New podcasts in December 2009 - Anne is a Man

We are closing off 2009 with another 17 new podcasts that got a first mention on the blog - all in spite of the writer's block I am still struggling with. Before I take you to the list of these new podcasts, I want to announce I am going to improve my listings of history podcasts. History podcasts make up the largest category of podcasts that I have reviewed so far. At my history podcast directory you will find a list of podcasts covering over 130 podcasts. I will continue to maintain this directory, but in addition I want to supply shorter list in subcategories, so that it will be easier for you to find what you are looking for.

Happy New Year in 2010!

Podularity (review, site, feed)
George Miller speaks with authors about their books.

Introduction to Theory of Literature (Yale) (review, site, feed)
University lecture series into modern literary theory.

Death (Yale) (review, site, feed)
Philosophy lecture series dealing with matters related to death. The existence of the soul, immortality, suicide, dying and the nature of death.

Dante (Yale) (review, site, feed)
University lecture series about Dante's Divine Comedy.

Indicast (review, site, feed)
Podcast about current affairs in India.

Beyond the Book (review, site, feed)
Podcast about copyright.

The Kamla Show (review, site, feed)
Indian cultural podcast.

Learning Hebrew through podcast:
Hebrew - SurvivalPhrases (review, site, feed)
Very basic and not always faultless lessons in the (modern) Hebrew language.

Hebrew Podcasts (review, site, feed)
Basic podcast with phrases and grammar of modern day Hebrew.

Learn Hebrew Pod (review, site, feed)
Basic podcast with phrases and grammar of modern day Hebrew.

SBS Hebrew program (review, site, feed)
Australian radio in Hebrew. An excellent chance to hear living Hebrew. Fit for the more advanced learners.

University press podcasts:
Chicago Audio Works (review, site, feed)
Harvard Press; authors off the page (review, site, feed)
MIT press podcast (review, site, feed)
Stanford University Press Podcast (review, site, feed)
University of California Press podcast (review, site, feed)
Yale press podcast (review, site, feed)

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I love to get new podcast recommendations. You can let me know your preferences by commenting on the blog or sending mail to Anne is a Man at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

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Learn Hebrew through podcast

At the age of 32 I had to learn Hebrew from scratch. My starting point lay with my native Dutch and a couple of surrounding Western European languages. If you want to learn Hebrew by podcast you will find that the supply comes with English as a starting language and I will assume your starting point will be much the same as mine.

After some time, I did an 'Ulpan' (language class for immigrants in Israel) which is more intensive than podcast by a considerable magnitude. The reason I mention the Ulpan is that I found myself in class with as many as 20 nationalities and half of the students starting from English or another European language such as myself. For all of us, Hebrew was very outlandish and we struggled with much the same issues, although the situation for the native English speakers seemed most complicated. For them the differences and the complications seemed the most numerous.

That is bad news. The good news is though that the difficulties with Hebrew lie in the beginning of your learning curve. Picking up the alphabet, adapting to script from right to left, getting used to the pronunciation and to the odd root system of Hebrew words all hit you very hard from the get go. However then it turns out Hebrew is regular like mathematics. Grammar is as straightforward as it can be and the roots make a lot of sense after you have gotten used to them.

Real Hebrew therefore can be learned by the persistent who can take the initial barriers. Accept the baby steps at the start. Accept the seemingly useless verb exercises that skip the commons like to be and to have and force you to learn to conjugate verbs like to guard first. (I hated that) Podcasts can be a great help. Just do not forget to spend time on grammar and writing. Without that the token phrases will never make sense and remain sterile.

Hebrew - SurvivalPhrases (site, feed) - Very basic and not always faultless lessons.

Hebrew Podcasts (site, feed) - Basic podcast with phrases and grammar.

Learn Hebrew Pod (site, feed) - Basic podcast with phrases and grammar.

SBS Hebrew program (site, feed) - Australian radio in Hebrew. An excellent chance to hear living Hebrew. Fit for the more advanced learners.

Jesus, Global Warming and more

Philosophy Bites - Nigel Warburton interviewed Don Cupitt who treats Jesus as a Philosopher. How you can make a modern, humanist freethinker of Christ. (site, feed)

Namaste Stories - Again, this narration podcast tells a tale from the perspective of a teacher. But in this class of immigrants learning the local language, I identified with the pupils. (site, feed)

Death (Yale) - arguments about body and soul and the immortality of the soul. Disappointing in the sense that some of these discussion appear to me purely semantic, but this is not accounted for. (site, feed)

Entitled Opinions - Robert Harrison gives a monologue on Wallace Stevens. High-brow literature lecture. (site, feed)

New Books in History - On the history of the trade union ILWU in the US. (site, feed)

In Our Time (BBC) - The current download is about the Samurai and as off tomorrow that one will be gone and you will be able to enjoy and issue about Mary Wollstonecraft. (site, feed)

The Kamla Show - I tried this show for the first time and heard a very charming interview with author Sadia Shepard. She went to look for her Muslim roots in Pakistan, but found Jewish roots in India. (site, feed)

Making History with Ran Levi - Global Warming need not be caused by humans. Controversial issue of this Israeli podcast about the history of science. (site, feed)

Veertien Achttien - The best history podcast in Dutch, with a weekly biography of one of the participants in WW1. This podcast will continue as long as the Great War lasted. (site, feed)

Help for podcast listeners on Anne is a Man!

The running assumption on this blog is that readers know how depart from a review and get the podcast to their players as they wish. Yet, this frequently is not the case. Many readers turn to me with questions on how to get to the podcasts they would like. Therefore, I have written a large variety of instructional posts giving pointers from the most basic to the more advanced podcast finding and listening. Here is a starting post from where you will be able to get the help you need.

