What Are You ____?
As we are all adjusting to this new normal, we are asking our faculty, graduate students, and staff three questions: What are you reading? What podcast are you listening to? What are you watching? We hope this gives you some ideas for your free time during this period of social distancing.
Prof. Julian Zelizer
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
What are you reading?
"Here I Am" by Jonathan Foer
What podcasts are you listening to?
"Fiasco" by Leon Leon Neyfakh
"LBJ and the Great Society" by PRX
What are you watching?
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Narcos (Netflix)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Jennifer Loessy
Kristy Novak
Graduate Program Administrator
What are you reading?
"Little Fires Everywhere" (Celeste Ng)
What podcasts are you listening to?
Criminal (Phoebe Judge)
Lovett or Leave It (Jon Lovett)
What are you watching?
Schitt's Creek (Netflix), for some levity (or some levy-ty)!
Prof. Marina Rustow
Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East
Professor of Near Eastern Studies and History
What are you reading?
• Ahmed El Shamsy, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
• Simon Mills, A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship between England the Ottoman Empire, c. 1600-1760
• The New York Times and Arabic manuscript catalogues, equally obsessively and in alternation
• Fatimid tax receipts, painfully slowly
• Susan Choi, Trust Exercise
What music are you listening to?
Lana Del Rey | Radiohead | Mercan Dede
What are you watching?
Fleabag (Amazon)
Russian Doll (Netflix)
Killing Eve (Hulu/BBC America)
Babylon Berlin (Netflix)
Pablo Pryluka
Doctoral Candidate
What are you reading?
Silesian Station, by David Downing
La Casa de los Conejos, by Laura Alcoba
One Nation Under God, by our very own Kevin Kruse
What are you listening to?
Theme Time Radio Hour, podcast by Bob DylanThe Complete Piano Duets, by Ella Fitzgerald
What are you watching?
Babylon Berlin (Netflix)Narcos: Mexico (Netflix)
The Irishman (Netflix) - yes, it took me three days!
Liane Hewitt
Doctoral CandidateWhat are you reading?
Yannis Varoufakis, And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe’s Economic Crisis and America’s Economic Future (2016)
Isser Wolloch, The Postwar Moment: Progressive Forces in Britain, France and the United States after World War II (2019)
Louis Aragon, Le collaborateur et autres nouvelles (1980)
What music are you listening to?
What are you watching?
Genie Yoo
Doctoral Candidate
What are you reading?
Kristen Arnett, Mostly Dead Things
John D. Gimlette, Malay Poisons and Charm Cures
Malay-language Prayer books
Rudolf Mrazek, The Complete Lives of Camp People: Colonialism, Fascism, Concentrated Modernity
What music are you listening to?
Pod Save America
This American Life
The Bill Simmons Podcast
What are you watching?
Curb your Enthusiasm (HBO)
MSNBC
Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)
Ugly Delicious (Netflix)
Jaime Sanchez, Jr.
Doctoral Candidate
What are you reading?
Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima
What are you listening to?
Antônio Carlos Jobim (bossa nova is perfect for productivity)
What are you watching?
Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (Netflix)
Geneva Smith
Doctoral Candidate
What are you reading?
- This fascinating NYT article that manages to capture all of my worst fears about academia.
- And with the newfound free time of social distancing, I am slowly working my way through Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014)
What are you listening to?
- A 4-part series on the assassination of JFK by The Last Podcast on the Left (one of my favorite true crime podcasts).
- Music wise, lots of Lizzo and powerful female vocalists who can tell me I will survive
What are you watching?
- The Tiger King (Netflix)
- RuPaul’s Drag Race (Vh1)
- 90 Day Fiancé (TLC)
Prof. Jeremy Adelman
Henry Charles Lea Professor of History
Tara Westover, Educated: A Memoir
Babylon Berlin (Netflix)
War of the Worlds (Epix) - Series not the Tom Cruise movie
I have The Stranger (Netflix) queued up!
Prof. Kevin M. Kruse
What are you reading?
