Office Hours

We are now Office Hours [1]! Listen in for an explanation behind the name change. (If you've already subscribed to our old contexts.org RSS feed or in iTunes, don't worry: you will still get the new episodes. As of right now we're still listed as "Contexts Podcast" in iTunes, but we're working on changing that.) This episode features a discussion with Peter Conrad [2], author of the Spring 2010 Contexts book review, Pills and the Pursuit of Normalcy [3], which reviews Happy Pills [4] and Normal At Any Cost [5]. Arturo and Peter start off talking about these books, but the conversation turns into a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion of the medicalization of everything from happiness to height. Other books referenced include The Loss of Sadness [6] and The Medicalization of Society [7]. Download Office Hours #1 now! [8] [1] http://thesocietypages.org/officehours/ [2] http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/conrad.html [3] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/pills-and-the-pursuit-of-normalcy/ [4] http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Pills-America-Miltown-Prozac/dp/0801890306/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280343568&sr=8-6 [5] http://www.amazon.com/Normal-Any-Cost-Industrys-Manipulate/dp/B002ECEURG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280343742&sr=8-3 [6] http://www.amazon.com/Loss-Sadness-Psychiatry-Transformed-Depressive/dp/0195313046/ref=pd_sim_b_3 [7] http://www.amazon.com/Medicalization-Society-Transformation-Conditions-Treatable/dp/080188585X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280343866&sr=8-1 [8] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=59442.mp3

Edward Walker [1] talks about his Spring 2010 feature Industry-driven activism [2]. Topics include the role of industry in shaping the health care debate and the state of social movements in the age of the internet and astroturfing. Download episode #40 now! [3] [1] http://www.edwardwalker.org/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/industry-driven-activism/ [3] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=58866.mp3

Hilary Levey [1] talks to Jesse and Arturo about her Spring 2010 Contexts feature, Balloon Boy Plus Ei8ht? Children and Reality Television [2]. Download episode #39 now! [3] Also: check out Levey's editorial in USA Today [4] on the topic of Reality TV kids. And if you don't watch as much television as you know you should (it's ok—we don't judge), here are a few clips referenced in the interview: Jon & Kate Plus 8 Cute Kids [5]. (TLC disabled embedding). The Breakup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEc-zpaIuqo Kid Nation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-U8yp_VZ28 NYC Prep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBA-StyktEU [1] http://sites.google.com/site/hilarylevey/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/balloon-boy-plus-ei8ht-children-and-reality-television/ [3] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=58234.mp3 [4] http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-06-26-levey25_ST_N.htm [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKED-sPj3rM

This episode, Jon talks with fellow U of M sociology grad students Arturo [1], Shannon [2] and Wes [3] about the Contexts Bestsellers Project [4]. Topics include the challenges of measuring book sales, the public perception of sociology, and how books compare with other media. Download episode #38 now! [5] [1] http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/gradprofile.php?UID=baioc001 [2] http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/gradprofile.php?UID=golde118 [3] http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/gradprofile.php?UID=long0324 [4] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/a-fresh-look-at-sociology-bestsellers/ [5] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=57820.mp3

Do schools reproduce or challenge inequality? And how can we know one way or another? Douglas Downey [1] calls into the Contexts Podcast to help us answer these questions. Be sure to check out Downey's Spring 2010 Contexts feature How Schools Really Matter [2]! Also: Jon shares a discovery about gender and software development from last month's JITP conference [3] on The Politics of Open Source by Hanna Wallach [4] and the FLOSSPOLS project [5]. Download episode #37 now! [6] [1] http://www.sociology.ohio-state.edu/personnel/faculty/?personID=dbd [2] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/how-schools-really-matter/ [3] http://politicsofopensource.jitp.net/ [4] http://www.cs.umass.edu/~wallach/ [5] http://flosspols.org/ [6] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=56034.mp3

Syed Ali talks with Jon about his Spring 2010 Contexts feature about Dubai, Permanent Impermanence [1]. (Which you can read online for free [2], by the way.) What's it like in a country where over 90% of the population are expatriates? What's it like to do research in such a place? Listen in and find out! Also Sarah shares a discovery: Morality and Health: News Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders [3] Download episode #36 now! [4] [1] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/permanent-impermanence/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/permanent-impermanence/ [3] http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.2.231 [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=54942.mp3

Harvey Pekar [1] and Paul Buhle [2] sit down with Jesse to chat about their graphic adaptation [3] of Studs Terkel's Working and about the sociological side of Studs, and also Harvey's, work. Arturo also shares a discovery about gender and the health benefits of education [4]. Download episode #35 now! [5] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Pekar [2] http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10137 [3] http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1706 [4] http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2009.01164.x [5] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=53427.mp3

Doug McAdam [1] chats with Jesse about why Freedom Summer [2] was a transformative experience for those involved and why other youth activism efforts, such as Teach for America, tend to not be as transformative. But first, Sarah shares a discovery [3] about how incarceration shapes racial identity. Download episode #34 now! [4] [1] http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/DougMcAdam/index.html [2] http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Summer-Doug-McAdam/dp/0195064720/ [3] http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.1.92 [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=51511.mp3