First of all there is a set of posts that lay out the elementary steps of podcast listening:
1- listen on line
2- download audio files
3- get iTunes
4- put feeds in iTunes
With these posts you will have your basics covered. From here you can continue to read the reviews and you will be able to make it to any podcast described.

In addition there are are a couple of posts that explain some of the basic technologies involved. This is stuff you do not have to know, like you do not have to know how your car works in order to drive it. It helps though, to have some general understanding of what is going on. Especially if you find yourself in a conversation about podcasts.
What is podcasting in 3 minutes - An animated video from YouTube that gives you a description of podcasts in the most elementary terms. There are a couple of additional remarks to make, but for starters the video will do.
Video explaining RSS - From the same source an animation that explains about RSS. RSS is the pushing technology that allows your podcatcher to find and download new podcasts, but it also is used to push other web content to you; new posts on this blog for example.
What is RSS - Read Anne is a Man automatically - An explanation about RSS and how you can subscribe to the RSS of my blog (and others).

There are also advanced tips I have written. Pointers how to use iTunes optimally and how to use other tools to track podcasts.
Reader's Question - Remember playback position - Here is an issue you should not run into if you use iTunes the regular way. But since the question has come up from readers several times, it was addressed in length.
Preference settings per podcast - Once you subscribe to a large number of podcasts, you may want to deal with each one in a different fashion and here is how.
iTunes 9 - help for the podcast listener - Since iTunes upgraded from version 8 to 9, new functionality regarding podcasts have become available. I describe how you can benefit from some of the new features.
Suggestion for the advanced podcast listener - When you lose track of the multitude of podcasts in iTunes, you might use Google Reader in stead. I relate how I do this myself.
Devising your own podcast feed - Huffduffer - If you run into audio that is not syndicated (not offered as a podcast) you can put it in a feed by yourself at Huffduffer. You can even compose your own feed by collecting and recombining audio from various sources.
Using playlists for podcasts - Designate the order in which your player plays the podcasts and let it automatically start the next after finishing the previous.
Useful tools for podcast listeners - Three tools to help you increase volume, convert anything to mp3 format and edit out silence and noise.
Other podcatchers than iTunes (1) - The beginning of a search for an alternative to iTunes as read and download client.
Where are my files? - Help on finding podcast files on your computer. (soon)

Last but not least, you may want to have some guidance on how to search for podcasts on your own. You could read my posts about sources:
My podcast sources - A relatively old, but near complete overview of sources for finding podcasts.
Five free university lecture sites - University lectures that are podcasts are available in a multitude, but not especially easy to find and not always of sufficient quality. Here are five university sources that are worth to make a start at.

In case you have questions to which you did not find the answer, please leave a comment here and I'll be more than happy to address it. You can also mail to Anne is a Man at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk
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A belated Hanukkah picture

Before we celebrated Jonathan's fifth birthday, we had a very festive Hanukkah (Chanuka). As you can see. Standing is my oldest son Itamar (8) and sitting my youngest Jonathan (5).

Bhopal, Russell and more

Binge Thinking History - Amateur history podcast that currently retells the history of the British Navy. In the latest episode: New tactics and technology help the Navy. And the loss of the US, seems to also serve the British Empire more than it harms. (site, feed)

Rear Vision - This radio program on Australia's ABC had a rerun of their excellent issue about the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, more widely known as the conference that produced the controversial Treaty of Versailles. Read my former review of this show: Versailles 1919.

Indicast - A new podcast I started following. About current affairs in India. The episode I would want to recommend, in spite of very poor audio quality is a discussion about the continuous harm from the Bhopal gas disaster and the poor handling of the affair. (site, feed)

Philosophy Bites - This is undoubtedly one of the best intellectual podcasts on the web. Very good was the edition with AC Grayling on Bertrand Russell. (site, feed)

UChannel Podcast / LSE Podcast - In conversation with Amartya Sen. This edition took me a long time to listen to. The audio was too poor to allow for listening in the car or in the mall (I love listening to podcasts while shopping), but nevertheless a very interesting and engaging talk - as usual with Amartya Sen. (LSE site, UCP feed)

I am checking a number of book and publisher podcasts:
Beyond the Book (feed) - About issues of copyright
Chicago Audio Works (feed)
Harvard Press; authors off the page (feed)
MIT press podcast (feed)
Stanford University Press Podcast (feed)
University of California Press podcast (feed)
Yale press podcast (feed)

My son is 5 years old

Yesterday, Jonathan, my youngest son turned 5. It marked the end of a week of birthday celebrations - each celebration in its own group of relevant others. It added to the preceding week of Hanukkah yet another festive week.

It was a delicate pleasure to see him enjoy his birthday and being the center of attention.

8 podcasts I listened to

Exploring Environmental History - Jan Oosthoek speaks with Christian Pfister about the memory of extreme weather conditions. As memories are culturally determined, so are the data as historic sources deliver them to us. He argues that with cultural interpretation valuable data can be salvaged from the sources that would otherwise be discarded as scientifically untrustworthy. (site)

Norman Centuries - had a short edition about Richard the good. This is a podcast by history podcast veteran Lars Brownworth. (site)

In Our Time - BBC's excellent program about the history of ideas. Since my last review this weekly pprogram has continued with one jewel after another. Especially noteworthy are the issues about The Silk Road, about Pythagoras, radiation and Schopenauer. (site)

Religious Studies (Berkeley) - This is an introduction by Niklaus Largier about the development of Christian Theology. It should have been called Christian Studies, by the way. I tend to pick out lectures that address figures I want to know more about. Here I want to recommend the lecture about Luther - lecture 11. (site)

Hardcore History - Dan Carlin's very special podcast about history. Carlin is an artist in telling history. If you have problems listening to the latest issue (Suffer the children - about the history of children), delete the chapter, unsubscribe and resubscribe to the new feed. You will get a fixed version. (site, feed)

Dante (Yale) - Professor Guiseppe Mazzotta promises to take us through Dante's Divine Comedy (in English translation). I have heard the first lecture and plan to continue. (site)

History of India - I have reminded you before of UCLA's course by Vinay Lal, but here is another reason to do it again. A blog about the History of India (Varnam) produced a commentary regarding the Saraswati controversy. He disagrees with Lal that the 'Saraswati hypothesis' is held by Hindu nationalists only.

