Listening ideas for 31 March 2011

The Korea Society
Modern Korean Literature: Searching for Identity at Home and in the World
On February 17, 2011, The Korea Society’s Korea In-Depth Lecture Series hosted scholar Ann Choi Wan for a lecture entitled, “Modern Korean Literature: Searching for Identity at Home and in the World.” Wan contrasted the themes of romantic love and individualism in the first “modern” Korean novels with earlier genres, which were heavily influenced by Confucian values of social harmony. The 2011 Korea In-Depth Lecture Series by noted scholars of the history, politics, literature, art, and architecture of Korea is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.
(review, feed)

In Our Time
The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse section of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, is one of the most revered texts of Hinduism. Written in around 200 BC, it narrates a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the deity, and the Pandava prince Arjuna. It has been described as a concise summary of Hindu theology, a short work which offers advice on how to live one's life. The Gita is also a philosophical work of great richness and influence. First translated into English in the 18th century, it was quickly taken up in the West. With: Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University, Julius Lipner, Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion and Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, and Jessica Frazier, Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Lecturer in Religious Studies at Regent's College, London Producer: Thomas Morris.
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China History Podcast
The Qing Dynasty Part 3
In this episode we look at the bittersweet reign of the Qianlong emperor. The longest reigning emperor in Chinese imperial history, the Qianlong era saw the most splendid three decades for the Manchu's of the Qing Dynasty. China reached its greatest territorial extent and was still the marvel of the world. But during the second half of the Qianlong era, Westerners became more aggressive in their ongoing attempts to increase China trade. In addition to Westerners and their demands for China to open up, domestic problems increasingly plagued the Qing emperor. The stage was being set for the turbulent 19th century. The remaining six Qing emperors were powerless to control the cataclysmic series of events that would change China forever.
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Witness
Poll tax riots
On March 31, 1990, a demonstration against a new tax, degenerated into some of the worst riots London has ever seen. Two protestors remember that day very differently.
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Listening ideas for 30 March 2011

Indicast
India Vs Pakistan
India takes on Pakistan in the second semi final later today at Mohali. In the universal set of India and Pakistan, if set A were cricket and Set B were politics, then A intersection B is confusion, tension and a false sense of security. But we do rely on hope. In this podcast, we talk about this and more. Warren Buffet is in India. The DGCA spanking continues on pilots who have forged their way into the service. And Adityas better half makes her debut in a film titled Bal Gandharva which is going to the Cannes Film Festival.
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Witness
Reagan assassination attempt
On March 30 1981 a man tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States. Special Agent Jerry Parr was one of the men who helped save the President's life.
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Rear Vision
The history of nuclear power
The magnitude 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan caused a massive tsunami that killed thousands and flooded the Fukushima nuclear power plant. As Japan comes to terms with its worst nuclear disaster, we take a look at the history of nuclear power.
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The Economist
Malcolm Grimston on a nuclear future
As Japan struggles to cope with the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, what next for the nuclear industry?
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KQED's Forum
The California Supreme Court's New Chief Justice
Tani Cantil-Sakauye took over as chief justice of the California Supreme Court in January, making her the second woman and first Asian-American to hold the job. She joins guest host Scott Shafer in the studio.
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August Willemsen

Even een korte recensie.

Kan je een stotteraar voor de radio (of podcast) interviewen? Een hardnekkig haperende August Willemsen verscheen voor de VPRO microfoon in 1999 en die Marathon van drie uur is nu als podcast uitgekomen. (feed)

Ik kende Willemsen niet alleen van de vertalingen uit het Portugees, maar ook van een aantal gedichten die hij in Paradiso had voorgedragen. Wat je er bij krijgt in het interview is heen en weer gepraat over zijn alcoholisme. De AA in Australie duwden hem naar contact leggen met Hogere Machten, maar daar moet hij niets van hebben...

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Ernst van de Wetering,
Isaac Lipschits,
Ger Harmsen,
Het Marathon Interview met Kerst 2010,
Michiel van Erp.

Listening ideas for 29 March 2011

Mahabharata Podcast
The Kauravas React
Episode 50 - Sanjay returns to Hastinapur with messages and intelligence from the Pandava camp. The king's charioteer delivers this information before the royal assembly, while Dhrarastra, Duryodhana, Bhisma and Karna argue over the significance of these threats.
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EconTalk
Vincent Reinhart on Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and the Financial Crisis
Vincent Reinhart of the American Enterprise Institute talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the government interventions and non-interventions into financial markets in 2008. Conventional wisdom holds that the failure to intervene in the collapse of Lehman Brothers precipitated the crisis. Reinhart argues that the key event occurred months earlier when the government engineered a shotgun marriage of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan Chase by guaranteeing billion of Bear's assets and sending a signal to creditors that risky lending might come without a cost. Reinhart argues that there is a wider menu of choices available to policy makers than simply rescue or no rescue, and that it is important to take action before the crisis comes to a head.
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Witness
Bangladesh independence
It is 40 years since a brutal crackdown by Pakistani troops marked the beginning of the war of independence in Bangladesh. Meghna Guhathakurta lost her father to 'Operation Searchlight'
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Inspired Minds
Gregor Zubicky – Artistic Manager of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Gregor Zubicky was an internationally renowned oboe soloist and principal cor-anglais with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra until medical problems with a hand forced a change in his career path. Today he is artistic director of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. This week Gregor Zubicky talks to Breandáin O’Shea about this career change, establishing a chamber music festival and the challenges he faces in his new position within an orchestra.
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Lyrics Undercover
Landslide – Fleetwood Mac
A wistful song written in Aspen, reflecting the humbling landscape, is the topic of this week’s Lyrics Undercover. “Landside” first appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album.
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TED Talks
Don't insist on English! - Patricia Ryan
At TEDxDubai, longtime English teacher Patricia Ryan asks a provocative question: Is the world's focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? (For instance: what if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?) It's a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas.
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Hans Kundnani about Germany's left after the war

The flag ship of the New Books Network is of course the podcast New Books in History. Marshall Poe interviews authors of newly published, interesting, history books (feed). He has been doing it for three years and there is a wonderful wealth of subjects to choose from. One of them is the modern history of Germany.

