A conversation on eighteenth-century philosopher Denis Diderot and the battle over his encyclopedia which was considered to be full of subversive stuff.  Diderot challenged virtually all of his century’s accepted truths, from the sanctity of monarchy, to the racial justification of the slave trade, to the norms of human sexuality.  He is considered a prophetic philosopher  … Continued


In what ways do media-propagated ideals of beauty affect women and girls? Whose interests do such ideals serve? Meeta Rani Jha draws from the ideas of second- and third-wave feminism in her examination of the beauty pageant phenomenon; hair-straightening and other appearance-changing practices; and antiracist challenges to the dominant white beauty standard. Also: Angela Davis … Continued


In 1805, a remarkable slave rebellion took place — not in the Atlantic, but in the Pacific, and involving an unusual ruse. And it illustrates, argues historian Greg Grandin, something fundamental about freedom and unfreedom in the New World. Grandin examines the historical event, immortalized by Herman Melville, in which insurgent slave leaders maintained a striking … Continued