TPN - Napoleon 1O1

Usually history podcasts are in the form of a monologue, or a lecture, which is essentially also a monologue, but Napoleon 1O1 (mind the O) uses the dialog. It is widely considered to work better having more voices on podcast and I must agree, dialogs, panels and interviews are more compelling. Hence, this podcast series about Napoleon, pulls the work off really well. And it shows, the podcast is supposedly very successful, rather famous, wins acclaim by other podcasters (such as Jim Mowatt of Historyzine) and generally has a wide following.

Cameron Reilly and David Markham discuss the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte, patiently going the chronology from early life, step by step until the bitter end. There are some 35 episodes of around 40-60 minutes closing in on the end - fans are dreading the end already. The dialog is natural, both men are knowledgeable about Napoleon, although David speaks frequently for long periods on end. The fact, however, that Cameron is listening makes sure the explanations come out naturally and not as a droning soliloquy.

The series started some two years ago and suffers in the first episodes from some of the technical drawbacks of recording over a distance, this improved rapidly. I think this is a very recommendable podcast for everybody into Napoleon, but possibly even to anyone interested in any which good history podcast.

Paul Gelderloos - Simek 's nachts

Het is met Martin Simek het een of het ander, zo lijkt het wel. Of hij heeft zo'n goede gast, dat daarom de podcast goed is. Of hij heeft een of andere vage figuur over de vloer, maar veert op met scherp interviewen en weet er daarom een goede uitzending van te maken. Zo vond ik Paul Gelderloos (audio) niet erg imponerend, maar Simek pluisde heel nauwkeurig Gelderloos' ontwikkeling na van tobbende puber, via teleurgestelde psychologiestudent, tot succesvolle ondernemer en vooraanstaande TM activist. Dat is wat een interviewprogramma de moeite waard maakt.

Simek heeft wel een zekere affiniteit met alternaitieve en spiritualistische gasten, zoals we vooral duidelijk merkten bij zijn bezoek aan de bejaarde Maria Sickesz en het is merkbaar dat hij behoorlijk onder de indruk van Gelderloos is. Deze keer echter laat hij zich niet in slaap sussen door zijn eigen geimponeerdheid en pint zijn gast vast om het verhaal nauwkeurig te vertellen, wat soms een amechtig, ontwapenend bedoeld, lachen oproept, maar Simek laat niet los.

Zo krijgen we het hele verhaal, inclusief, tussen de regels door, dat Gelderloos zichzelf niet als verlicht ziet (al zou het nooit over zichzelf zeggen als hij het was. Hint?) en gescheiden en hertrouwd is. Bijna was hij bij zijn kolonel van de militaire dienst gebleven, als de Maharishi hem niet naar Zwitserland had gehaald. Ondernemer is hij trouwens ook alleen maar geworden om te bewijzen dat transcendente meditatie hem succesvol zou maken. Hij is succesvol (maar komt dat door TM?), voor hem is het bewezen, en toch gaat hij door. Simek laat ruimte voor ironie en scepsis en tegelijk ook voor waardering.

Meer Simek op dit blog:
Bas Heijne,
Herman Finkers,
Tijs Goldschmidt,
Truus Menger,
Eva Maria Staal.

Binnenkort: Olaf Tempelman.

De economische crisis - NRC FM

De NRC podcast spreekt naar aanleiding van de beurscrisis met Maarten Schinkel. Schinkel is de economisch expert van NRC Handelsblad en ook bekend van de succesvolle VPRO documentaire 'De dag dat de dollar valt'. Op dit blog heb ik vaak geklaagd dat NRC FM een matige podcast is, maar het moet gezegd: het gaat steeds beter.

Belangrijk is natuurlijk Maarten Schinkel die met zijn onmiskenbaar timbre de economische situatie uitlegt. De traditionele omkering vindt plaats: de koersen vallen en dan ga je bedenken wat er mis is met de economie. Het is dus niet zo dat er zorgen zijn en daardoor de beurs instort. Wat de instorting veroorzaakt heeft, is waarschijnlijk de Société Générale, de Franse Bank die door een frauderende handelaar grote verliezen dreigde te lijden en alles deed om de schade te beperken.