A very particular and not often described (at least not in English) part of the history of Germany is the kind of intellectual struggle with the Nazi past that took place in West-Germany. Especially the more left-leaning generation after the war had an intense confrontation with its parents' and teachers' past. On NBiH Marshall Poe interviews journalist Hans Kundnani about his book Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany’s 1968 Generation and the Holocaust (Columbia UP, 2010).

Kundnani (who grew up in Britain and is the son of a Dutch woman and an Indian man) investigated the new left in West-Germany - he calls it the Federal Republic. He describes how they began to view almost the entire previous generation as 'fascists' and therefore politically bankrupt and began to heavily theorize about right politics. Many of them seriously radicalized, but not all of them ended up as RAF (Rote Armee Faktion) terrorists. Notably Joschka Fischer made it to German foreign minister, for the Green Party. Kundnani is a very captive guest on the show and wonderfully effectively explains the intricacies of the leftist intellectual landscape of West-Germany in the sixties and seventies.

More New Books in History:
Ottoman Age of Exploration
The mysteries of whites and of mass,
A Soviet Memoir,
This I accomplish,
Not your idea of World War II.

Listening ideas for 28 March 2011

The Tolkien Professor
Faerie Course
The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Part 1, in which we meet a knight with a funny name and a preternaturally ugly woman.
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New Books In History
Daniel Sidorick, "Condensed Capitalism: Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century"
When I was in college I had a summer job once working in an aircraft factory. My task was to count screws. Nope, I’m not kidding. I put together parts-kits that were then taken to another station “down the line” for assembly. It wasn’t much fun, and it taught me that I did not want [...]
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The History of Rome
The New Game in Town
With the Tetrarchy in shambles, Diocletian will be called out of retirement in 308 AD to help broker a settlement. But the new new order will prove as bad as the old new order.
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Russian Rulers History Podcast
Catherine, The Early Years
Sophie Augusta Fredericka was an unlikely candidate to marry well. We follow her early years before she wed the future Tsar Peter III.
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Omega Tau Podcast
Megacities
Diese Episode ist ein Interview mit Prof. Dr.-Ing. J. Alexander Schmidt vom Institut für Stadtplanung und Städtebau der Universität Duisburg-Essen. Wir sprachen allgemein über Eigenschaften von Megacities, über Probleme und Lösungsmöglichkeiten im Bereich von Mobilität, Resourcen und Umweltaspekten. Anhand von vielen Beispielen aus dem Projekt Shanghai : Integrierte Ansätze für eine nachhaltige und energieeffiziente Stadtentwicklung – Stadtform, Mobilität, Bauen und Wohnen wird anschaulich, welche Rolle örtliche und kulturelle Gegebenheiten spielen und und welche Potenziale zur Stadtentwicklung es dort derzeit gibt.
(review, feed)

Sholem Schwarzbard - Veertien Achttien

De nieuwste aflevering van Veertien Achttien markeert voor mij altijd het begin van de week. Het is de enige Nederlandse podcast waarvan ik geen enkele aflevering mis - en trouwens, in het Engels zijn er ook niet zoveel. Zo meteen rijd ik naar mijn werk en laatste aflevering van Veertien Achttien speelt op mijn autoradio.

Eerst nog even wat woorden over de voorlaatste aflevering. Sholem Schwarzbard was een vluchteling uit de Oekraine die in Parijs neerstreek. Niet alleen vluchtten hij en de zijnen voor het oorlogsgeweld en had Schwarzbard socialistische sympathieen die hem niet helemaal in het Tsaristische rijk deden passen. Schwarzbard was ook joods en hij vluchtte ook voor de pogroms.

In de Oekraine in de tussentijd, was er een voorzichtige poging tot onafhankelijkheid, geleid door Symon Petliura. Onder Petliura gingen de pogroms gewoon door en toen Oekraine deel van de nieuwe Sovjetunie moest worden, week ook Petliura uit naar Parijs, alwaar hij Schwarzbard tegenkwam. De laatste besloot de pogroms te wreken en schoot de eerste dood. Schwarzbard kwam voor een Franse rechter en opeens werden de pogroms een kwestie die juridisch relevant konden zijn. Luister naar Veertien Achttien om uit te vinden of in Frankrijk wraak voor pogroms een moord konden rechtvaardigen.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Bernard Freyberg,
Richard Huelsenbeck,
Veertien Achttien nieuwsbrief (PTSD versus shellshock)
Sir Mark Sykes,
De Eerste Wereldoorlog in podcast.

