Hold That Thought
228 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★ - 12 ratingsHold That Thought brings you research and ideas from Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Throughout the year we select a few topics to explore and then bring together thoughtful commentary on those topics from a variety of experts and sources. Be sure to subscribe!
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Episodes
Uncovering Numismatics
December 18, 2013 20:24 - 11 minutes - 26.7 MBWilliam Bubelis, assistant professor of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, introduces us to the exciting field of numismatics. What is numismatics? Well, we had the same question. Essentially, numismatics focuses on coins and currency. Professor Bubelis explains how coins can reveal unique and important information about the ancient cultures from which they came. He also explores the origins of counterfeiting and considers objects people might not normally consider as currency. T...
Catching Cosmic Rays
December 10, 2013 15:41 - 14 minutes - 32.2 MBOn December 9, 2012, a balloon the size of a football field ascended nearly 140,000 feet into the Antarctic sky. The balloon carried Super-TIGER, a two-ton instrument built to detect cosmic rays. Drs. W. Robert Binns and Martin Israel, who head the cosmic ray group within the physics department at Washington University in St. Louis, describe this record-breaking experiment and explain why they seek to know more about the origins of cosmic rays.
Studying Stardust
December 04, 2013 22:42 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MBChristine Floss, research professor in the physics department at Washington University in St. Louis, spends her time investigating microscopic specks of dust that have remained unchanged since before the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. These presolar grains help researchers like Floss answer questions about the formation of elements, the solar system, and the universe as a whole. Floss describes how she and her students search for presolar grains in ancient meteorite...
Lunar Mysteries
November 26, 2013 19:25 - 13 minutes - 30.3 MBWhat questions have yet to be answered about the Moon? Bradley Jolliff, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, describes how lunar samples and orbiters continue to provide fascinating insights into the geologic history of Earth's closest neighbor. Jolliff, who works with the Mars rover Opportunity, also shares his dreams of a future lunar rover that would visit sites that continue to puzzle scientists, including the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin and...
Musical Mathematics
November 20, 2013 21:36 - 13 minutes - 30.7 MBAs both a mathematician and a musician, professor David Wright believes in approaching the world both analytically and artistically. Back in 2002, he designed and began teaching "Mathematics & Music," an undergraduate course focused on the connections between these two abstract and beautiful fields of study. Wright, who serves as associate director of the musical group Ambassadors of Harmony in addition to chairing the mathematics department at Washington University in St. Louis, shares some ...
Irregular Intimacies
November 12, 2013 17:46 - 14 minutes - 33.3 MBWhat do polygamy, prostitution, and pet inheritance have in common? For the final episode of Hold That Thought's 10-part series on American Identities, Adriennne Davis, professor of law and vice provost at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the role of law in regulating intimate relationships in the United States. According to Davis, personal attachments, identity, and citizenship are fundamentally linked, and in her research, she envisions concrete ways in which the U.S. legal sys...
How Americans Make Race
November 04, 2013 17:50 - 15 minutes - 36.2 MBIn Argentine tango, the steps that dancers perform - and even the shoes that they wear - tell a certain story about the correct role of men and women in the dance. In her recently released book How Americans Make Race: Stories, Institutions, Spaces, Clarissa Rile Hayward argues that racial identities are formed in much the same way. Whether looking at the 1920s or 2013, people's behavior and attitudes toward race are often influenced by factors beyond their own experience and control. Hayward...
How Americans Make Race
November 04, 2013 17:50In Argentine tango, the steps that dancers perform - and even the shoes that they wear - tell a certain story about the correct role of men and women in the dance. In her recently released book How Americans Make Race: Stories, Institutions, Spaces, Clarissa Rile Hayward argues that racial identities are formed in much the same way. Whether looking at the 1920s or 2013, people's behavior and attitudes toward race are often influenced by factors beyond their own experience and control. Hayward...
Pearl Curran: "Ghost"-writer
October 30, 2013 15:37 - 13 minutes - 18.6 MBIn 1913, Pearl Curran, a St. Louis housewife, sat at a Ouija board with her friends when suddenly the planchette went wild under her hands. It said, "Many moons ago I lived. Again I come. Patience Worth my name." And so began the literary career of the long-dead Patience Worth. Pearl transcribed novels, plays, essays, and poetry supposedly composed by Patience, and both became celebrities. Daniel Shea, emeritus professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, recently wrote a book ...