Ik moest denken aan wat Bas Heijne zei bij Simek. Hij zei dat in Nederland het debat meestal bedorven wordt doordat men over bijzaken praat. Het gaat vooral over specifieke voorbeelden. Zo ook in het gesprek met Schinkel, allerlei feiten worden voor de dag gehaald en er is wat minder aandacht voor de grote lijn. De lijn wordt als gewoonlijk ook niet echt aangebracht door de gespreksleider Paul Steenhuis en evenmin door vaste aanwezige Daan Diederiks (wat is zijn functie eigenlijk?), waardoor het interessante en behartenswaardige gesprek toch wel wat rommelig blijft.

Meer over NRC FM:
Vrijheid van Meningsuiting,
Amerikaanse verkiezingen,
Over mannen en over Rumi.

Issues of Race - The Economist

Democracy in America the blog in The Economist about the upcoming US Elections, put out an interview with Michael Dawson. The question raised is: in how far do issues of race play a part in the Presidential Elections. In other words, do people vote for Obama because he is black and are there people who will not vote for him, because he is black?

Dawson claims race is, generally still an issue in the US. There are scars, there are glass ceilings and this needs to be discussed in his opinion. However, progressives and liberals have been trying to sort of ignore those issues; making it go away by no longer addressing it. They think there is racial equality, where Dawson thinks there is not.

Obama is perceived as black and consequently his race plays a part, but does this go for a substantial group of voters? Dawson think this is substantial, but for each subgroup the dynamic is different. His explanations make this podcast, though short, for me a very informative opening up of the issues of race in the elections.

More from the Economist:
The primary system,
The Economist in New Hampshire,
A biography for Barack Obama and one for Hillary Clinton,
The Economist podcast.

The making of Europe in 1453

History 5 The Making of Modern Europe, 1453 to the Present, with professor Margaret Lavinia Anderson (Peggy for some), has started. This is the best history podcast, if you can call listening in on university lectures a genuine podcast. In spite of the drawbacks of following a lecture and its audience and not have a podcaster directly speak to you, this is the best.

Lecture 1: Endings and Beginnings.
Lecture series have always parts one could easily want to choose to skip. In this lecture for example the first 12 minutes in which the graduate student instructors are introduced, or the first 14 if you are not in need of explanation about the course material. Then there are some general thoughts on history and only by the 29th minute we are really off. The effort of this lecture is to circumvent Europe; identify it as the poorest child to inherit from the Greco-Roman world. The world to become totally isolated as off the fall of Constantinople in 1453, yet the one that came to dominate the world.

Lecture 2: The Rise of the State.
To begin with a technical point again: the first 31 minutes are of low audio, but by 31:45 the sound recovers. (EDIT: the low audio has been repaired - later downloads will not suffer) We learn what sovereignty means until the renaissance and how first in Italy the State arises. But these states soon are to find themselves too small to deal with the greater scale of warfare that comes up with infantry, cannons and better fortifications. This is going to give way for larger scale states with kings who are wealthy enough to wage war.

1936 en Spanje - OVT

Wat weten we in Nederland van de Spaanse burgeroorlog? Voor mij is de eerste associatie via het stripboek van de geheimzinnige voorbijganger. Christin en Bilal kwamen ermee in de jaren tachtig en er is na vier of vijf albums niets meer van terecht gekomen, geloof ik. Ik heb ze stukgelezen, inclusief het deel De Falangisten van de Zwarte Orde - over de Spaanse Burgeroorlog.

OVT's Salon in Europa is bij 1936 aangekomen en staat stil bij de Spaanse burgeroorlog. Is Spanje al over de oorlog? Men denkt van niet; de tegenstellingen bestaan nog steeds en worden nog steeds uitgespeeld. Wat voor tegenstelling? Men wordt het er over eens dat de oorlog eigenlijk een oorlog was tussen het Katholieke Spanje en het seculiere. Een godsdienstoorlog, die nog trekken van de middeleeuwen draagt.

Tegelijkertijd is het het slachtveld dat een voorspel van de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd. Een eerste krachtmeting tussen Hitler en Stalin en ook een eerste krachtmeting tussen de democratische en niet democratische krachten. Is het daarmee misschien zelfs een voorvertoning voor de Koude Oorlog - dat is slechts mijn vraag. Daar komt het panel niet op.

Eerdere besprekingen van OVT in dit blog:
1917 - Russische Revoluties,
1922 - Walther Rathenau,
1925 - Mussolini,
1929 - Goldene Zwanziger,
1933 - Fellow Travelers.

