Listening ideas for 31 May 2011

Ancient Rome Refocused
"Washington Wore a Toga."
A study of the Founding Fathers and how they were influenced by the classics. Mr. Cain interviews Dr. Carl J. Richard, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who wrote the book, "Why We're All Romans."
(review, feed)

New Books In History
Adam Hochschild, “To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918?
The Great Powers fought World War I over nothing in particular. They pursued no great cause, sought to right no terrible injustice. They appear to us, therefore, to have fought for no good reason and to have been, therefore, out of their heads. But here we are wrong, for the combatants were not insane. Not at all. They simply lived in a different world and, therefore, thought differently than we do. They fought, as Adam points out, because they wanted to fight. For them, the bloody struggle of nation against nation was a necessary and salutary phenomenon. War made them who they were; if they did not fight, they were nothing. And so they fought bravely and died in droves over nothing, really, but honor.
(review, feed)

Tapestry
Forgiveness
To err is human...to forgive...is complicated. In this episode of Tapestry, host Mary Hynes explores the idea of forgiveness, confession, regret and apologies. She's in conversation with Dave Bry, who has been writing public apologies for years to those whom he has somehow wronged. And we hear the moving story of how one father, who, after eight years of anger and bitterness, came to forgive the drunk driver who killed his daughter.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 30 May 2011

Forgotten Classics
Genesis, chapter 27
In which Isaac's family shows full-blown dysfunction.
(review, feed)

Social Innovation Conversations
Piyush Mangukiya - Founder, EduCare
Good education should be a right, not a privilege. So says Piyush Mangukiya, founder of EducateNCare.com, an innovative online tutoring program for students. In this audio interview, Mangukiya speaks with host Ashkon Jafari about how this unique enterprise is bettering the lives of children around the world through quality education and assistance.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 29 May 2011

Genealogy Gems Podcast
Military Records, Britains Home Children and Google News
How and where to get military records. Home Children children were orphans or impoverished youth who were shipped to Canada from Great Britain through philanthropic agencies between 1869 and the 1930's.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Maria Bochkareva en het verbod op giechelen
Een Vrouwenbataljon des Doods gaat de weekhartige Russische soldaat het goede voorbeeld geven. Meedogenloos voor haar troepen is de commandant, Maria Bochkareva. Een losbandige amazone rijgt ze aan haar bajonet.
(review, feed)

Guardian Football Weekly
Football Weekly Extra Live: Another Barcelona masterclass
Podcast: Our season-ending pod has AC Jimbo and co analysing the Champions League final, as well as 2010-11's highs and lows
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 28 May 2011

Social Innovation Conversations
Marcia McNutt - Gulf Oil Spill and Environmental Sustainability
The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was one of the most disastrous and costly environmental sustainability crises on the planet. How were cultures affected, how were decisions made to address the situation, and what leadership lessons can be drawn from this unprecedented event? In this university podcast, expert Marcia McNutt offers her insights. The event, part of the Von Gugelberg Memorial Lecture on the Environment, was hosted by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 27 May 2011

The Economist
The United States, Israel and the Arabs
Barack Obama mildly pleased some Arabs, annoyed a lot of Israelis and has yet to bring the prospect of Middle East peace any closer
(review, feed)



Office Hours
Nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey on Theorizing the Web
This episode we speak with Nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey from Cyborgology. We talk about their Theorizing the Web conference, a conference the two organized this past April and—possibly—again in the future.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Africa's Diasporas: a continental longing for form?
In 2005 the African Union declared the African diaspora to be the sixth region of the continent. But was the concept of "African Diaspora" understood correctly at the time? This lecture will offer a more complex definition. It will focus on the difference between dispersion and diaspora, the dynamics of identity formation, the contrasts between Indian Ocean and Atlantic processes of diasporization, and the growth of a mixed-race population. Ato Quayson is Professor of English and inaugral Director of the Centre for the Study of Disaporas and Transnationals at the University of Toronto.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 26 May 2011

In Our Time
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Xenophon. With Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Simon Goldhill.
(review, feed)

The Partially Examined Life
Bertrand Russell on Math and Logic
Discussing Russell’s Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), ch. 1-3 and 13-18. How do mathematical concepts like number relate to the real world? Russell wants to derive math from logic, and identifies a number as a set of similar sets of objects, e.g. “3? just IS the set of all trios. Hilarity then ensues. This book is a shortened and much easier to read version of Russell and Whitehead’s much more famous Principia Mathematica, and given that we can’t exactly walk through the specific steps of lots of proofs on a purely audio podcast (nor would we want to put you through that), we spend some of the discussion comparing analytic (with its tendency to over-logicize) and continental (with its tendency towards obscurity) philosophy.
(review, feed)

The Total Football Soccer Show
Gold Cup Roster and Champions League Preview
The usual foursome assemble ins studio to break down the USA's Gold Cup roster (with some nice audio from the Bob Bradley announcement press conference) and preview this weekend's Champions League Final: Barcelona v Manchester United. That noise in the background is Taylor's knees knocking...
(review, feed)

Big History, Big Lands and Big Men

Here are four recent installments of New Books in History that I enjoyed tremedously and want to recommend in particular. (feed)

The Ottoman and the Russian empire
For ages the Ottoman and the Russian empire had been rival neighbors and within the time span of less than a decade both empires dissolved. Michael Reynolds relates the complex relations between the two empires and describes how the new ideology of nationalism drove the two of them towards a new incarnation. In the process one also gets a better handle on the Armenian genocide.