Ersatz TV - Last but not least, there was a new vodcast issue of Ersatz TV.

Five free university lecture sites

New readers to the blog and especially those that are new to podcasting tend to ask me where they can find podcasts themselves. A long time a go, I have written a post about my sources, but this is not one I have been updating all the time. So, here I want to give you a five sites to go to, to find university lecture series for yourself.

There are more universities than these five that offer their lectures on-line. If you go to iTunes U and check the list of Universities and Colleges, you will be surprised to find scores upon scores of institutions that share their educational content. However, not all audio players can handle the formats offered and not all of the offered content is of the same consistent quality. So let me begin to limit you to these five: Berkeley, Yale, UC San Diego, UCLA and Stanford.

Number one is Berkeley which as been offering free courses on podcast and vodcast for years. All the material is still available, going as far back as 2001. All conceivable disciplinary fields are covered. Among others are indisputable classics such as History 5 (European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present) and Descriptive Physics (aka Physics for future presidents). Most courses are offered in formats every player can handle

Fewer courses are available at Yale, but the quality is persistent and high and all in regular format.

UC San Diego (UCSD) offers a large amount every semester as Berkeley does and also these podcasts are in regular mp3 format. However, UCSD has two major drawbacks you have to keep in mind: the lectures are no edited and therefore contain inconvenient silences and abrupt starts and stops. Also, lectures are removed at the end of the semester. Yet, this is compensated by splendid lecturers such as Victor Magagna and Matthew Herbst.

UCLA's course list is also extremely long and varied and also goes back quite a number of years. Not all courses are publicly available though. You can identify those with the padlock icon.

Stanford has little but great material just like Yale. Yet, Stanford is one of those many institutions that are mainly reachable through iTunes U only and this means occasionally strictly Apple format for the content. Yet, some of this stuff is splendid like the Historical Jesus and the History of the International System and Stem Cells policy and ethics and Global Geopolitics and Hannibal.

Current listening overview

Here is another summary post concerning what I have been listening to of late.

Philosophy Bites - Several new issues of this wonderful concise philosophy show have become available since the last review. I have listened to the interview with Jeff McMahan about killing in war. This takes on a specific aspect of the problem of just war.

From Israelite to Jew - A very good amateur podcast about the history of Jewry since the beginning of the second temple period. With the last two issues we have been informed about the 1 Century CE and its main chronicler, Josephus.

Formations of Art - An informative and entertaining art history lecture series at UCSD with William Bryson. Be quick to download these lectures if you want them, because UCSD will very soon take them off line.

History of India - UCLA history lecture series with Vinay Lal.

European Civilization - Yale's modern history series with John Merriman. I have finished this series and the surprises in the last lecture are Merriman's verdict over the petty bourgeois - blaming them for that went wrong in the last 150 years. And the fact that the series continued beyond 1945.

In other languages I have continued to listen to:

Hoorspel Bommel - Dutch Audio drama

Ronflonflon avec Jacques Plafond - Dutch radio satire

Veertien Achttien - Outstanding Dutch series about WW1

Volkis Stimme - On occasion of Advent a special series of this news satire in German

Making History with Ran Levi - Excellent Hebrew podcast about the history of science and technology

Anne is a Man! -- Hot Tips

A writer's block for the blog, a blog block as it were, is still bothering me. In the mean time, I am listening to podcasts as usual, which means I owe you a whole lot of reviews. Will I ever get round to them? I wouldn't know, but I can at least give you some quick hot tips.

The Memory Palace - two great new issues since my last review (site, feed)

Introduction to Theory of Literature with Professor Paul H. Fry (Yale) - An English course at Open Yale. (site, feed)

New Books in History - Every interview in this series is worth a recommendation. There were four new chapters I listened to since my last review. Each one of them is worth a mention. Rebecca Manley about the fate of refugees inside the Soviet Union during WW2; Michaela Hoenicke with a study about American views on Nazi Germany before the war and implicitly about her own struggles with German identity; Benjamin Binstock about reconstructing art history by example of the Dutch painter Vermeer; Sarah Ross about female intellectuals in the Renaissance with among others Christin de Pisan, whose City of Women I read some twenty years ago.

the New York Review of Books podcast had a fascinating interview with Andrew O'Hagan about Samuel Johnson. (site)

UChannel Podcast - with a lecture about a new Israel Lobby; Jeremy Ben Ami explains how the main stream, moderate Jews in the US as well as Israel have been excluded from the regular Israel Lobby on Capitol Hill. The alternative is his own J-Street. (site)

Entitled Opinions - with both challenging and thought provoking chapters about Borges, Plato and Machiavelli. (site)

Death with Professor Shelly Kagan (Yale) - a very promising philosophy course in Open Yale. I am still at the first lectures which explore the arguments around the existence of the soul, which means that until this point there is more talk about the essence of human beings and their identity than about their death. (site, feed)

Podularity - books, writers, interviews

Here is a new podcast that I have begun to explore: Podularity. (feed) In the podcast, the host George Miller interviews writers about their books which lie in the broad category of non-fiction. A glance at the backlog (about 20 episodes) indicates a variety of subjects as large as those on my blog.