Berkeley Spring 2008 has kicked off

Of course, I am behind on schedule with the latest Berkeley courses - how could I keep on track with about 10 hours of podcast on a weekly basis in addition to my regular listening? This means, some of my courses have already passed the overview lecture, but let's not get passed that yet. Here are the courses I have taken up:

English 117S: Shakespeare. Lecturer Charles Altieri has a voice with frequent upper pitches. He is very passionately introducing the Shakespeare course, but the high squeak is tough to suffer on an MP3-player. I like the enthusiasm, I like how he explains we must read (at least twice) in order to understand. So I will stick around and accept the pitch.

Geography 130: Natural Resources and Population. Nathan Sayre immediately enters the dialog with his audience. No hearing the students talk is not too bad, you can give a thought to the rhetoric yourself. Sayre shoots a couple of questions that challenge you to connect issues of population with resources and with other big contemporary issues such as global warming. It makes the listener very eager to get to the bottom of this.

History 181B: Modern Physics: From The Atom to Big Science. The course is delivered by Cathryn Carson who is both a historian and a physicist. Do you need to have basic knowledge in either of these disciplines to be able to follow? No, is the answer. We are expected to get some chemistry though (I am sweating already) and she may run some equations on the board (oh dear, visuals AND math). The beginning is great, let's hope this course turns out good for podcast.

On History 5 I will write in a separate post.

A funny thing with letters

Around the corner of my office, right at the gas station, there is a new restaurant which serves oriental food. Huge signs are placed and they look like this:


What does this say? I read: "jonk", but in fact it says "achsan" in Hebrew. I had the same experience when I had just arrived in Israel. The advertisements for the Israeli Lotto looked exactly like the logo of Hotel Ibis I knew from Europe. Below you can see how similar they are. Left is the Hebrew for Lotto and right is the Latin for Ibis.


When you are conditioned to read a certain script, you will always try to interpret a written piece in that script and can hardly see something else. My wife has the same problem with Latin script and will try to read it as if it were Hebrew. For example, she reads Pablo Picasso's signature as 'Sootnik' - see below.


Or is that 'Sitnoke'? I don't know, I only see Picasso.

Plate Tectonics - IOT

The wonderful quality of In Our Time is to grant access to any which subject. I have seen this in the past with Victorian Pessimism and Gravitational Waves and this week we see it with Plate Tectonics. Even these subjects technical or remote from common interest are elevated in such a way, that one is engaged. What could be interesting in Plate Tectonics apart from the nearly surreal notion that the land under our feet is like a ship sailing on the ocean of molten rock beneath?

Such a notion is hard to accept and IOT reveals it took the world of geography some time to accept the theory. Once it did, a lot was gained. The guests explain the greatest merit of Plate Tectonics: it supplied a unifying theory for the world sciences. It brought land and sea, climate and rock, bio-diversity and the flipping poles together. What Plate Tectonics shows is that this earth is one big system in which all sub-systems are integrated.

Once having established that, Melvyn Bragg advanced to the next step: of all is integrated, then what is the virtue of the next theory, Gaia Theory. This is the theory that proposes to treat the earth system as a living organism, yet another surreal notion. One of the gathered specialists knocks it as absurd and the other praises it. The discussion lits up with true controversy. Who would have expected that?

More In Our Time
The Fisher King,
The Charge of the Light Brigade,
Albert Camus,
The Nicene Creed,
Four humor medicine.

Ben Dunlap at TED

I do not usually review vodcasts. I am one of many people whose portable player carries neither the file size nor the screen to render visuals. On occasion I do however follow some video streaming on line. I still love audio better, but surely there is much to be cherished in film as well. A very good carrier is TED.com and one of its latest releases was so unbelievably good. I simply had to report it. (By the way, TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design, as I saw explained on one of the speaker's sites, about whom more below.)

Ben Dunlap is the president of Wofford College in South Carolina. On this video he delivers a heartening speech on human nature, the human condition and reaching to an emotional plea for education and vigorous moral life. He does so by relating about three Hungarians: Sandor Teszler, Bela Bartok and Francis Robicsek.

Librivox - History of Holland

Jim Mowatt of the Historyzine podcast directed me to Librivox. This is a non-profit organization whose mission it is to record books from the public domain and publish them on-line as audiobooks. The result can also be downloaded as podcast per book.