Listening ideas for 27 March 2011

Philosophy Bites
Catharine MacKinnon on Gender Crime
In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Catharine MacKinnon talks to Nigel Warburton about the concept of Gender Crime.
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Zencast
Intro to Zen
Intro to Zen - Alan Watts Thank you to Mark Watts for allowing us to podcast this lecture.
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Veertien Achttien
Hjalmar Hammarskjöld en nee zeggen tegen beide kampen
Zijn zonen vertrouwde hij de wereldvrede toe, maar het Zweedse volk sloot oorlogspremier Hjalmar Hammarskjöld niet in zijn armen.
(review, feed)

New Books Network

I love the podcast New Books in History not only because I love history and the host Marshall Poe makes sure I get a great history shot every week. It is also because NBiH has a great formula that objectively -I think- is particularly fit for podcast: interview by an informed reader with the author of a good book that just has come out.

Marshall Poe has been running NBiH for about three years now and seen this as well and is now expanding into all conceivable other fields. He has set up the New Books Network and is recruiting specialists from a wide range of disciplines to make their own New Books podcast. In potential NBN is offering next to NBiH a near hundred of other new podcasts, but most of them are filled with cross-posted content from NBiH, if at all. Working new podcasts in this collection are New Books in military history, public policy, psychoanalysis, law, and food. Especially the ones in Law and in Public Policy are off to a good start. I will be reviewing them soon you can expect.

Listening ideas for 26 March 2011

Philosopher's Zone
Who was Gilles Deleuze?
Gilles Deleuze, who died by his own hand in 1995, was one of the most influential and prolific French philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. He wrote influentially not just on philosophy, but on literature, film, fine art and the environment as well. But his writing style - highly allusive, peppered with neologisms - is not easy-going. This week, we try to get to grips with a significant and important thinker.
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Science Friday
Hour 1: Building Blocks of Life, Pre-Clovis Americans, Return of Project Mohole
New analysis of an old spark flask biochemistry experiment, hunting for traces of Americas first inhabitants, drilling to the mantle of the Earth.
Hour 2: Computers and Emotions, Richard Feynman, Spacesuit Design
Measuring emotions via technology, a biography of physicist Richard Feynman, and a look at Apollo-era space suit design.
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Harvard thinks big

Here is a challenge: have a scientist with a great idea to summarize it in a ten minute lecture. Harvard has done it in the series Harvard Thinks Big. The crash lectures mounted all one after the other in a one night event and they recorded this on video for us to enjoy in video podcast.

It is too bad the quality of the sound and visuals were botched. If this was an attempt by Harvard to do something similar to TED Talks it miserably failed as far as the presentation is concerned. For the content, there is more to say. Go watch and enjoy. (feed)

I learned from this series from Open Culture one of the blogs I follow for being informed about great academic free content on-line

Listening ideas for 25 March 2011

The China History Podcast
The Qing Dynasty Part 2
In this episode we examine the Yongzheng emperor, the second of the three great Qing emperors who reigned during the most golden of times for the Manchu dynasty. A tireless emperor who was a wizard at managing the machine of state, he reigned for only thirteen years before his son later brought the Qing dynasty to its greatest heights.
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On Being aka Speaking of Faith
Sidling Up to Difference
Our Civil Conversations Project continues with the Ghanaian-British-American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah. His parents' marriage helped inspire the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He's studied ethics in a world of strangers and how unimaginable social change happens. We explore his erudite yet down-to-earth take on disarming moral hostilities in America now.
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Forgotten Classics
Genesis, chapters 22-23
In which Abraham and Isaac go to the mountaintop and Abraham buys at top dollar.
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Making History! with Ran Levi
הקוף שידע לאהוב, או איך התחלנו ללכת על שתים
בפרק זה נעקוב אחר אחת מההתפתחויות החשובות והדרמטיות ביותר באבולוציה האנושית: המעבר להליכה זקופה
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Tapestry - Karen Armstrong - Compassion (a year hence)

Remember Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion? That initiative was launched a little over a year ago and one may wonder how that went further. Armstrong returned to the CBC program Tapestry to tell about it. (feed)


I did not know the Charter started with funding by TED that Armstrong won and was to invest any which way she saw fit. It was not felt when she spoke at TED about the Charter. By now TED's money has been used, but the Fetzer institute stepped in to continue the funding. Apart from the interfaith dialog, there is also a book Twelve steps to a compassionate life - is that a paraphrase of AA's twelve steps program? We do seem to be addicted to our selfishness all right.

Listen to Mary Hines's conversation with Karen Armstrong on Tapestry and and pay attention to what she says about dialog. For me that comes straight to my heart: how I love good conversation and how rare is it. Another podcast that pointed that subject out was On Being when Krista Tippet received John O'Donohue (feed) and he asked: when was the last time you truly conversed with someone else; when you had a conversation where you heard yourself say things you did not know you had in you and thus the dialog changed you both. How often is human interaction a senseless reiteration of the same sentences we speak on and on?

More Tapestry:
Giordano Bruno,
Surviving in the Wilderness,
Survival of the Kindest,
Fear,
Terry Eagleton.

Listening ideas for 24 March 2011

Thinking Allowed
New North
Professor Laurie Taylor discusses the influence of the 19th Century Temperance Movement and examines the notion of power and prosperity shifting to the frozen North.
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar
The dollar, the world's international reserve currency for over eighty years, has been a pillar of American economic hegemony. In the words of one critic, the dollar possessed an "exorbitant privilege" in international finance that reinforced U.S. economic power. In Exorbitant Privilege, eminent economist Barry Eichengreen explains how the dollar rose to the top of the monetary order before turning to the current situation. Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Political Science and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other publications. This event celebrates the publication of his latest book Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar.
(review, feed)