The last issue in the list dates from last month and it has been anounced that the next show will be with Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize Winner. This interview will possibly bring the show to the world of fiction as well - we shal see. So far, I picked from the list an issue about the Huns, one about Indus Empires and the last one about Berlin. Each of these was a delight; highly recommended.

The Berlin issue saw an interview with Heather Reyes about a highly original guide to the city of Berlin. Not only good for lovers of Berlin, but also of literature. The Huns issue was an interview with Christopher Kelly who wrote a biography of Attila the Hun. More than a book about Attila, the person, it is about the people and phenomenon of the Huns and it gives the history buffs (such as myself) some precious facts about them. And lastly, Miller interviewed Alice Albinia who wrote about her travel experiences in the Indus Valley and her book that discussed the numerous empires that have ruled in the Indus.

The myth of work - LSE

Yet another fascinating talk appeared in the LSE podcast. Alain de Botton spoke about The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. A talk touching not on the economist's meaning of employment, but rather a more sociology and philosophy approach, with a tad of history and psychology implications - amazing and exceptional in the LSE series.

De Botton begins with pointing out that our modern ethos of work is hardly as old as humanity. It is modern phenomenon that began to develop, more or less together with industrialization. Work has become specialized and what is more important, one of the central and meaningful aspects of life. Work has acquired meaning, together with love, that mean for the modern individual the the fulfillment of his life and his dreams. Your work is your identity, your job should bring you the existential satisfaction you log for and so on.

De Botton, who is a writer and a philosopher, made study of work, especially the 'tedious' jobs that are not likely to induce existential satisfaction but that are critical for modern economy. His talk reconstructs how work is overrated and expectations are exaggerated (just as with love and relationships) and what are the consequences of the myth of work. It is only in his last words work gets some esteem, other than that he seems to drive us more towards the the classic idea that work, basically is a kind of slavery. Goodness. Are we all slaves?

More LSE:
Pasts and futures of Christianity,
Global capitalism - the Gray view,
Israeli at the London School of Economics,
Michael Sandel,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung.

History of India or Europe?

This semester I discovered two history lecture podcasts to recommend. UCLA's History of India with Vinay Lal and Yale's European Civilization 1648-1945 with John Merriman. Here is to report how I fared on both series.

In advance I did not know which one I would ride until the end - listening in to 20 to 40 hours of audio for one or two reviews is quite a taxing investment. However, I was genuinely interested, especially in Indian History, as there are no comparable podcast (series) available. Professor Merriman's course on Yale, I expected, was going to mean too much of a repetition to me as there are many, many comparable series on the web. (As I pointed out in the first review) And then it worked out completely differently. By now I have flown through Merriman's course at Yale and I am stuck in the beginning in Lal's course at UCLA. And this is not because of either one's lack of quality; both are great courses.

Where I thought that lack of familiarity will glue me to the History of India and the recognition will make me abandon the History of Europe, it worked exactly the other way round. My familiarity with Europe and courses in European History made Merriman's course very accessible and allowed me to pick up on some fine details and emphases. Lal's course, on the other hand, goes through the early history or India to the background of the Hindu scripts such as the Rg Veda, the Bagvadgita and the Mahabharata and no matter how compellingly interesting this is, my sheer ignorance of the field causes this course to be extremely demanding. Nothing is familiar, everything is uncommon, new and requiring effort to digest.

So, what is the conclusion of all this? Still I will warmly recommend both courses and still I want to persevere with Lal's History of India, but if you come from where I come from, be prepared that this is no easy ride and maybe do some preparatory reading, before you go into the lectures. And isn't that completely logical and to be expected in hindsight? For the History of Europe I am already prepared, for the History of India I am not and therefore I must put in more effort. No wonder there is so much more attention for main stream Western History - it is a vicious circle.

More History of India.
More History of Europe.

New feed for Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Here is a hot tip for the vast majority of followers on the blog. I know you all love the history podcast Hardcore History by Dan Carlin.

This morning, without explanation or any other ado, Carlin posted in his feed a short memo that there is a new feed. "You must update your bookmark to the following URL in order to continue receiving the show." This is a line that does not show up in regular podcatchers such as iTunes, so you are very likely to miss out on it.

Here is the new feed to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. You can subscribe immediately. It contains all the shows that also sit in the old feed. With this Carlin has moved from his own server to Feedburner for the feed. The new show, who knows when, will come in the new feed only - obviously. So, subscribe.

More Hardcore History:
The end of the war,
Stalingrad,
Ghosts of the Ostfront,
Dan Carlin about the East Front,
Slavery.

Pasts and futures of Christianity - LSE podcast

An interesting lecture was delivered on the LSE podcast by Diarmaid MacCulloch. The title it got The Future of Christianity was actually the lesser of titles that could be extracted from the lecture and that are titles MacCulloch throws at us. It could have been the multiple The Futures of Christianity and it might easily have been The pasts of Christianity as well.

The point to take away from this lecture, as far as the past is concerned is that early Christianity was not only extremely varied, but that it traveled in all directions from the places of its origin, among others notably, to Asia. Since Christianity has become similar to what is Western, these roots are easily forgotten. Yet, ironically even, the future of Christianity might also lie in Asia, as the churches in China and Korea are the fastest growing in the world.

