The Humanities in the World
A Podcast from University of Rochester Press
What role do the humanities play in shaping our world? How can literature, history, philosophy, and the arts help us understand—and change—the societies we live in?
The Humanities in the World is a podcast that brings together voices from across the globe to explore these urgent questions. Hosted by the University of Rochester Press, the series features conversations with researchers and thinkers working in a wide range of humanities disciplines. Each episode delves into the ways humanistic inquiry intersects with today’s social and political challenges—from climate justice to digital culture, from historical memory to ethical futures.
Inspired by the mission of the academic book series The Humanities in the World, this podcast stands on its own as a space for dialogue, reflection, and engagement. It affirms a simple but powerful belief: that the humanities are not a luxury—they are essential to the ways we live, think, and imagine better worlds.
Episodes
May 29, 2026
May 29, 2026
32 min
David Herzberg, Joseph M. Gabriel, and Nils Kessell reflect on the shifting boundaries between medicines and drugs. The speakers emphasise the importance of the humanities in making sense of these complexities. Rather than treating drugs as purely technical objects, humanistic approaches place them within broader stories of human behaviour, inequality, and belief. Kessell describes this work as “putting science back into society,” while Gabriel underscores the urgency of humanities perspectives in addressing contemporary crises in medicine.
Download the transcript
More about the University of Rochester Press
Dec 17, 2025
Dec 17, 2025
33 min
Samantha Pinto, (The University of Texas at Austin) and Nasser Rabbat (MIT) join us to examine how global narratives have often been shaped and repurposed to serve specific cultural and political agendas, and how historical figures and archaeological discoveries have been harnessed to propose specific visions of history and the world. The humanities can help us reveal these mechanisms and make us aware of these propagandistic manipulations.
Download the transcript [Word]
More about University of Rochester Press
Nov 24, 2025
Nov 24, 2025
28 min
Carlos Rojas (Duke University, USA) and Jie Hyun Lim (Williams College, USA) talk to us about how the humanities are transforming in the age of social media and AI. They explain why these disciplines remain indispensable as tools that help us think critically, listen deeply, and imagine futures beyond the limits of the present.
Download the transcript (Word)
More about University of Rochester Press
Oct 31, 2025
Oct 31, 2025
24 min
In the inaugural episode of Humanities in the World, a podcast from the University of Rochester Press, scholars Maya Dodd (Flame University, India) and Erika Pani (El Colegio de México, Mexico) explore how the humanities shape national narratives, public memory, and cultural identity in India and Mexico—two nations deeply marked by colonial legacies and vibrant postcolonial transformations.
Download the transcript (Word)
More about University of Rochester Press