I gave it a try with a couple of chapters from History of Holland by George Edmundson. This book from 1922 is read by the various volunteers of Librivox. Each chapter is a separate episode; the whole combined in one podcast feed. This was done very well, but with the inevitable and obvious drawbacks in such a project.

The winding writing style of a 1920's book lends itself, at least in my ears, much less to listening than reading. Another difficulty lies with the foreign names. The English readers are challenged by Dutch, French and Spanish names and this sometimes renders them beyond recognition. The English pronunciation of Hainault, neither resembles the proper French pronunciation of the name, nor the Dutch version (Henegouwen). Another aspect of a 1920's history book is the use of terminology or perspective acceptable in its own era, but highly suspect in ours such as race. Chapter II sets the race of Hollanders apart from that of the Flemish and Brabanters as robust men of the sea and not placid land people. Social Darwinism projecting the future success of Holland as opposed to the Southern Netherlands ahead.

These thresholds, make me look for others sources, if I want to know of this era. Had I wanted to read this specific book, I'd be very pleased though. In addition to this kind of non-fiction there are also great works of fiction to be listened to. In the list of new releases I see Dickens, Bronte and such. Amazing, frankly.

Fellow Travelers 1933 - OVT

In de jaren twintig en dertig komt het socialistisch experiment pas goed op de rails. OVT, neemt het jaar 1933 bij de kop en buigt zich over het fenomeen van de fellow travelers. Je zou voor fellow travelers ook een ander jaar kunnen nemen en voor 1933 ook wel een ander onderwerp, maar desalniettemin een buitengewoon interessante excursie.

De lotgevallen van een paar Nederlandse Communisten en Fellow Travelers die in de Sovjetunie aan de slag komen, worden besproken. Helaas loopt het slecht met ze af. Voor de Stalinistische paranoia blijken ze uitermate kwetsbaar. Wanneer ze opgepakt worden, menen ze dat het om een misverstand gaat. Ze verwachten snel weer vrij te komen, maar vinden zichzelf terug in Siberie en in een vroege dood.

Toch begint het vermoeden dat het systeem niet helemaal edel en heilzaam is, wel te rijzen. Van de Nederlandse fellow traveler (of was hij een communist?) George Fles wordt een uitspraak aangehaald die is teruggevonden in de verhoren van de NKVD. Hij ziet de feilen van het regime in de beeldende kunst die ze bevordert. Voor hem is het allemaal onverteerbaar slecht; de schilderijen mogen vernietigd worden en de schilders moeten maar iets anders gaan doen. 'Ik heb een schilderij met Stalin gezien dat ze in een kerk mogen hangen met het onderschrift: Jezus Christus en de kinderen.'

Eerdere besprekingen van OVT in dit blog:
1917 - Het oostfront,
1917 - Russische Revoluties,
1922 - Walther Rathenau,
1925 - Mussolini,
1929 - Goldene Zwanziger.

Non Violence

There is always the danger of overload. As a result of loving podcasts and writing about them, I listen to so many of them, it gets a wee bit too much from time to time. The effect is not just going numb and not hearing the casts any more, it is also that for some I am not open enough. It is easy to criticize, but I decided as a matter of principle to give podcasts I review as much credit as I can.

As a result of the intense listening schedule, I took on a new course from Berkeley on the wrong foot. A reader of my blog, drew my attention to Introduction to Non Violence which she recommended whole-heartedly. I took the course up and in spite of my inclination towards non-violence, I had a hard time engaging myself.

When common sense is challenged for the sake of something soft, I tend to retract - I do not like non-scientific new-ageism at face value. Common sense is that we live in a real and independent from our perception physical reality and also that each of us individuals are separate from others. When this is challenged even for the sake of showing how our basic concepts seem to exclude non-violence, took some effort beyond routine listening.

Hence I stopped my iPod for some 24 hours and then tried again. It makes sense, non-violence needs some different way of looking at things. And non-violence should not be some last resort method, when you have lost all power. It needs to be a matter of principle and permeate the whole look on the world and human relations. Once having cleaned myself I started following the stream of thoughts and started thoroughly enjoying this exceptional lecture series. There is still much to go, including a follow-up course. I hope to write about it some more in the future. For now, be advised to open up and allow yourself to listen in.

