Bedrosian Bookclub Podcast
130 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★ - 29 ratingsAn audio book club. Our geeks read and discuss new and classic works in the policy field – fictional and non. Social justice, tech, politics, policy … we cover it all and more. Let's think about what is at the heart of being a citizen in America. This book club helps us get at the heart of what it means to be a citizen in a democracy.
Sponsored by the USC Bedrosian Center
http://bedrosian.usc.edu/
Recorded at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
http://priceschool.usc.edu
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Episodes
The 1619 Project
January 26, 2022 14:00 - 1 hour - 121 MBThis is the last episode of the Bedrosian Bookclub in this incarnation, it's been a blast. We discuss the importance of The 1619 Project, the book, the project, and it's impact on our political discourse. Why should we pay attention to history, how does the historical narrative of a country affect the way we face the future? Aubrey Hicks is joined by Yesenia Hunter, LaVonna Lewis, Jen Bravo, and David Sloane in a conversation on the meaning and joy in the The 1619 Project: A New Origin S...
Eat the Mouth That Feeds You
December 16, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 87.6 MBThree votes for Carribean Fragoza’s Eat the Mouth that Feeds You to be something every high school senior is exposed to. This debut collection of short stories is genius, this is late 20th early 21st century Southern California. This is Chicanx, this is Latinx, this is SoCal, this is women, this is body horror, magic realism all in 120 pages. Ten stories about place and placemaking, about community and how we lift each other up, or tear each other apart. A must read! “This collection of ...
Covered With Night
November 22, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 111 MBNow, in the tail end of 2021, discourse about restorative justice and public safety lack imagination. We tend to “do what we’ve always done.” NYU Historian Nicole Eustace brings us the story of the search for justice following the 1722 murder of a Native American man at the hands of two White men. Covered With Night is a detailed history of how the Pennyslvania colony leaders had to learn to restore the peace – or face war – with the Five Nations. in particular, we bear witness to how the ...
House of Leaves
October 22, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 162 MBOstensibly, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, is about a young man who finds a manuscript in a dead man’s apartment. This experimental novel, released in 2000, takes a cinematic approach to the novel – creating a novel experience in time and space. The dead man, Zampano, was an elderly blind man writing an academic critique of The Navidson Record; a documentary about a family moving into a home in Virginia, which happens to be bigger on the inside. At the center of Danielewski’s work...
Not a Nation of Immigrants
October 08, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 101 MBIn Not a Nation of Immigrants, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz strives to look at the ever morphing population of the United States, to uncover the why and how of the mythology that pervades political discourse on American history. In part, Dunbar-Ortiz recognizes that the looming problems of climate change, polarization, and authoritarianism cannot be fought while sweeping the parts of our history we don't like under the rug. What does our history mean about who we are? Some of us are immigrants, so...
Unconventional Combat (Author Interview)
September 06, 2021 13:00 - 35 minutes - 48.9 MBAn interview with author of Unconventional Combat, Michael A. Messner. Messner's latest book is an intimate look at 6 historically excluded veterans and their post military careers as activists in intersectional peace movements. Explore the ways these veterans are taking their situated knowledge to create a better future.
The Atmospherians
August 30, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 123 MBA "canceled" influencer. A lonely man looking for attention. White men adrift in hoards, no memory of the violence or good they've done. Enter The Atmosphere, a new retreat where men can detox from social media and learn to become human again. A cult. This first novel from Alex McElroy is a doozy; capturing the manic craziness of the last decade, the sprint for the next cool thing, the quick turn from darling to pariah, the frenetic way we flit from one catastrophe to another. Join us ...
The Brutish Museums
July 19, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 135 MBThe Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks is a necrography wherein each stolen item from Benin City is an ongoing event: each event a story of colonial violence told and retold through daily viewings by tourists and school children. It is also a "calling in" for museum curators to work toward a future of restitution; a future of museums free of stolen objects, cultures, and histories. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jen Bravo, David Sloane, and Donnajean Ward. For links and more visit our site.
The Shadow of the Wind
July 11, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 105 MBThis month we're thinking about history, collections, and stories. How do stories evolve over time, how do stories shape history, how do they make their way through time and space? Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novel The Shadow of the Wind is one of the best-sellingist books of all time. A story within a story, young Daniel finds a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, in the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This simple event begins a lifetime of searching for the book's author, Julián Carax. Can ...
The Fact of a Body
July 08, 2021 01:36 - 1 hour - 116 MBThe Fact of a Body by *Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is a true crime memoir. After encountering the child murderer Ricky Langley, Alexandria's desire to work as a lawyer to fight against the death penalty is up-ended. They spend several years investigating Ricky's story as a way to confront the story of their own child abuse. This is a deeply moving book, and a relatively easy read given the morose topic - a testament to the author's skill. Our conversation ranges from the effects of trauma...
