About this podcast
A podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Created and produced by Dr. Christina Gessler, the Academic Life podcast is inspired by today’s knowledge-producers around the world, working inside and outside the academy.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 347 episodes
- How Settlers Get Away With Murder: The Killing of Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People in the Americas with Liza Black (Beacon, 2026) · 52 min · Episode 345Since the arrival of Columbus, thousands of perpetrators have gotten away with murder, burying evidence of their crimes in police reports and court testimony. How Settlers Get…
- The Last Human Job · 49 min · Episode 238Today’s book is: The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton UP, 2024), by Dr. Allison Pugh, which explores the human connections that underlie…
- Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge · 58 min · Episode 344A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge (Simon and Schuster, 2017) is…
- No! The Art and Activism of Complaining · 53 min · Episode 343To be heard as complaining is not to be heard, writes Sara Ahmed. In No! The Art and Activism of Complaining, her sweeping exploration of complaint as a means of resistance, Sara…
- Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day · 43 min · Episode 342Feeling worn out by the work of resistance? How do you persevere? Today’s book is: Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, by Kaitlin B…
- The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915 · 1 h 9 min · Episode 341When American fascists suddenly goose-stepped down Main Street in the 1930s, fascism was seen by the rest of the country as a terrifying and radical new European import. It was…
- How Girls Achieve · 1 h 4 min · Episode 340How Girls Achieve points out a simple and overlooked truth: most schools never had girls in mind to begin with. That is why the world needs what Dr. Sally Nuamah calls “feminist…
- Tsunami: Women’s Voices From Mexico · 50 min · Episode 339Featuring personal essay, manifesto, creative nonfiction, and poetry, Tsunami: Women’s Voices From Mexico (Feminist Press, 2025) gathers the multiplicity of voices being raised…
- The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors · 56 min · Episode 337Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything…
- A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands · 1 h 10 min · Episode 338Spanning more than 400 years of spiritual transformation and imagination, A Nation Wrestles With God (Restless Books, 2026) collects diverse writers—poets, novelists…
- The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars · 55 min · Episode 153The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars (Princeton UP, 2023) is an essential handbook for writing fundable grants. This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, a…
- Thinking About Leaving Academia? · 45 min · Episode 336You’ve spent so many years earning your degrees. But how do you know if staying in academia is the right thing for you? Whether you hope to keep working on campus or chart a new…
- Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser · 42 min · Episode 335As a big sister, Girl Scout, personal assistant, sitcom sidekick, and, finally, mother of three, Amy believed it was her destiny to be a people pleaser. She learned to put others…
- Bordering On Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality · 50 min · Episode 334Immigration agents have a frontline view of the racial, economic, and legal inequalities that undocumented migration reflects—and yet most agents do not think of the role their…
- In The Scholar’s Workshop: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and Authorship · 57 min · Episode 333For centuries, many of the world’s most influential thinkers relied on helpers who performed tasks such as taking dictation, correcting, indexing, composing, and endless copying…
- The Letters of Emily Dickinson · 54 min · Episode 332Emily Dickinson was a letter writer before she was a poet. And it was through letters that she shared prose reflections–alternately humorous, provocative, affectionate, and…
- Cast Out: A Call For A Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration · 59 min · Episode 331In Cast Out: A Call For A Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration (Beacon Press, 2026), civil rights lawyer Joseph Margulies insists that those who commit even the most…
- Heart-Centered Connections: Seven Essential Skills for Helping Neurodiverse and Marginalized Children Thrive · 34 min · Episode 330Heart-Centered Connections: Seven Essential Skills for Helping Neurodiverse and Marginalized Children Thrive is a transformative guide for working with a child who is left out…
- Doubled Up: Shared Households and the Precarious Lives of Families · 53 min · Episode 329More than eleven million children in the US live in doubled-up households, sharing space with extended family or friends. These households are even more common among low-income…
- Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory · 1 h 0 min · Episode 328In Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (UNC Press, 2026), historian John Garrison Marks tells the story of Americans’ long…
- The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest · 48 min · Episode 327Research shows that honesty is the single most important characteristic a person can possess when it comes to liking them, respecting them, and understanding them. But honesty is…
- Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity · 46 min · Episode 326A woman miscarries and is charged with murder. A new mother tests positive for a drug her hospital administers and loses custody of her newborn. Four women are convicted of…
- Can I Say That: Your Go-To Guide for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion · 38 min · Episode 325Can I Say That: Your Go-To Guide for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is your safe space to learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion, and how you can be a force for…
- Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation and Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838-1902 · 48 min · Episode 324In Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation and Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838-1902 (U South Carolina Press, 2026), Dr. Mollie Barnes studies the ways women…