De vrijheid van meningsuiting - NRC FM

NRC FM, de podcast van NRC Handelsblad lijkt stapje voor stapje aan kwaliteit te winnen. Er is nog een lange weg te gaan, maar het gehakkel van vaste deelnemers Paul Steenhuis en Daan Diederiks wordt al minder en de opnamekwaliteit wordt al beter. Wat in de laatste editie ook helpt: er is maar een gast. Juridisch redacteur Folkert Jensma komt het een en ander uitleggen over grondrechten.

De aanleiding is, dat er recentelijk bij een demonstratie mensen opgepakt waren die een kennelijk beledigende afbeelding van het kamerlid Wilders hadden laten zien. Jensma, vertelt dat aanvankelijk gesteld werd dat Wilders geklaagd had beledigd te zijn, maar nadat gebeleken was dat zulks niet het geval was, werden demonstraten met dezelfde afbeelding opgepakt op grond van belediging van het gezag. Dat laatste was juridisch niet houdbaar, zo wordt ook door Jensma uitgelegd.

Vervolgens gaat het gesprek over de kwestie waar de grenzen van de vrijheid van meningsuiting in de praktijk liggen en hoe ze zouden moeten liggen. Het zou helpen als de gespreksleider, iets meer zou samenvatten of anderszins daadwerkelijk het gesprek zou leiden. Nu worden er een hoop behartenswaardige uitspraken gedaan, maar blijft daar weinig van hangen omdat er niet geordend wordt. Zoals Ronald van den Boogaard al eerder opmerkt had, Paul Steenhuis heeft er een handje van om te gaan deelnemen aan de discussie.

Meer over NRC FM:
Amerikaanse verkiezingen,
Over mannen en over Rumi.

Meer Ronald van den Boogaard:
Ina Muller-van Ast,
Ronald van den Boogaard geeft plug,
Jan Wolkers.

The Fisher King - IOT

The latest In Our Time sheds its light on the legend of the Fisher King, or rather a continuum over the ages, with each time and place adding its own. It is the legend of a wounded king, who cannot die and in his castle, accompanied by a bleeding spear, waits for cure.

The origins are probably Celtic. The Middle Ages added Christian elements, where the Fisher King also became the guardian of the Grail. The nineteenth century saw a renewed interest in the legend. The fact that it was Celtic, made it purely European (or British for that matter) serving the quest for nationalist identity. Ethnological approach sought the element of fertility in the legend - as fertility was assumed to feature in all primitive tales. And psycho-analytics took the tale to the realm of interpreting human soul. Last but not least, literature took a bite and made its own versions.

The thought that sticks with me is, yet again, how formative the nineteenth century has been. How our concepts and identities were shaped then and lay basis where we can hardly think past today. But that is besides the point. IOT analyzes the legend and it is brilliant as usual.

More In Our Time
The Charge of the Light Brigade,
Albert Camus,
The Nicene Creed,
Four humor medicine,
The Sassanian Empire

Anxiety and Panic Disorders - Wise Counsel

On the latest issue of Wise Counsel, Dr. David van Nuys interviews David H. Barlow Ph.D. on the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorders. The rather extensive show notes give a good impression on the subjects discussed. They also link to Dr. Barlow's page on the Boston University web site, though currently that link is broken. Mentalhelp.net will probably fix that soon; until then, at least my link is working.

In short, and much less professionally put than over at mentalhelp.net, Barlow explains what are fear and anxiety - they are not the same. He explains how they overcome people to the extent of a disorder and what treatment he suggests. His approach is that of clinical psychology, I take this to imply leaning towards psychotherapy rather than medication. Some of the interview is also spent on his evaluation of the current state of clinical psychology in the health systems in general.

Dr. David van Nuys is the excellent interviewer, one hardly notices during the podcast. Nevertheless, he is very instrumental in keeping the show on track, easy to follow, coherent and evenly distributed in focal points. His talents make for the persistent quality of the Wise Counsel podcasts.

Other guests on Wise Counsel were a.o.:
Richard Heimberg,
Tony Madrid,
Francine Shapiro,
Amy Baker,
Marsha Linehan.

Bas Heijne bij Martin Simek

Bij Simek 's Nachts was op 30 december Bas Heijne de gast. De columnist van het NRC wordt gepresenteerd als een denker en uitgenodigd om commentaar te geven op de wijze waarin in Nederland van gedachten gewisseld wordt.