KQED's Forum
Health Care Reform, a Year Later
One year ago, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the health care reform bill. We discuss the bill's successes -- and failures -- one year later.
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In Our Time
The dawn of the Iron Age
In around 3000 BC European metalworkers started to make tools and weapons out of bronze. A complex trading network evolved to convey this valuable metal and other goods around the continent. But two millennia later, a new skill arrived from the Middle East: iron smelting. This harder, more versatile metal represented a huge technological breakthrough. The arrival of the European Iron Age, in around 1000 BC, was a time of huge social as well as technological change. New civilisations arose, the landscape was transformed, and societies developed new cultures and lifestyles. Whether this was the direct result of the arrival of iron is one of the most intriguing questions in archaeology.
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Het Marathoninterview
August Willemsen, vertaler Pessoa
Vertaler Willemsen was een begaafd stilist en ook in het gesproken woord drukte hij zich haarscherp, bijna ‘persklaar’, uit. Met relativering en humor sprak hij ook over zichzelf. Anton de Goede ging op zoek naar de ware August Willemsen op 30 juli 1999.
(review, feed)

Ottoman Age of Exploration

I am always ready to recommend any issue of the podcast New Books in History, but here is one that I consider among the essentials in history podcast listening: Marshal Poe interviews Giancarlo Casale about “The Ottoman Age of Exploration” (feed)

The great thing about history podcast listening is to get a grip on the general narrative of history. That is why I keep looking in all corners for good history podcasts: I am trying to have a fairly detailed idea of human history from the moment our ancestors stood upright until today. Frequently I find immense lacunae in the narrative as I got it from school. Giancarlo Casale fills such a lacuna.

We have heard plenty about the European age of exploration and we may have heard about the explorative journeys the Chinese undertook in the centuries before the Europeans began. But in between, there are also the Ottomans. Just like everybody else, they tried to explore the Indian Ocean, found their bases and profit from the spice trade. Casale explains when they did it, why and how. Casale also gives the best concise explanation I have heard ever, why exactly spices were such an excellent commodity. In short, this is stuff you must know to get a better understanding of what you had already learned.

More NBIH:
The mysteries of whites and of mass,
A Soviet Memoir,
This I accomplish,
Not your idea of World War II,
When Akkadian was Lingua Franca.

Listening ideas for 23 March 2011

Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast
Vasily Petrenko talks to Edward Seckerson about his latest Shostakovich recording
The latest instalment in Vasily Petrenko’s highly acclaimed cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies offers a telling flashback to the composer’s youth. Symphony No.1 -his sensational symphonic debut- is, according to Petrenko, a whistle-stop tour through revolutionary Petrograd with Shostakovich donning the masks of comedy and tragedy in practical pursuit of his already highly developed sense of irony. As Petrenko explains to Edward Seckerson, the really big influence here is Stravinsky’s Petrushka, (as witness the devilishly flashy solo piano part) and there is something of the feel of a silent movie in the flickering imagery. Symphony No.3 “The First of May” offers a rather more prescribed view of the Revolution with its brassy choral paean redolent of those striking propaganda posters.
(review, feed)

Fresh Air
Why Libya Matters To The Middle East's Future
Story: The future of Libya has become a key part in the rapidly changing transformation of the Arab world. On today's Fresh Air, political scientist Marc Lynch explains why the United States and its allies decided to intervene — and what's at stake for each side.
(review, feed)

Entitled Opinions
Italian Cinema - Sarah Carey
Sarah Carey specializes in nineteenth and twentieth-century Italian literature, visual culture and cinema. She received her B.A. from Stanford University in 2002, her M.A. from UCLA in 2007, and her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2010. Her current book project analyzes how photography has met with artistic and literary aspirations in order to collectively explore Italy's own “autobiography.” Such a study, which would be one of the first full-length works in English to explore the relationship between photography, literature and cinema in Italy in the past two centuries aspires to show how the integration of photography into literary and filmic texts is idiosyncratic – a direct result of Italian visual traditions and the nation’s need to find a way to narrate its own story. Ms. Carey has published in Quaderni d’Italianistica and CARTE ITALIANE; her most recent article, “Futurism’s Photography – From fotodinamismo to fotomontaggio,” examines the complicated and at times hostile relationship between Italian Futurism and the photographic medium. She also has two forthcoming articles: a work co-authored with Thomas Harrison on the films of Michelangelo Antonioni in Italian Culture and an essay on photography in Vittorio Imbriani’s 1867 novel Merope IV that will be included in the book Enlightening Encounters Between Photography and Italian Literature (2010). Ms. Carey currently teaches Italian cinema and literature for the Department of French and Italian at Stanford. Her present course, “Rebels, Outcasts & Iconoclasts – Italian Cinema 1943-1975,” focuses on figures of social deviance in films from the most important Italian auteurs.
(review, feed)

Meaning Systems - Big Ideas

A very worthwhile piece of audio to pick up is the podcasted lecture by David Sloan Wilson on Religions and other Meaning Systems on the podcast Big Ideas also without the additional reading and listening that embedded it for me (feed). Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist who shines his perspective on religion in general and does so in a very integrated fashion and with fascinating insights.

My perspective on religion is sociological and anthropological and it makes me always feel a bit queasy when I see biologists take on religion. Whether it is Richard Dawkins (in The God Delusion that I recently read) or Stephen Gould or PZ Myers, I always feel they somehow miss a fundamental point. Sloan Wilson is an exception to that rule, he explicitly does not miss the point: even though religions carry claims about facts, claims that biology or other sciences are by far more qualified to make, religion is not essentially about facts, or even about salvation or morality - religions are a social construct that supply people with meaning. That is what Sociology and Anthropology could have told you in the first place and what Sloan Wilson presents as a zoological discovery: unlike other animals man is profoundly symbolic. And while we are at it, political ideologies and science are no less a product of that symbolic inclination of man than religion is. They all are meaning systems, in the terminology of Wilson. I would have called them symbolic universes, but again, that is my baggage from sociology.