Restless Souls
October 23, 2013 17:30 - 13 minutes - 30.5 MBIn recent years, many Americans choose to label themselves as "spiritual but not religious." What is the history behind this type of open-road spirituality, and how have Americans' attitudes toward religion shifted over time? Leigh Schmidt, professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis, uses the story of Sarah Farmer - a visionary who started a religious community in 1894 - to illustrate the ever-present struggle between freedom and surrender in American religious ident...
Art and Nationhood
October 16, 2013 18:29 - 13 minutes - 32.1 MBWhat can a painting of people on a porch reading a newspaper reveal about what it means to be an American? Angela Miller, professor of art history and archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the intersection of American arts and nationhood. With examples of portraits, landscape and genre paintings, folk art, and more, Miller explains how visual culture both constructs and challenges the idea of American identity.
FB Eyes
October 09, 2013 17:52 - 11 minutes - 25.7 MBWhen is literature a counterintelligence tool? When is it a means of protest or subversion? Under longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the written word was recognized as all of these and more, especially in relation to African-American writing. For decades, African-American writers were under constant FBI surveillance and scrutiny. From the Harlem Renaissance through the Black Power movement, the FBI obsessively read and analyzed black writing, and black writers, who understood that they ...
Confronting the Middle Passage
October 02, 2013 16:06 - 11 minutes - 26.5 MBIn her forthcoming book, Routes of Terror: Gender, Health and Power in the Eighteenth Century Middle Passage, assistant professor Sowande' Mustakeem reveals the forgotten world of 18th century slave ships. In today's podcast, she shares the story of one enslaved woman and discusses why it's so important for Americans to confront this foundational, brutal chapter of history. Mustakeem's research focuses on the experiences of those most frequently left out of the history of the Middle Passage -...
Girlhood in Hollywood
September 25, 2013 16:33 - 11 minutes - 27.5 MBMiley Cyrus' recent twerking incident aside, young actresses have been struggling with how to grow up in Hollywood since the silent film star Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," first arrived on the silver screen. As they transition from childhood to adulthood, how can young actresses prove their womanhood on screen? And why do they need to? Gaylyn Studlar, the director of the film and media studies program at Washington University in St. Louis, takes us back to classical Hollywood cinema ...
Notes from No Man's Land
September 18, 2013 16:26 - 11 minutes - 26.1 MBIn her collection Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays, author Eula Biss asserts that "nothing is innocent." As explained in the essay "Time and Distance Overcome," even telephone poles are marked by the history of slavery and colonization in the United States. Biss pairs the personal and the political in her writing, and in Notes from No Man's Land, she offers candid reflections on the role of race in her own life and in American history. Biss teaches writing at Northwestern University.
Rock and Revolution
September 11, 2013 16:24 - 14 minutes - 32.2 MB“Music is too important to be left to the musicians,” ethnomusicologist Christopher Small wrote in 1977. A decade earlier, the experimental rock band the Godz seemed to agree. As associate professor Patrick Burke reveals, musicians in the 1960s resisted predetermined categories or simplistic musical identities. Instead, bands like the Godz chose to blend genres, adopt the musical styles of different racial and ethnic groups, and resist the idea that only competent musicians should be heard. I...
Who Should Sing "Ol' Man River"?
September 04, 2013 16:03In his upcoming book Who Should Sing "Ol' Man River"?: The Life of an American Song, Todd Decker, associate professor of musicology at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals how one song has been shaped and reshaped over time. From Paul Robeson to Frank Sinatra - from the era of big bands to the civil rights movement - every performance of "Ol' Man River" has a political dimension involving the evolution of race relations in the United States. Whether performed as a dance ditty or a mean...
Who Should Sing "Ol' Man River"?
September 04, 2013 16:03 - 14 minutes - 32.2 MBIn his upcoming book Who Should Sing "Ol' Man River"?: The Life of an American Song, Todd Decker, associate professor of musicology at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals how one song has been shaped and reshaped over time. From Paul Robeson to Frank Sinatra - from the era of big bands to the civil rights movement - every performance of "Ol' Man River" has a political dimension involving the evolution of race relations in the United States. Whether performed as a dance ditty or a mean...
Stripes and Scars
August 28, 2013 15:31In July of 1863, James Pennington, a prominent African American minister and former slave, saw his neighborhood destroyed in a violent episode now known as the New York draft riots. How did this chapter of Civil War history shape Pennington's identity and those of the primarily Irish rioters? And what does it reveal about the identity of the country as a whole? Iver Bernstein, director of the American Culture Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis, shares Pennington's story and...