I saw an example how easily the eastern branch of Christianity is forgotten in Dale Martin's lecture course at Yale: New Testament History and Literature. This course emphasizes how Christianity is abundantly varied in its first centuries of existence and in passing it notes that it did not become dominated from Rome and the west until after the fourth century. And also that its Eastern streams were not exclusively European. Yet, in the ultimate lecture in the series, Dale Martin explicitly speaks of Christianity arriving in Asia only as of the 17th century. Not only he, Professor Dale B. Martin, forgets the Asian varieties and histories of Christianity, also his students fail to point this out at the lecture.

And so, this goes to show that MacCulloch's point about the various pasts of Christianity is very important in making, not just for the wider public, but even to the level of undergraduate theology education.

More LSE:
Global capitalism - the Gray view,
Israeli at the London School of Economics,
Michael Sandel,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung,
Natural Resource Management.

More Yale:
New Testament History and Literature,
Industrial Revolutions,
Modern Western History,
Introduction to Psychology,
Game Theory and Greek Classics,
The Hebrew Bible.

Veertien Achttien - Ford en anderen

Wie net als ik wekelijks trouw naar Tom Tacken's Veertien Achttien luistert, zou ik willen aanbevelen om voor het overzicht eens te luisteren naar een paar hoorcolleges op Yale. The reeks van Professor John Merriman (European Civilization, 1648-1945) bevat een aantal colleges die prachtig aansluiten en je weer eens laten zien hoe goed de biografie-reeks van Tacken is. Niet alleen goed als idee, maar ook historisch relevant en een effectieve methode om iets van het mysterie van die grote oorlog te doorgronden.

Luister bij Merriman met name naar het 15e en 16e college, maar als je het echt goed wil doen start dan bij 14 en ga door tot en met 20. (audio feed, video feed) Merriman laat zien hoe de cultuur van voor de oorlog tot de oorlog leidde. En niet alleen leidde die tot de oorlog in grote schaal, maar ook met de naiviteit waarmee de oorlog begonnen en gevoerd werd. En die oorlog leidde weer tot een radicaal ander Europa. En nadat je dat weer eens zo expliciet onder ogen hebt gezien, moet je weer naar de details die Tom Tacken biedt.

Elke biografie in de reeks is aan te bevelen en vanochtend is er weer een nieuwe in de feed - Tubby Clayton, maar die heb ik nog niet gehoord. In mijn geheugen klinkt nog het verhaal van vorige week na; de rol in de oorlog van Henry Ford. Henry Ford is voor mij vooral de no-nonsense kapitalist die zijn anti-historische dispositie vereeuwigde met de gevleugelde uitspraak History is bunk! Dat is niet alleen anti-historisch, dat is in mijn opinie ook anti-intellectueel en anti-cultureel. Dat is daarom geen persoon van wie ik verwacht dat hij in de Grote Oorlog op pad ging om vrede te brengen. Maar in deze vreemde oorlog is niets wat het lijkt en dat leer je dan toch maar weer bij Veertien Achttien.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Sigmund Freud,
Edith Cavell,
Rudyard Kipling, (speciaal aanbevolen)
Ferdinand I van Bulgarije,
Veertien Achttien in transit.

Meer Yale:
New Testament History and Literature,
Industrial Revolutions,
Modern Western History,
Introduction to Psychology,
Game Theory and Greek Classics,
The Hebrew Bible.

Karen Armstrong at Tapestry

Just when I discovered the radio program and podcast Tapestry in which Mary Hines speaks with guests about issues of spirituality, an episode came up with Karen Armstrong. We have had Armstrong on the very similar program and podcast Speaking of Faith as well as at TED and UChannel Podcast. Especially now that she is active with her Charter For Compassion, Armstrong appears frequently in the media. Obviously also in podcasts. Tapestry is just the podcast for her to show up in.

The Charter For Compassion is less subject of the conversation with Mary Hines. More so is Armstrong's latest book The Case for God. And just as the previous program I reviewed (with Terry Eagleton) the matter at hand is that of the confrontation between religion or spirituality and the rabid atheism and anti-religion of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. As Eagleton did, Armstrong emphasizes how the attacks on religion from this atheist ideology is taking on the wrong category, the wrong language. Yet, Armstrong's explanation of religion is very different from Eagleton.

Karen Armstrong states religion is a call for action, but does so in terms that have me interpret this more as being an emphasis on experience. Of course this lies in the doing, but as Armstrong puts it, she reveals the very intense quest for meaning as elementary to religion. Her language is that of the singular activity which eventually, apart from doing the right thing, aims towards 'God' without knowing where it will end up. And this is the spirituality of hermits, yogis, whirling dervishes and monastics. It is true that this is religion, but it forgets the communal aspect of religion. That of shared outlook, shared ritual and established symbols. That communal, traditional religion is what bothers the atheists. And that communal and traditional religion frequently stands more in the way of the elated experience and moral action Armstrong describes than that it inspires to it.

More Tapestry:
Terry Eagleton.

More Karen Armstrong:
A plea for compassion,
Interfaith and Compassion - Karen Armstrong,
Speaking of Faith and TED.

Rudi Kross - Het Marathon Interview

Zojuist verscheen in de nieuwe feed van VPRO's Het Marathoninterview een zeer memorabel gesprek dat John Jansen van Galen in 1989 had met Rudi Kross. Mijn oude recensie daarover gaat als volgt:

Rudi Kross fulmineert tegen de popmuziek; Rudi Kross analyseert hoe de chaos van Suriname, leidde to moralisme, wat weer leidde tot een suri-fascisme. Van dat fascisme beticht hij de dictatuur van Bouterse, waar hij toch zelf een zekere periode adjudant van is geweest. "Als een burgemeester in de oorlog?" "Ja, als je dat zo wilt noemen." En passant wordt de tour van '89 aan Fignon toegeschreven (achteraf weten wij wel beter) en heet Suriname 'dat ding'. Dat ding dat de Nederlandse koloniaal gebruikt heeft tot hij het niet meer nodig had en toen anderhalve eeuw te laat onrijp de onafhankelijkheid ingeschopt.