This week's guest is Deborah Carr [1], Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, and the Trends [2] Editor for Contexts. First, Jesse and Sarah talk with Dr. Carr about how she identifies and writes about social trends, then we broadcast part of a recent lecture Dr. Carr gave on end of life decision making. But before this double feature, Arturo shares a discovery about healthcare! One correction: Arturo forgets to identify the article by name (and Jon forgets to ask him)! The article is called Similar Pressures, Different Contexts: Public Attitudes toward Government Intervention in Health Care for 21 Nations [3], by Saeko Kikuzawa, Sigrun Olafsdottir, and Bernice A. Pescosolido. Sorry about that! (Apologies also for the humming sound in the background during Carr's talk. We couldn't remove it without also making Professor Carr sound like an alien, which we decided was a bad idea.) Download episode #33 now! [4] [1] http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~carrds/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/article-type/trends/ [3] http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002214650804900402 [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=49929.mp3

This episode we sit down with Walt Jacobs [1] to discuss his Winter 2010 Contexts feature 30 Years of Black Presidents [2]. During the interview, Walt and Sarah listen in on comic sketches by Richard Pryor and Dave Chapelle. If you prefer your audio/visual materials to include video as well as audio, you can watch the clips below! But first, we have a discovery on segregation and crime [3] presented by Arturo! Download episode #32 now! [4] Videos in the Podcast John Mayer skit [5] from Tom [6] on Vimeo [7]. Videos Discussed in the Article [1] http://www.tc.umn.edu/~wrjacobs/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/winter-2010/30-years-of-black-presidents/ [3] http://contexts.org/discoveries/2010/02/15/separate-but-violent/ [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=48357.mp3 [5] http://vimeo.com/8213736 [6] http://vimeo.com/user2811169 [7] http://vimeo.com

This episode features not one, but two special guests. First, Sarah visits with Vincent J. Roscigno about his Winter 2010 feature Ageism in the American Workplace [1]. Second, Sarah talks with John Rowe, chair of the MacArthur Research Network on Aging. The MacArthur Network has authored two recent articles in Contexts: Facts and Fictions about an Aging America [2] and the followup, Policy and Politics for an Aging America [3]. Be sure to check out both of these features in Aging in Contexts [4], a collection of Contexts features on aging. From now until March 15, the full collection will be available for free to read online and to download as a free ebook. Check it out & spread the word! Also in this episode: Arturo shares an article [5] about cities and self-efficacy. Download episode #31 now! [6] [1] http://contexts.org/articles/winter-2010/ageism-in-the-american-workplace/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/fall-2009/facts-and-fictions-about-an-aging-america/ [3] http://contexts.org/articles/winter-2010/policies-and-politics-for-an-aging-america/ [4] http://thesocietypages.org/aging/ [5] http://spq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/72/4/343 [6] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=46802.mp3

This week's guest is Stephen Scanlan [1], author of the Winter 2010 Contexts feature, The Scarcity Fallacy [2]. We discuss the problems with existing food aid practices, the root causes of world hunger and what can be done to eliminate it. Also, Jon shares a discovery on the downsides of flexible work [3], at least in some occupations. Download episode #30 now! [4] [1] http://www.cas.ohiou.edu/socanth/faculty/scanlan.html [2] http://contexts.org/articles/winter-2010/the-scarcity-fallacy/ [3] http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0730888409343912 [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=45833.mp3

Part two of David Grazian's [1] interview with Chuck Klosterman [2]. This second half of the interview touches on goth day at Disney Land, irony and humor, self-awareness among celebrities, reality tv and how to entertain and inform at the same time. Be sure to check out part one [3], too! Download episode #29 now! [4] [1] http://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/david_grazian [2] http://www.cklosterman.com/ [3] http://thesocietypages.org/podcast/2010/02/07/chuck-klosterman-1-music-authenticity-and-identity/ [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=45010.mp3

This episode is the first in a two part interview with journalist Chuck Klosterman [1]. Contexts Culture Review Editor David Grazian [2] met up with Klosterman in New York City for a wide-ranging discussion about music, celebrity, reality tv and humor. This first episode focuses on music, and the second episode will be posted here in a few days is available now [3] & focuses on celebrity, irony and reality tv. If you're unfamiliar with Klosterman's work, his books are a great place to start and include Fargo Rock City [4], Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs [5], and Eating the Dinosaur [6]. Download episode #28 now! [7] [1] http://www.cklosterman.com/ [2] http://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/david_grazian [3] http://thesocietypages.org/podcast/2010/02/10/chuck-klosterman-2-celebrity-irony-and-reality/ [4] http://books.simonandschuster.com/Fargo-Rock-City/Chuck-Klosterman/9780743406567 [5] http://books.simonandschuster.com/Sex-Drugs-and-Cocoa-Puffs/Chuck-Klosterman/9780743236010 [6] http://books.simonandschuster.com/Eating-the-Dinosaur/Chuck-Klosterman/9781416544203 [7] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=45011.mp3

Eric Utne, founder of the Utne Reader [1], phones into Contexts HQ to discuss his work on building intergenerational communities. Topics include a history of the Utne Reader and the shape of communities in modern society. Also, Jon shares a discovery on religiosity and abortion [2]. Download episode #27 now! [3] [1] http://utne.com [2] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asoca/jhsb/2009/00000050/00000002/art00005 [3] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=44768.mp3