#AcademicRunPlaylist - 6/19/25

It was extremely hot, 93°F (34°C), but while running a route that allowed for frequent Dunkin/convenience store stops I still listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fantastic discussion with Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci and Christina Sautter on the history of the concept of shareholder democracy and its fraught present on the Business Scholarship podcast. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61kzY8kNvRA

Next was a fascinating talk by Douglas Harris on legal architectures of property and urban development at UNSW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15eVRQhbSg4

Next was a great panel on the most important recent labor news with friends of the playlist Seth Harris and Aaron Sojourner as well as Patricia Campos-Medina and Jacob Morrison at the Burnes Center for Social Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuk7jRJzuGI

Next was an important talk by Ruha Benjamin on using history and sociology to understand tech predictions and claims of "neutrality" at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) https://www.youtube.com/live/0ko_Lh7WedI?si=kSuQQW-HeiJa-BEm&t=651

Next was "From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend" by Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty. This book mostly functions as a rapid-fire distillation of US labor history facts - names, dates, and brief descriptions with little analysis or macro perspective. These facts are certainly useful and interesting, but the lack of context makes it a bit much. The choices of where to focus also strike me as bizarre - approximately 1 page on the Haymarket Affair, a paragraph on the Clayton Act and the Wagner Act, but an entire chapter devoted to the 2010s? Macro trends are mostly mentioned in passing, which makes it difficult to understand how muted the US labor movement became in the late 20th century. The AFL and CIO get the most consistent attention, and the sections that follow their winding history are exceptional and insightful. Highly recommend https://bookshop.org/p/books/from-the-folks-who-brought-you-the-weekend-an-illustrated-history-of-labor-in-the-united-states-priscilla-murolo/12898030

Last was, fittingly, "On Juneteenth" by Annette Gordon-Reed. Gordon-Reed poignantly covers Texas history, starting with her own experience growing up in the state and drawing from the territory's history and that of the US from its founding until the modern day to paint a picture of its relationship with race. While Juneteenth is ironically only covered briefly, this book instead provides a rich historic backdrop to contextualize that moment and more recent Texan history, particularly around the oppression and marginalization of Black people. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498831