Medieval Heroes in short - HUM 4104 Virginia Tech

Professor Matthew Gabriele from Virginia Tech is using podcast as a supplement to his lectures. This is different from many other university podcasts, where the podcast is the lecture. Gabriele offers help with the reading on the podcast. Consequently, the non-student listener, such as us, is a bit shut out, but still some value can be had.

Take the course about heroes (HUM 4104 - see Virginia Tech history podcast page). Each podcast prepares for the reading about another hero or two. Beowulf, Boniface, Lancelot - aren't those the characters you had always wanted to know more about. Gabriele is giving that and more heroes, but only a bit. From there you will have to take the reading yourself or find your way to Virginia.

Still, what I like about this podcast series is that the issues are short. Each one under five minutes, so that you can drop them anywhere on your playlist. You can squeeze in a listen any time and you will get a tiny pearl handed to you.


More Virginia Tech:
Thinking outside the European box,
Medieval Texts.

Peopletalk - history and culture podcast

I have briefly reviewed Peopletalk before. The podcast still has an audiobook section where history texts are being read to the listener. However, by now (I do not recall it was there then) the feed also offers episodes in which someone is being interviewed.

I took up listening to the interview with Michael Anthony of the British History 101 podcast (which I have also reviewed a long, long time ago). Anthony gets to explain how he became interested in British history. His high school days in Indiana, saw no significant attention to British History in history class. It was through a literature class and an enthusiastic teacher and the ensuing depiction of historical backgrounds with the read works that he was exposed to the subject and came to love it. In addition came a few visits to England. By now he is a history student and has many inroads into history. Still he is most attracted to British History and finds it particularly relevant for the US.

The episode is more of a conversation than an interview as the interviewer actively participates with his views. There is more to discover here. I want to thank the reader of this blog who attracted my attention to Peopletalk again. (feed)