Listening ideas for 15 April 2011

Witness
The Hama massacre
In 1982 an uprising against the Assad regime in Syria was met by a violent response. Two men who lived in the northern city of Hama as children recall what happened.
(review, feed)

The New York Review of Books Podcast
Andrew Delbanco on Mark Twain
Andrew Delbanco talks with Andrew Martin about the first volume of Mark Twain’s unabridged Autobiography and the distinctive joys and challenges of reading Twain in the twenty-first century.
(review, feed)

Radio Open Source
Pakistan’s Perpetual Identity Crisis
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a political theorist and intellectual historian based in New Delhi, is leading us through another reflection on the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan.
(review, feed)

Office Hours
Richard Lachmann on American Decline
This week we talk with Richard Lachmann, author of the article, The Roots of American Decline in the Winter 2011 issue of Contexts. Lachmann addresses common misunderstandings we Americans tend to have about our government’s spending, particularly military spending, and the current “fiscal crisis”. Lachmann compares the decline of American dominance with past empires and offers some lessons about what we might do to have a graceful decline as opposed to a painful, violent one.
(review, feed)

On Being aka Speaking of Faith
Exodus, Cargo of Hidden Stories
The biblical Exodus story is no simple story of heroes and villains; it's a complex picture of the possibilities and ironies of human passion and human freedom. Avivah Zornberg, author of "The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus," brings the text to life through the ancient Jewish art of Midrash. If you're not familiar with Exodus, you're in for a deeply sensual experience; and, even if you're well-versed in the text, you just might be surprised.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Vladimir Lenin en de donderpreek vanaf de pantserwagen
Gestoken in een nieuw burgermanspak reist Vladimir Lenin per trein de revolutie tegemoet, uitgezwaaid door de Duitsers. Hij gaat zijn bolsjewieken in Petrograd eerst maar eens de les lezen.
(review, feed)