Episodes
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Arlie Hochschild about pride and shame in Appalachia. They discuss the political Right in Appalachia and framework of pride and shame, demographic makeup of the population in Appalachia, current challenges in Appalachia, and the emotions of pride, shame, and guilt. They talk about the appeal of the far Right, immigration and nationalism, liberals abandoning the working class, how we repair the politics divides, and many other topics.
Arlie Hochschild is writer and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California-Berkeley, where she also earned her PhD. Her main interests have been on social relationships with politics, emotions, and culture. She is the author of numerous books, including Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, and the most recent, Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jason Stanley about the importance of preserving history. They talked about why authoritarians attempt to erase history, fascist ideas, nationalism, immigration, book burning, classical education, how to defend history, and many other topics.
Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and honorary professor at the Kyiv School of Economics. Before coming to Yale in 2013, he was Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University and was also Professor at the University of Michigan (2000-4) and Cornell University (1995-2000). He has his PhD in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and his BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of seven books, which include How Propaganda Works, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them , and the newest book, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mario Livio about finding life in our universe. They define life, discuss if we are alone, and the improtance of telescopes showing galaxies. They talk about the goldilocks zone, how life began on earth, proteins and genes, and building blocks of life on other planets. They talk about tidal forces, exoplanets, UAPs, intelligent life, and many more topics.
Dr. Mario Livio is an astrophysicist, author, and speaker. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published more than 500 scientific articles and has made significant theoretical contributions to topics ranging from cosmology, supernova explosions, and black holes to extrasolar planets and the emergence of life in the universe. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research. He is the author of eight popular science books, including the most recent in collaboration with Nobel laureate Jack Szostak, Is Earth Exceptional?
Website: https://www.mario-livio.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sheena Mason about race and culture. They talk about the increased focus on race, racelessness and the wayfinder, defining race/ism and history of the categories of race. They talk about culture, history, and ethnicity, mixed race and ethnicity, anti-racism, practical ways to end racism, and many more topics.
Sheena Michele Mason is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Oneonta. She holds a PhD with distinction in English from Howard University and specializes in Africana and American literature studies and philosophy of race. She is published with Oxford University Press, Palgrave MacMillan, Cambridge University Press, and the University of Warsaw among other presses. She is the innovator of the togetherness wayfinder (formerly and alternatively called the theory of racelessness) and founder of Togetherness Wayfinder, an educational firm. Her book The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race Is the Future of Antiracism shows how ending our belief in “race” and practice of racialization is required toward the goal of ending the causes and effects of racialized dehumanization.
Website: https://www.togethernesswayfinder.org/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Emily Herring about the life and philosophy of Henri Bergson. They discuss who he was and why he is forgotten, changes in his childhood, and how he choose philosophy. They talk about his concepts of Durée, freedom, and memory. They talk about his relationship with Proust, his global popularity, evolution, later life, his legacy, and many more topics.
Emily Herring is a writer based in Paris. She has her PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Leeds. Her writing has appears in Aeon and Times Literary Supplement. She is the author of the latest book, Herald Of A Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People.
Website: https://www.wellreadherring.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones about the history of the various Cleopatra queens. They discuss the 7 major Cleopatras, gender roles and norms in Egypt, and the context of the Antigonids, Ptolemies, and Seleucids. They talk about Cleopatra I, incestuous marriages, Potbelly and Cleopatra II and III. They discuss the ethnicity of Cleopatra VII, her various romantic relationships, her suicide, legacy of the Cleopatras, and many more topics.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Chair and Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University. He has his PhD in Ancient History from Cardiff University and has taught previously at the University of Edinburgh. His main interests are in Greek socio-cultural history, women’s history, and ancient Persia. He is the author of many books including the most recent book, The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nathan J. Robinson about US foreign policy. They discuss his collaboration with Noam Chomsky, myth of American idealism, and positive elements of US foreign policy. They discuss US foreign policy in Latin America, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, and China. They talk about current threats of climate change and nuclear weapons and the future of US foreign policy.
Nathan J. Robinson is editor of Current Affairs and a political columnist at The Guardian. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Nation, Al Jazeera America, and Salon. He has his JD from Yale Law School and PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent (co-authored with Noam Chomsky), The Myth of American Idealism: How US Foreign Policy Endangers The World.
Website: https://www.nathanjrobinson.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Melissa Eddy about the life and chancellorship of Angela Merkel. They discuss Merkel’s general themes and profile, gender and fashion, and her East German origins. They talk about her major achievements, criticisms, interactions with world leaders, her legacy, and many more topics.
