{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Anthropology","slug":"new-books-in-anthropology-901932","podcast_index_feed_id":901932,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT5223487889","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/c4c2fb9a-effd-11e8-b747-3397cd40d5ab/image/15368bdb812ba6d54c395a6f26d57913.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1000,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology","last_synced_at":"2026-09-12T12:18:17.867506+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932"},"episode":{"title":"Margaret E. Farrar and Adam Kaul, \"Becoming Utopia: History, Heritage, and Sustainability in the American Midwest\" (U Nebraska Press, 2026)","slug":"margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026","published_at":"2026-08-10T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK5663916356.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK5663916356.mp3","summary":"Becoming Utopia: History, Heritage, and Sustainability in the American Midwest (U Nebraska Press, 2026) centers on the tiny community of Bishop Hill, Illinois, whose marketing materials call it “Utopia on the Prairie,” home to a radical communal religious sect that emigrated from Sweden in the 1840s. Through rich textual and ethnographic analyses, Dr. Margaret E. Farrar and Dr. Adam Kaul tell the story of what happens when a small, historically significant Midwestern community negotiates the contradictory impulses of twenty-first-century place-making. At first glance, Bishop Hill is simply a small heritage tourism destination in Midwestern flyover country, but further inspection reveals it to be a complex place that mixes a deep nostalgia for the past undercut by complex origin stories of displacement and colonialism, an active historic preservation movement amid futuristic green energy technologies built by multinational corporations, and a commitment to localism in the context of omnipresent globalization. Based on fifteen years of fieldwork, Becoming Utopia is an interdisciplinary contribution to conversations about the importance and meaning of place-making, heritage-making, and sustainability (social, economic, and environmental) in the twenty-first century. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology","meta_description":"Becoming Utopia: History, Heritage, and Sustainability in the American Midwest (U Nebraska Press, 2026) centers on the tiny community of Bishop…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2210,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/episodes/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/margaret-e-farrar-and-adam-kaul-becoming-utopia-history-heritage-and-sustainability-in-the-american-midwest-u-nebraska-press-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}