co-editor of the special issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, “What Do We Know? Key Findings from 50 Years of Medical Sociology”. We discuss the contributions and insights sociologists have made in the areas of health, illness, and the medical establishment. Topics include the transformation of the health care system in the United States over the past 50 years, and the distinction between the sociology in medicine and the sociology of medicine.

Download Office Hours #13

Eszter Hargittai on Digital Na(t)ives

Jon Smajda — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:05:02 +0000

This episode we talk with Eszter Hargittai, from the Communication Studies department at Northwestern University. Popular myth has it that the youth of today are calm, competent masters of the internet, but Hargittai’s research points to significant gaps and inequalities in the level of internet skills possesed by so-called digital natives. What skills are lacking, why does this matter, and what should we do about it?

Download Office Hours #12

Keith Hampton on Wireless Internet and Public Spaces

Jon Smajda — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:38:15 +0000

This episode, we talk with Keith Hampton about his research on wireless internet and public spaces. Does public wifi encourage a stronger public sphere or diminish public life by encouraging everyone to live inside their own private digital bubble? Hampton argues it’s more complicated than that, and public WiFi can, in fact, encourage many different kinds of social interaction, both online and offline.

To learn more about Hampton’s research, check out his Fall 2010 Photo Essay in Contexts, as well as his new article published in the Journal of Communication.

Download Office Hours #11!

Frances Fox Piven on Labor and the Left

Jesse Wozniak — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:00:12 +0000

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.

Download Office Hours #10!

Jeffrey Alexander’s Heroes, Presidents, and Politics (Audiobook Version)

Jon Smajda — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:35:37 +0000

This episode is kind of an experiment. The Office Hours podcasters are working with Contexts magazine to try something new: an audio reading of the free feature article in the new issue of Contexts, Heroes, Presidents, and Politics by Jeffrey Alexander.

If you like what you hear, let us know! This may just be a one time experiment…or not.

Download Office Hours #9!

Robert M. Groves on the Census

Jon Smajda — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:32:08 +0000

This episode, Jesse visits with Robert M. Groves, Director of the United States Census Bureau. Topics include why our census takes a full sample and how we pull it off, how we count tough populations like undocumented migrants and the homeless, and controversies over racial identification and the role of the state in the census.

Download Office Hours #8!

Juliet Schor on Plenitude

Jon Smajda — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:16:10 +0000

Last week, Juliet Schor visited the U of M campus to give two talks about her new book, Plenitude, and her research on values-based consumption. While in town, she sat down with Jesse Wozniak for a great discussion about consumption and sustainability.

Download Office Hours #7!

Jeremy Freese on Sociology and Genetics

Jon Smajda — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:48:18 +0000

This week, we talk with Jeremy Freese about sociology and genetics. Topics include: why sociology and behavioral genetics need one another, why sociologists have been too hesitant to participate in interdisciplinary research, and how the complexities of gene-environment interdependence are stretching our imaginations as scientists and changing the way we think about causation.

If you like what you hear in this episode, this interview is part of an ongoing series on genetics, health, and sociology here at Office Hours. Past guests include Allan Horwitz, Peter Conrad, and Thomas Bouchard, with more on the way!

And the Society Page of the Week: ThickCulture’s Jose Marchial takes on Malcolm Gladwell’s take on Social Networking and Social Movements.

Download Office Hours #6 now!

Depression Chic with Bryant Simon

Jon Smajda — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:09:18 +0000

This episode we talk with Bryant Simon, author of the Summer 2010 Contexts culture review, Depression Chic — Shopping Our Way To Recovery. Topics include “inconspicuous conspicuous consumption”, the politics of depression in the 1930s and today, Simon’s book Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks, and what historians and sociologists can learn from one another.

Also, Sarah awards The Society Page of the Week to A Public Display of Emotion from Citings & Sightings.

Download Office Hours #5!