Melissa Eddy is a journalist based in Berlin who covers German business, economics, and politics for The New York Times. She has covered Chancellor Angela Merkel since she entered office in 2005. A Minnesota native fluent in German and French, she came to Germany as a Fulbright scholar in 1996. Before joining The International Herald Tribune, now the international edition of The New York Times, in 2015, she was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Frankfurt, Vienna, and the Balkans. She is the author of Merkel’s Law: Wisdom from the woman who led the free world.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Musa al-Gharbi about the new elite, “wokeness,” and symbolic capitalism. They discuss why we should still care about “wokeness” and cancel culture, history of the four great “awokenings,” and sincerity of those that have “woke” beliefs. They define and discuss symbolic capitalism, people denying their new elite status, defining “woke” and the history of the word. They talk about “wokeness” as a new religion, the anti-woke, DEI, and many more topics.
Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Journalism and Fellow in Sociology at Columbia University. He has a Bachelors in Near Eastern Studies, Masters in Philosophy, Masters in Sociology, MPhil in Sociology, and PhD in Sociology. His work focuses on various social phenomena such as race relations, inequality, social movements, foreign policy and domestic U.S. political interests. He is the author of the latest book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions Of A New Elite.
Website: https://musaalgharbi.com/
Substack: Musa al-Gharbi
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Chaffetz about the history of the horse and impact with empires. They discuss the origins of the horse and living alongside humans, herding and horse milk, domesticating the horse and riding horses. They talk about the Steppe environment, rise of chariots, the Scythians and mounted combat, horses used within empires, and China’s relationship with horses. They talk about the Kushans, Turks, Chinggis Khan, Timur, WWI, and many more topics.
David Chaffetz is a regular Asian Review of Books contributor, member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, and author of A Journey through Afghanistan, Three Asian Divas, and Raiders, Rulers, and Traders. He has traveled extensively in Asia for more than forty years. He divides his time between Lisbon and Paris.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mark Updegrove about the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. They discuss the elusive figure of LBJ, his intuition for politics, and ascending to the Presidency. They talk about the “Johnson treatment,” Civil Rights, Lady Bird, and his war on poverty. They discuss his foreign policy, not running for re-election in 1968, legacy, and many more topics.
Mark Updegrove is the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and serves as Presidential Historian for ABC News. From 2009 to 2017, he was the director of the LBJ Presidential Library, where in 2014 he hosted the Civil Rights Summit which included Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Carter.
He is the author of five books on the presidency including, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, and the executive producer of the CNN Original Series, “LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy.” He has written for the New York Times, Politico, Time, National Geographic, the Daily Beast, and USA Today, and has conducted exclusive interviews with seven U.S. presidents.
Website: https://www.lbjlibrary.org/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bruce Gordon about a history of the Bible. They discuss the origins of how the Bible formed in the 2nd Century, original audience of the Bible, Codex and canonization and how we got 66 books. They talk about original languages, the Bible as an icon and symbol, different ways of reading and interpreting the Bible, and the impact of the Gutenberg Press. They talk about the King James Bible (KJV), missions, global legacy, and many other topics.
Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School at Yale University. He previously taught at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he was professor of modern history and deputy director of the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. His research and teaching focus on European religious cultures of the late-medieval and early modern periods, with a particular interest in the Reformation and its reception. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Bible: A Global History.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Renée DiResta about misinformation and digital delusions. They define misinformation and disinformation, rise of influencers, and incentive structures. They discuss audience capture, online ethical responsibilities, the Twitter files, election interference, and many other topics.
Renée DiResta is the former technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching, and policy engagement for the study of abuse in information technologies. Her work examines rumors and propaganda in the digital age. She has analyzed geopolitical campaigns created by foreign powers such as Russia, China, and Iran; voting‑ related rumors that led to the January 6 insurrection; and health misinformation and conspiracy theories pushed by domestic influencers. She is a contributor at The Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in Wired, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Yale Review, The Guardian, POLITICO, as well as many academic journals. She is the author of the latest book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.
Website: https://www.reneediresta.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alice Driver about immigrants working at meatpacking factories. They discuss moral beauty in immigrants work, immigrants who work in meatpacking factories, and how the factories operate. They talk about onsite medical clinics, the Clintons relationship with Tyson Foods, and challenges during the pandemic. They discuss the class action lawsuit against Tyson Foods, future of the industry, and many more topics.
