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Blackwell Podcasts

 

Welcome to the Blackwell podcast page for Social Science, the home of our complete Social Science podcast backlist.





The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature

During his recent visit to the UK, we were lucky enough to talk to Steven Pinker about his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, which presents the startling claim that over the course of history, humanity has become less violent. Pinker backs up his claim with data drawn from a host of disciplines from history and anthropology to psychology and brain science, and attempts to explain why this change should have come about.

In this Blackwell exclusive interview he talks to our host George Miller about some of the factors at play, ranging from the development of the modern state to the satirists of the Enlightenment and the Mounties.

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(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Fuel on the Fire

Greg Muttitt - Fuel on the Fire

Most people have strong views on whether Iraq's oil was the 'real' reason for the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of the country. Yet the subject of Iraq's oil has come in for surprisingly little serious investigation in the years since Saddam was toppled. As Greg Muttitt tells George Miller in this in-depth interview for Blackwell Online, that is a gap in our understanding that he sought to put right. Over the past eight years, he has investigated the truth behind the rumours, both on the ground in Iraq and in the corridors of power in the West, and the result is one of the most complete pictures you will ever read of Iraq's recent bloody history and the untold role played by its much-coveted natural assets.

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(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Everything is Broken

Emma Larkin - Everything is Broken

American journalist Emma Larkin has been travelling to Burma and secretly reporting on the country for over 15 years. In her new book, Everything is Broken, Larkin, who writes under a pseudonym, focuses on Burma's history of the last few years, following a devastating tropical cyclone that hit in 2008. Astonishingly, the country's regime not only blocked all international aid from entering the area but provided little relief themselves. Everything is Broken not only exposes the extent of the damage, but provides a singular portrait of the generals responsible for compounding the tragedy.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


The Plundered Planet

Paul Collier - The Plundered Planet

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University. When he released The Bottom Billion, he significantly changed the way that poverty in world's poorest countries is perceived. Now, with The Plundered Planet, he is back with an even bigger ambition: to reconcile the needs of the ever-growing global population with a sustainable environmental future. Collier provides an ethical framework on which to agree future policy and based on his own ground-breaking research into these issues, offers realistic and sustainable solutions.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


An Edible History of Humanity

Tom Standage - An Edible History of Humanity

Tom Standage is business affairs editor at The Economist and an author of five history books. His latest, entitled An Edible History of Humanity, looks at the part that food has played in helping to shape and transform societies around the world through social transformation, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict and economic expansion.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


The Conservative Party

Tim Bale - The Conservative Party

In The Conservative Party, Tim Bale presents a new assessement of the Tories from the fall of Margaret Thatcher to the rise of David Cameron answering along the way such questions as "Why did the party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major?", "What stopped the Tories getting their act together until Cameron came along?" and "Has the Tory leader changed his party as much as he claims?".

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Traffic

Tom Vanderbilt - Traffic

In Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt looks at how our behaviour changes when we get behind the wheel and what that says about us as drivers and people. The book also covers other curiostities of the road such as the driving habits of nations and road rage.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Balti Britain

Ziauddin Sardar - Balti Britain

Ziauddin Sardar is a Muslim intellectual, cultural-critic and author. In his new book Balti Britain, Sardar travels to Asian communities throughout the UK to tell the history of Asians in Britain. From the arrival of the first Indian in 1614 through to present day, Sardar also looks back at his own past and that of his family following their emigration to Britain in the 1950s.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | View additional video interview | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Bluestockings

Jane Robinson - Bluestockings

In Bluestockings, Jane Robinson tells the story of how women in the 19th and early 20th century determinedly fought for their right to a university education against staunch opposition, paving the way for generations of women to follow in their footsteps.

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(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Bedlam

Catharine Arnold - Bedlam

Catharine Arnold discusses her new book Bedlam. The book is an informative and entertaining account of how London has treated its mentally ill. From the foundation of Bethlehem hospital in 1247, the establishment which later gave rise to the term 'bedlam'; through the 18th century mad houses and on to present day.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Not a Chimp

Jeremy Taylor - Not a Chimp

In Not a Chimp, Jeremy Taylor argues that while the DNA similarities between humans and chimpanzees are evident, small differences in genetic code can lead to profound differences in cognition and behaviour resulting in two wildly dissimilar species.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Pre-order the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Flat Earth News

Nick Davies - Flat Earth News

Nick Davies's book Flat Earth News won the first Bristol Festival of Ideas Book Prize sponsored by Blackwell. Listen to the podcast to find out why Davies thinks our media has replaced journalism with "churnalism".

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


McMafia

Misha Glenny - McMafia

Misha Glenny, author of McMafia, discusses the new world of international organised crime from the failing war on drugs to the latest threat of cyber crime.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT | Buy the book

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com


Edward de Bono

Dr de Bono, world authority in the field of creative thinking and father of lateral thinking, explains his philosophies and concepts for more productive and valuable thinking methods.

DOWNLOAD SEGMENT

(To download a file for transferral to an audio device such as an MP3 player, right-click the download link and select 'Save Target As')
Audio recordings produced by George Miller of podularity.com