It is also my baggage as a sociologist that I feel the social sciences are more qualified to analyze religion, yet I happily acknowledge that the biology perspectives of David Sloan Wilson and Richard Dawkins offer insight as well. It helped I was pointed by the DIY Scholar to the Stanford series with Robert Sapolsky: Human Behavioral Biology which is a very interesting and broad course in its own right, but in this context it gave me the much needed introduction in the tools, methods, terminology and mind set of the biologist. (feed)

More Big Ideas:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog,
Age of Unequals,
Dan Dennett: what should replace religion?,
Chris Hedges,
Needham about China.

Listening ideas for 22 March 2011

Mahabharata Podcast
Peace talks begin
Episode 49 - Now that both sides are armed to the teeth and infested with vast armies, they are ready to talk peace terms. The Pandavas start the first round by sending Drupad's unnamed priest as their ambassador. This priest travels to Hastinapur and asks only for the terms of the Dice Game to be fulfilled. Dhrtarastra responds well enough, sending his Charioteer Sanjay as the returning ambassador. Sanjay's message is also for peace, but the terms are rather unacceptable. The Kauravas suggested that the Pandavas simply disarm, and go away. No land, no titles, no nothing.
(review, feed)

Analysis
Blue Labour
David Goodhart examines a radical plan to win back Labour's working-class supporters.
(review, feed)

Social Innovation Conversations
Sara Chamberlain - Developing India Through Mobile Phones
"Yes indeed, people can learn from mobile phones," says Sara Chamberlain, Head of Interactive for BBC World Trust and developer of BBC Janala, launched to "raise the language skills of 25 million people in Bangladesh by 2017." In this university podcast hear how over 3 million people have already begun the process of learning English with the use of even the most basic handsets. According to Chamberlain, making English accessible and affordable could greatly impact the economic development of India by being "a ticket out of poverty."
(review, feed)

Science & the City
Tales from the Brain
Drawing on strange and thought-provoking case studies, eminent neurologist V. S. Ramachandran offers unprecedented insight into the evolution of the uniquely human brain in his new book, The Tell-Tale Brain.
(review, feed)

Schlaflos in München
SiM #572 - 6 Jahre SiM!
Das gibt es doch nicht, ich hab den SiM-Geburtstag verpennt! Zum Glück hat mich Angelika auf Facebook darauf hingewiesen...
(review, feed)

The Synagogue - Kol Hadash

I very much like the podcast Kol Hadash which is Jewish, has a Rabbi speak to you and yet is not religious, because it is Humanistic. I find religion fascinating and among the religions Judaism probably most of all, but the religious always give me a certain feeling of unease. Since I am not religious myself, I must be doing it wrong, or I am allowed to listen, but not really allowed in full circle. But with Kol Hadash is not like that at all. (feed)

In the latest issue, Rabbi Adam Chalom is lecturing about the Synagogue. Although he speaks for a study group in his congregation, it could be just as well a lecture in a Jewish history class. And if you liked the podcasts From Israelite to Jew, or Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, you certainly going to appreciate this lecture from Chalom. And if you have enjoyed the Chalom lecture and did not know those other podcasts, you should certainly try them.

In this lecture Adam Chalom explains the history and function of the Synagogue for Jewry throughout the ages and for all communities. On a side note the point emerges how different the Synagogue is inside and outside of Israel and in many ways that is a repetition of the historic close and far away from the Temple in Jerusalem.

More Kol Hadash:
Intermarriage,
Rabbi Adam Chalom - Kol Hadash Podcast

Listening ideas for 21 March 2011

Office Hours
Nathan Palmer on Teaching Online
This week we talk with Nathan Palmer about teaching sociology in the internet age. Nathan talks about Sociology Source, the Soc101 Class Pack, and how we should be excited, not scared, about what the internet can do for our teaching.
(review, feed)

Witness
Tokaimura nuclear accident
In September 1999 workers at a nuclear fuel production plant in Japan accidentally set off a nuclear reaction. For several days radiation leaked into the atmosphere.
(review, feed)

The Flood - Guy Nativ

Here is a podcast from Germany, that is done in English and the issue I am going to recommend to you has given this Israeli and idea for going to see and Israeli film, here in Israel. As far as podcasts go, all of the world is just one mouse-click away. If you understand the language, it doesn't matter whether the audio is produced next door or on the other side of the world - I am telling nothing new here. But it just happened to me.

The podcast Inspired Minds (feed) is a cultural show produced at the German radio station Deutche Welle, which delivers content in a variety of languages. Inspired Minds is presented by the Irishman Breandáin O’Shea in perfect English. And one of its latest shows had an interview with Israeli film maker Guy Nativ (pronounce Nah-tEEv).

His film The Flood (Mabul - מבול) is in Israeli theaters right now and on the show he tells some of the script and about its inception. It started out as a short film and after that had earned him a prize at the Berlin film festival, he wanted to expand on the characters and make it into a full feature. It took him four years to find sponsors and then finally he could begin shooting. The movie tells the story of a boy and his parents in a strained marriage, who one suddenly have to take back in their formerly institutionalized autistic son, the main character's older brother. It puts additional pressure on the family members, but in stead of breaking them all apart, somehow this episode salvages them from their estrangements.

More Inspired Minds:
Karl-Heinz Stockhausen,
Peter Cowie on Igmar Bergman.

