Princeton SPIA faculty members spend the academic year awash in reading material. Policy papers, scholarly articles, books, student assignments, and more sit on desks, coffee tables, and nightstands, awaiting perusal.

With summer here, we were curious: What do the School’s faculty watch and listen to when they have some free time?

Pascaline Dupas, a professor of economics and public affairs, is listening to the audio version of Lydia Reeder’s history “The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever.”

“It's a fascinating and well-researched, entertaining account of women’s fight to be allowed to learn and practice medicine,” Dupas says, “and of their fight to overturn the theories about women’s bodies and biology heralded by leaders of the medical profession in the 19th century, and the resulting sexist policies in place for decades.”
 

Jacob N. Shapiro, a professor of politics and international affairs, is also spending time with an audiobook. “The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self,” by Michael Easter, is “excellent,” he says, adding that it “touches on why we all need to get out of our comfort zones more and why regularly having difficult, uncomfortably, and even mildly dangerous experiences on a regular basis is good for our mental health and productivity.”

Shapiro also recommends a pair of podcasts: “Odd Lots,” which “gives you a Wall Street trader’s view of the world” and is a “great place to learn about what is clear and what is confusing from the perspective of finance,” and “Revolutions,” which he calls “possibly the best history podcast.” Each of its 12 seasons covers a different historical revolution from start to finish.

“If you have a cross-country drive this year,” Shapiro says, “this one’s for you.”

Julian E. Zelizer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, is consuming a variety of media types this summer. He is enjoying the new medical drama “The Pitt” and was looking forward to the fourth season of the culinary dramedy “The Bear,” and is “hoping to see as many movies as possible.” Among his recent screenings was the Paul Rudd comedy “Friendship.”

A morning podcast listener, Zelizer enjoys KCRW’s “Left, Right & Center” for its “thoughtful conversations about American politics” and “The Ezra Klein Show.”

Also on Zelizer’s agenda is live music, including shows by Drive-by Truckers in New York City and Joan Osborne in Amagensett, New York.