Stripes and Scars
August 28, 2013 15:31 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MBIn July of 1863, James Pennington, a prominent African American minister and former slave, saw his neighborhood destroyed in a violent episode now known as the New York draft riots. How did this chapter of Civil War history shape Pennington's identity and those of the primarily Irish rioters? And what does it reveal about the identity of the country as a whole? Iver Bernstein, director of the American Culture Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis, shares Pennington's story and...
Kathryn Davis reading from "Duplex"
July 31, 2013 16:17 - 4 minutes - 10.1 MBKathryn Davis, novelist and the Hurst Writer in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis, reads from her novel Duplex, which will be released September 2013 by Graywolf Press.
The Ghost in the Machine: A Conversation with Kathryn Davis
July 31, 2013 15:34 - 15 minutes - 35.6 MBFor thousands of years, writers and philosophers have wondered about the animating spirit, or the soul. Many believe it is the part of a human being that lives eternally, that connects us with all other life. However, in this age, when we have access to scientific innovations like cloning and organs grown in labs, new questions arise. Is there an invisible thread that connects humans to all life around us? In this episode, Kathryn Davis, novelist and the Hurst Writer in Residence at Washingto...
A Room of One's Own: A Conversation with Danielle Dutton and Vincent Sherry
July 24, 2013 15:07 - 20 minutes - 47.9 MBIn Virginia Woolf's essay, A Room of One's Own, she writes: "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." That is to say, that for most of history women did not have the education, the support of society, or the means to write and claim her own work. However, in contemporary society, we have moved past that—or have we? In 2010, VIDA—Women in Literary Arts—found that between 3 to 5 men were being published or reviewed for every one woman that appeared in leading magazines, such as Harpers, The...
Danielle Dutton Reading from SPRAWL
July 24, 2013 15:02 - 4 minutes - 9.88 MBDanielle Dutton, writer, publisher, and assistant professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, reads from her novel, SPRAWL, which was published in 2010 by Siglio Press.
Magical Realism: A Conversation with Kelly Link and William McKelvy
July 17, 2013 16:08 - 20 minutes - 47.9 MBMany of the biggest literary successes in the past decade have involved elements of the fantastic, and we have seen these stories come to life on both the small and big screens: Harry Potter, True Blood, The Walking Dead, dare we mention Twilight? This is to say nothing of the various primetime TV shows that reimagine fairy tales, or the ghost story franchises from The Ring to Paranormal Activity. What draws us to these stories of the supernatural? How do they relate to our real lives while r...
Kelly Link Reading from "The Hortlak"
July 17, 2013 16:02 - 3 minutes - 7.28 MBKelly Link, acclaimed writer of fabulist fiction and a 2013 Visiting Hurst Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, reads a selection from her short story "The Hortlak" which appeared in her collection, Magic for Beginners.
Slippery Nonfiction: A Conversation with Edward McPherson
July 10, 2013 16:55 - 14 minutes - 32.9 MBNonfiction, simply put, is anything that isn't fiction. Easy enough, right? However, in recent years, several controversies have arisen as supposed factual memoirs are revealed to be nothing but a string of exaggerations or, well, fiction. But how well does any nonfiction writer capture "The Truth?" Numerous psychological studies have shown that if multiple people witness the same event, it's possible for all of them to walk away with very different stories of what happened. Edward McPherson,...
Edward McPherson Reading from "Dallas: From Afar"
July 10, 2013 16:54 - 4 minutes - 10.6 MBEdward McPherson, essayist and assistant professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, reads a selection from his essay, "Dallas: From Afar," which appeared in the Paris Review in December 2012.
Translating Dante: A Conversation with Mary Jo Bang and Jessica Rosenfeld
July 03, 2013 15:59 - 20 minutes - 46.8 MBIn literature classes, we often turn back to study "classics" that are hundreds of years old, and while the core message of these works remain intact, the once-contemporary references to politics, the snide remarks about rivals, and the nuances of a word that has since taken on another meaning can go whizzing past our heads unless we are given notes and annotations to explain. How, then, can we make these texts as funny and engaging for modern audiences as they were for the original readers? ...