The problem of order
Isn't it actually quite surprising to what extent there is political order? Modern states can exist by virtue of a very deep and broad, complex social coherence. Francis Fukuyama made a very long ranging study after the historic roots of political order. This is big history as it has become so fashionable of late with the work of Jared Diamond and Ian Morris (to which Fukuyama also refers in the interview).

Why the West?
More big history we get in the interview with Ricardo Duchesne. Like Fukuyama and Diamond and Morris, Duchesne digs broad and deep into world history and his goal: to identify what is unique to the West that made its domination of the last 500 years. And Duchesne comes with a different answer. Slightly different from Diamond and Morris and very different from the Marxist onset, that all is triggered by material circumstance. Duchesne makes an argument to show how Western culture is fundamentally different and allowing for the rapid development of the last 2000 years.

Who is Otto von Bismarck?
Veteran history podcast listeners probably remember (fondly) Professor Margaret Lavinia Anderson who gave us through UC Berkeley two foundational history courses History 5 (Europe from renaissance until today) and History 167b (The Second Reich), Anderson is a specialist in German history and Otto von Bismarck got a fair share in the narrative. Here we alreayd learned how he was larger than life. But how so? For that you have to turn to Marshal Poe's interview with Jonathan Steinberg on New Books In History. It is only a beginning, but there is a disturbing remark Steinberg makes. After he has written his biography of Bismarck, using very unique up close and personal prime resources - he still feels he does not know him.

More New Books in History:
Hans Kundnani about Germany's left after the war,
Ottoman Age of Exploration,
The mysteries of whites and of mass,
A Soviet Memoir,
This I accomplish.

Listening ideas for 25 May 2011

New Books In History
Jonathan Steinberg, “Bismarck: A Life”
What is the role of personality in shaping history? Shortly before the beginning of the First World War, the German sociologist Max Weber puzzled over this question. He was sure that there was a kind of authority that drew strength from character itself.
(review, feed)

Oxford Biographies
Olaudah Equiano, author and slavery abolitionist
Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent Africans involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
How we'll stop polio for good - Bruce Aylward
Polio is almost completely eradicated. But as Bruce Aylward says: Almost isn't good enough with a disease this terrifying. Aylward lays out the plan to continue the scientific miracle that ended polio in most of the world -- and to snuff it out everywhere, forever.
(review, feed)

The Myoclonic Jerk Podcast - WoW

I rarely like a comedy podcast. Somehow forceful attempts to make one laugh are tedious to me, whereas the inadvertent or concealed jest turns me on much more. I feel that to be intentionally funny in an effective way you have to be damn good and even then it can be overdone. Even the best of comedy in podcast wears off rapidly to my humble taste and so I can hardly ever bring myself to review a podcast of the genre. But here is an exception.

There were several qualities that kept me enjoying Daniel Kaufman’s podcast The Myoclonic Jerk. The kind of humor is ironic, mild and self-deprecating. The production is very professional, with excellent audio-quality, a good mix of voices and music and a balanced collection of items. The podcast has a good pace and some informative and documentary value to make it a great podcast even if you are not seeking a laugh. And obviously, in my view, that is when jest works best. (feed)

I would choose episode 4 as the case in point. Daniel takes on the challenge to analyze his addiction to WoW – World of Warcraft, the multi-player on-line fantasy game. My intake was that I know WoW and a good many people who are just as addicted as Dan is, whereas the game has no hold on me as it had me too stunned and too overwhelmed upon first impression. (I like bite-sized orderly stuff) This episode, apart from being very entertaining, also got me a good insight into what WoW is and what it offers to its participants. It also has me wanting more, as there is to be a follow-up episode with more explanation and analysis.

Listening ideas for 24 May 2011

Mahabharata Podcast
The Gita, part 1: Arjun's Dejection
Episode 59 - We begin the famous holy book, the Bhagavad Gita. The scene for this revelation is the midst of the fateful battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjun surveys the field, seeing his relatives, friends, cousins, uncles, elders and gurus, all ready to draw each other's blood and die for the sake of his dynastic dispute. For the good guys to win, Arjun will personally be responsible for the death of the people he respects the most in the whole world. He simple cannot go on with it. Arjun drops his bow and sits down. Better to die than to go forward with the slaughter.
(review, feed)

Inspired Minds
Hélène Grimaud – Pianist
In Inspired Minds this week, the internationally-acclaimed soloist Hélène Grimaud, tells us about her special relationship to Beethoven's music, her frequent frustration as she tries to create the ultimate legato line on the piano and how she loves the independent qualities of the piano.
(review, feed)

