{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Intellectual History","slug":"new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753","podcast_index_feed_id":1045753,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/w9MOrNGB","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2/849571c7-bcd2-4e7f-b939-f60b0b82e141/3000x3000/7b472a09e0ba06314b3d8cd1401cd52a.png?aid=rss_feed","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":600,"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/intellectual-history","last_synced_at":"2026-09-19T12:22:14.721883+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753"},"episode":{"title":"Leopoldina Fortunati, \"The Arcana of Reproduction: Housewives, Prostitutes, Workers and Capital\" (Verso, 2025)","slug":"leopoldina-fortunati-the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-verso-2025","published_at":"2026-08-08T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753/leopoldina-fortunati-the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-verso-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753","url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","audio_url":"https://injector.simplecastaudio.com/ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2/episodes/8c7fcea6-1593-478c-8026-7e005941d1ed/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2&awEpisodeId=8c7fcea6-1593-478c-8026-7e005941d1ed&feed=w9MOrNGB","summary":"The definitive feminist analysis of reproductive and ‘caring’ labor to emerge from Italian feminism of the 1970s. Emerging from the great social upheavals that contested the sexual and racial divisions of labor globally in the 1970s, Leopoldina Fortunati’s classic work expands and transforms how we analyze the sphere of reproduction, redefining the value of the individual’s life and the labor performed in the home. Released here for the first time in its unabridged form with historical notation and contemporary commentary, The Arcana of Reproduction: Housewives, Prostitutes, Workers and Capital (Verso, 2025) is a foundational text and essential contribution to today’s discussions of social reproduction and the history of Italian feminism. Fortunati’s work provides some of the earliest theorizations of ‘immaterial,’ ‘affective,’ and ‘caring’ labor, and of the role of technology in reproduction, articulated decades before their popular reception in English academic literature. Reading this work some 50 years after its original publication gives us the tools to analyze the contemporary state of capitalist development and of women’s lives today. The text remains prefigurative and essential in our era of digital labor. Leopoldina Fortunati was a core member of Lotta Femminsta and the Wages for Housework Movement internationally. Along with Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James and Silvia Federici, she composed many of the group’s core theoretical and political texts. Her early work continues to inform movements concerned with struggles over reproduction globally and in subsequent work as a theorist of media and technology, Fortunati has been at the vanguard of contemporary theory addressing the relation between gendered labor and technology. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. grad…","meta_description":"The definitive feminist analysis of reproductive and ‘caring’ labor to emerge from Italian feminism of the 1970s. Emerging from the great social upheavals…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4617,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753/episodes/leopoldina-fortunati-the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-verso-2025/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-intellectual-history-1045753/leopoldina-fortunati-the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-verso-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}