Heijne komt met een analyse die bij mij een persoonlijk stokpaardje uit de kast lokte. Hij zei dat in Nederland het debat meestal bedorven wordt doordat men over bijzaken praat. In zijn observatie gaat het nooit over de grote lijnen, maar altijd over het specifieke voorbeeld. Hij vraagt zich hardop af, waarom er over de lijn niet meer wordt gezegd. Zijn stelling is, dat er te weinig wordt nagedacht en hij wijt dat aan het Nederlandse onvermogen om met enthousisasme om te gaan. Voor goed nadenken is een zeker enthousiasme voor de idee nodig, anders is er geen overtuiging.

En passie? probeert Martin Simek. Nee dat niet, stelt Heijne beslist, passie is tezeer een emotionele storm in het moment dat ook weer over drijft, het gaat bij de grote lijn over een blijvend enthousiasme. Maar ik vind dat ze allebei gelijk hebben. Nederlanders hebben moeite met enthousiasme, juist omdat het te gepassioneerd is. En Heijne heeft gelijk dat doordat men enthousiasme niet toelaat er geen overtuiging kan ontstaan, maar Simek heeft gelijk dat dat passie inhoudt. Heijne toont zijn Nederlandse gezicht door passie af te doen als te tijdelijk, te heftig om stevig te zijn. Dat is nu juist de kwestie, zo lijkt me, in de Nederlandse optiek is passie te emotioneel. We moeten wel redelijk blijven. Emotie kan dat niet zijn.

Er komt nog heel veel meer aan de orde. Een fascinerend gesprek.

Meer Simek op dit blog:
Herman Finkers,
Tijs Goldschmidt,
Truus Menger,
Eva Maria Staal,
A. C. Baantjer.

Binnenkort: Paul Gelderloos.

Quick History Podcasts

For me personally, history is a major field of interest. Consequently, history podcast can't be long enough for me, should be in-depth and take me on an extended tour from one podcast episode to the next. I can imagine though, other people may not want to invest long tracks of time into history, yet would like to learn some history as well. For them I'd like to recommend History According to Bob, which has short issues and a long, long list of episodes to choose from. Most of those, however, need to be ordered on CD, as they are no longer in the feed. I'll give two more of those history podcasts, not running too deep, not running too long. (Thanks to the reviews by Historyzine)

The first is the History Podcast by Jason Watt. Not all issues are done by Jason himself, but persistently there is a short monologue about a larger variety of historical subjects. The next is Parnell's History podcast, which in addition to the facts, also delivers some analysis.

These are fine podcasts if you want to get some passing acquaintance in a certain subject. Necessarily there is a disadvantage, the episode can tell the story in a less balanced or less accurate way. This I noticed most profoundly in Parnell's 18 minute delivery of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which I know only too well. I guess for many people who know nothing and want no more than a twenty minute historical overview, this must do, but I spotted a number of sentences that in my opinion cannot be said, without error or leading to error. Like suggesting that after the Balfour declaration the British started stimulating Jewish migration into Palestine.

Doll Work and what with the brain

The latest of Shrinkrapradio features an interview with Geri Olson from Sonoma State University. She has integrated into her approach of psychology the making of dolls. She makes them herself and she organizes workshops to have her students make dolls. She has found that the making of a doll has a significant effect on people. It allows them to express and mold into an image what effects them most deeply.

While on the subject of Shrinkrapradio, I would like to point you to two other shows that I find particularly valuable. I usually comment only on the latest shows and so, these issues, that were published way before I started a blog, are constantly overlooked. The first show is the interview with Daniel Amen. Amen is a psychiatrist and a neuro-scientist, and his approach to the psychology of man is first ad for all, through the brain. He actually gets quite angry psychologist and some psychiatrists know so little of the brain. He claims to have found many 'mechanical' brain relations to all sorts of symptoms in psycho-pathology and hence proposes to deal with them with medication and/or surgery in stead of wasting time on psychotherapy.

This brings me to the interview with David Sinclair who, after a life time of study in Finland, has found a medication that can effectively (up to 90%) treat addiction. He has analyzed how the brain learns as it were to be addicted and his medication, proven with alcohol and heroine abuse, basically helps UNlearn the addiction. The medication needs to be taken throughout life. Its effectiveness to generally unlearn, leads Sinclair to investigate on other fields where it could be applies, for example with eating disorders.