- The Instigators · 52 min · Episode 323Black women have always been the most relentless instigators for change—building a democracy for all. In The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American…
- End of An Academic Dream · 46 min · Episode 322Why do we build our sense of self around our academic work? What does it mean to pivot away from campus jobs to the alt-ac world? How does increasing academic fragility affect…
- Reflection-In-Motion · 1 h 0 min · Episode 321Reflection-in-Motion: Reimagining Reflection in the Writing Classroom (Utah State UP, 2025) considers how reflective practice is embedded in daily course happenings, centering…
- Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia · 1 h 5 min · Episode 320Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black middle-class residents…
- Empathy Takes Action: An Autistic Therapist on the Radical Work of Connection · 45 min · Episode 319Mainstream psychology has long accepted that some people (like those with autism) are naturally more logical and unemotional, while others (like so-called empaths) intuitively…
- Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King · 52 min · Episode 318Caroline Bicks became the first scholar granted extended access by Stephen King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs…
- The Case for Career Services · 45 min · Episode 317What exactly is career services? If you don’t know, you aren’t alone. Most of us operate from a limited or outdated idea of what career services offers, why it’s necessary, and…
- The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence · 54 min · Episode 316Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, capture national attention, most…
- The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris · 48 min · Episode 315In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the town and gathering at a…
- The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America · 50 min · Episode 314Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—and thus denying opportunities to…
- The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health · 51 min · Episode 313A powerful blend of deeply human stories and rigorous research, The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health (Beacon Press, 2026) reveals how social and…
- What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life · 48 min · Episode 316Mothers and fathers use their time differently, with women spending roughly twice as many hours on family labor as men. But what about the gendered differences in the ways women…
- Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress · 51 min · Episode 311Fifty years of changemaking and reform haven't fixed Congress—what does that reveal about American democracy? In Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress…
- The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic · 56 min · Episode 310The role of a resident vet in the remote islands of the Falklands, St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha encompasses many wonderful complexities: caring for the world’s…
- A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education · 59 min · Episode 309A Light in the Tower argues that excellent education and radical support for mental health struggles can coexist, and provides detailed advice for how to do so. Dr. Katie Rose…
- The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy · 45 min · Episode 308In an age of growing wealth disparities, politicians on both sides of the aisle are sounding the alarm about the fading American Dream. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary…
- The Power of the State: Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and Minneapolis · 49 min · Episode 307When young people began disappearing in Argentina, their mothers searched for answers. Despite laws prohibiting protests and political gatherings, the women still met to walk the…
- Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them · 43 min · Episode 310Rural students are unlikely to pursue degrees from private, selective schools. Why? And what happens to the handful of rural students who do attend elite colleges, colleges that…
- Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine · 42 min · Episode 305Despite reform efforts that have grown in scope and intensity over the last two decades, the machine of American mass incarceration continues to flourish. In Ghost in the…
- Abortion and Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance · 58 min · Episode 304Overturning Roe unleashed a wave of urgent threats to abortion and bodily autonomy, fueled by overt white supremacy, racial and anti-immigrant hatred, and support for traditional…
- Everything Is Fine, I'll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass · 37 min · Episode 303In Everything Is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder: Confessions of A Former Badass (Street Noise Books, 2025), Professor Cara Gormally draws us into the familiar academic world of…
- How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend · 42 min · Episode 306Your brain is the most remarkable thing in the known universe. Always trying to mend itself, and always trying to protect you, it’s in a constant state of flux — adapting…
- How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences · 52 min · Episode 305How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences is the ultimate guide to creating welcoming, safe, and accessible gatherings for everyone. With detailed strategies and…
- Sustainability, Identity, Artisans and Designers · 52 min · Episode 303Long before the fashion industry formally addressed questions of sustainability and advocated for “slow fashion,” a husband-and-wife design duo were working to create handcrafted…
- Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life · 57 min · Episode 299Among the most common challenges on college campuses today is figuring out how to navigate our politically charged culture and engage productively with opposing viewpoints. In…
- Living Night: On the Secret Wonders of Wildlife After Dark · 1 h 1 min · Episode 298When the sun sets, things start to get interesting among wild animals. Wherever we live, whether in the city or suburbs or country, darkness conjures a hidden world of wildlife…