Listening ideas for 20 March 2011

Omega Tau Podcast
Bitcoin – a Digital, Decentralized Currency
This episode covers Bitcoin, a digital, decentralized currency. In our conversation with Gavin Andresen, the technical lead of the project, we cover basic economics of money, the way users interact with Bitcoin, as well as the technical implementation of the system. Bitcoin uses a couple of clever ideas about implementing distributed clocks and global ordering, and is a very nice example of applied cryptography.
(review, feed)

Shrink Rap Radio
Whole Psychiatry with Robert Hedaya
Dr Hedaya believes that better mental and physical health can be achieved with less medication by correcting bodily systems and getting to the roots of ill health. Using traditional and integrative approaches, Dr Hedaya assesses digestion,, nutrition, immune function, inflammation, detoxifiction, oxidative stress, hormones and genetics in every person he evaluates. Although he is a certified psychopharmacologist, through this method Dr Hedaya has found that his patients can achieve better physical and mental health, with less medication.
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SBS Hebrew program
Special featue: Purim 2011
Purim is one of the favorite festivals, liked by children and adults as well. Get into the spirit of the holiday, with this special feature produced by Nitza Lowenstein, with the history, customs and songs of the day.
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Veertien Achttien
Sholem Schwarzbard
Voor, tijdens en na de Grote Oorlog rollen de pogroms over Oost-Europa. Sholem Schwarzbard, Jood in Parijs, heeft zijn familie gewroken.
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Our Haggadah - Cokie and Steve Roberts

Here is a quick review in order to recommend listening to KQED's Forum and especially the conversation with Cokie and Steve Roberts.

These two journalists have been married for 45 years and managed to integrate the fact that Cokie is a Catholic and Steve a Jew. One of many ways in which they have integrated each others background is in the way they celebrate passover and have assembled their own interfaith Haggadah - the liturgical guide to the Seder, the passover meal. They have written a book, Our Haggadah, which first of all reflects their Haggadah, but also addresses more broadly the issue of interfaith marriage.

Also on the program, they tell a bit about their Seder, but eventually, sweep the whole subject of integrating their two backgrounds.



More KQED's Forum:
All things shining,
The Iranian Elections,
Irvin Yalom,
Susan Jacoby,
Christopher Hitchins.

Listening ideas for 19 March 2011

Witness
Isherwood in Berlin
The English author Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin throughout the 1930s - his vision of the city has become inextricably linked with the German capital.
(review, feed)

New Books In History
Giancarlo Casale, “The Ottoman Age of Exploration”
Like their “European” counterparts, the Ottoman explorers were pursuing two interests: spices and salvation. The former were found (largely) in Southern Asia and the latter was of course in Mecca. To ensure access to both, the Ottomans built–nearly from scratch–an large, ocean-going navy and set out to dominate the Indian Ocean. And they almost did it, though they faced fierce competition from the Portuguese, Safavids, and Mughals. Read all about it in Casale’s terrific book.
(review, feed)

The Economist
Disaster in Japan
After a devastating earthquake and tsunami, our Tokyo correspondent describes Japan's response to a crisis on many fronts
(review, feed)

Argos
De dood van een zwangere asielzoekster
Een zwangere Somalische asielzoekster overleed vorig jaar zomer in het asielzoekerscentrum in Leersum. De Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg (IGZ) deed onderzoek en ook het Openbaar Ministerie rondt momenteel een onderzoek af naar de omstandigheden rond de dood van de vrouw. Volgende week spreekt de Tweede Kamer over de bevindingen van de IGZ. De medische opvang voor asielzoekers is 2 jaar geleden ingrijpend veranderd. Zijn die veranderingen mede debet aan het overlijden van de vrouw? In Argos reageren twee oud-inspecteurs IGZ, een kamerlid en Marja Dijkstra van het Gezondheidscentrum voor Asielzoekers.
(review, feed)

Michel Montaigne

I knew the name Montaigne before I knew the person. There was a Montaigne school in Amsterdam, but I had no idea who Montaigne was. Michel Montaigne was a French writer from the 16th century who wrote philosophical essays about just anything that popped to his mind. Some of this I learned bit by bit, but a very fine summary I got from a recent issue of Philosophy Bites.


Sarah Blakewell was on the show to tell us about this writer and made me appreciate him a whole lot more. It turns out, Montaigne is more or less the inventor of the essay and with his essays he influences many thinkers of later age, from Descartes to Nietzsche. And it also seems he is very readable. It think I am off to the library to get a copy of his works. (feed)

More Philosophy Bites:
Justice according to Michael Sandel,
Three issues of Philosophy Bites,
Morality,
The genocide and the trial.
Dirty Hands,

Listening ideas for 18 March 2011

The China History Podcast
The Qing Dynasty Part 1
In this first episode covering the Qing Dynasty we look at the Shunzhi emperor and his son, the Kangxi emperor. The 61 year reign of the Kangxi emperor was the longest in imperial Chinese history. The Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong eras saw the Qing dynasty reach its greatest heights and China was economically the wealthiest and intellectually the most advanced and artistically refined empire on earth. In this episode we examine the life of the first of these three great emperors.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Grasshoppers, Ants and Locusts: the future of the world economy
The financial crisis was the product of an unstable interaction between ants (excess savers), grasshoppers (excess borrowers) and locusts (the financial sector that intermediated between the two). In view of this history, is the current recovery solidly built? Or do the weaknesses the crisis revealed remain pervasive? Martin Wolf is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.
(review, feed)

