#190. The History of the Opioid Trade, Legal and Illegal

#190. The History of the Opioid Trade, Legal and Illegal

Benjamin Robert Siegel [https://www.benjaminrsiegel.com/] is a history professor at Boston University and former writer for Time Magazine. His writing has appeared in both mainstream media and academic journals, focusing on economic issues that affect everyday life, including food production and drug supplies. His first book, Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India, published in 2018, explores the struggle of newly independent India to overcome famine and malnutrition. His second book, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers, published two months ago, tells the story of opium, its cultivation and trade, both legal and illegal, and its role in the building of empires and the fomenting of international conflicts. Siegel’s next book will be about the the price of protein, i.e., its political and environmental costs. This interview will focus primary on his most recent book, Markets of Pain. Recorded 5/26/26.

#189. One of Ancient Rome's Most Powerful Women

Jane Draycott [https://drjanedraycott.co.uk/] is a lecturer (professor) of Ancient History at the University of Glasgow and co-director of the University of Glasgow’s Games and Gaming Lab, focusing on Roman history and archaeology. In addition to interviews and writing book chapters and articles for academic and mainstream media, she is the author of several books, three on ancient medical practices in Ancient Rome, and two on prominent ancient women: Cleopatra’s Daughter: Egyptian Princess, Roman Prisoner, African Queen, published in 2023 and Fulvia: The Woman Who Broke All the Rules in Ancient Rome, published in 2025, which is the subject of today’s interview. Recorded 5/21/26.

#188. A Memoir that Explores the Tensions Between Devotion to Parents and Building One's Own Life

Manil Suri [https://www.manilsuri.com/] is a distinguished university professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and is also the author of three internationally acclaimed novels set in his native India: The Death of Vishnu, The Age of Shiva, and The City of Devi, which have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have won multiple literary awards. As a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, he has written several widely read pieces on mathematics, India, and LGBTQ+ issues. In October of 2022, I interviewed Manil about his book, The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math, which marshaled his talent for storytelling in the sharing of his love of mathematics. (Episode #9) Today’s interview is about his latest book, in which he ably tackles yet another genre, A Room in Bombay, a Memoir, a sensitive and poignant portrait of his relationship with his parents and how he navigated their emotional dependency on him and still have his own life. Recorded 5/19/26.

#187. Attachment Theory: A Cornerstone for Understanding Our Most Intimate Relationships

Robert Karen is a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City and author of numerous articles both in academic journals and mainstream media. His first book, Becoming Attached: Unfolding the Mystery of the Infant-Mother Bond and Its Impact on Later Life, published in 1994, provided a thorough and highly readable history of the ideas and thinkers behind attachment theory, which at the time was just starting to gain wider acceptance among both developmental researchers and psychotherapists. Thirty years later, in 2024, Dr. Karen, published an expanded, second edition of the book, with the title, Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love [https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/becoming-attached-9780199398799?cc=us&lang=en&], which takes full stock of how attachment theory has become mainstream, not only as an explanation for how emotions and interpersonal lives develop throughout the lifespan, but also as a primary foundation for psychological interventions and for social policies that affect young children and their parents. He is also the author of The Forgiving Self: The Road From Resentment to Connection, an award-winning book published in 2001, which explores possibilities for relinquishing the stance of victim-in-need-of-revenge and, in the process, becoming open to the repair of our most intimate relationships.

#186. The Death of Her Parents at Fourteen Years Old

Erin Vincent [https://www.erinvincent.com/] is an author, essayist, journalist, and public speaker. In addition to literary contributions to anthologies and other publications, she has also appeared on national television and radio programs both in her native Australia and in the US. Her memoir, Grief Girl, published in 2008, chronicles her life and emotions following the death of her parents from an automobile accident. It was named a New York Public Library Best Book and was an American Library Association Best Book Nominee. Her second book, Fourteen Ways of Looking, published just this month, revisits the year her parents died by exploring wide-ranging associations to the number 14, evoking a wide variety of images and feelings in the process. Recorded 4/20/26 in the U.S. (4/21/26 in Australia.)