Het marathoninterview dat John Jansen van Galen met Rudi Kross heeft in 1989 is een emotionele wervelwind. En een orgie van het bloemrijke taalgebruik, de secure dictie en het onverschrokken zoeken naar de juiste woorden van Kross. De haat-liefde verhouding met Suriname, met Nederland, met Links, met Bouterse, maar zonder te schmieren. Kross zegt het over de Surinaamse cultuur, en daarmee over zichzelf, waarin het zo anders is dan de Nederlandse: het laat de emotie bestaan. (Ik paraphraseer op mijn onbeholpen -Nederlandse?- manier) Het geeft de ruimte voor iets van esoterie, het vreemde, het mysterie, het unieke. Nederlands is het daarentegen - zo stelt hij nadrukkelijk - om alles te vergewonen. "Oh, je bedoelt eigenlijk te zeggen dat .." Te banaliseren?

Zo niet bij de Surinamers, niet bij Rudi Kross, niet in dit avontuurlijke marathoninterview. Waarin zomin het bagatel als de grote zaken banaal worden. Niets wordt vereenvoudigd. De complicaties worden niet uit de weg gegaan. En Kross blijft proberen uit te leggen, te duiden. Het mysterie blijft bestaan, maar de emotie komt over en trilt nog na, diep in mijn botten, ook hier ver buiten Nederland en bijna 20 jaar na dato.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Ina Muller van Ast,
Jan Wolkers,
Henk Hofland (o.a.),
Diepenhorst en andere politici,
W.F. de Gaay Fortman.

Environmental History in the Middle Ages

There was an excellent issue of Jan Oosthoek's Exploring Environmental History podcast. In this podcast Oosthoek, who is a historian himself, mainly interviews other historians on topics of environmental history. This is a very good format for podcast as is also shown by New Books in History (another historian interviewing historians) and Shrink Rap Radio (A psychologist interviewing psychologists). Ample time for a conversation between two professionals, one knowing what he is talking about and the other knowing exactly to ask the right questions.

The absolute best podcast chapters of this kind are where the interviewed party is really excited and brings even more life than usual in the conversation. This was the case with Dolly Jørgensen, when she appeared on the EEH podcast. Oosthoek has her first talk about a cooperation initiative for historians in a network of medievalists, but it gets really good when she begins to talk about her own work.

Jørgensen did research into waste management in medieval cities. You'd expect those cities to be unbelievably dirty, but it turns out they were not. She claims that all modern methods of collecting garbage and financing this with taxes stem from this era. Indeed, I thought that to be a 19th century invention. Medieval cities were kept clean and maintained. Perhaps the truly big, polluted, crowded and unhealthy cities come with the heavy urbanization that started right after the Middle Ages and reached a low point as far as crowdedness and pollution is concerned in the first waves of industrialization.

More Exploring Environmental History:
New weeds in Africa,
Biological invasions and transformations,
Environmental history: an applied science,
Defining Environmental History with Marc Hall,
Defining Environmental History - Paul Warde.

Advent at Volkis Stimme

If you follow this blog you know I listen every week to the German Podcast Volkis Stimme. Host Volker Klärchen makes his satire of the weekly news every Saturday night - Sunday morning for me - in a mock news show carrying the slogan Volkis Stimme; da weiß man, was man hört. (feed)

Yet, since the middle of November Klärchen has abandoned the news show format. It started with a splendid interview with Bodo Wartke which was bereft of the regular satire. Then there was a short audio-drama in which Volker allegedly bumps into his post delivery woman. He nicks 24 letters to Father Christmas from her bag and this is what set the format for daily shows that started yesterday.

Every day, up until Christmas, Volkis Stimme will read one of these 24 letters to Father Christmas. Yesterday it was Guido Westerwelle asking the saint for not being laughed at for his haphazard attempts at speaking English. Today it is a plea for company by a lonesome SPD. Evidently, Volkis Stimme continues to be a satire show about German news, but until Christmas in this advent mode. I am wondering whether this is promising more variety in the show for 2010.

More Volkis Stimme:
Geburtstag,
Quick recommendation,
Angela Merkel (Angie) in Volkis Stimme,
Volkis Stimme - German podcast review.

342 Podcasts - Anne is a Man's list for December 2009

UPDATE: we now have 359 podcasts reviewed. (click this link for the latest list)

Every first of the month I publish a full list of podcasts I have reviewed. You can find the list below. If however you want to have them presented to you in a more orderly fashion, look up my list of directories. The disclaimer must be that the directories are not as up to date as the full list is.

1. 12 Byzantine Rulers
2. 7th Son
   
3. Africa (Stanford Travel)
4. Africa Past and Present
5. All Things Medieval
6. American Environmental and Cultural History (Berkeley ESPM 160AC)
7. American History before 1870
8. American Studies 101 AC (Berkeley)
9. Analysis (BBC)
10. Ancient and Medieval Podcast
11. Ancient History - Alternative Theories
    
12. Ancient Philosophy (Berkeley)
    
13. Antisemitism (USHMM)

14. Are we alone?
15. Argos (VPRO)
16. Armistice Podcast 
17. Backstory
    
18. BBC History Magazine
    
19. Behind the Black Mask
    
20. Behind the News with Doug Henwood
    
21. Beyond Good and Evil (Librivox)
22. Big Ideas (TVO)
23. Bike Radar
24. BILD 18 - Human Impact on the Environment (UCSD)
25. Binge Thinking History 
26. Bioethics podcast
27. the Biography Podcast (Chris Gondek)
28. Biography Podcast (Learn Out Loud)
    