Radio Open Source
C. D. Wright in Triumph: One With Others
C. D. Wright is well known for assembling her patchwork poetry from local and vernacular fragments. Even with fame and standing, she has still the one-of-a-kind comic, passionate, choleric sound of an offbeat oracle of the Arkansas Ozarks, where she grew up. So the National Book Critics Circle award last week for her book-length poem One With Others — after a near-miss for the National Book Award — seals a distinctly individual triumph of voice and art.
Our conversation is about V., about Arkansas then and now, and about the mixed-media of One With Others. Food price lists of the time and place (“Jack Sprat tea bags only 19 cents. A whole fryer is 59 cents… Cherokee freestone peaches, 5 cans for $1.”) are juxtaposed with Dear Abby advice columns in the local paper (“DEAR TOO MUCH IRONING, I would iron his underwear. You are wasting more energy complaining and arguing than it takes to iron seven pairs of shorts once a week. Everybody has a problem. What’s yours?”) and intercut with the poet’s interviews 40 years later.
(review, feed)

Distillations
Women's History Month
In this episode we learn about lesser-known women in chemistry. We start with Dorothy Hodgkin and end with a tour of integral females highlighted in CHF's museum.
(review, feed)

The elegance of the hedgehog

Robert Adams is a book reviewer from Canada. He was born in Wales in 1937, which he frequently reminds us of in his talks, but came to Canada a life time ago in 1964. He features, from time to time, on the podcast Big Ideas where he lectures extensively reviewing a book that by virtue of that lecture, you immediately begin to love. (feed)

The latest subject of this elation was The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (translated from French into English). Adams retells the tale of the twelve year old girl from the haughty Parisian upper class, the concierge in their luxurious apartment building and the new tenant from Japan. It is not just the drama of the people who won't fit in and the youngster planning her suicide. Barbery is a philosopher and the novel, as Adams tries to reveal, is a vehicle of her ideas about the good life and the lies, big and small, of society.

Robert Adams's enthusiasm is contagious. As with the previous reviews, you are drawn in by how compelling he retells the story, convinced by his interpretations and in the end you feel you have read the book with him. The only thing that remains is to re-read it alone. Adams not only makes you appreciate a certain piece of literature, he makes you love and teaches you to close-read literature in general.

More Big Ideas:
Age of Unequals,
Dan Dennett: what should replace religion?,
Chris Hedges,
Needham about China,
The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Listening ideas for 17 March 2011

The Economist
Protests in Bahrain
Sectarian tensions colour Bahrain's protests, says analyst Jane Kinninmont. But will they become a proxy for a broader regional power struggle?
(review, feed)



In Our Time
The Medieval University
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval universities. In the 11th and 12th centuries a new type of institution started to appear in the major cities of Europe. The first universities were those of Bologna and Paris; within a hundred years similar educational organisations were springing up all over the continent. The universities provided training for those intending to embark on careers in the Church, the law and education. They provided a new focus for intellectual life in Europe, and exerted a significant influence on society around them. And the university model proved so robust that many of these institutions and their medieval innovations still exist today. With Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London; Ian Wei, Senior Lecturer in Medieval European History at the University of Bristol; and Peter Denley, Reader in History at Queen Mary, University of London.
(review, feed)

Ernst van de Wetering

Interviews met Ernst van de Wetering leveren grosso modo twee interessante onderwerpen op voor de luisteraar. Het ene is het kind van foute ouders in de oorlog. Hoe fout waren ze, hoe zijn ze gestraft en hoe heeft het kind met die schuld verder geleefd.

Het andere onderwerp is de schilderkunst en vooral in technisch en historisch opzicht, toegespitst vooral op Rembrandt, maar het gaat natuurlijk ook over Barnett Newman's 'Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue?'

Luister naar twee van die interviews. Uit 1998, het gesprek van Djoeke Veninga met Ernst van de Wetering uit de serie Marathon Interview (feed). Beide onderwerpen komen in het drie uur durend gesprek aan bod (en je zou willen dat het nog veel langer duurde), in de stijl van Veninga interviews: bijna achteloos; het lijkt een natuurlijk kabbelend gesprek, maar je komt ongelofelijk veel te weten.

En dan, in 2008, komt Ernst van de Wetering in Simek 's Nachts (feed). Dat is een interview van een uur, maar in de doorvragende stijl van Simek, kom je ook heel veel te weten. En het is interessant om na het vorige interview dit te horen en te merken hoe na tien jaar Van de Wetering verder is gekomen in beide onderwerpen.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Isaac Lipschits,
Ger Harmsen,
Het Marathon Interview met Kerst 2010,
Michiel van Erp,
Ger van Elk.

Meer Simek 's Nachts:
Wachtkamer van de dood - Anne-Mei The,
Pieter Winsemius,
Jan Lenferink,
Sjoerd Kooistra,
Ik ben een geraffineerde vrouw - Naema Tahir.