Schlaflos in München
Verliebt in meinen Kindle
Seit einigen Wochen ist mein Amazon Kindle so richtig im Einsatz. Weil draußen Sonne und ich Picknick und so. Und ich habe ihn lieben gelernt. Gut, heute kam mir der Gedanke, dass die Sympathie zu diesem Produkt einfach damit zu tun hat, dass ich zwei gute Bücher darauf gelesen habe. Wären es schlechte Bücher gewesen, fänd ich das Ding wahrscheinlich doof. Aber egal. Ich hab "The Imperfectionists" (Die Unperfekten) darauf gelesen und "The Gun Seller" von Hugh Laurie (Doctor House). Als Lese-Werkzeug schlägt der Kindle (das Kindle?) das iPad um Längen. So.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 23 May 2011

Documentary on One
Foley
The story of Jack Foley, a former dock worker who, when working at Universal Pictures, created a method of adding sounds to films, known now as the 'Art of Foley'. Every film now has sound dubbed in - yet the real sources of these sounds are unimaginable.
(review, feed)

Ideas
The Art of Ideas
She has spent a lifetime asking questions. Her body of work was never satisfied with the answers. Poet, anarchist, intellectual, former radio producer, and co-creator of the program IDEAS, we honour Phyllis Webb in this documentary by Robert McTavish.
(review, feed)

SFFaudio
The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick
The SFFaudio Podcast #109 – a complete and unabridged reading of The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick. First up, the complete story from Wonder Audio, followed by a discussion of it with Jesse, Scott, and Tamahome.
(review, feed)

WTF with Marc Maron
Garry Shandling
Marc seeks wisdom and insight from a true comedy Buddha, the one and only Garry Shandling. Garry talks boxing, basketball, mothers, self-acceptance and, of course, Larry Sanders. Plus, Marc wonders if the Rapture actually happened without us knowing it.
(review, feed)

Early Modern England - Yale

The Yale history course Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts with Professor Keith E. Wrightson was delivered in 2009. It took the university however until now to publish the recordings as podcast and in that sense the course is brand new. The time in between has apparently been spent on careful post-production of the materials, the audio, the video and the transcripts. From the sessions page of the course one can select additional information per lecture and there you will also find a full transcript. (audio feed, video feed)

I have started this course and am about to listen to the 6th lecture. Up until this point Professor Wrightson has not yet 'told' any history narratives, but rather spent his time in carefully describing the English society's structures from where we start our history. The result is more than four hours of introduction to the action, which has a bit of a tendency to become too lengthy. I would want to recommend however to patiently sit through.

In time I began to appreciate the descriptions a lot. Apart from the fact that I expect that such subtle realities around land ownership and family relations are going to turn out to be relevant for understanding the narrative that is to follow, it also helps to bring the message home how deeply different English society around 1600 was from today, despite the label 'early modern'. The concept of family, for example, is deeply alien when you consider that servants and apprentices that live in the house are considered to be part of the family. This goes even as far as the epitaph of an apprentice which would name him 'Johnson's man' when he was learning with master Johnson in stead of his own personal and family name - so much for being an individual.

However, this weird picture did not provoke too much estrangement as a result of the circumstance that I was simultaneously watching some televised productions of Dickens novels. Charles Dickens, while criticizing the new modernity that is developing in the 19th century, clearly references to the earlier mode of society. With the help of Wrightson's depictions, I could much better appreciate where Dickens was coming from.

Listening ideas for 22 May 2011

Tapestry
Don't Fear the Reaper
This weekend on Tapestry Mary Hynes delves into questions of the afterlife - how our ideas of heaven and hell evolved through history and across cultures. She speaks with journalist Lisa Miller about her book Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife. She also hears from Eileen Gardiner who runs a website called Hell On Line. And finally she talks with Jeff Greenberg, a psychologist who specializes in death anxiety - our fear of the unknown.
(review, feed)

Philosophy Bites
David Eagleman on Morality and the Brain
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores questions about responsibility and culpability in the light of recent brain research in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
István Tisza en de bijval in des keizers kantlijn
'Zo moest het wel eindigen', zijn in november 1918 de laatste woorden van István Tisza. In juli 1914 ging hij om: ook de premier van Hongarije legde zich bij de noodzaak van oorlog neer.
(review, feed)

Kritisch Denken
Was dat de oorsprong van het leven?
Het is paradoxaal dat terwijl onze toonaangevende microbiologen de bouwstenen van het leven in aardse labs proberen te creëren, ons heelal vol zit met de bestanddelen voor DNA en RNA. De reusachtige gasnevels in de ruimte zijn gevuld met suikers die ribose kunnen vormen - de ruggengraat van RNA. Er is geen rationele reden waarom het systeem van DNA en RNA, dat het leven op aarde heeft vormgegeven, beperkt zou blijven tot onze afgelegen biosfeer.
(review, feed)

A podcast on climate, energy and food - Saeed Ahmed guest post

I am very happy and proud to present you another guest post by Saeed Ahmed. Saeed is a psychiatrist, a Pakistani by origin who lives and works in the US, where he has also received his professional training. He is a very thorough podcast listener, taking on themes and building wide playlists around them. Or he takes on podcast university courses and carefully goes through the whole series.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Despite the fact that food and energy are probably the two most important "things" (after air and water) for us to live, a remarkably small number of available academic podcasts have focused on these. Classes on environment may mention or perhaps spend a few lectures on these, but in general these don't get a comprehensive treatment. Furthermore it is shocking how few non-academic podcasts are devoted to these topics, although you'll find science podcasts will cover these sporadically.