Emergent Stategy
June 29, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 134 MBPolarization is at a high point, political violence surrounds us, joblessness, homelessness, the country's need to face the great wrongs of the past, and the specter of climate change hanging over all of this. What if ...? What if we imagined a different future? How can we rethink leadership for a new age? How can we relate to one another amidst constant uncertainty? Can we rethink what a good life is and how we can go about it? How do we heal ourselves, our communities, and our planet...
All We Can Save
June 25, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBActivists, scientists, most of us ... we know that the truth of the climate crisis is monumental. It's overwhelming the size, scope, interconnectedness of the problem. All We Can Save asks us to rethink, reimagine, and co-create a possible future. It's easy to imagine the worst ... in this collection of essays and poems, the authors bring a unique clarity along with hope and optimism for solutions. We might not save everything ... let's work together to save all we can. Host Aubrey Hic...
The Nature of Desert Nature
May 31, 2021 16:00 - 1 hour - 101 MBOstensibly, editor Gary Paul Nabhan's collection of friends' essays, The Nature of Desert Nature is about the desert. Rather ... it's human nature that we encounter delving into this collection of essays. The writers reminisce on their own beingness as they encountering one specific desert: the Sonoran. The Sonoron is the desert covers vast area in the Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico. Most of the essays focus on Tucson and its environs. For our guests, living on the edge of ...
Twilight of Democracy
April 05, 2021 12:30 - 1 hour - 139 MBTwilight of Democracy is a memoir. It is also a condemnation of the many intellectuals and opportunists who have not only given up on democracy, but given up on truth. Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize winning author, recalls the last 20 years in Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and briefly, the United States. What drew many of people she thought of as friends, staunch anti-Communist conservatives, toward authoritarianism? This is the story of elites who think they're entitled, who crave ...
Caste
March 29, 2021 12:30 - 1 hour - 105 MBIn direct contrast to the myth of the "American Dream," we live in a society in which factors outside of our control determine our fates. From skin color to zip code, only the lucky or exceptionally determined are able to break free of the invisible chains binding them to their caste. In Isabel Wilkerson's latest book, Caste, the Hindu caste system in India is a mirror to reflect how this invisible stratification continues to lock in inequity in the U.S.. This richly historic book uncovers...
One of Us
March 05, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 103 MBWhat does it mean to belong? What does it mean to be an individual, to have an identity? How does one become normal? Who gets to decide what is normal? In One of Us, Alice Domurat Dreger uses stories of conjoined twins to help readers through questions of identity, othering, and belonging. Aubrey Hicks is joined by Christine Beckman, Liz Falletta, and Lisa Schweitzer. We're reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum for March. Check out the whole list...
Solutions and Other Problems
February 22, 2021 16:30 - 52 minutes - 73.2 MB"The first time I can remember feeling truly powerless, I was three, and I was trapped sideways in a bucket in the garage." The first line of Allie Brosh's latest illustrated memoir, Solutions and Other Problems, lets the audience know that we still can know what to expect her to say. Using short illustrated essays, stories of her life, Brosh walks us through a few important experiences. The absurdity, the childlike wonder, the laugh-out-loud humor contained in the stories all the while sh...
A Promised Land
February 03, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 128 MBReading A Promised Land by Barack Obama in January 2021 is a bit of a trip. In some places, the reader feels the swell of nostalgia, the remembrance of governance and a time free of COVID-19. Other times, the juxtaposition Obama's words, with a deep reverence for democracy, and the insurrection of January 6th feels painful. A Promise Land is part one of what will be a two part Presidential memoir. Much of the book is process and policy heavy, giving the reader a close glimpse of the da...
Accelerating Fair Chance Hiring
February 01, 2021 18:38 - 44 minutes - 61.3 MBIn our new series on Community Impact we speak with Victoria Ciudad-Real, John Roberson III, Gary Painter, and Jeffery Wallace about findings from their collaborative project Accelerating Fair Chance Hiring among Los Angeles employers. The project, in which the Price Center partnered with LeadersUp and the State of California Workforce Accelerator Fund, used an employer survey and co-design sessions with Angeleno employers to determine the best way forward with Fair Chance hiring processes...
Parable of the Sower
January 27, 2021 14:30 - 1 hour - 113 MBOctavia Butler's 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower, was listed as a New York Times bestseller for the first time in September 2020. Parable is the story of a 15-year-old Black girl with plans to save civilization. Lauren was brought up in a small walled community in Southern California. America is in the middle of a heated election and facing deep ecological crisis, spreading disease, drug epidemics, sky-rocketing homelessness, and rampant poverty. She sees in these crises possibility for s...
