New Books Network

How living in space will affect future generations—and what the potential unintended consequences of space settlements are.We are on the cusp of a golden age of space travel in which, for the first time, it will be possible for large numbers of people to venture into space. Some intend to stay. But what happens—and will happen—to us in the extreme conditions of space? What should space tourists expect to happen to them during a journey to an orbiting space station, the Moon, or Mars? What would happen to children born on another planet? Would they evolve into a new species? In Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds (MIT Press, 2026) Scott Solomon explores the many ways in which humanity’s migration into space will change our bodies and our minds.This book focuses on the latest science, taking readers to the front lines of research. We hear from astronauts, including Scott Kelly who writes the foreword, and we join a team of scientists guiding a rover across the surface of Mars. We visit a high-security lab where engineers are simulating space radiation to measure its effects on the body. We travel to isolated islands where field biologists are gleaning insights into evolutionary processes applicable to people isolated on faraway planets. We meet synthetic biologists developing gene-editing tools to equip future humans to thrive in alien environments. We watch a rocket designed to carry humanity to Mars make its first successful launch. And then we ask, knowing what we know: Should we go?
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Andrea Horbinski's Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 (U California Press, 2025) centers the fans and creators who built Japanese comics into a massive global phenomenon. The book traces the history of manga from the art form's distinctly modern emergence in the early 1900s, one that first hybridized the artistic legacy of Japan with the world of Western political satire but very quickly expanded its scope. By the 1920s and 1930s, manga was already beginning to show some of the breadth of genre and style that has become a trademark of Japanese comics and their byproducts today. In the postwar, manga's embrace of new audiences and stylistic conventions, and the embrace of these new forms by audiences of amateur consumer-creators especially since the mid-1970s, led to an explosion in popularity that has made manga a global phenomenon.
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Mainstream psychology has long accepted that some people (like those with autism) are naturally more logical and unemotional, while others (like so-called empaths) intuitively experience the feelings of those around them as deeply as their own. But this is wrong. Aimee Cliff, an autistic psychotherapist who empathizes for a living, knows this firsthand. We are all are capable of empathy, because empathy is something you do, not something you are—meaning you can get better at it if you choose to practice.

Drawing on scientific research, clinical experience, and interviews with neurodivergent people, Aimee Cliff examines how empathy works in the brain and body and lays out the five pillars of true empathy: Empathy is humble, empathy is embodied, empathy is amoral, empathy is radical, and empathy is work. At the heart of this expansive new definition is the promise that every one of us can learn to improve our relationships with our fellow humans. We just have to be willing to do the work to close the space between us.

Empathy Takes Action shows us the way to build more loving, kind, and supportive communities and to make room for every kind of mind.

Our guest is: Aimee Cliff, who is a writer and therapist based in London. As a freelance writer, she has bylines in The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Independent, Vice, and more. She currently works for a disability charity. She is the author of Empathy Takes Action.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Community-Building and How We Show Up

How To Organize Inclusive Events And Conferences

Doing the Work of Equity Leadership

The Burnout Workbook

Being Well in Academia

What Might Be

A Pedagogy Of Kindness

Belonging

How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

Designing and Facilitating Workshops With Intentionality

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!
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Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism (Cambridge UP, 2025) is the most recent book from Professor William Robinson, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This title is the latest in excellent and ground-breaking titles from Professor Robinson in a distinguished career, where he began writing books on United States intervention into Nicaragua in the late 1980s and early 1990s, expanding this focus on United States hegemony more broadly in the ground-breaking book Promoting Polyarchy in 1996, up to then grappling with the totality of the capitalist world system more recently in titles such as The Global Police State in 2020, Can Global Capitalism Endure in 2022, and War, Global Capitalism and Resistance in 2024, alongside many other books.

