Before we dive into today’s episode, a personal note: This summer, I will be going back to France for the first time in two years, and I will take a break from podcasting until September.
However, my interns Josh and Emma will be keeping the lights on by releasing podcast episodes and newsletter articles (subscribe here).
Josh has been working on a series of episodes discussing American music and poetry, which will be released weekly in July and August.
So, Back in America will be in summer mode, and I know you will love it!
Now, it is time for our interview.
Starting this podcast back in November 2019, I wanted to make sense of the Trump years, and the sadness I felt for a country I loved but no longer understood.
In more than 50 episodes and countless conversations, I have time and time again asked my guests: What is America to them?. Careful listeners to this podcast might have gained a better understanding of the fabric of this country––I know I certainly have.
In this episode, I turn to Professor Douglas Steinel, a man whose life has been dedicated to just that: understanding America.
His students have praised him for forcing them to confront opposing views, and his course syllabi require reading political critiques from both sides of the aisle.
Professor Douglas Steinel has been a professor of American Political Thought since 1982 at the George Washington University, just a few blocks away from the White House.
Professor Steinel's book suggestions
Plato's Republic
Bertrand Russell Collection, Selected Works, 1912-1922: The Problems of Philosophy, The Analysis of Mind, Why Men Fight, Free Thought and Official Propaganda
Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
by Bertrand Russell
The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite
by Michael Lind
Listen again: Divers from the EPIX/ BBC Docuseries “Enslaved”: Diving on Shipwrecked Slave Ships
SETI – Dr. Seth Shostak – Searching for E.T.
Poetism Part 7: Can you describe it all? Scott Stevens on the Cocteau Twins & Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Poetism Part 6: Can you experience? Michael Leon Thomas on Whitehead and Pharoah Sanders
Poetism Part 5: Can you speak for others? Lorenzo Bartolucci on Seamus Heaney and Hozier
Poetism 4: Can you break a word? Gabriel Ellis on SOPHIE and Jos Charles
Poetism 3: Can You Feel It? Johnnie Hobbs on D’Angelo and Amiri Baraka
Poetism Part 2: Are we numb yet? Lisa Robertson and the Airborne Toxic Event with Mitch Therieau
Poetism Part 1: Patrick Rosal and The Doors with Fang Liu
Cargo-Sailboats are Back-at-Sea, Creating a Greener Supply Chain
Bruno Sarda: “Climate change poses a systemic, existential risk to the future viability of your system”
Students Becoming Pro: the Interns Behind the Mic
Navi Radjou: Is Frugal Economy a Viable Alternative to Capitalism and Could it Save our Planet?
How would you go to Zoom School as a homeless youth? We asked Bridging Tech, a charity devoted to overcoming the digital divide
Listen Again: Guns, God & the 2nd Amendment in America - David Treibs Christian & Guns Activist - Prof. Robert Spitzer Constitution and Gun Control Expert, SUNY Cortland
Derrick Jensen: Are We at the End of the World or just the End of our Civilization?
International Women's Day - Listen Again - Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings: Black Feminism, Civil Rights…
Who should get the vaccine first? We didn’t know so we asked a philosopher
Listen again: Eric Marsh - Being a Black man today in America
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