Passion and Practicality: A Liberal Arts Podcast
History
Episodes

Oct 17, 2025
Oct 17, 2025
1hr 16 min
Saikat Pradhan presents “The Past, Present and Future of Environmental (In)Justice in India: A Bioregional Reading of Orijit Sen’s River of Stories.” John Bessai, Independent Scholar presents “Reclaiming the Toxic Sublime: Environmental Witnessing and the Aporia of Canadian Public Memory.”

Oct 17, 2025
Oct 17, 2025
1hr 41 min
Jacob Haqq Misra presents “Long-term Scenario Modeling of Governance on Earth and Beyond.” Jeremy R. Pauley presents “Maximizing Potential: Through Neuroscience, Psychology, and Ethical AI Integration.” Michael A. Babcock presents “Stewardship in Artificial Environments: An Ecological Approach to AI Pedagogy.”

Oct 17, 2025
Oct 17, 2025
40 min
Aditi Basu presents “Resilience Theory as a Framework of Architectural History? An Analysis of Traditional Houses in Modern Times.”

Oct 17, 2025
Oct 17, 2025
1hr 27 min
Olawale Yemisi presents "'Take Your Herds and Leave Our Land, Animals': Grazing Land Allocation Politics and Resources Conflicts in Farmer Herdsmen Relations in Nigeria." Guyma Noel presents "Exploring Ethical Balance in Climate Change Negotiations for Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies Through A Polycentric Approach." Soumya Ranjan Gahir presents "Postcolonial Environmentalism in Practice: Can India Lead South Asia Toward Just Sustainability?"

Oct 17, 2025
Oct 17, 2025
26 min
In this welcome address that opens the Past, Present, and Future of the Human Environment conference, Associate Dean Rob Denning discusses the 1969 Governor's Conference on California's Changing Environment to demonstrate what has changed and what has not changed regarding humanity's interactions with the natural environment.

May 9, 2025
May 9, 2025
1hr 39 min
In this History Speaker Series event, public historian Karen Sieber discusses her career as a public historian and historical consultant, focusing on her recent research on Moses Dickson and the Underground Railroad in Minnesota. Karen received her master's degree in public history from Loyola University Chicago. She is best known as the creator of Visualizing the Red Summer, which is part of the AP African American Studies curriculum nationwide. Her work has been featured by the Library of Congress, National Archives, American Historical Association, Smithsonian and others. She also appears as an expert on Black history in documentaries like the CBS, Smithsonian, and BET collaboration, Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy. Last year she led the scholarly team for the NEH award winning series, “Examining Military History from the Margins.” In 2025 she will be developing a series of documentary shorts funded by PBS related to America’s 250th anniversary. She will also be leading preservation, exhibit design, and outreach efforts for a project in St. Paul, Minnesota, related to Pullman Porter history. She also teaches public history courses in Southern New Hampshire's graduate History program.

Mar 28, 2025
Mar 28, 2025
1hr 24 min
In this History Speaker Series event, José Ernesto Peláez discusses his research and his experience transitioning from the online Master of Arts degree program in History at Southern New Hampshire University to an in-person doctoral program in History at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Additional topics for discussion include the decision to pursue a doctoral degree, applying to programs, expectations of students in doctoral programs, and strategies for researching and writing history.

Mar 14, 2025
Mar 14, 2025
1hr 28 sec
In this History Speaker Series event, Dr. David Valladares discusses his career and his new book, England’s Response to Hitler in the 1930s: Empire, Appeasement, and the Cliveden Set, which discusses political and strategic efforts by British aristocrats to support Nazi Germany’s rearmament efforts and the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. More information about the book can be found on the publisher's website. Dr. Valladares received his doctoral degree in history from Florida State University and teaches history at Southern New Hampshire University.

Feb 14, 2025
Feb 14, 2025
59 min
In this History Speaker Series event, Dr. Margaret MacDonald discusses her professional and academic career, her advocacy work as a public historian, and her research on Carolyn Beatrice Parker, the first Black woman known to receive an advanced degree in physics and worked on the Dayton Project, part of the Manhattan Project, during World War II.

Dec 6, 2024
Dec 6, 2024
1hr 47 min
At this event, Dr. Matt Schandler discusses the effects of artificial intelligence on the study, research, and writing of history. Topics of discussions include the origins of Generative AI; emerging historical applications beyond text, image, and video; working with bots; AI in academic settings; AI output as source material; academic integrity and AI use; best practices and dangerous practices; and future-proofing one's skillset.
Matt Schandler is a historian of technology, data scientist, and political scientist who studies the histories of domestic digital technologies, environmental technological systems. artificial intelligence, digital gaming, and information technologies. In addition to teaching the undergraduate capstone course at SNHU, he teaches courses on The History of Everything; Data Science for the Social Good; World History and Technology; and Technology, Society, and Public Policy at Chestnut Hill College.
This event was recorded on October 11, 2024 and originally broadcast on the Working Historians podcast feed.