Mary Jo Bang Reading from "Inferno: A New Translation"
July 03, 2013 15:55 - 7 minutes - 17.9 MBMary Jo Bang, poet and professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, reads Canto 3 from her work "Inferno: A New Translation"
A Life in Verse: A Conversation with Carl Phillips and Timothy Moore
June 26, 2013 15:00 - 20 minutes - 46.1 MBWhen tragedy strikes, we often comfort ourselves by saying "everything happens for a reason," and while the veracity of this statement in life is debated, it is always true in good literature. Every word is working toward building character, plot, setting, or layers of meaning. In this episode, Carl Phillips, poet and professor of English at Washington University, explores how life influences the creation of his poetry and the reoccurence of faith in his new collection, Silverchest. Timothy M...
Carl Phillips Reading from "Silverchest"
June 26, 2013 14:56 - 2 minutes - 6.02 MBCarl Phillips, poet and professor of English at Washington University, reads from his new collection, Silverchest.
Coming of Age: A Conversation with Anton DiSclafani
June 19, 2013 14:06 - 13 minutes - 31.2 MBAdolescence is a difficult transition for many—a time when everything seems urgent and nothing seems certain, when we weigh our family and childhood values against who we are and who we want to become as adults. It's a period fraught with conflict, internal and otherwise, so it's no wonder authors like Anton DiSclafani, Washington University alumna and Writer in Residence, return to it in their work. In this episode, Anton examines the fundamentals of a coming-of-age story, the impact of plac...
Anton DiSclafani Reading from "The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls"
June 19, 2013 13:46 - 3 minutes - 9.28 MBAnton DiSclafani, Washington University alumna and Writer in Residence, reads from her acclaimed debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls.
Classical Theater
June 10, 2013 17:11 - 12 minutes - 29.1 MBIn theaters and classrooms around the world, audiences and students experience the stories and emotions behind plays penned thousands of years ago by writers like Euripidies, Plautus, and Terence. But how do these modern encounters compare with original performances, and how are scholars even able to determine what it might have been like to view one of these plays in its original setting? Timothy Moore, professor and chair of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, describes the hist...
Circadian Rhythms
June 03, 2013 17:36We've all been there: staring at the ceiling at 2:43 a.m., unable to fall asleep while the world slumbers around us. How do our internal clocks stay synced to our environment? What exactly do they control? Might future research provide relief for late-night workers or the jet-lagged when the natural rhythms of the body are disturbed? Erik Herzog, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how the brain's "master clock" works and how genetic mutations and natural toxi...
Circadian Rhythms
June 03, 2013 17:36 - 14 minutes - 34 MBWe've all been there: staring at the ceiling at 2:43 a.m., unable to fall asleep while the world slumbers around us. How do our internal clocks stay synced to our environment? What exactly do they control? Might future research provide relief for late-night workers or the jet-lagged when the natural rhythms of the body are disturbed? Erik Herzog, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how the brain's "master clock" works and how genetic mutations and natural toxi...
Up from Rust?
May 18, 2013 06:29 - 12 minutes - 27.8 MBIn a follow-up to the episode Global Cities, Carol Camp Yeakey, founding director of the Center for Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, shares her own work and describes some of the interdisciplinary issues that students and practitioners of Urban Studies confront today. Camp Yeakey's ongoing research projects include the forthcoming studies No Place to Be Somebody, about Detroit, and Up From Rust?: The Promise and Peril of Urban Renewal, about neighborhood...
Retellings: A New Series
May 15, 2013 21:43 - 9 minutes - 21 MBCreation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Artists and writers find inspiration in the world around them and in the work of their peers and predecessors. Today we offer a sneak peak into the new literary summer podcast series, Retellings, which will explore the complex web of inspiration and influence in literature. For this preview, host Rebecca King will introduce the series and provide a clip of her interview with Washington University alumna and current Writer-in-Residence Anton DiSclafani, who...
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
May 13, 2013 14:35 - 14 minutes - 34.3 MBWith the help of scientists like Sophia Hayes, associate professor of chemistry, new technologies may make it possible to remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, turn it into a solid, and store it in a safe environment elsewhere. Hayes uses a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to understand the structure of materials, including carbon dioxide. Hear her describe this research project, explain how NMR works, and reveal how “the magic angle” – a Washington Un...