It may be of some interest to podcast listeners to check out BIBC 140: "Introduction to Biofuels" by Stephen Mayfield, currently offered from UCSD (feed). As with other UCSD podcasts, if you are interested in this, get it now, before it might disappear (although I hope it is one of the one's they retain, and both the material and delivery is excellent.

Everyone has heard of global warming by now (despite the best efforts of Fox News), but how many people realize that this is the century when many things we take for granted will start to run out? Peak oil in the US occured in the 1970s, and worldwide peak oil is probably occurring now (there is some dispute about this, because for a variety of reasons, oil-producing countries and companies are not very transparent about the reserves they control). But peak oil isn't all we have to worry about; there is peak coal, and peak gas, and peak phosporus. Peak phosphorus? Turns out it is may become one of the rate limiters in food production. Food and fuel are more tied together than ever before. The reason food is comparatively cheap is because of fossil fuel. Locovores may be on to something, despite what some pundits say, who discount the transportation element, which is going to become much more expensive. On the flip side, renewables aren't cost-effective yet. But things are improving. Storage, intermittency, and grid issues limit growth here. At some point in the not to distant future, they will catch up economically.

Mayfield covers these topics and their interrelationships systematically and comprehensively, occasionally with the help of other lecturers. It seems to, given where we are in the early part of the 21st century, we may all benefit from learning about this material (even if much of it is very scary). In addition, I believe that after listening to these lectures, many items in the news and market trends become much more comprehensible, and often faulty analyses by medial talking-heads become more apparent.

Listening ideas for 21 May 2011

The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show
Helen Thomas on Israel, Netanyahu, Zionism, Presidents, the Media, the Arab Spring
a wide ranging conversation covering her views, her experience over more than 50 years as White House Correspondent and journalist.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Gay Liberation Now: global movements and transformations
Since the late 1970s, Sonia Corrêa has been involved in research and advocacy activities related to gender equality, health and sexuality. She is the founder of various non-governmental initiatives in Brazil. Between 1992 and 2009 she has been the research coordinator for sexual and reproductive health and rights at DAWN – Development Alternatives with Women for a new Era – a Southern Hemisphere feminist network. In that capacity, she closely followed United Nations negotiations directly impacting on gender and sexuality related matters: the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD – Cairo 1994), the IV World Conference on Women (IV WCW –Beijing, 1995) and also the five and ten years year review processes of this conferences. Since 2002 with Richard Parker, she co-chairs Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW), a global forum comprised of researchers and activists engaged in the analyses of global trends in sexuality related policy and politics. In 2006, she co-chaired the expert meeting that finalized the Yogyakarta Principles. Sonia Corrêa has extensively published in Portuguese and English. This list includes, among other, Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminist Perspectives from the South (Zed Books, 1994) and Sexuality, Health and Human Rights co-authored with Richard Parker and Rosalind Petchesky (Routledge, 2008). She has also lectured in various academic institutions. Clare Hemmings is a Reader in Feminist Theory and Director of the Gender Institute at LSE.
(review, feed)

The temptation of Karna - A twist in Dharma

As you all know, I faithfully follow the Mahabharata Podcast. I desperately want to get a grip on this (for me) exotic and ancient string of tales and I must admit: that is not easy at all. The Mahabharata is long, filled with countless characters with difficult names and the stories are following unfamiliar patterns. There does seem to be some kind of inherent logic to the tales, but strangeness also here plays its part. (feed)

Karna

Another idea I tried to project onto the multitude was that this great epic may have one underlying theme. A good candidate for that theme would be the question of Dharma, or in other words, what is the right thing to do? It shows that in the Mahabharata's take on ethics, this is personal or at least class-related dharma. The right thing to do for a priest would be different than what is the right thing for a warrior, or a beggar - obviously. And the Mahabharata seems to help you get a hold on this changeface normativity by means of the many different examples.

If you want to get an unexpected example within this theme, I recommend you listen to the installment The Temptation of Karna and proceed to listen and pay special attention to the unexpected interpretations of the right thing for this character. Where Karna could have joined the good guys in the story as he finds out he is their half-brother, he chooses to stick to his original and mistaken class in life and stay with the baddies. How is that for a twist in Dharma? It makes Karna one of the most fascinating persons in the epic.

More Mahabharata Podcast:
Flood tales; Noah, Gilgamesh and Manu,
Indian roots of the Unicorn,
Endless cloth,
The Mahabharata Podcast.