Alice Driver is a writer and author. She has her Masters and PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Kentucky. She has won many awards for her journalism and, in 2025, will be a Resident at the Bellagio Center. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Life and Death of the American Worker: The immigrants taking on America’s largest meatpacking company.
Website: https://www.alicedriver.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul North and Paul Reitter about their new English translation of Karl Marx’s Capital I. They discuss their process editing and translation Capital I, the 2nd German edition and various English and French translations, and the motivations for Marx. They discuss Marx’s thought and Marx’s impact, his main thesis in Capital I, and some of the interactions with Hegel’s thought. They also talk about Marx’s labor theory of value, the enduring legacy of Marx, and many other topics.
Paul North is Chair and Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. He has his PhD in comparative literary studies (German Concentration) from Northwestern University. His main research areas are on Critical Theory, History of Philosophy, and European literature.
Paul Reitter is Professor in Germanic Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University. He has his PhD in German Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His main research areas are on Critical Theory, German-Jewish culture, and History of Higher Education.
They are the editors and translators of the new English translation of Karl Marx’s Capital I.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marlene Laruelle about the rise of Illiberalism. They talk about liberalism, illiberalism, impact of immigration and socioeconomic issues, and the current and future state of the EU. They discuss Le Pen and far-right in France, Orban in Hungary, the AFD in Germany, and state of Central Eurasian countries. They talk about the Russian-Ukrainian war, motivations of Putin, propaganda, peace in Ukraine, illiberalism in the United States, and many other topics.
Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at The George Washington University, and Director of GW's Illiberalism Studies Program. Her main research interests are in populist and illiberal movements in post-Soviet Eurasia, Europe, and the US. Her research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia and nationhood construction in Central Asia, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions.
Website: https://marlene-laruelle.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Josephine Quinn about a 4,000 year history of the world. They discuss why “the West” is not an accurate or helpful framing, civilizational thinking, importance of sailing, and different people groups in one region. They also talked about the importance of ancient/isolated languages (i.e., Sumerian, Ugaritic), the Iberian regions absorbing elements of the Levant in the 2nd Millennium, invention of Greece, Rome and Byzantium, Crusades, the idea of “Europe,” moving away from civilizational thinking, and many more topics.
Josephine Quinn is currently Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University, and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor of Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford. In January 2025, she will be Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge. She has her BA in Classics from Oxford, and an MA and PhD in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her main interests are in Mediterranean history and archaeology, with a particular interest in ancient North Africa. She is the author of, In Search of the Phoenicians and her latest book, How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History.
Website: https://josephinecrawleyquinn.wordpress.com/
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lindsay Chervinsky about the presidency of John Adams. They provide an overview of Adams’s presidency, maintaining the cabinet, the XYZ affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, Fries Rebellion, replacing Pickering and McHenry, Election of 1800, legacy of Adams, and many more topics.
Lindsay M. Chervinsky a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She obtained her PhD in history from the University of California, Davis and has been a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She has also been a professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. She is the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and The Creation of An American Institution, co-editor (with Matthew R. Costello) of Mourning The Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, and her latest, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic.
Website: https://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/
Substack: Imperfect Union
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Steven Mithen about the evolutionary history of language. They discuss the language puzzle, provide an overview of human evolution, importance of bipedalism, and fossil record gaps. They discuss different human species, how language works, origins and spread of different languages, and the physiology of speech. They also talk about the neurology of language, language evolving over time, language connected with thinking and emotions, future of language, and many other topics.
Steven Mithen is a Professor of Early Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has previously been Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Reading. He has a BA (hons) in Prehistory & Archaeology from Sheffield University, an MSc in Biological Computation from York University, and a PhD in Archaeology from Cambridge University. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2004. His main research areas are in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers and evolution of the human mind. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved.
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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Nathans about the Soviet dissident movement. They discuss how he complied all of the narratives together, why the Soviet dissident movement matters and how the Soviet legal system was used. They discuss civil disobedience vs. civil obedience, Alexander Volpin, Sinyavsky-Daniel affair, and what rights looked like in the Soviet Union. They talked about the makeup of the dissident movement, the Red Square demonstration, Initiative group, fifth directorate, Solzhenitsyn, other civil rights movements, legacy, and many more topics.
Benjamin Nathans is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His main focus areas are on Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, history of human rights. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.
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