Context with Brad Harris

What led to the rise of the modern world? How have we made so much progress, and what are its consequences? What are humanity's best ideas? Join award-winning historian Brad Harris as he engages these fundamental questions and interprets the biggest historical forces that shape their answers, from the rise of civilization and the development of modern science to the spread of disease and the growth of globalization.

Into the Trenches Once More 05/17/2023

Into the Trenches Once More If you like this stuff and you'd like to hear more, please support my work on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bradcoleharris /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/26866911

Urban Versus Rural 06/01/2021

Urban Versus Rural There’s a lot that’s dividing Americans right now - lots of divisive narratives that have captivated lots of people. One of those narratives features the apparent widening political divide between urban and rural culture. But, the truth is that the evolution of America’s urban and rural communities has always been symbiotic. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/19302884

Notes On Tribalism 04/26/2021

Notes On Tribalism "Notes on Nationalism" was an essay written by George Orwell in 1945, just as World War II was ending. It caused quite a stir at the time, but most people these days have never heard of it. Nonetheless, "Notes on Nationalism" remains one of the most powerful examples of Orwell's timeless insight into human nature; in this case, focused on our instinct to gang up on each other, our instinct for tribalism. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/18855317

The Fate of Universities 02/24/2021

The Fate of Universities Like many others, I’ve begun to worry about the fate of higher education in American society. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/18064625

Explaining Postmodernism: A Conversation with Stephen Hicks 01/25/2021

Explaining Postmodernism: A Conversation with Stephen Hicks Postmodernism planted the seeds of the illiberalism that's erupting throughout our society today. The battle of ideas postmodern thinking provokes could very well determine the fate of liberal democracy our lifetime. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/17659160

Escaping the Cycle of History 12/21/2020

Escaping the Cycle of History "History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes." /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/17266121

Reflections from A Distant Mirror 10/26/2020

Reflections from A Distant Mirror Plague, political chaos, the looming prospect of another civil war... what century are we in? /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/16536989

2+2=5 09/14/2020

2+2=5 I went slightly mad producing this episode. But then, the line between our reality and the fiction of 1984 has become far too blurry for my comfort. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/15984011

All Things Being Equal 08/25/2020

All Things Being Equal One of the worst features of our society, we are told, is wealth inequality. But, what is the historical truth about wealth inequality? /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/15735089

Approximating Perfection 07/08/2020

Approximating Perfection The history of calculus may seem irrelevant to most of our going concerns, but as author and mathematician Strogatz shows, the spirit of calculus expresses one of the best ideas humanity has ever had: greatness is not to be found in the end, but in the effort. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/15117689

Science as a Candle in the Dark 06/05/2020

Science as a Candle in the Dark Carl Sagan was a brilliant popularizer of science. His book, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, helps to inspire clear thinking when chaos reigns supreme. Here, I share my thoughts on the important themes of that work. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/14702375

What If Our Ignorance Outgrows Our Potential? 08/05/2019

What If Our Ignorance Outgrows Our Potential? There is an overlooked rule in history: far more is lost and forgotten than is preserved and remembered. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/10762583

A Battle Against Medieval Barbarism 07/01/2019

A Battle Against Medieval Barbarism Today, we explore the origin of the modern concept of a fact. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/10350041

What's True? 06/03/2019

What's True? Today I'm speaking with Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, a historian from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It would be hard to find a scholar better equipped to enhance our historical perspective on how we decide what's true. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/9955397

The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom 05/02/2019

The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind became one of the most influential books of the last 50 years, instigating a battle over the soul of the American university that’s been raging ever since. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/9596747

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph Ellis 04/04/2019

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph Ellis In this episode, we witness the birth of the most powerful idea in history and how it came to define the meaning of America. This is the idea that argument represents the best path to progress and to justice for all, and that to institutionalize this via a Constitutional right to freedom of speech is the best way to preserve a prosperous society. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/9181457

Applied Perspective: A Conversation with Niall Ferguson 03/07/2019

Applied Perspective: A Conversation with Niall Ferguson Niall Ferguson is one of the most influential historians of our generation. His professional effort extends well beyond academia to ensure that policy makers and the public better understand how to apply historical lessons to current issues. Niall and I connected to further discuss some of those issues. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/8888645

