Activist Susan Burton tells the story of her inspiring journey from prison to the forefront of the movement for incarcerated women. Sociologist Michaela Soyer talks about recidivism in the juvenile legal system. Sharlyn Grace of the Chicago Community Bond Fund describes the problems of the bail bond system.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-operative Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen and Imani Jackson. Music by Jeff Deutsch and Colin McDonald.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

This week, we explore the lives of cartoonists George Herriman & Saul Steinberg. Michael Tisserand discusses his book “Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White” and Mark Pascale talks about “Along The Lines: Selected Drawings by Saul Steinberg.”

Open Stacks is the official podcast of The Seminary Co-operative Bookstores.

This episode was produced by Kit Brennen. The Open Stacks theme was composed and performed by Colin McDonald and Jeff Deutsch.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Doctor and activist Dr. David Ansell discusses “The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills.” Journalist Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back.”

Open Stacks is the Official Podcast of the Seminary Co-operative Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen and Imani Jackson.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Lee Dugatkin tells the tale of a ground-breaking fox domestication experiment in Siberia. John Hausdoerffer & Gavin Van Horn discuss the future of wildness and the problem with the word “wilderness.” Caryl Yasko discusses her famous Hyde Park mural.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-operative Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen and Imani Jackson.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Essayist Laura Kipnis discusses her latest book “Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus” touching on professor-student relationships and trigger warnings. Sociologist Lisa Wade discusses campus hook-up culture and her book “American Hookup.”

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Philosopher Bart Schultz discusses “The Happiness Philosophers” which explores the ideas and the eccentric lives of the great Utilitarians. Kate Hennessy gives an inside look into the family life of her grandmother, famed Catholic activist Dorothy Day.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen and Imani Jackson.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

China Mieville reads from his latest book “October” and discusses the haunting legacy of the Russian Revolution. Editors Norma Field and Heather Bowen-Struyk read from their anthology of Japanese proletarian writings “For Dignity, Justice and Revolution”. Plus, University of Chicago Professor Robert Bird reads and discusses Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poem “Our March”.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen and Imani Jackson. 

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Philosopher Simon Critchley reads and discusses recent works, Bowie and Notes on Suicide, touching on the beauty of endurance, the dangers of optimism, and the power of tragedy. Poet Nathan McClain reads from his debut collection, Scale.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Colson Whitehead & Deepak Unnikrishnan read from their latest novels, The Underground Railroad and Temporary People, each a work of hallucinatory dystopian fiction that uses surreal elements to convey the very real terrors of societies past and present.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-operative Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Poet Clint Smith discusses his debut collection, Counting Descent, growing up black in America, and our society’s problems with historical amnesia and cultural pathology. Critic Donna Seaman tells the story of forgotten artist Gertrude Abercrombie.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Paleontologist Lance Grande gives a behind-the-scenes look into the world of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Intellectual historian Lorraine Daston discusses scientific archives as a locus of scholarly utopianism and melancholy.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.

Poet Kevin Coval, NPR Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon, and WBEZ Chicago’s Natalie Moore share stories and reflections on their home town of Chicago, from corner stores and food deserts on the city’s South Side to the North Side’s once-cursed Cubs.

Open Stacks is the official podcast of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. This episode was produced by Kit Brennen.

This post was originally published on Open Stacks.