#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/28/25

I was down in Philly this weekend to celebrate my uncle, who passed away earlier this week. He was kind of a big deal in the news industry (the Philly Inquirer wrote his obit, linked below), but I'll always remember him as that wry, irascible, fiercely ethical uncle that collected barf bags when he traveled and gave them away as "party favors" for his funeral (luckily I didn't have to use one on the way home).

https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/tom-livingston-obituary-daily-news-philadelphia-pasadena-20250927.html

On the drive I listened to books that I think he would've appreciated for my #AcademicRunPlaylist

First was "Trans Bodies, Trans Selves," edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth. This book isn't meant to be read cover to cover, but even if like me you take that route it's still an extremely valuable look into being a trans person in the US. With chapters covering the ins and outs of legal rights, transitioning, parenting a trans child, trans US history, and more, the amount of ground covered is immense, and with the different authors the tone and audience can shift dramatically. As one might expect, a lot of the legal advice is out of date, and with resources changing rapidly I'm not sure how useful it is to include huge lists of websites and phone numbers for people to access. I also wish there was more of an international perspective on the history chapters, although that's clearly not the aim of the book. Still highly recommend http://transbodies.com/

Next was "The Things We Make" by Bill Hammack. This could probably be a paper rather than a book, but by including a bevy of detailed case studies Hammack demonstrates why it's important to distinguish engineering from science, their differing methods, and the implications for how we think about and shape innovation. The crux of the argument is that engineering uses rules of thumb, which are informed by observation of the world or science, to build things. That process doesn't have a predetermined end point, and random factors can throw technological development in directions wildly different than its progenitors intended or imagined. I think the line between engineering and science is much blurrier that Hammack argues, and the lack of scientific rigor in his analysis really shows in his overreliance on case studies (see what I did there?). That being said, this is still an important dive into the narratives we build around the technological development process. Highly recommend https://www.sourcebooks.com/the-things-we-make.html

Last was "The Second Founding" by Eric Foner. Contrasting with much of Foner's other work, this is a focused book examining the motivations, crafting, and legacy of the Constitutional changes brought about by the Civil War and Reconstruction. This historical context is extremely important today, with the potential to utilize some of the early applications of these new amendments to build a fairer society. As with many other books on this topic, Foner demonstrates how these amendments fundamentally stunted the still unfinished work of reconstruction by continuing (albeit more limited) forms of slavery and sanctioning segregation and current unfair discriminatory acts. I would've liked a lot more examination of how these amendments played out post-Reconstruction in the legal realm, however. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393358520