Listening ideas for 16 March 2011

Rear Vision
Gambling on Sport
According to Olympics chief Jacques Rogge, illegal betting on sport generates a global turnover of around $140 billion a year and threatens the credibility of sport. Perfectly legal gambling can also lead to corruption and distort results. Rear Vision looks at the history of the relationship between gambling and sport.
(review, feed)

Irish History Podcast
A history of St. Patrick and Ireland’s conversion to Christianity
Around the world on March 17th, millions of people will attend St Patrick’s day parades in memory of the man who supposedly “converted the Irish to Christianity”. He is a figure shrouded in mystery and myth but in this podcast we examine the truth behind the one time slave and famous bishop Patrick. Tune in to hear the real history behind Ireland’s conversion, who St. Patrick really was and how he become associated with snakes and shamrocks.
(review, feed)

Wise Counsel
Michael Edelstein, Ph.D. - Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
Michael R. Edelstein, Ph.D., a Clinical Psychologist and REBT therapist is a protogee of Dr. Albert Ellis, one of the key founders of the modern cognitive behavioral therapy movement. Though today largely overshadowed by Dr. Aaron Beck, Ellis described the basic ideas that continue to inform cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) years before Beck started down that path. Dr. Edelstein's book Three Minute Therapist is a restatement of Ellis' important ideas for non-therapists who are interested in using these techniques as a mode of self-help.
(review, feed)

Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation Podcast
The Synagogue
The central Jewish institution for the past 2000 years has not been a house of God; it has been a house of meeting (beit knesset, or “synagogue”). The synagogue has enabled a dispersed nation to survive, and even to thrive, in very diverse circumstances and surroundings. Discover what the origins of the synagogue can teach us about its current challenges and its future.
(review, feed)

The Christian Humanist Podcast
Asceticism
David Grubbs moderates a conversation about various forms of Biblical and Christian asceticism, including but not limited to monasticism and mendicant orders. As the topics move from historical era to historical era, our focus returns to the possibility of genuine difference from the world that serves the world in its difference. Among the historical figures and texts discussed are Genesis, Leviticus, Saint Anthony, Saint Francis, Chaucer, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., Saint Jerome, and Freud.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Israeli Society and the Occupation
Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. In his lecture he will explore how Israeli society deals with the occupation and with the international criticism of this. He will also examine the role of the Israeli media in supporting the occupation. Gideon Levy joined Haaretz in 1982, and spent four years as the newspaper's deputy editor. He is the author of the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 25 years, as well as the writer of political editorials for the newspaper. Levy was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists' Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His new book, The Punishment of Gaza, has just been published by Verso Publishing House in London and New York.
(review, feed)

Entitled Opinions
Greek Tragedy
Robert Harrison discusses Greek Tragedy with Rush Rehm Professor of Drama and Classics at Stanford University.
(review, feed)

A reminder of the great BBC podcasts

Regular readers of this blog may be well aware of the two great history podcasts the BBC has been producing that I admire and recommend whole-heartedly, but only recently I ran into someone who somehow had missed out on one of them and was so happy with my recommendation, that I learned once again that the really good stuff cannot be mentioned often enough.


A History of the World in a 100 Objects
The director of the British Museum, Neil McGregor takes us in 100 episodes through the history of mankind and uses objects from the museum as an illustration. This is not only most original, it is also enlightening and we can trust the BBC to produce such a podcast at the highest standard. Contrary to regular BBC podcast policy, all of the chapters are downloadable.
(review, feed)




In Our Time
Each week Melvyn Bragg meets with three top of the bill specialists to discuss one subject from the history of ideas. Over the years I have been advising to keep your subscription to this podcast active at all times as the BBC used to remove each issue after one week. This season however has remained available ever since it started in its entirety. Go back and take your pick, if you have not done so yet. Enjoy Maimonides, or Free Will, or The Industrial Revolution (two parts), or Daoism, or The Volga Vikings or Imaginary Numbers and more.
(review, feed)

Age of Unequals - Big Ideas

There is also a Philosophy Bites issue in which Alex Voorhoeve argues what is bad about inequality, but that is more on a theoretical level. (see Three issues of Philosophy Bites)

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett took on the practical approach and collected data from all over the world and compared the social fabric of societies where equality is greater to those where inequality is greater, as far as wealth is concerned. On Big Ideas you can hear a lecture in which Wilkinson brings that point with a stream of examples home. What is interesting to find out is that not only is inequality bad for the poor. In societies where there is greater inequality there is more crime, more psychiatric disorder and people are less happier and live less longer and this affects the rich as well.

More Big Ideas:
Dan Dennett: what should replace religion?,
Chris Hedges,
Needham about China,
The Reluctant Fundamentalist,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the quest against Islam.

Listening ideas for 15 March 2011

Inspired Minds
Guy Nattiv- Filmmaker
The Israeli director's debut film "Strangers" participated in the 2008 official selection competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Guy Nattiv has completed three shorts and two feature films. "Offside" and" Mabul" received several awards at international film festivals including Berlin International Film Festival's "Crystal Bear" and Best Short at Sundance Film festival.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics
Philosophy in the Public World
Philosophy has an important role in public life. Anthony Grayling is one of the most prominent public faces of philosophy in the UK. He is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College and a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.
(review, feed)

KQED's Forum
Cokie and Steve Roberts: 'Our Haggadah'
When Cokie and Steve Roberts tied the knot 45 years ago, they vowed that they would continue to observe both their Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths as a couple. The renowned journalists have just written a book, "Our Haggadah," in which they present their interfaith approach to the Seder, part of Jewish holiday Passover, as well as discuss what they have learned over the years as an interfaith couple. They join us in the studio.
(review, feed)



Engines Of Our Ingenuity
Winged Words
Episode #2696: The Homeric Epics as Oral Poetry
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The Biography Podcast
Joe DiMaggio
Chris Gondek interviews Jerome Charyn about his new biography, Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil.
(review, feed)

Mahabharata Podcast
War by other means
Episode 48 - The Pandavas have come out of hiding and are demanding their lands back from the Kauravas. Duryodhana has already indicated that he has no interest in giving these back, so it would be best to negotiate from a position of strength. An arms race ensues, with both sides scrambling to get commitments from their allies across India and beyond.
(review, feed)