Professor Robinson’s latest instalment we discuss in this episode, Epochal Crisis, tracks the multifactorial crises that are impacting the global capitalist system today, across economic, social, ecological, political and other dimensions, and how these intersecting and overlapping crises are degrading or exhausting the ability for capitalism to renew itself. This contemporaneous epochal crisis, as Professor Robinson carefully details, is catalysing morbid symptoms that express themselves as wars, unprecedented violence, ecological emergencies, rock-bottom political legitimacy and a host of other dangerous and cataclysmic effects. Epochal Crisis is both a wide-ranging and extensive investigation into the current, overlapping and intersecting crises that are plaguing the world capitalist system, as it appears in its final, violent death throes, and also a highly engaging work that is easy to digest and will help you understand the very naked reality of capital crisis that is so obvious to us all today. Thankfully, Professor Robinson also addresses what we can do in this latest, perhaps final, epochal breakdown of the capitalist system, to find some revolutionary hope in these dark times.

Elliot Dolan-Evans is a sessional lecturer and tutor in law at Monash University and RMIT. His research investigates the political economy of global capitalism, forms of international governance, and questions of war and peace. His first book, Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF and the Conflict in Ukraine, is now out with Bristol University Press.
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This podcast episode is hosted by Mart Tšernjuk, the Taiwan Coordinator at the University of Tartu Asia who is talking to Prof. Robert Chen, a leading scholar of Taiwanese cinema, discussing the relationship between film, history, and identity in Taiwan.

Drawing on Chen’s teaching experience at the University of Tartu, he highlights how Estonian students engage deeply with Taiwanese films, particularly due to shared historical experiences of colonisation and political repression. This common ground allows students to connect emotionally with themes such as trauma and national identity, especially in films addressing the White Terror period.

Chen emphasises that understanding Taiwan’s cinema requires strong historical awareness, as film history closely mirrors Taiwan’s broader political and social development. Unlike other East Asian film industries, Taiwan’s cinematic identity is shaped by its complex colonial past, multicultural society, and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Language also plays a crucial role, reflecting shifts in identity from a China-centred perspective toward a distinctly Taiwanese consciousness.

Aesthetically, Taiwanese cinema, especially the New Cinema movement, is characterised by realism, long takes, and a contemplative style that resonates globally. Directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien create stories with universal themes, allowing international audiences to relate to Taiwanese experiences.

Chen also discusses King Hu’s films, which blend action with Buddhist philosophy, emphasising harmony with nature and the concept of emptiness. In contrast, films about the White Terror demonstrate how cinema helps process collective trauma and educate younger generations. While earlier films treated these topics with gravity, newer filmmakers approach them more lightly, making them more accessible.

Ultimately, Chen suggests that films such as Dust in the Wind capture the essence of Taiwan through universal coming-of-age narratives, offering an accessible entry point into understanding Taiwanese culture and cinema.

Robert Chen (陳儒修) is a Professor at the Department of Radio and Television at National Chengchi University in Taipei. He earned his PhD in Cinema-Studies from the University of Southern California (USC) and is a prolific author, known for foundational works such as Historical Memory and National Identity in Taiwan Cinema. Throughout his career, he has taught and researched extensively on how national identity and historical trauma are projected onto the silver screen. Robert is currently visiting University of Tartu as the Taiwan Chair. He is teaching a course "Culture and Politics in Taiwan Cinema".

Mart Tšernjuk is the Taiwan Coordinator at the University of Tartu Asia Centre. He is also a lecturer in Chinese language and culture at the Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures, and President of the Estonian Academic Oriental Society. He has lived and studied in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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Chen’s selection of films for introducing yourself to the history of Taiwan cinema:

The Mountain (1962) depicts young people living under a repressive atmosphere.

Raining in the Mountain (by King Hu, 1979)

Super Citizen Ko (by Wan Jen, 1995)

Dust in the Wind (by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)

The Skywalk Is Gone (2003) explores modernity and urban alienation and shows how Taiwan undergoes similar modernisation processes as Estonia and other developed countries.

The Electric Princess House (2007) brings the focus back to Taiwanese cinema itself and connects to the shared experience of watching films in theatres.

As well as Raining in the Mountain (by King Hu, 1979); Super Citizen Ko (by Wan Jen, 1995); Dust in the Wind (by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)

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