What is Russia? For two centuries, observers inside and outside the country have tried to answer that question, and most of them have looked west. The familiar story holds that Peter the Great pulled a backward Muscovy toward Europe and that Catherine the Great finished the job by declaring Russia a European state.In The Steppe and Its Empires: The Russian Empire and Its Eurasian Counterparts (Yale UP, 2026), Professor Michael Khodarkovsky looks south and east instead. He argues that Russia is best

What are spiders doing inside your home? You’ve probably spotted a few crawling around, especially in the fall. But contrary to what you might assume, many of those spiders didn’t just wander in from outdoors. And there’s a very specific reason you suddenly start seeing more of them this time of year — it has a lot to do with romance. https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/arachnology-and-entomology/spider-myths/myth-spiders-come-indoorsShould you say something — or just keep

Send us Fan Mail Can you belong to something bigger than yourself without losing the individual identity, values, and conscience that made you who you are? In this episode of Walk With Me, Identity and Internal Architecture Coach Dr. Giovanni DeJesus revisits an idea from one of his earliest walks: the tension between individual identity and group belonging. Seven months earlier, standing outside in twelve-degree weather, Gio explored what can happen when people surrender their conscien...

What does it really take to change a habit? Charles Duhigg, journalist and author of The Power of Habit, joins us to explore how our understanding of habits has evolved and why lasting change may start with changing how we see ourselves. From the “habit window” and keystone habits to habit chaining and identity shifts, we challenge long-held assumptions about willpower and explore how small changes in behavior and perspective can lead to lasting transformation.Topics [0:00] The Food Noise and

Dr. Sharon M. Ravitch is a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education - and the person who chaired Preston's dissertation committee. In this conversation, originally released in January 2023, Sharon joins Preston to talk about communities of practice: historically, a craftsman's model (carpenters, ironworkers, silversmiths), and MCTI's model that describes instructor cadres — groups who build shared language and expertise around a particular kind of

On this day, 5 October 2001, workers at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, launched a sitdown strike for better pay. In particular, the workers were complaining about wages and additional allowances, which were considerably lower for health workers than they were for workers in the justice system.The strike shut down almost all of the 1500-bed facility, with only a few beds remaining open in the Orthopaedics and burns departments. The strike was primarily by nurses, but also

Why isn’t there a consistent message about alcohol and health? How do you know if you’re putting yourself at risk? Is it really “all things in moderation”? Courtney Conley, D.C holds a doctorate in chiropractic medicine & 2 bachelor’s degrees in kinesiology & human biology & is the founder of Gait Happens. Milicia McDowell, DPT holds a doctorate in physical therapy & has over 20 years of experience. Together, they are the authors of Walk: Rediscover the Most Natural Way...

Pictures from Erika Kirk, Lindsey Clancy and the FlyDubai incident all feature words such as “scam,” “abracadabra,” and “sketchers.” The hero Yaniv Hayoun was a “plumber” who helped stop Hammam al-Hammami, whose name means “bathhouse.” Yaniv has now be listed as a sexy man for stopping a hi-jacking in a cock-pit. He says “I RAN” to the cockpit, part of an exclusive interview with the Free Press that happens to word the article to say IRAN, the country blamed by President Trump based on reports from

The podcast is coming out a few days early just to give you a little more time to get tickets to one (or more) of some of our favorite conference events of the year. Not enough time to book a flight, sadly. But, if you're in the area, we strongly encourage you to check out one of the options we discuss in the episode. The only thing scary about this month is how to find time to attend all of the amazing conferences, talks, and events given by some of the best minds in behavior analysis! But whether

In this episode of Somewhere in the Skies, Ryan is joined by active UK police officer Inspector Roy Teague, author of Close Encounters of the Police Kind. Drawing on nearly 27 years in policing, Teague has interviewed more than 300 current and former officers about their encounters with UFOs and other unexplained phenomena. His new book collects 75 of the most compelling cases, many told publicly for the first time.Teague takes us inside extraordinary reports involving police helicopters

Dr. Joshua Conrad Jackson uses a bunch of creative research tools to tackle big questions about psychology, culture, and history. By examining historical records, modern writing, and global surveys (among other things), he and his colleagues can trace the trajectory of cultures over time. In our conversation, he helps me understand what "cultural evolution" means, how cultures have gotten more different (not more similar), and how historical records can shed light on the psychology of p...

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss Timothy Leary, from his days as a Harvard Psychologist to a drug reformation advocate to a prisoner, also, Producer Brit discusses The Snowman (2017)

For thousands of years, merchants, travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and pilgrims crossed the vast network of routes we now call the Silk Road. Stretching across deserts, mountains, cities, and empires, these paths connected distant parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.This extra-long documentary explores how the Silk Road developed, who traveled along it, and what moved across its enormous network. Silk was only one part of the story. Alongside precious goods came religions, languages,

Send us Fan Mail We’re back for Series 7! This episode was recorded at Coventry’s Children’s and Education Services Conference, where Matt, Hannah and Arin were joined by some of the speakers from the day. Our first guest is Dez Holmes, Director of Research in Practice and Deputy Chief Executive at the National Children’s Bureau, who chats to Hannah and Matt about the importance of relational systems and leadership to enable relational practice. We are then joined by Roselyn and Bayley, two c...

Next door to the Valley of the Kings, lies an even more enigmatic necropolis - the Valley of the Queens. Investigators have unearthed 90 tombs here and are piecing together the truth of these forgotten rulers. Do these royal women hold more power than previously believed? How does one Queen manage to become a Pharaoh? And why are so many tombs catastrophically damaged? Now, investigators venture deep into the tunnels to hunt for clues to discover the golden age of Egypt’s queens. Learn

On this academic application edition of the Cultures of Energy podcast we are thrilled (16:57) to welcome old friend Leah Stokes back to the program to talk about her new book, The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet (MIT Press, 2026). We start with the problematic paradigm of the carbon footprint and why it doesn't model carbon responsibility either accurately or effectively. Then Leah tells us about how she came to the decision to tell intimate

Geoffrey West on urban populations growing faster than exponential, and the strange present in which some cities cannot build housing fast enough while others are already contracting.  He calls the far side of that growth a singularity: depopulation, contraction, and possibly collapse. The short-term future of cities is both problems at once.Find out more in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.If you would

In this special 100th episode of The Messy Social Work Podcast, Rich Devine and Tim Fisher hit pause to reflect on the journey so far. Armed with a list of 100 AI-generated questions inspired by their previous episodes, they take each other on a whistle-stop tour through five years of conversations, debates, learning, and occasional technical disasters. Together they explore what they've learned from speaking with academics, practitioners, people with lived experience, and thought leaders fro...

Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg all proposed stage theories of development, but the EPPP may test whether you can distinguish what each theorist believed was actually developing. This episode compares Piaget’s cognitive stages, Erikson’s psychosocial conflicts, and Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning using memorable examples and high-yield exam distinctions. You’ll also learn a simple strategy for identifying the correct theorist when an EPPP question gives you a developmental vignette.

Do we routinely mistake good luck with systemic resilience – until something blows up?Today I speak with Professor Robin Dillon-Merrill (Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business), who breaks down her 20+ years of research on decision-making under risk, outcome bias, and how organizations misinterpret near misses.We discuss:• The differences between resilient vs vulnerable near misses: How the perceived ‘margin of safety’ desensitizes organizations to risk when luck is the primary reason