It was still a bit hot in London today, and while shuttling around on the poorly-ventilated tube I listened to talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an immensely enjoyable conversation between Ann Lipton and Michael Levin on, of course, the corporate governance and financial nightmare that is the SpaceX IPO on the Shareholder Primacy podcast. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wkjAzmNWKA

Next was "A Natural History of Color" by Rob DeSalle and Hans Bachor. This book would benefit from being twice as long, covering nearly everything related to color perception and production, but due to its length unable to fully cover any of these topics. On the physics and perceptual side the review here is quite good, but there's not nearly enough on the development of cultural meanings around color (this is one of the main reasons I was interested in the book). You'll still get a good introduction to these topics, but you'll definitely have to do follow up reading http://pegasusbooks.com/books/a-natural-history-of-color-9781643134420-hardcover

Last was "Blackface" by Ayanna Thompson. This short, powerful book reviews and analyzes the history of blackface, the failure of white society and the entertainment world to acknowledge and continually confront that history, and its continuing resurfacing over recent decades. The roots of this practice are particularly instructive, as it demonstrates how many of the seemingly modern excuses for employing blackface were in fact used from the beginning. The analysis here is incisive, and combined with the witty writing style makes this book impossible to put down. Highly recommend https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/blackface-9781501374029/