The Square and the Tower, by Niall Ferguson 02/07/2019

The Square and the Tower, by Niall Ferguson Niall Ferguson, perhaps the most famous historian of our generation, offers yet another breakthrough in his latest work, The Square and the Tower. Through groundbreaking research, Ferguson reveals how social networks, from the Freemasons of the middle ages to Facebook in the 21st century, disrupt established hierarchies to divert the course of history, both for better and for worse. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/8550965

Why the West Rules - For Now, by Ian Morris 01/09/2019

Why the West Rules - For Now, by Ian Morris Is there a logic to history? /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/8185052

The Fall of Rome, and the End of Civilization 12/12/2018

The Fall of Rome, and the End of Civilization A conversation with Bryan Ward-Perkins, author of The Fall of Rome, & the End of Civilization. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7896818

The Two Cultures, by C. P. Snow 11/21/2018

The Two Cultures, by C. P. Snow The Two Cultures was one of the most influential lectures of the 20th century, triggering an intense debate regarding the status of science that has persisted to this day. The main theme of Snow's lecture was to raise alarm about the growing knowledge gap between modern society's scientists and everyone else, and to reinvigorate respect for science among cultural elites who were increasingly dismissive of it. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7641587

Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway 10/30/2018

Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway Merchants of Doubt is not just a book about how illusions of scientific controversy have been constructed, it’s also about the people who constructed them, and its most shocking revelation is that the very same people used the very same strategy to prevent regulation on cigarette smoking, acid rain, the ozone hole, and global warming over the span of nearly 50 years. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7316642

Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science, by Peter Atkins 10/08/2018

Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science, by Peter Atkins If civilization collapsed, and our descendants could rediscover one work to get back on track, Peter Atkins’ Galileo’s Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science, would be a contender. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7130905

Evolution's Other Narrative 09/17/2018

Evolution's Other Narrative In this episode, I'll read an article I published in American Scientist called "Evolution's Other Narrative." (https://www.americanscientist.org/article/evolutions-other-narrative) /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7039470

Plagues and Peoples, by William McNeill 09/05/2018

Plagues and Peoples, by William McNeill The history of disease demonstrates the accidental nature of history and the triumph of human reason to enable some control over our fate; most of us no longer suffer the death of half our children. William McNeill, in Plagues and Peoples, was the first to capture this balance, offering insight on how disease has both shaped & been shaped by civilization. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/7007179

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles Mann 08/20/2018

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles Mann In 1493, Charles Mann shows us how Europeans emerged at the center of a modern, globalized world by establishing the Columbian Exchange; a system they created but could not control, and with consequences none of them could imagine. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/6945342

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford 08/06/2018

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford Genghis Khan was so influential that, to understand how Europe shook off its medieval provincialism, how the Islamic world lost much of its momentum, & how China’s unparalleled technology reshaped the fortunes of the West, it’s worth studying the legacy of this single Mongolian man. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/6891489

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn 07/24/2018

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of the most cited books of all time. Thomas Kuhn insightfully challenged our assumptions about science, but also ignited a cultural movement energized around the misinterpretation that scientific progress was an illusion. This idea became a pillar of postmodernism, and no one was more frustrated by the folly of its development than Thomas Kuhn himself. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/6843932

Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West, by Margaret Jacob 07/10/2018

Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West, by Margaret Jacob Margaret Jacob’s book helps us understand how science was integrated into Europe through the 1600s and 1700s, and how the social and political conditions of different countries influenced it's application. Jacob enhances our understanding of the role of science in the Industrial Revolution, and provides insight on why Britain’s approach to the utility of science enabled it to industrialize first. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/6792090

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, by David Landes 06/26/2018

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, by David Landes The Wealth and Poverty of Nations was published by David Landes in 1998, and it has occupied a preeminent place on the bookshelves of scholars ever since. Landes boldly argued that historically unique cultural values of curiosity, novelty, and private property empowered European society to lead the modern world; a history that offers invaluable lessons for our own time. /episode/index/show/contextwithbradharris/id/6744065

Context with Brad Harris

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