Line Edit
9 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago -Line Edit, supported by the John Templeton Foundation and hosted by long-time editor James Ryerson, is a show about writing short pieces for wide audiences about the big questions. Ryerson has been an editor at the New York Times since 2003, and before that, edited pieces for Legal Affairs, Lingua Franca, and Feed. On each episode of Line Edit, Ryerson sits down with an academic to discuss the life cycle of a popular piece they've published, from conception to pitching, writing, editing, publication, and response. Along the way, they'll discuss advice for academics looking to communicate their work to the public, and dive into the details of the academic's background, current, and future work.
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Kwame Anthony Appiah on the nuances of public philosophical writing, pop culture, the narrative (or lack thereof) aspect of thought experiments, and more
February 09, 2021 05:00 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBKwame Anthony Appiah is, among many things, a Professor Of Philosophy And Law at New York University. He has published widely in literary and cultural studies, with a focus on African and African-American culture. You can read his popular writing in the New York Times, where he is currently the weekly Ethicist columnist. On this episode, he sits down with James Ryerson to discuss his career as a thinker and writer, his thoughts on public philosophical writing and its complexities and simplic...
Dave Nussbaum on the art of producing and pitching op-eds, the structure of the ideas piece, and the opportunities and challenges of writing popular social psychology
February 04, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBDavid Nussbaum is a social psychologist who works at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, and other outlets, and he is the editor of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology blog, Character and Context, as well as a co-founder and President of the nascent non-profit, Psychgeist. He has for years supported psychologists and other academics as they work to develop, pitch, and publish their popular writ...
Priyamvada Natarajan on astronomy and the imagery of black holes, philosophy and science studies, and her journey as a writer and intellectual
February 01, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 69 MBPriyamvada Natarajan is a Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. She is a theoretical astrophysicist interested in cosmology, gravitational lensing and black hole physics. Her research involves mapping the detailed distribution of dark matter in the universe exploiting the bending of light en-route to us from distant galaxies. You can read her writing in the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. On this episode, she sits...
Agnes Callard on engaging in public philosophy, her work as a columnist, and whether or not we can learn to believe in God
August 28, 2020 14:02 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBAgnes Callard is an Associate Professor in the University of Chicago's Department of Psychology, where she is Director of Undergraduate Studies. She received her BA from the University of Chicago in 1997 and her PhD from Berkeley in 2008. Her primary areas of specialization are Ancient Philosophy and Ethics. Prof. Callard has a regular column in The Point, a "magazine of philosophical writing on everyday life", and has written many essays for the New York Times. On this episode, she sits dow...
David Kaiser on writing about quantum entanglement
February 21, 2020 15:01 - 1 hour - 107 MBDavid Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Professor of Physics in MIT's Department of Physics, and also Associate Dean for Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) in MIT's Schwarzman College of Computing. Kaiser's historical research focuses on the development of physics in the United States during the Cold War, looking at how the discipline has evolved at the intersection of politics, culture, and t...
Matthew Liao on writing about whether we have a moral duty to leave Facebook
February 14, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 89.1 MBS. Matthew Liao is Director of Center for Bioethics at New York University, where he is Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics. He has also given a TED talk in New York and been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and other numerous media outlets. The author and editor of four books, Dr. Liao provides the academic community with a collection of human rights essays. In this episode of Line Edit, he speaks with New York Times opinion editor James Ryerson about a piece tit...
Dave DeSteno on writing about what science can learn from religion
February 07, 2020 11:00 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBDavid DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where he directs the Social Emotions Group. David is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, for which he served as editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion. His work has been repeatedly funded by the National Science Foundation and has been regularly featured in the media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR's Radiolab and ...
Lisa Feldman Barrett on writing about what emotions are (and aren't)
January 31, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 61.1 MBDr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She's published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and has contributed almost a dozen op-eds to The New York Times. In this premiere episode of Line Edit, she speaks with New York Times opinion editor James Ryerson about one of the first pieces she wrote for him, What Emotions Are (And Aren't), the proc...
Introducing: Line Edit with James Ryerson
January 29, 2020 23:37 - 1 minute - 1.03 MBHosting and production by James Ryerson Editing and executive production by Joseph Fridman Theme composition by Stephen LaRosa of Wonder Boy Audio Logo design by Jacob Feldman and Joseph Fridman Supported by the John Templeton Foundation Special thanks to Lisa Feldman Barrett, Dave DeSteno, Yvonne Malcolm, and Jennifer Dale and her team at CUNY Newmark School of Journalism.