The Genetics of Bee-havior
May 06, 2013 19:51 - 11 minutes - 27.6 MBIn the late 1980s, Marla Sokolowski noticed that if she placed fly larvae on a pile of yeast in a petri dish, some would sit and eat the yeast which they sat upon, while others would move, creating wild trails through the yeast as they ate. What makes some larvae rove around, while others simply sit and eat? And what do these fly larvae have to do with bees? Yehuda Ben-Shahar, assistant professor of biology, returns to continue his discussion on how genes can affect behavior and the various w...
Global Cities
April 30, 2013 00:48 - 13 minutes - 31.7 MBIn an increasingly global and interconnected world, cities across the world confront similar issues. Where and how are people to live as urban centers become both larger and more dense? What are the effects of urban renewal on lower-income populations, and what sort of government policies can help bridge the widening divide between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'? Carol Camp Yeakey, founding director of the Center on Urban Research & Public Policy and Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studie...
Last House Standing
April 22, 2013 16:01 - 13 minutes - 31.3 MBBetween 1950 and 2000, some 60% of the built environment in St. Louis's Old North neighborhood was demolished, and the majority of its residents left the area. Abandoned buildings have fallen into disrepair, but should they remain standing? If the last houses on a block are torn down, leaving empty, litter-filled lots, how can we expect neighborhoods to repopulate and rebuild? Michael Allen, architectural historian and director of the Preservation Research Office in St. Louis, describes the a...
Last House Standing
April 22, 2013 16:01Between 1950 and 2000, some 60% of the built environment in St. Louis's Old North neighborhood was demolished, and the majority of its residents left the area. Abandoned buildings have fallen into disrepair, but should they remain standing? If the last houses on a block are torn down, leaving empty, litter-filled lots, how can we expect neighborhoods to repopulate and rebuild? Michael Allen, architectural historian and director of the Preservation Research Office in St. Louis, describes the a...
A Tale of Dual Cities
April 15, 2013 15:15 - 11 minutes - 25.7 MBCities are often synonymous with modernity, but what exactly does modernity look like? In cities with a colonial history, such as Algiers and Cairo, often there are two city centers, two hearts: one with narrow alleys and courtyards, the other with broad boulevards and European-style storefronts. These separate architectural identities have led scholars and visitors to describe such places as “dual cities,” but Nancy Reynolds, associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Lou...
City of the Big Shoulders, Part II
April 08, 2013 20:35 - 11 minutes - 27.4 MBAs the face of Chicago changed during industrialization, so too did its workforce. The city had become a bustling metropolis, but at what cost? Dangerous working conditions prompted the rise of organized labor and a progressive movement, championed by social reformers like Jane Addams and Florence Kelley. In the second part of our look at turn of the century Chicago, Margaret Garb, associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, examines the social and political movement...
In the Next Room
April 01, 2013 20:10 - 11 minutes - 25.5 MBIn the Victorian era, just after the birth of the electric lightbulb, a novel remedy was developed for women diagnosed with a mysterious ailment called "hysteria." In 2010, Sarah Ruhl wrote In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) about a doctor who specialized in these treatments. Director Henry Schvey, professor of drama and comparative literature, talks about the power of attraction and the lure of technology within this comic play, which opens April 19 at Washington University's Edison The...
City of the Big Shoulders
March 25, 2013 23:18 - 12 minutes - 28 MBDuring the late 1800s, industrialization transformed cities across the United States. Things most of us take for granted, like sanitation, skyscrapers, and window shopping, were just starting to enter urban life. What did cities look like during this time of rapid growth and change? What was it like to walk down those streets? In the first of two podcasts devoted to turn of the century Chicago, Margaret Garb, associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, brings the "ci...
Cahokia: Ancient City
March 18, 2013 15:45 - 11 minutes - 26.4 MBAt its peak around 1200 CE, the ancient Mississippian settlement of Cahokia stretched nearly six square miles, from what is now East St. Louis, Missouri, to Collinsville, Illinois, and included around 120 man-made earthen mounds. It was as large, or larger, than any European city of that time, but can we fairly or accurately call Cahokia a city? John Kelly, senior lecturer of archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the limitations of imposing the Western concept of "citie...
The Eye of the Beholder
March 08, 2013 15:57 - 12 minutes - 28.8 MBWe've all heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but is this adage true? How accurately do romantic partners gauge each other's attractiveness? What personality traits do others find most attractive, and how can we use this information to have meaningful relationships with our friends and family? Simine Vazire, associate professor of pyschology at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the costs and benefits of exaggerating our own and our partners' attractiveness and explain...