29. the Biography Show (TPN)
30. Biota Podcast
31. Birth of the Modern (Arizona State University)
32. the Bitterest Pill 
33. BMS World Mission
34. Bommel Hoorspel (NPS)
35. Brieftour-pod
36. British History 101
37. Cambridge Alumni Podcast
    
38. Car Talk
39. CAT 2 Culture Art and Technology (UCSD)
40. Cat Crave
41. CATS 2 Culture and Technology Studies (UCSD)
42. Celtic Myth Podshow
43. CFR Podcast 
44. Chronicles Radio Dispatches
45. Church History
46. Conceptual Foundations of International Politics (Columbia)
47. Dan Carlin's Common Sense
48. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
49. Das Rätsel der verschollenen Schatulle
    
50. David Kalivas' World History
51. De Geschiedenis Podcast 
52. Der Sonntagssoziologe
53. Deutsch - warum Nicht? (Deutsche Welle)
54. Deutsche Klassiker (Deutsche Welle)
55. Dichter und Denker (University of Freiburg)
56. Distillations
57. Dogear Nation
58. Drinking matters (Warwick)
59. Early American Social History (Warwick)
60. East Asian Languages and Cultures (Berkeley)
61. East Asian Thought (UCSD)
62. Economics 100B (Berkeley)
    
63. the Economist 
64. EconTalk
    
65. Elucidations
66. Engines of our Ingenuity
67. English 117S (Berkeley)
68. Entitled opinions
    
69. Environmental Economics and Policy (Berkeley)
70. Environmental History Videocast
71. Ersatz TV 
72. The Ethicist (NYT)
73. Ethics Bites (Open University)
74. European Civilization 1648 to 1945 (Yale)
75. Everything Lincoln
76. Existentialism in Literature and Film (Phil 7 - Berkeley)
77. Exploring Environmental History 
78. F1Cast
79. Fact or Fiction
    
80. Family History - Genealogy made easy
    
81. Feed Me Bubbe
    
82. Flavius (Joodse Omroep)
83. Forgotten Classics
    
84. Foundations of American Cyber-Culture (Berkeley)
85. Frankenstein, or modern Prometheus (Librivox)
86. Fraunhofer Podcast
87. Freedomain Radio
    
88. Fresh Air (NPR)
89. From Israelite to Jew
    
90. From our own Correspondent (BBC)
91. Game Theory (Yale)
    
92. Ganz einfach leben
93. Genealogy Gems Podcast
    
94. Geography 110C (Berkeley) Economic Geography of the Industrial World
    
95. Geography 130 (Berkeley)
96. Geography of Europe (Arizona State University)
    
97. Geography of World Cultures (Stanford)
98. Georgian Britain (Warwick)
99. German Cultural History
    
100. German GrammarPod
101. Geschichtspodcast (Chronico)
     
102. Geschiedewistjedatjes
     
103. Gilder Lehrmann history podcast 
104. Global Geopolitics (Stanford)
105. Grammar Girl 
106. Guns and Rubles (Warwick)
107. Hank's History Hour
108. Hannibal (Stanford)
109. Haring Podcast
110. Harvard Business IdeaCast
     
111. Historical Jesus (Stanford)
112. Historicast
     
113. History 106B (Berkeley)
114. History 131 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
     
115. History 132 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
     
116. History 162A (Berkeley)
117. History 167B (Berkeley)
118. History 181B (Berkeley)
119. History 1c (UCLA)
120. History 2311 (Temple College)
121. History 2312 (Temple College)
122. History 4A (Berkeley)
123. History 5 (Anderson - Berkeley)
124. History 5 (Hesse- Berkeley)
     
125. History 5 (Laqueur - Berkeley)
126. History 7B (Berkeley)
127. History according to Bob 
128. History Compass Blog
     
129. the History Faculty 
130. History Network
131. History of Holland (Librivox)
132. History of India (UCLA)
133. History of Medicine (Oxford Brooke University)
134. History of Rome
135. History of the International System (Stanford)
136. History on the Run 
137. History Podcast
138. Historypod
139. Historyzine
140. Hoor! Geschiedenis
     
141. Hoorspelen
142. HUM 4 - Enlightenment, Romanticism, Revolution (UCSD)
143. HUM 4104 (Virginia Tech)
144. Human Happiness (Berkeley)
145. Husserl
146. ICT Update
147. In My Living Room! 
148. In Our Time (BBC)
149. In the Media (WNYC)
150. Inspired Minds (Deutsche Welle)
151. Interview Vrijdag (VPRO)
152. Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Yale)
     
153. an Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Berkeley)
154. Introduction to German Politics (Oxford)
155. Introduction to Language (Arizona State University)
156. Introduction to Psychology (Yale)
157. Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (Yale)
     
158. Introductory Topics in Religious Studies (Berkeley)
159. the Invisible Hand
160. Iran Podcast
     
161. Irving Poetry podcast
162. Isaiah Berlin Centenary (Oxford)
163. Islamic Medicine (Warwick)
164. Islamophonic (The Guardian)
165. It was 20 years ago today 
166. ITV
167. Jung Podcast
168. Junggesellenblog
     
169. KMTT
170. KQED Forum
171. Kritisch Denken
172. La Resistance
     
173. Language (UCSD)
174. Laura Speaks Dutch
175. Learn German 
176. Leben und Überleben mit 45+
     
177. Letters and Science (Berkeley)
     
178. The Long Now podcast
179. LSE Podcast 
180. Lyrics Undercover 
181. Making History with Ran Levi - עושים היסטוריה
     
182. Marathon Arie Kleywegt
183. Marathon Herman Bianchi
184. Marathon Interview (VPRO)
185. Het Marathon Interview (VPRO) vernieuwde feed
186. Marathon Poncke Princen
187. Masters of None
188. Matt's Today In History
189. Media Matters (NPR)
     