Nina Simone, I Put a Spell On You
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Questlove’s nightly DJ sessions (Instagram)
Leanne Horinko
Graduate Program Assistant
Prof. Sean Wilentz
George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History
Robert Yee
Ph.D. Candidate
What are you listening to?
What are you watching?
Niharika Yadav
Ph.D. Candidate
Prof. D. Graham Burnett
Dr. Randall Pippenger
What are you listening to?
What are you watching?
Judith L. Miller
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meacham
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski
The Daily from The New York Times
Hidden Brain, host Shankar Vedantam; a recent guest was Michael Gordon discussing Albert Einstein
Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Frey and Tracy Wilson
Infectious Historians, hosts Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai, just started listening to this new podcast with some familiar names
Personology, host Dr. Gail Saltz
Sidedoor, from the Smithsonian Institute
Something You Should Know, host Mike Carruthers
NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour
WTF, host Marc Maron
Julia Marino
Prof. Margot Canaday
What are you reading?
I’m reading Iris Murdoch’s novel, The Black Prince. And because my sister is insisting on a family Zoom book group, I’m about to start Emily Wilson’s (apparently amazing?) new translation of The Odyssey. If that goes well, we will follow it with Meredith Miller’s Circe.
What are you listening to?
For podcasts—it was Ezra Klein’s interview with Meredith Miller (and her discussion of Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey) that made me want to join family Zoom book group, so yes, I like the Ezra Klein Show. I also love The Daily and Fresh Air.
For music—I am listening to all sorts of music (cd and vinyl) on Kingwood Warren Limited Edition Falcon Acoustics Ls3/5a speakers. These beauties are faithful recreations of the BBC’s brilliant 1970s monitor, which was originally designed for outside broadcast vans and other small studios. But they became hugely popular for home audio too and have had a cult following ever since. Amplification by Vinnie Rossi. Sublime!
What are you watching?
I am really enjoying Ozark, which is a wonderful escape. Justin Bateman and Laura Linney really carry it. I am also enjoying Better Things—no real plot to speak of, but the whole show is just a Pamela Adlon delivery system. I think she’s brilliant. I also like the PBS arts/culture series, American Masters. We just watched the most recent episode on Miles Davis (“Birth of the Cool.”). Great!
Will Theiss
What are you reading?
Das achte Leben (Für Brilka) (The Eighth Life, for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili
John Prine
The Last Dance (ESPN)
David A. Bell
What are you reading?
Maurice Samuels, The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal that Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern
Yannick Bosc, Le peuple souverain et la démocratie: Politique de Robespierre
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Robert Harris, An Officer and a Spy
What are you listening to?
Cheryl Wheeler, Half a Book
Alison Krauss, A Hundred Miles or More
The Beatles, Rubber Soul
What are you watching?
The Bureau (Sundance Channel)
Fauda (Netflix)
Bosch (Amazon Prime)
Xin Wen
As the reality is so grim, I am gravitating to comedies or other light-hearted shows, such as Dead to Me (Netflix), Special (Netflix), Tales of the City (Netflix), Insecure (HBO) and Big Little Lies (HBO).
Judith Hanson
Department Manager
What are you listening to?
Right now - A collection of Adagios by Albinoni, Bach, and Beethoven (my background music during the day). Diana Krall - anything of hers.
What are you watching?
PBS and old movies on TCM
Prof. Erika Milam
Hannah Stamler
Ph.D. Candidate
Kim Worthington
Harry Potter
What are you watching?
Prof. Wendy Warren
Mikey McGovern
What are you watching?
Haris Durrani
- Octavia Butler, Patternmaster (Over the last several years, I've slowly worked through her Seed to Harvest series, Patternmaster being the final book in the in-universe chronology. I'm excited for the upcoming TV series on the first entry, Wild Seed, which is one of my favorite novels!)
- Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Postcolonial Bergson
- Hisham Matar, A Month in Siena
- Frank Herbert, Dune (rereading in preparation for the upcoming Denis Villeneuve film; I might also revisit Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, if time!)
