The Social Breakdown

Oct 09 2024 100 ep. 37 mins 1.6k

The Social Breakdown Podcast artwork

The sociology podcast nobody wants, but everybody needs! Come join us as we break down the complex social world one topic at a time using our sociological imagination.

Society & Culture Education

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2024 Updates & Ellen's New Book, "Making It"!

Oct 09 2024 48 mins

My oh my, it's been a while since we last chatted with you all-- sorry for the extended "hiatus," listeners! But, we are BACK! And we are back with some updates on what we've been up, as well as to discuss and exciting new development: Ellen's new book, Making It: Success in the Commercial Kitchen, which'll be published October 11, 2024 by Rutgers University Press. Take a listen to

(Re-release) SOC409 - The PhD's Guide to Getting a Non-Academic Job

Apr 26 2023 48 mins

Are you a newly minted or almost PhD graduate? Have academic job prospects been stressing you out? Look no further - we may have the solution for you! The academic job market isn't looking too hot right now, so here we are with a PhD's Guide to getting a non-academic job! We draw from our personal experiences of navigating the non-academic job market and give you all the practical

(Re-release) Breakaway Episode 4: Context Collapse

Apr 12 2023 28 mins

With all this talk about Tik Tok, we wanted to bring you an oldie-but-goodie from 2018 about Context Collapse, an interesting phenomenon that occurs often on social media when various segments of your social network (friends, family, acquaintances, employers, and complete strangers) are muddled together into one big audience. How does a social media user as yourself negotiate the m

(Re-release) SOC506 - Rolling with the Queen: Patricia Hill Collins & Black Feminist Thought

Mar 29 2023 33 mins

We're honoring the queen of sociology, Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, on this last week of Women's History Month by going deep into higher level theory via Black Feminist Thought (BFT as we like to call it). We discuss the history of the Frankfurt school of thought and the genesis of Dr. Collins' own 'critical social theory.' Her theory is steeped in American culture, history, and law,

(Rerelease) SOC211 – “It Ain’t a Rug!”: Edward Said’s Orientalism

Mar 15 2023 43 mins

We’re getting theoretical this week and tackling Orientalism, a concept and book by the fantastic Dr. Edward Said. If you’re taking a higher-level sociology, anthropology, history, or poli sci class, chances are you’re gonna hear “orientalism” thrown around! What is heck is it? (Hint: It ain’t a rug, a fast-food take out place, or the way to describe how someone looks!)

(Rerelease) SOC109 – Illness & Morality: A Look at Medical Sociology

Mar 01 2023 50 mins

Is health a privilege or a right? As a society, how do we come to understand health and its social origins and outcomes? Though medicine has been understood as a social science that dates back to Hippocrates–the Hippocratic Oath–medical sociology is not even 70 years old yet! The climb to intellectual legitimacy and sound research is recent. When it comes to matters of stress,

(Rerelease) SOC118 - Love Struck or Love Sick?

Feb 14 2023 37 mins

Since it's V-day, we wanted to rerelease one of our first episodes from 2018 about LOVE. In this episode we explore what happens in our brains when we are struck with love, how sociologists like Charles Cooley and Theodore Kemper see love, and how love can be used as a tool of social control. To better understand this intense emotion, we also discuss Georg Simmel’s important conc

(Rerelease) SOC119 - Mom is the Panopticon: Modern Day Surveillance

Feb 08 2023 47 mins

Triggered by "China Balloon Incident" of Feb 2023, we wanted rerelease this episode to consider the questions... with the internet, social media, and all of our new technology, do we have privacy anymore? We start the episode off talking about the classic sociological concept of Jeremy Bentham’s ‘Panopticon’. We also discuss the various ways (and reasons why) our government s

SOC606 - Culture and Systems: An Intro to Food Studies

Jan 25 2023 30 mins

If you're like us, you're probably snacking on something right now trying to get through your day. It goes without saying how important food is to our survival, but beyond the biological needs, there is a whole system surrounding food. This episode is an introduction to food studies from a sociological perspective. We look at the intermingling of culture and food, the stories and l

SOC605 - Comedy, Humor, and 'The Souls of White Jokes' (Guest Edition)

Dec 14 2022 41 mins

What is “humor” and what is “comedy”? Do these terms mean the same thing? Today we answer these questions with the help of Dr. Raul Perez, author of ‘The Souls of White Jokes’ and scholar of what exactly “funny” is and “funny” does. Tune in to learn about the purposes that humor serves in society, stretching back to feudal times to the current Cancel Culture era