Ideas Podcast: Africa’s Buildings
The Princeton Ideas Podcast episode “Africa’s Buildings” uncovers how colonial officials, collectors and anthropologists dismantled African structures from the 19th century onward, shipping columns, doors and tiles to museums in Europe and the United States. Those fragments were cataloged as decorative art, erasing their original architectural function and often damaging the source buildings. Host Dr. Itohan Osayimwese surveys the continent—from Egypt to Zimbabwe—detailing the violent extraction methods and the resulting gaps in scholarly knowledge. The program calls on museums to champion repatriation and restitution for African communities.
Helen Pearson on Beyond Belief
Helen Pearson’s new book *Beyond Belief* chronicles the three‑decade‑old evidence revolution that shifted medicine from opinion‑driven practice to rigorous clinical trials. The narrative expands to show how the same evidence‑based mindset is reshaping policing, conservation, management and other fields. Pearson...
The Bollingen Series Then and Now
The Bollingen Series, a 275‑volume collection anchored by C.G. Jung’s Collected Works, was launched in 1940 by the Mellon‑backed Bollingen Foundation and later moved to Princeton University Press in 1969. Originally published by Pantheon Books under Kurt Wolff, the series spans...
Ideas Podcast: The Light Between Apple Trees
The Ideas Podcast episode spotlights Priyanka Kumar’s new book, *The Light Between Apple Trees*, which explores the dwindling diversity of American apples and the ecological value of wild orchards. Kumar reveals that only about a fifth of the 16,000 historic...
Listen In: Earth and Life
Princeton University Press has launched an audiobook version of *Earth and Life*, narrated by actor Christopher Ragland. The work is authored by Harvard’s Andrew H. Knoll, a Nobel‑level geologist and biologist who explains how geological and biological forces shaped our...
Roland Betancourt on Disneyland and the Rise of Automation
Roland Betancourt’s new book, *Disneyland and the Rise of Automation*, argues that the 1955 theme park served as a cultural laboratory that familiarized Americans with industrial automation. Drawing on patents, corporate archives and declassified military documents, he shows how rides...
Catherine Fletcher on The Firearm Revolution
Catherine Fletcher’s new Princeton University Press volume, *The Firearm Revolution*, traces the social and cultural history of early modern firearms, from concealed wheellocks in the 1520s to Venice’s regulated arms export system. The book reveals how European governments repeatedly lagged...
Succubus (2024): Female Monstrosity in the Age of AI
Eleanor Johnson’s review of the 2024 horror film *Succubus* examines how the movie updates the ancient succubus myth for a digital age. The plot follows Chris, a financially strained dad, who is lured into a virtual relationship with a succubus...
Ideas Podcast: Overinvested
Nina Bandelj’s new book *Overinvested* examines how modern parents have turned child‑rearing into a high‑stakes financial and emotional venture. Drawing on interviews, national data and decades of parenting literature, she shows that today’s families spend, save and even incur debt to...
Ideas Podcast: On Pedantry
Arnoud Visser’s new book *On Pedantry: A Cultural History of the Know‑it‑All* examines how excessive learning has functioned as a vice in Western thought from ancient Greece to today’s culture wars. The work maps a line of irritable intellectuals—sophists, savants,...
Ideas Podcast: How to Change a Memory
Steve Ramirez, a Boston University neuroscientist and former MIT graduate student, details how his lab created false memories and argues that future technologies could edit, erase, or fabricate recollections. His new book, *How to Change a Memory*, blends memoir with...
Publishing for Planners: A New Era for Island Press
Island Press, a three‑decade leader in urban‑planning publishing, has become an imprint of Princeton University Press to secure resources while keeping its editorial focus on built‑environment topics. The merger, effective Jan. 1, integrates production, distribution and marketing with PUP but leaves...
Ideas in Action: Island Press and PUP
Princeton University Press has acquired the Island Press imprint, integrating the environmental publisher’s catalogue into its scholarly platform. The deal, effective April 1, is only the third imprint integration in PUP’s history, following the Bollingen series and WILDGuides. Island Press’s mission‑driven...
Andrew H. Knoll on Earth and Life
Andrew H. Knoll’s new book “Earth and Life” argues that understanding Earth’s history requires integrating geology and biology. He traces four billion years of co‑evolution, showing how mineral cycles, oxygen production, and biomineralization link the planet’s physical processes with living...
Ideas Podcast: Free Agents
The Princeton Ideas Podcast spotlights Kevin Mitchell’s new book *Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will*, which challenges the view that agency is merely an illusion. Mitchell draws on billions of years of evolutionary history to show how nervous...