Economic Roundtable’s Locked Out Report
January 22, 2021 19:15 - 57 minutes - 79.4 MBFor this bonus episode, we’re talking with Daniel Flaming & Anthony Orlando on the new report on homelessness in the time of COVID (and after). The Economic Roundtable report uses past pandemic and past recession data to predict how COVID joblessness will translate into homelessness over the coming years. Looking at joblessness as well as the housing market, the authors predict that this recession with see more than double the unhousing that we saw in 2008 (when 10% of the jobless became hom...
The Book Truck & Teen Literacy
January 14, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 98.6 MBIn today's bonus episode, we speak with Elizabeth Dragga (Founder of The Book Truck) and Julie Sandor about the work they do to support young book nerds throughout LA County. "The future is limited for teens with low literacy skills. Underserved teens face tremendous barriers to reading. Fortunately, that’s where The Book Truck comes in. We improve literacy by giving free books to foster care and low-income teens in a way that gets even the most reluctant reader to pick up a book." Check...
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear
December 21, 2020 16:00 - 2 hours - 166 MBWhat better way to end a hard year than to visit Grafton, New Hampshire as author Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling as he reports on the people who lived there during the Free Town Project? In the new book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, Hongoltz-Hetling follows Graftonites and some "colonizers' who saw it as the perfect place to build a utopian community free of government. Where does the balance between individual rights and the common good exist in American politics? What can this book tell us...
How Do Renters Cope with Unaffordability?
December 15, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 90 MBThis episode is a bit different but we decided this was too good to pass up. We aren’t discussing a book today, rather we’re going to cover another important report out of the USC Price School of Public Policy. In October we spoke to folks from the Price Center for Social Innovation and the Safe Communities institute about criminal justice. Today ... we're going back to the Price Center to discuss a new report on housing affordability in Los Angeles. The report covers findings from a door-...
Just Us: An American Conversation
November 25, 2020 14:00 - 1 hour - 118 MBIn Citizen, Claudia Rankine wrote: “Because white men can’t / police their imagination / black people are dying." In her follow-up book, Just Us: An American Conversation, Rankine comes back to her exploration of conversation and the racial imaginary of the United States. Through the practice of making conversation, creating an entangled empathy, the book interrogates Whiteness and the state of relating to others. Rankine provides an example of a process with which all of us can explore ou...
The Auctioneer
October 26, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 131 MBThe Auctioneer was released in 1976 with a campaign that likened it to "The Lottery.” That the novel reflects an ongoing fascination with the broken dream of a peaceful rural life. Set in a farming community in New Hampshire, the Joan Samson creates a town of residents bracing for change, unsure of the future and looking toward an understood past. Farmers know that as city dwellers continue their flight to the interiors … the land they farm is worth more than the history of their town, the...
NDSC Criminal Justice Data Report
October 14, 2020 12:30 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBThis episode is a bit different but we decided this was too good to pass up. We aren't discussing a book today, rather we're going to cover an important report out of the USC Price School of Public Policy. Given recent events, the findings of this report can help us understand why and how the dialogue between communities and law enforcement is so fraught. Perhaps the two stakeholders are thinking about public safety in very different ways. This project can help us understand both the confl...
The Ghost Map
September 28, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 99.8 MBThe Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson, focuses on an outbreak of cholera in central London in 1854. John Snow, a doctor who theorized that cholera was waterborne, used the opportunity to collect data to prove his theory. Meanwhile the neighborhood vicar, Henry Whitehead, wanted to prove him wrong. Johnson argues that the work of these two men ushered in the modern city. Did cholera change the world? "The history books tend to orient themselves around nationalist story lines: overthrowing...
The Affordable City (Author Interview)
September 14, 2020 22:01 - 59 minutes - 82.3 MBAn interview with author of The Affordable City by Shane Phillips. (Follow Phillips on Twitter: @ShaneDPhillips) Shane Phillips believes that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires that cities support both tenant protections and housing abundance. There is no single solution to the housing crisis—it will require a comprehensive approach backed by strong, diverse coalitions. Read along with us! For September, we’re reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Join the conversation abo...
The Address Book (author interview)
September 09, 2020 18:18 - 42 minutes - 58.7 MBAn interview with author of The Address Book, Deirdre Mask. The Address Book is a broad look at the invention and proliferation of the address. Relatively new, addresses were first a way for royals to count their subjects. Today, addresses can reflect our identity, our history, our race, and our access to opportunity. With the postal service in jeopardy, and the world in disarray, settle in for an interview with a beguiling author. Explore the many ways a simple address can change lives, ...
