#43: Culture: A New World History with Martin Puchner

Sounds About Right: Audiobooks to Help Us Understand the World

​Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to world literature and culture and have been translated into many languages.
His new book, Culture: A New World History, tells a global history of culture that raises fundamental questions about how culture works, what good are the arts, and how different cultures should relate to one another.
Some of the topics we discussed includes:

• Queen Nefertiti, the impact of her changing her switch from polytheism and its significance.
• The Greeks, the influence of plays and theatre on their culture and their respect for the Egyptians.
• The relatiionships between Greece & Rome, China & Japan and how neither were driven by conquest
• Xuanzang - The King of Social Mobility.
• How cultures develop by acknowlegding their own distant past
• Materialism and science of the past.
• How much of a problem was translation in the ancient world?
• How the internet has impacted cultural sharing and whether it is a bad or good thing

The Book and Audiobook: Culture: A New World History is out now.
You can also find out more about Martin on his website http://www.martinpuchner.com

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