Listening ideas for 20 May 2011

A History of the World in 100 Objects
A History of the World Special 18 May 2011
Peter Lewis tells a story of love, separation and hardship, through the object he added to the BBC History of the World website: a portrait of a private soldier's sweetheart, painted secretly for his Uncle Bryn in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(review, feed)

KQED's Forum
Israel and the U.S. - Together and Apart
On the heels of President Obama's major Middle East speech, we speak with journalists and analysts from the United States and Israel about the future of U.S.-Israeli relations.
(review, feed)



Book Review
Harold Bloom on His Life and Work; Comedian Albert Brooks; and Best-Seller News
This week, a conversation with literary scholar Harold Bloom about his life and work; comedian Albert Brooks discusses his first novel, "2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America"; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler has best-seller news.
(review, feed)

Office Hours
Hazem Kandil on Revolution in Egypt
Imagine you’ve been doing research on the possibility of revolution in Egypt and you’ve just published a paper asking why revolutions in Egypt have failed to materialize and then, two weeks after publication: revolution in Egypt. That’s the situation Hazem Kandil found himself in these past few months, and in this episode Kandil, who is a PhD candidate in the UCLA sociology department, talks with Sinan Erensu about the causes and consequences of revolution in Egypt and how sociology can help us better understand what happened and is happening still.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 19 May 2011

KQED's Forum
Gays and Lesbians in Pro Sports
This week, the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports team to join forces with the "It Gets Better" campaign against bullying of gay and lesbian youths. Is the climate changing for homosexuals in pro sports?
(review, feed)


In Our Time
Custer's Last Stand 19 May 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 18 May 2011

Rear Vision
Life after the GFC
The Global Financial Crisis had its roots in the collapse of the US housing bubble, which caused the values of securities tied to US real estate to plummet, in turn threatening the existence of many of the world´s biggest financial institutions. Rear Vision looks at how the aftershocks of the crisis are playing out around the world.
(review, feed)

Radio Lab
Dogs Gone Wild
In this short, a family dog disappears into the woods...and the mystery of what happened to him raises a big question about what it means to be wild.
(review, feed)

Mahabharata Podcast
The Bhisma Parva
Episode 58 - The Battle Books, but not the battle, begin here. Since we are at the second most important beginning of the epic, aside from the very beginning, there is a lot of unnecessary material stuffed into the narrative. I tried my best to make sense of it, and to leave out the voluminous details that had nothing to do with the story at hand. I also tried to iron out the repeated descriptions of the armies' dispositions, and the scene of the two sides lined up prior to battle. This is one of the most difficult episodes I've had to produce, so I hope I was able to make some sense out of it.
(review, feed)


New Books In History
Blair Ruble, “Washington’s U Street: A Biography”
I used to live in Washington DC, not far from a place I learned to call the “U Street Corridor.” I really had no idea why it was a “corridor” (most places in DC are just “streets”) or why a lot of folks seemed to make a big deal out if it.
(review, feed)

New Books in Public Policy
Reuel Marc Gerecht, “The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East”
In his new book The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East (Hoover Institution Press, 2011), Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, looks at the push for democracy in the Middle East and suggests that Americans need to back the democratic impulse, even if it is messy. Gerecht, who is also a former Middle East specialist in the Clandestine Service at the Central Intelligence Agency, recognizes that Americans may not like what Middle Eastern democracy looks like, certainly at first, but – echoing Churchill –he says that it is much better that the alternatives. In our interview, we talked about Iran, the Arabs, Turkey, and how America should deal with it all. Read all about it, and more, in Gerecht’s timely new book.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 17 May 2011

Elucidations
Quassim Cassam discusses transcendental arguments
In this episode, Quassim Cassam discusses an influential strategy for arguing against the idea that (for example) we're all in the Matrix.
(review, feed)

Center for Near Eastern Studies
From the Shah to the Ayatollah, Continuities and Ruptures
A lecture by Abbas Milani, Stanford University
(review, feed)

Some Books Considered
Program 133
Isabel Allende says the inspiration for her latest novel started with a visit to New Orleans. Her research on the culture of the Big Easy took her back to Haiti during its colonial era and the revolution at the turn of the 19th century. The novel spans four decades in the life of a woman named Zarite, who was born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue and eventually travels to New Orleans in search of love and freedom. Isabel Allende was born in Peru, raised in Chile, and now lives in California. Her books have been best sellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 16 May 2011

The History of Rome
The Christian Emperor
This episode brought to you live and direct from Constantinople! After defeating Licinius, Constantine found his dream of a united Christian Empire foiled by a very disunited Christian Church.
(review, feed)

Norman Centuries
Rise of a King
Roger II was never supposed to inherit his father's possessions. He was the youngest of 18 children, and only five when the Great Count died. The nobility dutifully pledged their allegiance but there seemed little chance that his mother - an Italian foreigner in the Norman court - could hold the regency until he matured. And yet, against the odds Roger II emerged from his uncertain childhood as the most forceful personality on the Mediterranean stage. Under him Norman rule in southern Italy blossomed into its most brilliant flower. Join Lars Brownworth as he looks at the rise of Roger II, Sicily's first and greatest king.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 15 May 2011

New Books In History
Ricardo Duchesne, “The Uniqueness of Western Civilization”
One of the standard assumptions of modern Western social science (history included) is that material conditions drive historical development. All of the “Great Transitions” in world history–the origins of agriculture, the birth of cities, the rise of high culture, the industrial revolution–can, so most Western social scientists claim, be associated with some condition that compelled otherwise conservative humans to act in new ways. This premise is of course most closely linked to Marx, but it is found throughout post-Marxist big picture scholarship (including my own humble contribution to that literature). Ricardo Duchesne argues in his new The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Brill, 2011) that we have it all wrong.
(review, feed)

