BOOKS: Notes - and audio from - Sudhir Venkatesh & "Gang Leader for a Day"

One of bigger books this publishing season is "Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets" by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology professor at Columbia University. While he's been known in academic circles for years, he became known as "the Freakonomics guy" because he and his work were the subject of one the most successful books of nonfiction in recent memory, "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explains the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. In that book, Venkatesh was the star of a memorable chapter: "Why do drug dealers still live with their mothers?"

Listen below to a recording of a SAJA webcast of Feb. 26, 2008 with Venkatesh where he discusses both books, his career and offers plenty of food for thought about crime, race relations and a whole lot more. If you'd like to get your own free MP3 file of the discussion, go to BlogTalkRadio.com/saja and download a copy.

After listening to the live session, SAJAer Cal Jahan, wrote:

brilliant!!!  i got the following books from your interview (just in case anyone else is interested)...

"Slim's Table" by Mitchell Duneier
"Random Family" by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
"Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich
"American Dream" by Jason DeParle
"The Karma of Brown Folk" by Vijay Prashad

Post your comments below. More webcasts coming soon!