Interviews Archives - Public Seminar

Genocide

Writing Toward Mercy After Gaza

An interview with Yahia Lababidi on how to keep writing when poets aren’t allowed to say the word “genocide”

November 2, 2026 • by Elizabeth Mirabelle and Yahia Lababidi

If you believe in God, God pardons all sins. If someone thought one way and has now come around to a different way, embrace them. You can be gentle with that person. They probably feel bad about themselves. I would like to be someone who doesn't have closed doors but ...

First as Comedy, Then as Farce

A conversation with Benjamin Mangrum on the assembly of The Comedy of Computation

December 16, 2025 • by Benjamin Mangrum and Rayna Salam

When confronted with change we don’t understand, there is only one thing to do: laugh. Or so says MIT literature professor Benjamin Mangrum. In his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford University Press, 2025), Mangrum peers into the archives ...

The Rat Race of Prestige and Boredom

W. David Marx on how status affects human behavior

November 9, 2022 • by Alla Anatsko and W. David Marx

The whole idea of cultural capital is knowing what objects to buy, how to arrange them, how to behave—all of these things go together. Just because you can purchase an object does not mean you can get into the group....