Witness
The Easter Rising
In 1916 Irish nationalists tried to start a rebellion against British rule. Next week Queen Elizabeth will visit a memorial to those who died in the failed uprising.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Miklos Horthy en de netten van staal
In de oorlog poogt Miklos Horthy als admiraal voor Oostenrijk-Hongarije uit de Adriatische Zee te breken. Erna moet hij als regent van Hongarije de schande van Trianon uitwissen.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 12 May 2011

Forgotten Classics
Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible
In which we hear a bit of Isaac Asimov's nonfiction writing.
(review, feed)


London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
A World Without Superpowers: de-centered globalism
As the inequality of power between the West and the rest diminishes, the most likely scenario for world politics is de-centered globalism, in which there will be no superpowers. But what does a world with no superpowers mean for regional coexistence and international cooperation? Barry Buzan is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at LSE and senior fellow at LSE IDEAS.
(review, feed)

The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show
Richard Wolff; Corporations are Threatening and Bullying America
Corporations are threatening the US, threatening US citizens. How to fight back.
(review, feed)


The Roundtable
James Stewart - Tangled Webs
Joe speaks with James Stewart about his latest book, Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff .
(review, feed)

KQED's Forum
Bharati Mukherjee: 'Miss New India'
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Bharati Mukherjee travels deftly between tradition and modernity in her many works, including eight novels and two short story collections. Her latest novel, "Miss New India, delves into the issues of arranged marriage, ambition, culture and class. She joins Michael Krasny to discuss the book.
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Listening ideas for 11 May 2011

The Economist
You Are What You Speak
Robert Lane Greene, our business correspondent and editor of our Johnson blog, discusses his new book on the politics of language
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Rear Vision
Microfinance and Politics: the removal of Muhummad Yunus from the Grameen Bank
In a move that surprised many people outside Bangladesh, Muhummad Yunus, founder of the influential microfinance institution the Grameen Bank, has been removed from his position as head of the bank. Yunus won a Nobel prize in 2006 for his role in developing the concept of microfinance and microcredit, helping people—especially women—lift themselves out of poverty with the help of very small loans. Just five years later, he's out. So on Rear Vision, we ask: what is this all about?
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The Christian Humanist Podcast
Christian Humanist University
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about Christian Humanist University, a Platonic ideal of a college, and what such an ideal might do for the way that we imagine and evaluate real colleges. Among the texts, ideas, and other realities we discuss are core curriculum, the purpose of a university, college athletics, specialization, relationships between college and society, and college architecture.
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Mahabharata Podcast
Amba, part 2
Episode 57 - Bhisma finishes bringing us up-to-date on who Sikhandin is, who he used to be, and why Bhisma won't fight him. This also finishes the Udyoga Parva; the Book of the Effort. Next time, we start in on the Bhisma Parva, the first of the eight Battle Books. Don't assume that the war is about to start, just because we end off on the dawn of the first day of the war. We still have a lengthy introduction in the Bhisma Parva, and then there is the Bhagavad Gita, which will take a few episodes-- we don't want to rush things!
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Oxford Biographies
Sir Stanley Matthews, footballer
Sir Stanley Matthews, (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards.
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Listening ideas for 10 May 2011

Outriders (aka Pods and Blogs)
The Internet of Elsewhere
This week Jamillah chats with Cyrus Farivar, author of The Internet of Elsewhere. Can culture change the way people approach the web?
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Pakistan: A Hard Country
In this talk on the subject of his new book, Pakistan: A Hard Country, Professor Anatol Lieven will analyse the Pakistani state and political system, and explain how those factors which give the state its surprising resilience in the face of revolution also hold it back in terms of economic and social development. Professor Anatol Lieven is chair of international relations and terrorism studies at King's College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He was previously a journalist, who reported from South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for The Times and other publications. His books include Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism and, with John Hulsman, Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World. This event celebrates Professor Lieven's new book Pakistan: A Hard Country.
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Listening ideas for 9 May 2011

Witness
The death of Ulrike Meinhof
Ulrike Meinhof was one of the leaders of a group of violent, anti-government extremists in West Germany. She was on trial for murder when she killed herself in May 1976.
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Ideas
Wild Journey: The Anne Innis Story
At the age of 23, Anne Innis was the first person to study African wildlife in its natural habitat. She blazed a trail that was distinctly Canadian, like her father, the political economist, Harold Innis. Sandy Bourque's documentary, told through Anne's eyes, is the story of one woman's courage and determination to study wild giraffe in South Africa in the 1950s. She offers a provocative witness to the terrible ease and disturbing normality of what would later come to be known as apartheid.
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UC Press Podcast
Someplace Like America- UC Press Podcast
Chris Gondek talks with Dale Maharidge about the struggles of working class Americans.
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Listening ideas for 8 May 2011

Forgotten Classics
Genesis, chapter 26
In which we resume our acquaintance with Isaac and Rebecca.
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Science Friday Podcast
Thomas Dolby, Gadgets and Privacy, Video Pick
Musician and techie Thomas Dolby, privacy and mobile gadgets, fluorescent rocks.
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William Rivers en de stroom van neurotici
Door shell-shock getroffen soldaten werden door psychiaters onder stroom gezet, met malaria geïnfecteerd of in vochtige doeken gewikkeld. Zoniet William Rivers. Hij was meer van de talking cure.
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Listening ideas for 7 May 2011