190. medicalhistory 
191. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Fall 2008 (Virginia Tech)
192. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Spring 2008 (Virginia Tech)
193. Medieval Podcast
194. Meetings Podcast 
195. Meiky's Podcast Show 
196. The Memory Palace 
197. Midwest Writer
198. Mighty Movie Podcast 
199. Military History Podcast
200. Missing Link
201. MMW 1 (Tara Carter - UCSD)
202. MMW 2 , the great classical traditions (Chamberlain - UCSD)
203. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Chamberlain - UCSD)
204. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Herbst - UCSD)
205. MMW 4, new ideas and clash of cultures (UCSD)
206. MMW6 (UCSD)
     
207. Muscular Judaism
208. My Daily Phrase German
209. My Three Shrinks
210. Namaste Stories
     
211. Napoleon 1O1 (TPN)
212. National Archives Podcast
213. Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast
     
214. New Books In History
     
215. New Humanist
216. New World Orders
     
217. New Testament History and Literature (Yale)
218. New York Coffee Cup
     
219. The New York Review of Books podcast
220. Night's Knights
     
221. Nilpod
     
222. Nonviolence (Berkeley PACS 164A)
223. Nonviolence today (Berkeley PACS 164B)
224. Norman Centuries
225. NRC FM
226. Omega Tau Podcast
227. Only in America
228. Oorsmeer (VPRO)
229. Open Source 
230. Out of the past
     
231. OVT (VPRO)
232. Oxford Biographies
     
233. Oy Mendele!
234. Parnell's History Podcast
235. Peopletalk's Podcast
236. Physics for future Presidents (Berkeley)
237. Philosopher's Zone (ABC)
     
238. Philosophy 103
239. Philosophy 135 (Berkeley)
240. Philosophy 138 (Berkeley)
241. Philosophy 7 (Berkeley)
242. Philosophy Bites
243. the Philosophy Podcast
244. Philosopy 6 (Berkeley) Man, God, and Society in Western Literature
     
245. Podcast history of cooking
     
246. Podcasts on Medieval Texts (Virginia Tech)
247. Pods and Blogs 
248. Podwatch
249. POLI 120A - Political Development of Western Europe
     
250. Political, Economic and Social Thought (University of Wisconsin)
251. Political Science 10 (UCLA)
252. Political Science 179 (Berkeley)
     
253. Politics 114B (UCLA)
254. Politics and Warfare (UCSD)
     
255. Pope Podcast
256. Practice of Art (Berkeley) Foundations of American Cyber-Culture
     
257. Prospect Magazine Podcast
258. Prosperity show
259. PSYC 105 - Introduction cognitive psychology (UCSD)
260. Psyconoclasm
261. Radiolab (WNYC)
262. Rav Dovid's
263. Real Talk
     
264. Rear Vision (ABC)
265. Red Panda
     
266. Redborne History
267. Reith Lectures 2009 (BBC)
268. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155A)
269. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155B)
270. Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
271. Replaceable You (Stanford)
     
272. Rhetoric 10 (Berkeley)
273. Ronflonflon (VPRO)
274. Rpgmp3
275. RSA Current Audio
     
276. Schlaflos in München
     
277. Science & the City
     
278. Science Fiction and Politics
     
279. Science Friday (NPR)
280. Science Talk (Scientific American)
281. Science Times (NYT)
     
282. Sex History Podcast
283. A Short History of Ireland (BBC)
284. Shrink Rap Radio
285. Šimek 's Nachts (RVU)
286. Šimek 's Nachts (Elsevier)
     
287. the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
288. Skythen-Podcast
     
289. Slow German 
290. SOCD 188J - Change in Modern South Africa (UCSD)
291. Social Innovation Conversations
292. SOCL 1B - the study of society (UCSD)
     
293. Sonic Society
294. Sounds Jewish (The Guardian)
295. Sparkletack 
296. Speaking of Faith (APM)
297. Stanford U History 
298. Stem Cells: Policy and Ethics (Stanford)
299. Sterke Geschiedenis
     
300. Straight talk about stem cells (Stanford)
     
301. Stuff you missed in history class 
302. The Structure of English Words (Stanford)
303. Sunday Sundown 
304. Talking Robots
305. Tapestry (CBC)
306. TdF London
307. Teaching American History
308. Teaching Company
     
309. TED Talks
310. That Podcast Show (aka Edgy Reviews)
311. Theories of Law and Society (Berkeley)
     
312. the Things We Forgot To Remember
313. Thinking Allowed (BBC)
     
314. Time Out for Truth
     
315. Times Talks
316. the Tolkien Professor
317. Tudorcast
318. UChannel Podcast (aka University Channel Podcast)
319. UCLA Israel Studies 
320. US History since 1877 (Temple College)
321. Veertien Achttien
     
322. VIS 22 - Formations of Modern Art (UCSD)
     
323. Volkis Stimme
     
324. Volkskrant Podcasts
325. Voor 1 nacht (KRO)
326. Wanhoffs Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft 
327. We the People Stories
328. Welcome to Mars
     
329. What is Judaism?
330. Wise Counsel 
331. the Word Nerds
332. World View (NYT)
     
333. the Writing Show
334. Wynyfryd's meditation room
335. the Your History Podcast
336. Your Purpose Centered Life
337. zencast
338. zoem
339. האוניברסיטה המשודרת
340. מה שהיה היה
     
341. פודקאסט זה לחלשים
342. קטעים בהיסטוריה 

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