Sociological Life Lessons featuring Christopher Conner

In this episode we are joined by Chris Conner, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Missouri-Columbia. Chris discusses his research on the electronic music scene and gay dating apps and life lessons that can be taken from the respective projects. *This conversation is part of the Spring 2026 Sociological Life Lessons class led by […]

In this episode we are joined once again by Dr. Christopher R. Matthews from the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University. In this wide-ranging conversation Christopher discusses the co-production of knowledge, radical honesty in the methods section, finding inspiration in the work of Simone Weil , and conceiving of research as sacred.

In this episode we are joined by Alicia M. Walker, Associate Professor of Sociology at Missouri State and Arielle Kuperberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Alicia and Arielle discuss their co-authored book Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons in Building a Happier Life, reflect on some of the methodological and […]

In this episode we are joined by Stefano Bloch, Associate Professor in the School of Geography & Development at the University of Arizona and author of Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA’s Graffiti Subculture. Stefano discusses and shares some lessons from his recently published article “Crime as Relational Concept in Political Geography”.

Daniel Chambliss joins us to discuss The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on the Stratification of Swimmers, first published in Sociological Theory in 1989. This episode is the debut of a new format in which guests share life lessons that can be taken from their favorite social theory, or in this case, their own […]

In this episode, Dr. Seth Abrutyn, Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, co-author of Life under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What to Do About Them, and 2024 winner of the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting returns to the podcast to discuss Daniel Chambliss’s “The Mundanity of […]

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Rahsaan Mahadeo, Assistant Professor in African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota and  author of Funk the Clock: Transgressing Time While Young, Perceptive, and Black. In our conversation, Rahsaan introduces us to the ideas of Denise Ferreira da Silva and helps us understand the […]

In this episode we are joined by Jonathan Wynn, Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Jon joins us to discuss The Set Up, his debut work of fiction that both thrills and educates. Jon shares his experience writing a work of fiction, reflects on how theorists including W.E.B. Du Bois and Erving Goffman […]

In this episode, Dr. Daniel Silver, Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Scarborough and author of Scenescapes: how qualities of place shape social life (2020), joins us to discuss and read from Talcott Parsons’ On Institutions and Social Evolution, edited by Leon H. Mayhew. In our conversation, Dan helps me understand the logic […]

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Neil McLaughlin, Professor of Sociology at McMaster University and author of Erich Fromm and the Global Public Sociology (2023). In our conversation, Neil discusses the rise, fall, and potential resurgence of the writings of Erich Fromm. Neil reflects on the value of Fromm’s work in this current political […]