I have listened to the last two issues in conjunction and it has often made me wonder, what will be our fate. Once we know everything about the brain and we can chemically learn and unlearn whatever we like, what does that mean for our human condition?

More Shrinkrapradio on this blog:
Confronting Death (and more),
Process Work,
Authoritarianism,
Leadership and AI,
Dysfunctional personalities in the workplace,
Adventure Therapy

My Three Shrinks Podcast

By chance I ran into the podcast My Three Shrinks. I was looking something up on the web about the podcast Shrinkrapradio and found a blog named Shrink Rap which is the written complement to the My Three Shrinks Podcast. There is no relation with Shrinkrapradio and it also has a slightly different focus. Shrinkrapradio is a psychology podcast. My Three Shrinks is a psychiatry podcast.

Three psychiatrists, Dinah, ClinkShrink and Roy, write in the Shrink Rap blog and speak as a panel in the podcast about subjects in psychiatry. As in other panel podcasts, the tone is very light, there are some inside jokes, or maybe running jokes, but there is also the serious talk on various subjects. In the latest show,which was the last of the year edition, they spoke about New Year Resolutions and answered questions received on the blog and discussed the podcast reviews they had on iTunes.

What I like very much about this podcast is the fact that is an enhanced podcast. The cast is also available in regular MP3, but the feed, by default pushes the MA4 format. Users like myself then can enjoy the segments of the show and view their separate titles. The light and natural conversation tone of the show have advantages and disadvantages; it makes it more fun to listen to, but at certain moments can interrupt the handling of the subject go in depth. All in all a good podcast for anybody interested in psychiatry.

Nuclear Terrorism

On November 20 Micheal Levi held a short talk following the publication of his book On Nuclear Terrorism (Harvard). This lecture was published as a podcast both by CFR as well as by UChannel.

The talk, and apparently the book, focuses on the use by terrorists of nuclear explosives. This means not is included the use of a regular device to spread nuclear contamination, but rather any effort to bring about a nuclear explosion as a terrorist act. Author Michael Levi has tried to start thinking like a terrorist and thus made an inventory what is needed to achieve such a feat. The subsequent question is, naturally, how such can be prevented.

As a careful positive bottom-line, it is stated that no matter how easy it may seem for terrorists to bring about nuclear explosion, it is harder in practice. And no matter how impossible it is for authorities to thwart the possible attempt with a 100% certainty, enough barriers can be mounted on the way, to limit the chances of success. Every attempt faltering at some stage, is a thwarted attempt. Even though these days all knowledge and materials are seemingly available, Levi claims, it is still quite a lot of work to bring it all together, which means the terrorist has a long way to go and when one focuses on each step in the way and increase the likelihood of capture or failure during that process, authorities can practically prevent nuclear terrorism.

More UChannel (aka University Channel podcast):
Attack Iran (or not),
Israel, Iran, terrorism,
Less Safe, Less Free (Losing the War on Terror),
The Greatest Threat to Zionism,
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

More CFR podcast:
Africa,
CFR podcast,
Sari Nusseibeh.

No more primiaries in America - Economist

The system is broken. The Economist speaks with Tova Andrea Wang, an elections expert with The Century Foundation. Ms Wang would like to create a system that enfranchises as many Americans as possible, not simply the voters in "two little overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly rural states". Iowa and New Hampshire are dictating the pace.

Somehow the change is already taking place, by having all the primaries together on February 5th. Still, if some primaries take place before the rest, the advantage shifts to certain candidates. In addition, she voices a concern that election success implies mainly the success at rallying money. Reform plans are circulating, but eventually the states decide when the primaries take place. Michigan has made a case in point by deciding only at the very last moment when the caucus would occur.

On a side note, I wonder, again, why The Economist, publishes these podcast shortly before an election result? The miss out on the actuality of the moment. In this case, Romney won in Michigan, where everybody expected McCain. They run the risk of making redundant statements. Nevertheless. These podcasts by The Economist have managed to capture my attention and shed some light on the otherwise rather incomprehensible voting system in the US. The podcasts are short, come out with a pleasant frequency - I will keep up with them and can recommend anybody to do so.