Witness
Victory in Europe day
On May 8 1945 Winston Churchill announced the end of World War 2 in Europe. For Germany it meant hardship and defeat but the celebrations in Britain were joyous.
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Philosophy Bites
Simon May on Love
Can love be defined? In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Simon May, author of a recent book on the topic, argues that there's more in common between different kinds of love than many people realise. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy
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Listening ideas for 6 May 2011

The Economist
Slow change in Cuba
A veteran from the Bay of Pigs and a student have different views on how their country has fared under communism
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The Partially Examined Life
Locke on Political Power
Discussing John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1690). What makes political power legitimate? Like Hobbes, Locke thinks that things are less than ideal without a society to keep people from killing us, so we implicitly sign a social contract giving power to the state. But for Locke, nature’s not as bad, so the state is given less power. But how much less? And what does Locke think about tea partying, kids, women, acorns, foreign travelers, and calling dibs? The part of Wes is played by guest podcaster Sabrina Weiss.
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WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show
The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Bob Riesman tells the life story of Big Bill Broonzy, a major figure in American blues and folk music. Reisman’s groundbreaking biography I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy, traces Big Bill’s career—from his rise as a nationally prominent blues star to his influential role in the post-World War II folk revival to his overseas tours in the 1950s, which ignited the British blues-rock explosion of the 1960s.
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New Books in Public Policy
Michael Auslin, “Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations”
How have the United States and Japan managed to remain such strong allies, despite having fought one another in a savage war less than 70 years ago? In Michael Auslin’s Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations (Harvard University Press, 2011), the author, an Asia expert at the American Enterprise Institute, explores the history of cultural exchange between the United States and Japan, and how important that exchange has been, and continues to be, from a political perspective.
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Listening ideas for 5 May 2011

In Our Time
Islamic Law
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins and early development of Islamic law. With Professor Hugh Kennedy, Professor Robert Gleave and Professor Mona Siddiqui.
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The Korea Society
North-South Korean Issues
On February 10, 2011, The Korea Society’s Korea In-Depth Lecture Series hosted professor Charles K. Armstrong, Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University, for a lecture entitled, “North-South Korean Issues." Armstrong explored the history of conflict and cooperation between North and South Korea from the time the two contemporary Korean states were established in 1948 until the present day. 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.
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NeuroPod
March 2011
Adventurous and conservative worms, mapping the brain in super-high resolution, the role of psychiatry when disaster hits and a gene mutation that wipes out pain and sense of smell.
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The Economist
John Key on New Zealand's economy
As an election nears, New Zealand's prime minister advocates austerity measures to control the national debt and bolster the economy
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Check out the great listening tip from DIY Scholar today:
A great lecture series
A great place to look for new insights in foreign affairs and public policy is the lecture archive of Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. While the lectures are not in an RSS feed, it’s easy to download each one individually or to watch online.

Listening ideas for 4 May 2011

New Books In History
Francis Fukuyama, “The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution”
In his excellent The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011), Francis Fukuyama bucks the trend. Of course, he’s done it before with elegant and persuasive books about the fall of communism, state-building, trust, and biotechnology among other big topics. Here he takes on the emergence of modern political institutions, or rather three modern political institutions: the state, the rule of law, and accountable government. He begins with human nature, takes us through a massive comparison of the political trajectories of world-historical civilizations (Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, European), and, in so doing, tells us why the world political order looks the way it does today. His answers are surprising, and not directly in line with what might be called the “conventional thinking” about these things.
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Rear Vision
Syria
Popular unrest in Syria has been met with violent government repression and hundreds have been killed. The Alawite elite have ruled a predominantly Sunni Muslim country for more than 40 years.
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Leonard Lopate Show
The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother
Award-winning reporter Janny Scott talks about Stanley Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama’s mother. To write A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, Scott interviewed nearly 200 of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this independent woman's inspiring and nontraditional life. Scott shows how Dunham shaped the man Obama is today.
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Listening ideas for 3 May 2011

We The People Stories
Encore: How Your Next Career Can Change the World
More and more, Americans are driven to careers that connect us to the social challenges of our time. How are we shifting from jobs to “encore careers” that embrace civic engagement? Renowned social entrepreneur Marc Freedman addresses these issues as he kicks off his book tour at the Center in support of The Big Shift. In a conversation with National Constitution Center President and CEO David Eisner, Freedman discusses the challenge of transitioning to and making the most of this new stage, which he believes is an urgent social imperative. He urges people to rethink their civic connections and to do work that matters, helping Americans realize the vision of the founders – an engaged citizenry.
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Mahabharata Podcast
Amba, part 1
Episode 56 - Bhisma begins telling the story of Amba/Sikhandin-- the only person, barring the Pandavas, whom he will not fight in the coming battle. The reason for this is that Sikhandin had once been a female. She was not just any female at that-- she was Draupadi's sister, and in her past life, she'd had a bad run-in with Bhisma, making her his sworn enemy from beyond the grave.
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KQED's Forum
Chris Hedges: 'The World as It Is'
Chris Hedges uses his moral compass to guide us through Iraq, Afghanistan, the West Bank and other hairy places in his collection of essays, "The World as It Is." The former New York Times war correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner joins us to discuss his latest book, as well as his views on the decline of the American empire and the death of the liberal class.
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Listening ideas for 2 May 2011