The Address Book
August 28, 2020 20:56 - 1 hour - 111 MBThe Address Book is a dive into the deep waters of the meaning of addresses, often with tangents into the weird and interesting lives of people throughout history. Beginning with some of the first addressing projects in Europe, we get the sense that something as simple as a number and street name can mean more than we could possibly imagine. 🎧 Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Faith McKinney, Olivia Olson, and Anthony Orlando. Thanks again for listening … spread the word!
The City We Became
July 29, 2020 18:08 - 1 hour - 119 MBHey! It's our 100th episode! Thanks so much for listening! Today we're discussing award winning novelist N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became, bringing New York City alive in the first of a new series. It is the story of New York City: the story of its history, its people, the land, the place, and the layers that build to become something greater than the sum of its parts. Join us as we discuss the novel and the current political moment, the hope of the progressive, and the hope of the c...
Care (author interview)
July 14, 2020 13:00 - 38 minutes - 53.8 MBAn interview with author of Care: Stories, Christopher Records. (Follow Records on Twitter: @cdrecords001) Care: Stories is the fiction debut by USC Price alum, Christopher Records. Records aims to show "ordinary queer people living ordinary lives in an ordinary place." The ordinary place in question is the Inland Empire, which depending on who is defining the area is as vast as Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The vastness of the place adds a sense of "stagnation and loneliness and ...
The Murmur of Bees
June 26, 2020 21:58 - 1 hour - 112 MBOur host, Dr. Lisa Schweitzer, chose Sofía Segovia's The Murmur of Bees (translated by Simon Bruni) in August of 2019. It seemed like it would be a good sprawling family saga to read the next summer. Come June 2020, the choice would be prescient. The novel is, indeed, a sprawling family saga ... one set in the midst of the Mexican Revolution and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. It is the story of a family and their land as the world changes around them. It is a story of grief, of love, of ...
No Turning Back
May 28, 2020 22:07 - 1 hour - 136 MBAn 18 year old Mohammad Darwish cries out, "We want freedom!" A revolution begins in the city of Rastan, Syria. April 1st, 2011. For many years, journalist Rania Abouzeid spends time near or inside Syria to interview the Syrian people through the many years of internal (with added external) conflict in the country. No Turning Back is the story of the civil war in Syria told through the eyes of the Syrians Abouzeid interviews, an accounting of their lives from 2011-2016. Listen as host ...
Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968
May 19, 2020 23:56 - 49 minutes - 69 MBAnother bonus episode! Host Lisa discusses the book Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968 by Center Director, Jeffery Jenkins and Boris Heersink (Fordham). Heersink and Jenkins examine how National Convention politics allowed the South to remain important to the Republican Party after Reconstruction. They trace how Republican organizations in the South changed from biracial coalitions to mostly all-white ones over time. They explore how the 'whitening' of the Republ...
Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger
April 27, 2020 21:40 - 1 hour - 120 MBWe spent #EarthDay2020 talking about environmental justice. We spoke about an intriguing new book by UCDavis Prof. Julie Sze. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing the results of persistent injustices, as the virus affecting marginalized communities harder, with more dire consequences. What must we learn from environmental justice struggles in order to form a more perfect union? Listen as host Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Jovanna Rosen, Madi Swayne, Jaime Lopez, and Olivia Olson t...
Betraying Big Brother
March 30, 2020 13:00 - 1 hour - 119 MBCan a groundswell of feminist activism threaten an authoritarian patriarchal regime? Author, Leta Hong Fincher looks at this question through the study of women in China. In Betraying Big Brother, Fincher examines the current feminist movement in China. Following the "feminist five," the reader is exposed to the history of the changing roles of women in the country, as well as the current activist movement fueled first through connections built online through the movement to the streets of...
Destiny Disrupted
March 04, 2020 21:03 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBTamim Ansary brings 1500 years of history to life in Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Destiny Disrupted gives readers a broad overview of history of the middle world, beginning with the time of Mohammed and the birth of Islam through almost the present day. Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Olivia Olson, David Sloane, and Ehsan Zaffar on this episode! For links and more, visit our showpage.
A Lot of People Are Saying
February 24, 2020 13:00 - 1 hour - 131 MBDoes your favorite conspiracy come with evidence and theory of governance, or is it just a meme? Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, authors of A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy argue that the new conspiracism, while having the feel of classic conspiracy theories, have none of the search for meaning. The authors articulate the rise of this new kind of conspiracy thinking and the ramifications for democratic institutions and our collective un...
