{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Sociology","slug":"new-books-in-sociology-671620","podcast_index_feed_id":671620,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT3382719913","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/f7161e82-f346-11e8-a8a3-a3d2f039e6d2/image/b6e67e348fe6c83f677a9dc9bd7ac1fe.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/sociology","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620"},"episode":{"title":"Christos Lynteris, \"How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic\" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)","slug":"christos-lynteris-how-plague-got-rats-mastering-a-zoonotic-pandemic-johns-hopkins-up-2026","published_at":"2026-05-30T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620/christos-lynteris-how-plague-got-rats-mastering-a-zoonotic-pandemic-johns-hopkins-up-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3680506672.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3680506672.mp3","summary":"Today, rats are nearly synonymous with plague, but this association is surprisingly recent. For centuries, plague devastated populations without being linked to animals. So how did the rat become the symbol of one of history's deadliest diseases? In How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026), Professor Christos Lynteris unravels this story by focusing on the Third Plague Pandemic, a global outbreak that began in China in the 1850s and claimed an estimated 15 million lives by the mid-twentieth century. This was the first major pandemic recognized by scientists as zoonotic—spread from animals to humans—and it marked a turning point in both medical science and global health. Through a gripping historical investigation, Professor Lynteris explores how rats entered the medical imagination of the time. He reveals how scientific thinking about disease vectors evolved in tandem with colonial power structures as plague responses unfolded across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. From laboratory discoveries to imperial interventions, the rat became central not just to understanding plague, but to shaping new forms of epidemiological reasoning. This provocative book shows how zoonosis emerged as a politically charged concept in the context of empire and pandemic crisis. It is a powerful history of how science, society, and colonialism converged around a creature now inseparable from the story of epidemic disease. 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, wh…","meta_description":"Today, rats are nearly synonymous with plague, but this association is surprisingly recent. For centuries, plague devastated populations without being li…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2951,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-sociology-671620/episodes/christos-lynteris-how-plague-got-rats-mastering-a-zoonotic-pandemic-johns-hopkins-up-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-sociology-671620/christos-lynteris-how-plague-got-rats-mastering-a-zoonotic-pandemic-johns-hopkins-up-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}