The Social Breakdown

My oh my, it's been a while since we last chatted with you all-- sorry for the extended "hiatus," listeners! But, we are BACK! And we are back with some updates on what we've been up, as well as to discuss and exciting new development: Ellen's new book, Making It: Success in the Commercial Kitchen, which'll be published October 11, 2024 by Rutgers University Press. Take a listen to catch up with us, talk crap, and to hear about the book publishing process!

Are you a newly minted or almost PhD graduate? Have academic job prospects been stressing you out? Look no further - we may have the solution for you! The academic job market isn't looking too hot right now, so here we are with a PhD's Guide to getting a non-academic job! We draw from our personal experiences of navigating the non-academic job market and give you all the practical deets on what search terms to use, what job sites to scour, how to revamp your CV into a resume that's not 15 pages long, and much more!! Tune in to see if there's a non-academic job in your future!

With all this talk about Tik Tok, we wanted to bring you an oldie-but-goodie from 2018 about Context Collapse, an interesting phenomenon that occurs often on social media when various segments of your social network (friends, family, acquaintances, employers, and complete strangers) are muddled together into one big audience. How does a social media user as yourself negotiate the multiple imagined audiences of the social network? From self-presentation tactics such as censorship and compartmentalization, we discuss the complex ways we navigate the online social life.

We're honoring the queen of sociology, Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, on this last week of Women's History Month by going deep into higher level theory via Black Feminist Thought (BFT as we like to call it). We discuss the history of the Frankfurt school of thought and the genesis of Dr. Collins' own 'critical social theory.' Her theory is steeped in American culture, history, and law, as she works to understand the experiences of Black American women. From standpoint epistemology to matrix of domination, we'll break it all down for you so you'll be ready to learn more!

We're getting theoretical this week and tackling Orientalism, a concept and book by the fantastic Dr. Edward Said. If you're taking a higher-level sociology, anthropology, history, or poli sci class, chances are you're gonna hear "orientalism" thrown around! What is heck is it? (Hint: It ain't a rug, a fast-food take out place, or the way to describe how someone looks!) What is its connection to imperialism and colonialism? And how has it influenced scholarship and research in the past and present? Tune in to learn more and be sure to give us a rating!

Is health a privilege or a right? As a society, how do we come to understand health and its social origins and outcomes? Though medicine has been understood as a social science that dates back to Hippocrates–the Hippocratic Oath–medical sociology is not even 70 years old yet! The climb to intellectual legitimacy and sound research is recent. When it comes to matters of stress, food, doctor-patient interactions, racism and sexism, medical sociologists have a lot to say and a lot to do…come join us as The Social Breakdown begins its journey in everything health!

Since it's V-day, we wanted to rerelease one of our first episodes from 2018 about LOVE. In this episode we explore what happens in our brains when we are struck with love, how sociologists like Charles Cooley and Theodore Kemper see love, and how love can be used as a tool of social control. To better understand this intense emotion, we also discuss Georg Simmel's important concept of the Dyad. Do you agree with sociology's view of love? Tune in to hear our discussion! P.S. Happy consumerist Valentine's Day, everyone! Xoxo– The Social Breakdown Crew

Triggered by "China Balloon Incident" of Feb 2023, we wanted rerelease this episode to consider the questions... with the internet, social media, and all of our new technology, do we have privacy anymore? We start the episode off talking about the classic sociological concept of Jeremy Bentham's 'Panopticon'. We also discuss the various ways (and reasons why) our government surveils us, how we tie morality in with privacy, and the consequences of doxxing and revenge porn. Tune in to hear how everyone is watching you!

If you're like us, you're probably snacking on something right now trying to get through your day. It goes without saying how important food is to our survival, but beyond the biological needs, there is a whole system surrounding food. This episode is an introduction to food studies from a sociological perspective. We look at the intermingling of culture and food, the stories and legends we pass down about food, as well as the system of food, including production, processing, and distribution. We hope you're hungry to learn!

What is "humor" and what is "comedy"? Do these terms mean the same thing? Today we answer these questions with the help of Dr. Raul Perez, author of 'The Souls of White Jokes' and scholar of what exactly "funny" is and "funny" does. Tune in to learn about the purposes that humor serves in society, stretching back to feudal times to the current Cancel Culture era. And don't forget to grab a copy of his book!