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
January 28, 2020 00:56 - 1 hour - 116 MBIn today’s episode we're briefly gorgeous, or possibly briefly monstrous. We're pretty sure both are true. What we are sure of is that Ocean Vuong's magnificent novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is just that; gorgeous and painful, heart fulfilling and heart breaking. Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is ostensibly a letter from the narrator, Little Dog, to his mother, Rose. Our narrator is a young man in his 20s. As a Vietnamese American, Little Dog writes of war, abuse, first love, ex...
Trailblazer
January 16, 2020 14:00 - 1 hour - 127 MBIn today’s episode we’re thinking about racism, sexism, misogynoir, and the journalism. We're reading Trailblazer, a memoir by journalist giant Dorothy Butler Gilliam. Gilliam shattered the barriers of race and gender as the first black female reporter at The Washington Post. She had to transform the way the Post viewed what was worthy of space on the pages, leaving a trail for more journalists to follow. Listen as Professor Lisa Schweitzer discusses the book with Caroline Bhalla, Bretta...
Children of the Dream
December 09, 2019 14:00 - 48 minutes - 67.5 MBAn interview with author of Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, Rucker C. Johnson. (Follow Rucker on Twitter: @ProfRucker) Rucker stopped by USC for a conversation with the Gary Painter, Director of the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation. While on campus, Rucker was also gracious enough to spend some time with our Executive Director, Aubrey Hicks. The conversation covers the goals behind the book and the hopeful idea that we can provide good education for our children...
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls
November 25, 2019 19:54 - 1 hour - 126 MBIn today’s episode we’re thinking about the patriarchy, and Mona Eltahawy’s tools for women and girls. Tools to take down the premise by which prevents so many women from living full human lives. The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls is a memoir, a manifesto, and a toolkit for women to retrain themselves to take up space in the world. To live fully, and without guilt for that humanness. Listen as Professor Nicole Esparza, Marisa Turesky, and Aubrey Hicks delve into the book. @nic...
5 Year Retrospective
November 06, 2019 20:28 - 1 hour - 83.6 MBFor today's episode, we're thinking about the many books we've discussed over the years. After 70+ book discussions, we thought it was about time we did a look back at our favorite discussions, the surprises, the let downs, and what we hope for the future. @drschweitzer, @AubreyHi, @BedrosianCenter Read along with us! Next month we're reading The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahaay. Join the conversation about each episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram....
The Devil in Silver
October 28, 2019 20:44 - 1 hour - 105 MBHost Lisa Schweitzer is joined by Aubrey L. Hicks, Susan Lindau, and Joan Miller to discuss Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver. Pepper is a big man. He's accused of a crime that he doesn't see himself in. He's dropped suddenly, into a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York called New Hyde. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter - the police don't want to work unpaid overtime to process him and the hospital machine doesn't want to refuse. 72 hours turns i...
By-Right, By-Design
September 30, 2019 21:00 - 49 minutes - 68.1 MBAnother bonus episode! Host Lisa discusses Professor Liz Falletta's book, By-Right, By-Design: Housing Development Versus Housing Design in Los Angeles. Falletta looks to help practitioners move beyond housing production as a zero sum game towards the more polyvalent solutions that will be required as LA densifies. Read along with us! We're reading Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver for Spooktober. Let us know what you think of the book & our podcasts on Facebook or Twitter. Join ...
The Undercommons
September 30, 2019 12:30 - 1 hour - 120 MBThe Undercommons is a series of essays exploring contemporary political thought from an inside/outside the commons perspective. Our guest today contends that under all the theory, the book is about friendship and the many ways in which friendship and conversation can be study. That study is love. Exploring issues of race, politics, the university, study, poetry, and ultimately ... friendship. Listen as two friends explore the book and what it means to be against and for the university. F...
Why Cities Lose
September 23, 2019 20:37 - 1 hour - 114 MBYou've heard that gerrymandering can be bad for representation. Jonathan A. Rodden wants to take you further back in time to the beginnings of what has become a problem of representation, to the time that the Democrats were aligning with labor and Republicans were moving further from urban spaces. Today in certain states, the historic shift still reveals itself in geographic voting, leading to a mismatch between vote share and seat share. Host Lisa Schweitzer discusses Why Cities Lose by...
The Line Becomes a River
August 26, 2019 18:50 - 1 hour - 126 MBToday's book: The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú. The southern border between Mexico and the U.S. can be a violent place. Yet isn't as easily defined as it seems.There are places where the border is permeable, invisible. The border is a construct, and the racialized rhetoric of The Border combined with two decades of militarization have wreaked havoc on the people and the land. Cantú becomes a border patrol agent to understand the realities on the ground ... but the complicity h...