I love when a snow blower breaks down during the biggest blizzard in years, but on the plus side while shoveling multiple times and taking breaks in between with this guy I was able to listen to a bunch of talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great talk by Luc Rocher on effectively evaluating AI models in social settings at the Network Science Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51w_p-6yEHE

Next was "Latin American Economic History" by Molly Ball. This is less a book to be read cover-to-cover and more of an invaluable research tool on Latin American economic history with some high-level macro economic history around it. As far as the history is concerned, Ball does a good job covering so much ground in ~200 pages but it's far too short. If you want some macro numbers with a bit of background these sections will be interesting, but the bibliographies! Each chapter has what amounts to a reading list at the end around the time period it covers, in addition to other resources to consult. If you're looking to dive into a period of Latin American economic history, this book will be an indispensable first visit https://www.routledge.com/Latin-American-Economic-History-An-Introduction-to-Daily-Life-Debt-and-Development/Ball/p/book/9781032224343

Next was "The Challenge of Chance," edited by Klaas Landsman and Ellen van Wolde. To call this collection multidisciplinary is an understatement, with academics from fields as diverse as theology, statistics, and biology all examining different aspects of chance. I particularly liked the piece from Olivier Hekster on the role of chance in history, as well as the section by Christoph Lüthy and Carla Rita Palmerino analyzing the conceptual and historical roots of chance. While many of the contributions in areas where I have some expertise were more basic than I'd like, this is still an excellent collection on a fundamental concept that gets far too little attention. Highly recommend https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-26300-7

Last was "Illiberal America" by Steven Hahn. Reading this book after the murders of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and many others by a profoundly illiberal government was tough, especially as I was already familiar with much of the history here. However understanding that background is essential for processing and acting in our current moment, and Hahn has done a service by collecting this history here to show the deep strain of illiberalism that has run through American history. While this book doesn't refute that values rooted in justice and equality have run in parallel to these currents, it does show how what we are grappling with today is a result of America not doing the hard work of rooting out this cultural rot once and for all. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635928