- Bello Mancebo and Luis Vencedor, Memorias de Pedernales: Don Vencedor Bello y Alcoa Exploration Co. (if I can get a hold of it...)
- Francisco Javier Angulo Guridi, La Ciguapa
- Democracy Now!
- Bloomberg Law
- Old interviews with Frank Herbert (I especially enjoyed this one)
- Dark [Netflix] (just finished season 2, anticipating season 3 in June)
- Counterpart [Amazon Prime]
- What We Do in the Shadows [Hulu]
- Space Force [Netflix]
- The Infiltrators (2020)
- Planning to (re)watch all Dune-related things on screen over the course of the summer (each of Denis Villeneuve's films, the David Lynch adaptation, the miniseries, Jodorowsky's Dune)
Kelly A. Lake
Undergraduate Program Assistant
What are you reading?
Unfortunately, because of the time spent on the computer while working remotely, my eyes are fried by the end of the day, so my ”reading” books are audio books. I find that some books I simply love to read because of the visual pleasure of the author’s words constructed on the page; however, with audio books the reader’s voice is as important as the texture of the language. I just finished The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. Lale and Gita’s tale filled my heart. Upon Leanne Honriko’s recommendation, I'm starting The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.
What are you listening to?
Music: We’ve been embracing Beatles’ lighter music in the morning, and in the afternoon, if knee-deep in Class Day presentation prep, Teeel’s (yes 3 e’s) ”80s Sci-Fi Electronic Music-Inspired by Stranger Things”
Podcasts:
- Eric ”Astro” Teller’s: Unexpected Benefits of Celebrating Failure
- Raphael Rose: How failure cultivates resilience | TED Talk
- Merle Eisenberg’s pandemic podcast has been interesting; so far I've listened to the first two and find them reassuring.
What are you watching?
Been binge watching ”grown-up” shows like a champ! Since we’ve been quarantined, I've finished all seasons of:
- Babylon Berlin (Netflix)-- loved it
- Plot Against America (HBO) -- loved it
- The Last Kingdom (Netflix) -- enjoyed
- Outlander (Netflix)-- enjoyed
- Schitt's Creek (Netflix)-- enjoyed
Keeping up with:
- My Brilliant Friend: Story of a New Name (HBO) -- love it
- Belgravia (Epix) -- enjoying
- Westworld (HBO) -- still on the fence about this.season
- Run (HBO) -- intrigued so far
Up next:
With the kids: we’ve watched Descendants 3, Jumanji the Next Level, Star Wars: The Rise of the Sith, 1912, Tall Girl, Secret Life of Pets 2
Anthony Grafton
Henry Putnam University Professor of History
What are you reading?
When I tear myself away from the horrors that appear constantly on my phone, I'm doing a lot of rereading of books that Louise, my late wife, and I both enjoyed. Most recently Posy Simmonds, Literary Life, and M.R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. I'm also working my way through the Letters of P.S. Allen, ed. H. M. Allen: a luminous set of letters, mostly to Aurel Stein, on learned life in Britain and Europe in the decades just before and after 1900. These were written by one of the editors of Erasmus's letters and edited by the other. Supported by a small stipend from the Clarendon Press and a few very perceptive friends, they invented serious Renaissance scholarship and had a ball doing it.
What are you listening to?
Thomas Tallis, Trace Adkins, the Leipzig Thomanerchor, Pete Atkin singing Clive James.
What are you watching?
The Forsyte Saga (Prime):
Endeavour (Prime): the imaginary British police, so much more satisfying than the real ones, and set in a rich recreation of Sixties Oxford.
Yes, Minister (YouTube): a great BBC series, which Louise and I watched in another century that is still pretty wonderful.
Jennifer Houle Goldman
What are you reading?
Simone Davies, The Montessori Toddler
Catherine Shainberg, Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming
What are you listening to?
