What happens to those exonerated of crimes they didn’t commit? Do they receive multi-million dollar settlements and go back to their normal lives as popular TV shows suggest? Unfortunately, most exonerees do not fare so well. In this episode, we talk with Saundra D. Westervelt and Kimberly J. Cook about their article, Coping with Innocence After Death Row, from our Fall 2008 issue.

Contexts grad board member John Sullivan also stops by to share not just one, but two discoveries about soccer hooligans.

Download episode #8 now!

Alan Wolfe joins us for a discussion of his new book, The Future of Liberalism. Topics include the relationship between classical liberalism and liberalism today, the prospects for bipartisanship in the Obama administration and the role of social scientists in the public sphere.

Also, Arturo’s Discovery of the week on foster care and well-being. Is foster care bad for kids or are troubled kids simply more likely to be in foster care? Listen in and find out.

Download episode #7 now!

This week we speak with Michelle Inderbitzen from the Public Criminology blog. We talk about the meaning of “Public Criminology,” and Michelle tells us about her participation in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which informs much of her research, teaching and blogging.

But first, Jesse’s Discovery Pick: an article published in Criminology that compares the attitudes of whites and blacks toward our country’s high rate of black male imprisonment.

Download episode #6 now!

Next week, we take a break from the bloggers and return to interviews with authors from our print publication. We’ll speak with Sandra D. Westervelt and Kimberly J. Cook about Coping with Innocence After Death Row from our Fall 2008 issue.

This episode, Jon and Jesse chat with Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp about Sociological Images. Highlights include the secrets of of Sociological Image’s success, the relationship between research and blogging, and the usefulness of trolls.

Also, Arturo shares his Discovery of the Week, a paper in JECH finding that living near highway entrances increases risk of preterm birth and low birthweight for the rich, but not the poor.

Download episode #5 now!

Our web editor, Jon Smajda, interviews Jose Marichal, professor of political science at California Lutheran University and blogger in chief at ThickCulture, a blog about politics, culture and technology. Jose describes how he uses blogging to enhance both his teaching and research, and discusses how Web 2.0 technologies like blogging and podcasting can contribute to a multidisciplinary social science.

Download episode #4 now!

This week, we turn again to our Fall 2008 Discoveries for a set of technology-themed discoveries. Next, we chat with Francesca Polletta about her article in our Fall issue, Storytelling in Politics. In particular, we talk about when and why political storytelling is effective and we get Polletta’s take on storytelling in the 2008 election. The failure of Joe the Plumber, she argues, represents the end of the “little anecdote” and a new appreciation that the best political stories are often sophisticated and nuanced.

Download episode #3 now!

We’ll be back in a few weeks after the new year. Happy Holidays!

As a quick followup to this week’s interview with Jen’nan Read, and because we’re making her article, Muslims in America, freely available online at thesocietypages.org, I thought I’d drop the PDF version of Read’s article into the podcast feed.

I’m not sure how people feel about getting PDF’s in their podcast feeds, so leave a comment if you like/dislike the practice and we’ll continue accordingly.

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.