Sociology Improv

This week we talk about the sociology and economics of academic journal publishing, the Elsevier boycott, and whether the journal system as we know it is necessary anymore. Our decision: everybody can just podcast everything from now on. Starting with…. Episode Number 37

This episode we start with a discussion of violent protests prompted by a question from a listener (Which is great! Send more!). We then talk about Twitter, hashtags, Gmail, and passwords before moving on to a discussion about education and universal preschool. Links from this episode: Hacked! xkcd: Password Strength How passwords are cracked MySpace […]

We have three segments this episode: We talk with Shannon Golden about Kony 2012. Shannon provides some insight into the situation in Uganda while Chris cynically revels in the implosion of Invisible Children. We talk about the Mike Daisey/This American Life fiasco. Arturo defends liars, as usual, while I, er, Jon, stands strong as a […]

Autonomous Cars, more on stadiums and Mayor KJ, and Arturo’s participation in the NorCal AIDS Challenge: Donate here! Other links: Elite Squad Politics and Money Office Hours Drop In #1 This American Life: What Kind of Country The Superego Podcast Rhymesayers (for the Brother Ali and I Self Devine mixes) Download Ahprov Improv #34

Topics include the sociology of weather in an M Word state, the Super Bowl, stadiums, and guilt over the state of professional sports. Chris tries to get into a screaming match about Occupy Oakland, but Jesse just politely disagrees. Jesse also reveals how many tracks of hardcore punk you can get through in 24 hours. […]

After a lengthy break, we’re back! Racism in hockey, Work It, and The Trap are among our topics this episode. Enjoy! Download Improv #32

This week we talk about Occupy Wall Street and other Occupations. Links mentioned in the show: Occupy Wall Street Occupy Minnesota Planet Money on OWS Ballad of a Thin Man The 99 Percent The 53 Percent (About THe 1 Percent Sidney Tarrow on OWS SlutWalk Dean Zimmerman Elijah Anderson on Office Hours Kieran Healy on […]

This episode, we fail to talk about Robocop, then we have a discussion about Getting Wasted, and then chat a bit about current political events. Download the Big 3-0

After a quick ASA recap from Jesse and Arturo, we talk about the challenges of writing—and academic writing in particular—and whether diversity on television can make a difference. Download Episode #29

Long time, no see. Hope you’re having a nice summer. We’re back with two topics. First, we spend most of the hour talking about barefoot running, the Born to Run crowd, and naturalist (no, not naturist) social movements. Second, we briefly try to make sense of the London riots, but ultimately Chris wins out by […]