Pepper Schwartz on Baby Boomer Sex

Jon Smajda — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:38:33 +0000

This episode: Pepper Schwartz on baby boomers and sex, her contribution to the dating site PerfectMatch.com, and her views on doing relevant research. (Thanks to Tim Ortyl and Kia Heise for conducting the interview. An edited version appears in the Summer 2010 issue of Contexts.)

And the Society Page of the Week: Don’t Worry, Be Happy (When You Are Older) on Citings & Sightings.

Download Office Hours #4 now!

Elizabeth Wissinger on Modeling

Sarah Esther Lageson — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:04:56 +0000

Elizabeth Wissinger, author of the Spring 2010 Contexts Culture Review, The Top Model Life, tells us how the modeling world fits into the sociological world through marxism, beauty, technology and the commodification of culture.

Also, the Society Page of the Week: Text Messaging Trends on Graphic Sociology.

Download Office Hours #3 now!

Linda J. Waite on Sexuality and Aging

Jon Smajda — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:56:08 +0000

Linda J. Waite, author of Sexuality Has No Expiration Date from the Summer 2010 issue of Contexts, separates the facts from the myths and stereotypes about sexuality and aging.

Also: Jesse picks the first Society Page of the Week: A Tale of Two Simulacra: Market Meets Jersey Shore by Brooke Harrington on Economic Sociology.

Download Office Hours #2 now!

Peter Conrad on the Medicalization of Everything

Jon Smajda — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:06:32 +0000

We are now Office Hours! Listen in for an explanation behind the name change. (If you’ve already subscribed to our old contexts.org RSS feed or in iTunes, don’t worry: you will still get the new episodes. As of right now we’re still listed as “Contexts Podcast” in iTunes, but we’re working on changing that.)

This episode features a discussion with Peter Conrad, author of the Spring 2010 Contexts book review, Pills and the Pursuit of Normalcy, which reviews Happy Pills and Normal At Any Cost. Arturo and Peter start off talking about these books, but the conversation turns into a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion of the medicalization of everything from happiness to height. Other books referenced include The Loss of Sadness and The Medicalization of Society.

Download Office Hours #1 now!

Grassroots, Astroturf, and Industry Activism

Jon Smajda — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:41:27 +0000

Edward Walker talks about his Spring 2010 feature Industry-driven activism. Topics include the role of industry in shaping the health care debate and the state of social movements in the age of the internet and astroturfing.

Download episode #40 now!

Children and Reality TV

Jon Smajda — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:50:55 +0000

Hilary Levey talks to Jesse and Arturo about her Spring 2010 Contexts feature, Balloon Boy Plus Ei8ht? Children and Reality Television.

Download episode #39 now!

Also: check out Levey’s editorial in USA Today on the topic of Reality TV kids.

And if you don’t watch as much television as you know you should (it’s ok—we don’t judge), here are a few clips referenced in the interview:

Jon & Kate Plus 8

Cute Kids. (TLC disabled embedding).

The Breakup:

Kid Nation

NYC Prep

BESTSELLERS: How a Rogue Gang of Sociology Grad Students Rewrote the Book on Bestselling Sociology Books and Survived to Tell the Tale

Jon Smajda — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:53:12 +0000

This episode, Jon talks with fellow U of M sociology grad students Arturo, Shannon and Wes about the Contexts Bestsellers Project. Topics include the challenges of measuring book sales, the public perception of sociology, and how books compare with other media.

Download episode #38 now!

Education and Equality

Jon Smajda — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:11:28 +0000

Do schools reproduce or challenge inequality? And how can we know one way or another? Douglas Downey calls into the Contexts Podcast to help us answer these questions. Be sure to check out Downey’s Spring 2010 Contexts feature How Schools Really Matter!

Also: Jon shares a discovery about gender and software development from last month’s JITP conference on The Politics of Open Source by Hanna Wallach and the FLOSSPOLS project.

Download episode #37 now!