Kol Hadash
Guest Speaker: Aaron Elster
Aaron Elster is a child survivor of the Holocaust. He was born in 1933 in the small northeastern village of Sokolow, Podlaski in Poland. Aaron lived in the Sokolow Ghetto with his two sisters, mother and father until the liquidation of the ghetto in September, 1942. He escaped the liquidation and hid in the surrounding forests and farms. Eventually, Aaron found refuge in the attic of a Polish family, where he hid for two years until the war's end.
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New Books in Public Policy
Walter Olson, “Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America”
What kind of education are students at top American law schools getting? And how does that education influence their activities upon graduation? In Walter Olson’s Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America (Encounter Books, 2011), the author, an economist and not a lawyer, looks at what is happening at our nation’s elite law schools, and its implications for citizens, businesses, and taxpayers. Olson, a Senior Fellow at the CATO Institute, describes what he calls the consensus view of law school faculties, and how hard it is for law students to find alternative points of view. He describes how the litigation explosion’s origins stem from the views of one influential professor, and the costs that this “American disease” imposes on our economy. In addition, he describes some revealing conflicts between trial lawyers and their allies that reveal the financial incentives motivating the testimony of certain scholars in favor of costly and often frivolous lawsuits. Read all about it, and more, in Olson’s penetrating new book.
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The History of Rome
Let This Be Our Final Battle
War between Licinius and Constantine flared up again in 324 AD. This time Constantine would finish the job.
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Paradigms
Paradigms - May 1, 2011
Diane Wilson talks about what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum, and her new bookDiary of an Eco-Outlaw. Heidi Stevenson talks about new restrictions in the EU regarding access to herbal remedies. Deb Reich talks about her new book No More Enemies.
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Het Marathoninterview
Theun de Vries, Spinozist
Op vrijdag 13 juli 2001 praatte Geert Mak met de winnaar van de P.C. Hooftprijs en de verzetsprijs; de schrijver Theun de Vries (1907-2005). Hij vertelde over zijn jeugd, de politiek, de oorlog en romans uitdokteren.
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Listening ideas for 1 May 2011

The Invisible Hand
Overconnected
Overconnected: Chris Gondek interviews Bill Davidow about the negative aspects of being overconnected on the internet.
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Tapestry
Lighten Up
Laughing and praying don't often go hand in hand. It seems that somewhere throughout the long march of time, levity has been leached out of religion. We'll hear from Susan Sparks, a Baptist minister who's also a stand-up comic, about why she's on a mission of mirth. And Mark Simpson talks about his book, The Gospel According to the Simpsons.
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Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
Social, Religious, and Burial Activities of Associations
Here I explore the internal activities of associations, pointing to intertwined social, religious, and burial purposes that these groups served for their members. We take a close look at one particular association devoted to the god Zeus and the goddess Agdistis at Philadelphia in Asia Minor (LSAM 20). This is part of series 6 (Associations in the Greco-Roman World) of the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean podcast.
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Veertien Achttien
Robert Nivelle
Vijf maanden maar heeft Robert Nivelle aan het westelijk front op de bok mogen zitten; vijf maanden, waarin zijn koets in het spoor geraakte van Adélaïde noch Victoire.
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458 podcasts reviewed on Anne is a Man

Yesterday I updated my Podcast List. By now I have reviewed 458 different podcasts. Eight podcasts were reviewed for the first time in the past month:

New Books in Law
Jim von der Heydt interviews authors of recently published books in Legal Studies.
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New Books in Public Policy
One of the new podcasts that come out of the recently instituted New Books Network (NBN) is New Books in Public Policy. On this show Tevi Troy interviews the authors of recently published books in this field. Troy is a very engaged interviewer which makes this podcast a valuable addition to the NBN.
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Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC)
Radio show with Leonard Lopate
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Book Review (NYT)
Short interviews with authors.
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Thoughtcast
Jenny Attiyeh does in podcast what I believe podcast is fitted for most well: interviews and she does it very professionally on her podcast Thoughtcast, which, if I understand it correctly, is also being broadcast on a variety of radio stations in America. Attiyeh interviews authors from various backgrounds and speak with them about their work, their theories and thoughts and about their life.
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History 182G (UCLA) Secular Jewish Culture
David Myers teaches a relatively small group of students, so it sounds, the history of Jewish people looking for their secular versions of Judaism. The fact that this is a small group, warrants a lot of interaction with the audience, which on the one hand makes it extra fascinating. On the other hand, for the passive podcast listener, breaks up the structure of the lecture frequently especially when you cannot hear the questions and remarks by the students.
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Partially Examined Life
This podcast has very long (up to two hours) episodes in which a panel of philosophy students discuss an important philosopher or work of philosophy. They try to abide by two important rules that should make the podcast accessible for you and me: not to assume the listener has any prior knowledge or understanding of the matter; no name-dropping.
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Good Story Is Hard to Find
A Good Story Is Hard To Find is made by Julie Davies (Forgotten Classics) and Scott Danielson (SFF Audio). The two come together as believing Catholics and discuss their favorite books and movies and express what they find in these stories that strikes them as Christian content or a Christian message.
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