{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Political Science","slug":"new-books-in-political-science-408770","podcast_index_feed_id":408770,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT7047417664","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/79c533fc-f4de-11e8-9aba-c776eb4c2a32/image/af9ef2afee05125bb265ca99804e6c8a.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/political-science","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770"},"episode":{"title":"Shameem Black, \"Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions\" (Columbia UP, 2023)","slug":"shameem-black-flexible-india-yoga-s-cultural-and-political-tensions-columbia-up-2023","published_at":"2026-04-23T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770/shameem-black-flexible-india-yoga-s-cultural-and-political-tensions-columbia-up-2023","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3026903503.mp3?updated=1776794476","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3026903503.mp3?updated=1776794476","summary":"Yoga has offered the Indian state unprecedented opportunities for global, media-savvy political performance. Under Modi, it has promoted yoga tourism and staged mass yoga sessions, and Indian officials have proposed yoga as a national solution to a range of social problems, from reducing rape to curing cancer. But as yoga has gone global, its cultural meanings have spiraled far and wide. In Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions (Columbia University Press, 2024), Dr. Shameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an exercise in cultural power. Drawing on her own experience and her readings of political spectacles, yoga murder mysteries, court cases, art installations, and digital media, Dr. Black shows how yoga’s imaginative power supports diverse political and cultural ends. Although many cultural practices in today’s India exemplify “culture wars” between liberal and conservative agendas, Flexible India argues that visions of yoga offer a “culture peace” that conceals, without resolving, such tensions. This flexibility allows states, corporations, and individuals to think of themselves as welcoming and tolerant while still, in many cases, supporting practices that make minority populations increasingly vulnerable. However, as Dr. Black shows, yoga can also be imagined in ways that offer new tools for critiquing hierarchical structures of power and race, Hindu nationalism, cultural appropriation, and self-help capitalism. 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 Mozambi…","meta_description":"Yoga has offered the Indian state unprecedented opportunities for global, media-savvy political performance. Under Modi, it has promoted yoga tourism and…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2797,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-political-science-408770/episodes/shameem-black-flexible-india-yoga-s-cultural-and-political-tensions-columbia-up-2023/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-political-science-408770/shameem-black-flexible-india-yoga-s-cultural-and-political-tensions-columbia-up-2023.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}