More from the Economist and about the 2008 elections:
The Economist in New Hampshire,
A biography for Barack Obama and one for Hillary Clinton,
The Economist podcast,
Bush - Clinton - Bush - Clinton (UC Podcast),
Religiousness of American Presidents (UC Podcast).

Go for a walk with Open Source

Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies has a podcast called Open Source. This podcast claims to be not a podcast with a web community, but rather a web community that produces a podcast. After listening to two issues, I have yet to feel the community, but in any case there is a good quality podcast. I have to thank the blog Open Culture, for guiding me to Open Source.

Open Culture directed me to listen to the second part of the three installments long conversation with Harold Bloom. In this part Bloom eloquently laments the demise of literature and its study. "They are teaching Harry Potter these days," he cries out. And what is wrong with Harry Potter he underlines with declaring that he has read in one of the books Harry 'stretches his legs' and explaining that this cannot replace 'goes for a walk' - J. K. Rowling therefore cannot write. She is one of many, so it is in his eyes.

Before that I listened to the last show containing a conversation with Anthony Barnett about 2008. Barnett is chosen on account of his, by Open Source admired, e-zine openDemocracy. A historical perspective is taken on 2008 and Barnett explains what the world's situation is today and where we are heading. In his mind we are living in changing times, where most notably the US are losing their supremacy and will have to start sharing the world's leadership with Europe and China, possibly also India. The decline of the US's power is entirely blamed on the failed policies of George Bush.

Spanish Succession and History Podcasts

The Historyzine Podcast is not just a podcast telling history, though it is also that. In a very enthusiastic tone, spread over four episodes, host Jim Mowatt tells about the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition to that he reviews other history podcasts and on the ones I also know (History according to Bob, Binge Thinking and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History), I mostly agree with the expressed opinion. Furthermore, the reviews are very well done - sharp, to the point and intelligent.

As to the history, this is told very aptly as well. Jim reveals his podcasts are scripted, but his tone of voice is very natural and therefore very entertaining. he manages to tell the story, make some tangents and cleverly bring the story back on track. He effectively takes out a number of main characters and hands a in depth profile. Also the intricacies of the succession itself, how it came to be problematic, who were the pretenders and whose support they enjoyed is mapped out solidly.

Wikipedia lets the war span from 1701-1714, But Mowatt starts telling some two decades before. The good thing is, this makes the whole history very clear, but it leaves me wondering whether Mowatt would disagree with 1701 as the starting year and prefer to start maybe as early as 1689. Anyway. This is a podcast I am definitely going to follow more. I will also pick up the podcasts reviewed, in as far as I haven't run into them already.

My reviews of:
History according to Bob,
Binge Thinking History,
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

Amerikaanse kandidaten - NRC FM

Op dezelfde dag dat voormalig VPRO-man Ronald Van den Boogaard de NRC FM podcast afdoet als Een krant speelt radio, beluisterde ik de volgende aflevering van deze aarzelende poging in de nieuwe media. Het onderwerp is de Amerikaanse verkiezingen, meer in het bijzonder de potentiele presidentskandidaten. In het achterhoofd speelt de vraag of NRC FM al iets begint te leren, al dan niet naar aanleiding van de ongezouten kritiek.

Om maar met de kleine positieve kanten te beginnen. De inleiding duurt niet meer ellenlang, de sprekers worden voorgesteld en er worden zowaar geluidsfragmenten afgespeeld. De geluidskwaliteit is iets beter dan de vorige keer, maar nog altijd beneden peil. Het duurt steeds een paar seconden voordat een nieuwe spreker de juiste sterkte in zijn microfoon meekrijgt en er is nog altijd veel achtergrondgeluid.

Wat gebleven is, is het gehakkel van de presentator en dat hij deel wordt van de discussie. De discussie verloopt uitermate rommelig en er valt weinig op te tekenen wat in overige media niet al uitentreure over Hillary Clinton en Barack Obama (want zij krijgen de meeste aandacht) is gezegd. Ten slotte krijgt Heleen Mees de ruimte om haar pet peeve, die van het sexisme in de wereld te spelen, zelfs op een ad hominem manier ten opzichte van andere panelleden. Kortom, het blijft een haastig en onprofessioneel in elkaar gebakken podcast, waarmee een serieuze krant eigenlijk niet voor de dag kan komen.

Vorige post over NRC FM.
En over podcast bij de Volkskrant.