Jennifer Weiner, Big Summer (Audiobooks)
Motown and the Beatles on Amazon (teaching my son the good stuff)
A lot of annoying nursery rhymes
What are you watching?
The Plot Against America [HBO]
The Office [NBC] (on repeat)
Dr. Joseph M. Fronczak
Kelly Lin-Kremer '15
What are you reading?
The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
Those Who Knew by Idra Novey
What are you listening to?
Interviews with N.K. Jemisin (most recently this one)
The Slowdown podcast with Tracy K. Smith
What are you watching?
Haven’t seen it yet but can’t wait to see Hamilton once it’s out on Disney+ on July 3
Prof. John Haldon
I am currently reading James E Fraser ‘From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795’, a penetrating new analysis of the social, cultural and economic processes through which ‘Scotland’ came into being from the 1st c - 8th c CE; Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust, which continues the ‘His Dark Materials’ theme; and the latest Kate Atkinson in the Jackson Brodie series, Big Sky.
What are you listening to?
As for listening, the podcast ‘Infectious historians’ is relevant to current events; and there is a regular series on BBC Radio 4 on aspects of contemporary science and politics. I listen occasionally to the national news, but in light of the mendacity, incompetence and sheer self-interestedness of the well-educated mediocrities who currently make up the UK government, it’s best for my health to impose some limits.....
What are you watching?
An excellent series on ‘Britain’s forgotten slave-owners’, aimed at a broader audience and a salutary reminder (or a first lesson for many) on just how crucial slavery was to the growth of British economic dominance from the later 17th c onwards.
Prof. Molly Greene
Director, Program in Hellenic Studies
Continue to work my way through Stuart O’Nan’s novels; he’s my favorite author
Rufus Wainwright’s new album, Unfollow the Rules
Prof. Yair Mintzker
Professor of History
What are you reading?
I’m fighting cabin fever by re-reading some of my favorite authors, including S. Yizhar, Franz Werfel, Annie Ernaux, Virgil, and Gaius Valerius Catullus (not necessarily in that order).
What are you listening to?
I’m currently listening to Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing Ligeti and Beethoven, an experience that throws me back to the wonderful time we spent together in Berlin not that long ago.
What are you watching?
And I started watching Netflix’s Unorthodox recently, but found it quite disgusting and couldn’t even watch the first episode to the end. So once the library reopened, I got a whole bunch of DVDs of Stanley Kubrick’s early work, which I never tire of re-watching. Looking at this list now, I realize that there’s a red thread that runs through most of it: the epic form, in its ancient (Virgil, Catullus LXIV) and modern iterations (S. Yizhar’s Days of Ziklag, Kubrick’s 2001).
Steve Knowlton
Librarian for History and African American Studies
What are you reading?
Two recent translations of the Bible: David Bentley Hart’s New Testament, and Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible. Each has as its goal to bring to the English reader a vivid sense of the original in its style, vocabulary, and rhetorical devices. Alter’s has the additional benefit of a scholarly apparatus that probably exceeds in length the text itself, and illuminates not only the translator’s thinking but also the centuries of rabbinic and scholarly commentary on the text that give the reader a better understanding of the linguistic and cultural context of the Tanakh. Each translation is a revelation for the reader who may have encountered the same texts so often that the urgency of the word has become dulled with familiarity. Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, by Barbara Fields and Karen Fields, has lost none of its explanatory power in the decade since its publication.
What are you listening to?
It’s a summer of soul music. I got through all nine volumes of The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Part II, which covers 1968-1971, although the turn toward funk and bubblegum makes it less satisfying than Part I, and one must enjoy Isaac Hayes more than I do to get a lot of pleasure from the set. Now I’m on to a box set of The Rascals, my very favorite band ever; their blend of soul rhythms, pop melody, doo-wop harmonies, and instrumental prowess offers continual delights upon repeated listening.
What are you watching?
Britain’s “National Theater Live” program offers streaming video of recent productions from across the country. We’ve enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, This House, and The Madness of King George, but were underwhelmed by the London Theatre Company’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
James P. McClure
General Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson