<description>&lt;p&gt;Audley Moore mentored Malcolm X, popularized reparations for African Americans in a 1963 essay, and advanced the cause of Black women in both the Black nationalist and civil rights movements. She rubbed elbows with the Mandelas, Jessie Jackson, and Rosa Parks. Once a household name in the mid-20th century,&amp;nbsp;she&amp;nbsp;has fallen out of the history books, despite a career of organizing and activism that spanned a century, her artifacts lost and her archives scattered. But more than 100 years after Moore's birth and 28 years after her death, Ashley D. Farmer has written the first biography of Moore,&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;Farmer brings together a decade of research spanning oral history, archival work from Louisiana to New York City, and, of course, reams of FBI documents to paint the fullest picture of this icon's life to date.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go beyond the episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ashley D. Farmer’s &lt;a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-mother-black-nationalism-reparations-and-the-untold-story-of-audley-moore-ashley-d-farmer/ab1b2b64dbdfe6f4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Speaking of neglected Black figures: read Harriet A. Washington’s Winter 2026 cover story on &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/renaissance-man/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Rudolph Fisher, Harlem Renaissance man&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; iTunes/Apple&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Amazon&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Google&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Acast&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Pandora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; Hosted on Acast. See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Ashley D. Farmer on the forgotten life of “Queen Mother” Audley Moore

Audley Moore mentored Malcolm X, popularized reparations for African Americans in a 1963 essay, and advanced the cause of Black women in both the Black nationalist and civil rights movements. She rubbed elbows with the Mandelas, Jessie Jackson, and Rosa Parks. Once a household name in the mid-20th century,&nbsp;she&nbsp;has fallen out of the history books, despite a career of organizing and activism that spanned a century, her artifacts lost and her archives scattered. But more than 100 years after Moore's birth and 28 years after her death, Ashley D. Farmer has written the first biography of Moore,&nbsp;Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore.&nbsp;Farmer brings together a decade of research spanning oral history, archival work from Louisiana to New York City, and, of course, reams of FBI documents to paint the fullest picture of this icon's life to date. Go beyond the episode:<ul><li>Ashley D. Farmer’s <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-mother-black-nationalism-reparations-and-the-untold-story-of-audley-moore-ashley-d-farmer/ab1b2b64dbdfe6f4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore</a></li><li>Speaking of neglected Black figures: read Harriet A. Washington’s Winter 2026 cover story on <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/renaissance-man/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rudolph Fisher, Harlem Renaissance man</a></li></ul> Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Subscribe:<a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> iTunes/Apple</a> •<a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Amazon</a> •<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Google</a> •<a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Acast</a> •<a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Pandora</a> Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

The Midwife of Black Nationalism

<description>&lt;p&gt;In ancient Greece, the view from on high was known as &lt;em&gt;catascopos&lt;/em&gt;, or “the looker-down.” It's a privileged perspective, and in the modern world, one increasingly taken by machines: drones, satellites, spy cameras, airplanes, sentient doorbells. In his new book, &lt;em&gt;Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View&lt;/em&gt;, Edward McPherson surveys the cultural history of top-down and far-ranging perspectives from aviation and warfare to quarantine and protest. “We continue to make decisions based on the big picture,” he writes. “Politicians and planners confront the challenges of today with lofty intelligence, always pointing to the forest, not the trees.” Often that view can be obscuring, even as its accuracy is hailed. Consider the dead civilians mistaken for combatants in drone warfare the world over, or the wrong face recognized on CCTV. And in some cases, the forest isn't even there, as in John B. Bachelder's birds-eye map of Gettysburg and its imaginary copse of trees. Is distance the straightest path to truth? What dangers lie in prioritizing the big picture? McPherson joins Smarty Pants to muddle through the trees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go beyond the episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Edward McPherson's &lt;a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/look-out-the-delight-and-danger-of-taking-the-long-view-edward-mcpherson/f9cecb892fd5c837?ean=9781662602955&amp;amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Read “&lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/lost-and-found/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Lost and Found&lt;/a&gt;,” his essay about the house in Gettysburg built by his great-great-grandfather, also named Edward McPherson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; iTunes/Apple&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Amazon&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Google&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Acast&lt;/a&gt; •&lt;a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt; Pandora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; Hosted on Acast. See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Edward McPherson zooms in on the aerial view

In ancient Greece, the view from on high was known as catascopos, or “the looker-down.” It's a privileged perspective, and in the modern world, one increasingly taken by machines: drones, satellites, spy cameras, airplanes, sentient doorbells. In his new book, Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View, Edward McPherson surveys the cultural history of top-down and far-ranging perspectives from aviation and warfare to quarantine and protest. “We continue to make decisions based on the big picture,” he writes. “Politicians and planners confront the challenges of today with lofty intelligence, always pointing to the forest, not the trees.” Often that view can be obscuring, even as its accuracy is hailed. Consider the dead civilians mistaken for combatants in drone warfare the world over, or the wrong face recognized on CCTV. And in some cases, the forest isn't even there, as in John B. Bachelder's birds-eye map of Gettysburg and its imaginary copse of trees. Is distance the straightest path to truth? What dangers lie in prioritizing the big picture? McPherson joins Smarty Pants to muddle through the trees. Go beyond the episode:<ul><li>Edward McPherson's <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/look-out-the-delight-and-danger-of-taking-the-long-view-edward-mcpherson/f9cecb892fd5c837?ean=9781662602955&amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View</a></li><li>Read “<a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/lost-and-found/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lost and Found</a>,” his essay about the house in Gettysburg built by his great-great-grandfather, also named Edward McPherson</li></ul> Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Subscribe:<a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> iTunes/Apple</a> •<a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Amazon</a> •<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Google</a> •<a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Acast</a> •<a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Pandora</a> Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Ground Truths

<description>&lt;p&gt;Stories of the undead tormenting the living supposedly entered the English-speaking world in 1732, with a report from the Hapsburg military of events in Serbia—events that would go on to inspire the most famous vampire of all, Dracula. But the count from Transylvania was neither the first undead man in England (British corpses went walking in 680, and again in 1090) nor the most emblematic of the folk tales that preceded him (that would be Carmilla, who embodies a type seen from China to the Eastern Roman Empire). In &lt;em&gt;Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World&lt;/em&gt;, John Blair uses examples from the far-flung ancient world—a “vampire belt” stretching from Scandinavia and the North Sea through central and eastern Europe, western Russia, the Near East, India, and China to Indonesia—to make the case that “corpse-killing is mainstream and not marginal, therapeutic and not pathological.” The undead have seemingly always been with us, as has our need to kill them to exorcise our own anxieties. “Killing the dead is better than killing the living,” Blair writes. “Like other extreme rituals, it is depressing at the time but leaves people feeling good afterwards.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go beyond the episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;John Blair’s &lt;a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224794/killing-the-dead" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Listen to our interview about the &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/bite-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;modern vampire&lt;/a&gt; with Nick Groom, the Prof of Goth, and our conversation with Ronald Hutton about &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/something-witchy-this-way-comes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;witch persecutions through the ages&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You know we love horror—visit our episode page for a list of &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/the-dangerous-dead/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;spookiest episodes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe&lt;/strong&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;iTunes/Apple&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Amazon&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Google&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Acast&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Pandora&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;RSS Feed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Music featured from Master Toad (“Dreadful Mansion”) and 8bit Betty (“Spooky Loop”), courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; Hosted on Acast. See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

John Blair on the enduring epidemics of the undead

Stories of the undead tormenting the living supposedly entered the English-speaking world in 1732, with a report from the Hapsburg military of events in Serbia—events that would go on to inspire the most famous vampire of all, Dracula. But the count from Transylvania was neither the first undead man in England (British corpses went walking in 680, and again in 1090) nor the most emblematic of the folk tales that preceded him (that would be Carmilla, who embodies a type seen from China to the Eastern Roman Empire). In Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, John Blair uses examples from the far-flung ancient world—a “vampire belt” stretching from Scandinavia and the North Sea through central and eastern Europe, western Russia, the Near East, India, and China to Indonesia—to make the case that “corpse-killing is mainstream and not marginal, therapeutic and not pathological.” The undead have seemingly always been with us, as has our need to kill them to exorcise our own anxieties. “Killing the dead is better than killing the living,” Blair writes. “Like other extreme rituals, it is depressing at the time but leaves people feeling good afterwards.” Go beyond the episode:<ul><li>John Blair’s <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224794/killing-the-dead" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World</a></li><li>Listen to our interview about the <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/bite-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">modern vampire</a> with Nick Groom, the Prof of Goth, and our conversation with Ronald Hutton about <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/something-witchy-this-way-comes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">witch persecutions through the ages</a></li><li>You know we love horror—visit our episode page for a list of <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/the-dangerous-dead/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spookiest episodes</a></li></ul> Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Subscribe:&nbsp;<a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">iTunes/Apple</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Acast</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pandora</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RSS Feed</a> Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Music featured from Master Toad (“Dreadful Mansion”) and 8bit Betty (“Spooky Loop”), courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.&nbsp;<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

The Dangerous Dead

<description>&lt;p&gt;Foraging has been part of the human story forever, and its post-pandemic resurgence is a return to ways of living with the natural world that have only recently been forgotten. Gabrielle Cerberville, or the Chaotic Forager&lt;strong&gt;,&lt;/strong&gt; as she’s known online, is one of the voices championing the practice on social media. Her videos distill the beauty of living with the seasons into bite-size videos, many of them including recipes, from pine-syrup mugolio to simple dry-sauteed mushrooms. Her new book, &lt;em&gt;Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life&lt;/em&gt;, combines personal essays with a kind of narrative field guide, along with—of course—dozens of wildly creative recipes, making for the book version of walking through the woods with a friend.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go beyond the episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gabrielle Cerberville’s &lt;a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gathered-on-foraging-feasting-and-the-seasonal-life-gabrielle-cerberville/7821931" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Find foraging workshops and videos on her &lt;a href="https://www.chaoticforager.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@chaoticforager" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;TikTok&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/chaoticforager" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Instagram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Read &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/in-the-mushroom/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Michael Autrey’s account of foraging for mushrooms&lt;/a&gt;, or Matthew Desmond’s reporting on the wild ginseng trade in Appalachia&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Visit our episode page for a &lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/for-the-love-of-foraging/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;list of recommended field guides and cookbooks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;iTunes/Apple&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Amazon&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Google&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Acast&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Pandora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; Hosted on Acast. See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Gabrielle Cerberville on living and eating with the seasons

Foraging has been part of the human story forever, and its post-pandemic resurgence is a return to ways of living with the natural world that have only recently been forgotten. Gabrielle Cerberville, or the Chaotic Forager, as she’s known online, is one of the voices championing the practice on social media. Her videos distill the beauty of living with the seasons into bite-size videos, many of them including recipes, from pine-syrup mugolio to simple dry-sauteed mushrooms. Her new book, Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life, combines personal essays with a kind of narrative field guide, along with—of course—dozens of wildly creative recipes, making for the book version of walking through the woods with a friend. Go beyond the episode:<ul><li>Gabrielle Cerberville’s <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gathered-on-foraging-feasting-and-the-seasonal-life-gabrielle-cerberville/7821931" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life</a></li><li>Find foraging workshops and videos on her <a href="https://www.chaoticforager.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@chaoticforager" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chaoticforager" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li><li>Read <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/in-the-mushroom/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michael Autrey’s account of foraging for mushrooms</a>, or Matthew Desmond’s reporting on the wild ginseng trade in Appalachia</li><li>Visit our episode page for a <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/for-the-love-of-foraging/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">list of recommended field guides and cookbooks</a></li></ul> Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Subscribe:<a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;iTunes/Apple</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Amazon</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Google</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Acast</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Pandora</a> Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

For the Love of Foraging

<description>&lt;p&gt;Boxy Moskvitch and Lada cars, pastel-green concrete tiles, derelict playgrounds, intermittent hot water: these were the markers of Izidora Angel’s childhood in 1980s Sofia. “Banana-Yellow Trabants,” her essay for our Autumn 2025 issue, takes its name from the Duroplast car that her grandfather, and then her father, Solomon, drove in the 1980s. But bananas show up elsewhere, too: in the myths that young girls would tell each other about the diets of Bulgaria’s famed rhythmic gymnastics team and once, miraculously, on her family’s holiday table. The Angel family's antics suffuse the essay with warmth and humor, but churning beneath the surface is Solomon’s ambition. “He would be the boss, the creative vision and force behind all his future endeavors,” Angel writes, “opening the hottest nightclub in the capital, running five restaurants, renovating city landmarks, building the first manufacturing plant in the country after communism, developing plans to build a whole city.” That city was never built, and Angel lives in Chicago today, sent here alone on a plane more than 20 years ago. She joins us to talk about how her life has been an act of translation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go beyond the episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Read Izidora Angel’s “&lt;a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/banana-yellow-trabants/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Banana-Yellow Trabants&lt;/a&gt;” in our Autumn 2025 issue, and an essay on translation and her father, “&lt;a href="https://sublunaryeditions.com/magazine/the-alphabet-of-supposition-izidora-angel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;The Alphabet of Supposition&lt;/a&gt;”&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;For more on Angel’s translation, read this interview&amp;nbsp;from &lt;a href="https://readingintranslation.com/2025/09/22/interview-with-izidora-angel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Reading in Translation&lt;/a&gt; about her forthcoming translation of &lt;a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/she-who-remains-rene-karabash/decdaf28653268b3?ean=9789533515748&amp;amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;She Who Remains&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;by Rene Karabash&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In 2023, the Bulgarian novel &lt;a href="https://astra-mag.com/articles/the-future-is-canceled/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Time Shelter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;written by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel, won the International Booker Prize—here are more &lt;a href="https://www.catranslation.org/feature/bulgarian-fiction-in-translation-a-reading-list/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Bulgarian books in translation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;iTunes/Apple&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Amazon&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Google&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Acast&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;•&lt;a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Pandora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; Hosted on Acast. See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Izidora Angel on growing up in 1980s communist Bulgaria

Boxy Moskvitch and Lada cars, pastel-green concrete tiles, derelict playgrounds, intermittent hot water: these were the markers of Izidora Angel’s childhood in 1980s Sofia. “Banana-Yellow Trabants,” her essay for our Autumn 2025 issue, takes its name from the Duroplast car that her grandfather, and then her father, Solomon, drove in the 1980s. But bananas show up elsewhere, too: in the myths that young girls would tell each other about the diets of Bulgaria’s famed rhythmic gymnastics team and once, miraculously, on her family’s holiday table. The Angel family's antics suffuse the essay with warmth and humor, but churning beneath the surface is Solomon’s ambition. “He would be the boss, the creative vision and force behind all his future endeavors,” Angel writes, “opening the hottest nightclub in the capital, running five restaurants, renovating city landmarks, building the first manufacturing plant in the country after communism, developing plans to build a whole city.” That city was never built, and Angel lives in Chicago today, sent here alone on a plane more than 20 years ago. She joins us to talk about how her life has been an act of translation. Go beyond the episode:<ul><li>Read Izidora Angel’s “<a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/banana-yellow-trabants/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Banana-Yellow Trabants</a>” in our Autumn 2025 issue, and an essay on translation and her father, “<a href="https://sublunaryeditions.com/magazine/the-alphabet-of-supposition-izidora-angel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Alphabet of Supposition</a>”</li><li>For more on Angel’s translation, read this interview&nbsp;from <a href="https://readingintranslation.com/2025/09/22/interview-with-izidora-angel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reading in Translation</a> about her forthcoming translation of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/she-who-remains-rene-karabash/decdaf28653268b3?ean=9789533515748&amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">She Who Remains</a> by Rene Karabash</li><li>In 2023, the Bulgarian novel <a href="https://astra-mag.com/articles/the-future-is-canceled/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Time Shelter</a>, written by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel, won the International Booker Prize—here are more <a href="https://www.catranslation.org/feature/bulgarian-fiction-in-translation-a-reading-list/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bulgarian books in translation</a></li></ul> Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Subscribe:<a href="http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;iTunes/Apple</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f4bb0be1-2eb8-4826-abdb-9bfeb661dc21/smarty-pants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Amazon</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzRjYTM0MDUyLTcyMDktNGQwYi1iYTdmLTgzODBkZWEyZGM4OQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Google</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://shows.acast.com/smartypants" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Acast</a>&nbsp;•<a href="https://www.pandora.com/podcast/smarty-pants/PC:1000092290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Pandora</a> Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

From Sofia to Chicago

Tune in every other week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. A podcast from The American Scholar magazine. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Smarty Pants

Details

Recent Episodes