The British Library preserves a unique collection of pictorial maps and descriptions of places and cultures along the road from Lhasa to Leh.But finding the people behind this collection and decoding it have been journeys of their own. In this latest podcast episode, Dr. Diana Lange of Humboldt University, Germany, opens her book “An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama: A Journey of Discovery” published in Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, and talks about how she made these journeys, what her experiences were of travelling to the region in the modern day, and the differences between Western and Eastern art and cartography. Guest: <a href='https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/users/dlange'>Dr Diana Lange</a> Host: <a href='https://www.leighgiangreco.com/about'>Leigh Giangreco</a>

Episode 30: Bringing the Story to the Streets—If God is Dead, How Does the Passion Survive?, with Mirella Klomp

With the challenges the world is facing today, the humanities and social sciences are needed and more relevant than ever to help us understand what it means to ‘lead a good life’. The authors and editors, with whom Brill collaborates, dedicate their academic life to asking critical questions on globalization, the rise and fall of societies, migration, the functioning of our democracies, the history of conflicts and international relations, inequality, water security or climate change, to name just a few. In this year’s article we let our authors and editors explain – from their personal perspectives – why it is crucial for society to continue investing in research in the humanities and social sciences. They give us a glance into their field of research, individual work, methodologies and motivation, and they demonstrate why the humanities have been and will remain a vital pillar of academia and society.