Research Radio

Beloved since its 1957 debut, West Side Story is not just a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; it’s also a story of New York. In a city where nothing is more coveted than real estate, this is a story about turf, politics, and power. The choreographed “rumbles” depicted between the Polish Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks [...]

New School co-founder and progressive philosopher John Dewey is known for his notion of the ideal school as a “little democracy,” a place where children learn not only to read and write but to behave as active citizens in a republic. More than 70 years after Dewey’s death, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is updating his ideas [...]

Ready for round two?  Last week, Research Radio released “Behind the Shrooms,” a first installment in a two-part series that details the last half-century of psychedelic research. In this second episode, we sit down once again with New School for Social Research anthropologist Nick Langlitz to talk about how 1960’s counterculture colored popular perception of [...]

“Turn on, tune in, drop out.” The author of this mid-1960s catchphrase, Timothy Leary—a Harvard professor-turned-enthusiast of psychedelic drugs—had high hopes for a world with hallucinogens. Leary even imagined that psychedelics like LSD and MDMA might help bring peace to a Vietnam War–weary world. The era was the heyday for hallucinogenic drug research conducted in [...]

  Although the term “tree hugger” first appeared in 1965, environmentalists—particularly those with arboreal leanings—have been around for centuries. Just ask New School art historian and Parsons associate professor Laura Auricchio. Trees of the 18th century are her latest academic focus—and the topic of this week’s Research Radio podcast, “Tree Hugger.” Click on the player above [...]

Click on the player above to listen to the podcast Download Episode- Nidhi Srinivas looks at history differently. As an associate professor of nonprofit management at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, he focuses on methods of organizing and management from a historical perspective. Srinivas sees the past as up for [...]

  Download Episode: With President Obama staying in the White House, will the still-divided Congress finally find a way to work together? Assistant professor of politics Jeff Smith is back for Research Radio’s latest episode, “A Facelift for the GOP?”  In last week’s edition, Smith was skeptical of Congress’s ability to overcome legislative gridlock. Smith [...]

For those few who aren’t relieved by the sudden drop-off in political media following last Tuesday’s results, The New School is offering some live, post-election analysis to quell symptoms of withdrawals. Assistant professor of politics Jeff Smith, whom Research Radio spoke with just before the election, joins a panel discussion “The Inside Story of Election [...]

      Download Episode: Bach, Vivaldi and Handel may be the Baroque music period’s heavyweights, but mediocrity still has an important place in history. Even in the music world, there are not many who are familiar with Teodorico Pedrini.  An obscure 17th and 18th century Italian priest, missionary, and mediocre composer, he never makes [...]

Download Episode: This is a tale of why Republicans and Democrats can no longer see eye to eye. Before the election Research Radio host Kasia Broussalian sat down with Jeff Smith, assistant professor of politics at the Milano School for International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, to discuss the country’s growing political divide, and its [...]

Download Episode: Images of New York City are more likely to include towering skyscrapers than old-growth trees. But there are people out there looking to even the playing field. This episode of Research Radio takes listeners out into the field…literally. Timon McPhearson, assistant professor of environmental studies at The New School for Public Engagement, spends [...]