The History of Islam podcast

The most essential history podcast right now must be The History of Islam podcast (feed) by Elias Belhaddad. Current affairs have a very palpable presence of Islam and much of the history since the rise of Islam (and it rose at lightning speed) has a strong presence of Islam. Yet most historiography (and podcasts as well) can only offer the perspective from without. Yet, as we are in crisis with Islam (and maybe we always were) it seems without a doubt extremely important to acquire understanding of Islam. I certainly feel that way.

Elias Belhaddad clearly has set this as a goal: to inform about Islam and convey its perspective to his audience. The consequence of this is that while we have proceeded 14 episodes into the series, we have only just now arrived at Muhammad and he is about to leave for Medina. Belhaddad has deliberately spent most of his time until this point in laying out the groundwork for what he sees is indispensable for understanding the world and people from which Muhammad and Islam came about.

He has invested in explaining the environment of the Arabian Penninsula and how the harsh nature designates the mentality and life style of the Arab peoples. Then he has gone through great lengths laying out the history of the Quraysh clan, how they came to control Mecca and from there on along the lineage down till Muhammad.

He is clearly passionate about the subject, he has great admiration for the Arab people (though not without criticism), he knows his Arabic and personally I assume he is a Muslim, although he has not divulged any such details about himself which is his full right of course.

Hence this is a podcast of great relevance, done with passion and with much purpose. In addition his audio is good and his delivery is much to my liking. Nevertheless I keep wondering with each and every episode: why is this important? What is the take away message? I am sure Elias has a clear idea where he wants to go, and why he narrates the way he does, but he reveals very little of it. Maybe he feels this keeping of the cards to his chest is an advantage, but I wager, the podcast would gain in depth if he were to be transparent on his decisions of what to put in, what to leave out and what it is he wants to make clear in particular.

The alleged racism of Albert Camus

Albert Camus became my idol, when at the age of 16-17 I read The Stranger for the first time (L’Étranger - I read it in French and in Dutch). On one of the recent issues of Entitled Opinions (feed) host Robert Harrison discussed this novel with Alice Kaplan, Professor of French at Yale University: Alice Kaplan on Albert Camus and The Stranger. And from the start the discussion gave a new interpretation of the racism in The Stranger.

Albert Camus as my idol represented the ultimate personal moralism, cleansed from common hypocrisy and ideological and religious pomposity. However, soon enough my personal saint was seriously challenged in his sainthood: I read an analysis of The Stranger by Conor Cruise O'Brien. O'Brien attempted to show that The Stranger was the product of French colonialist bourgeois cultural baggage. In the novel all the French characters have names and a personalized identity. Yet all the native Algerians are 'Arabs' and Meursaults murder of an 'Arab' is a mere vehicle to bring about an unconvincing show trial which is a vehicle to show Meursaults sanctity of the Camusian kind, yet indifferently ignores the cruelties towards the Arabs in the book to which Meursault shows no protest, judgment or even regret. In short, the Arabs are treated as the subhuman the French colonial was used to treat them and hence the writer and his book are marred by inherent racism. My hero was markedly tainted now; I would not want to give up on him and kept on reading and studying his work, yet O'Brien's harsh criticism was impossible to overlook.

Alice Kaplan turns the issue completely around. She claims that Camus saw his society for what it was and as a court reporter was acutely aware that a case such as Meursault's would be treated as the murder of 'an Arab'. Hence, in her view, Camus' use of the French colonialist language and point of view is deliberate and entails among others a critical view on the inherent racism of his environment. I find it partly convincing for two reasons. For one it fits in with the naturalistic style of The Stranger which meticulously describes Meursault's world as it is, without making it grimmer or prettier and carefully abstaining from all judgment. Secondly, it fits in with Camus' independent moralism as expressed also in his later work. Listen and judge for yourself; as for me, as reluctant as I ever was to take in O'Brien's criticism I still feel that something holds.

The point where it holds connects with my personal experience, today, here in Israel, but also previously, when I still lived in The Netherlands. You see, it has always struck me that even the most politically correct people, those that reject racism wherever they see it and choose the side of the oppressed, they still talk of the oppressed in those generalizing terms. In the society where ethnic identity has such deep implications, even if you are totally against it, you are stuck with a language and public discourse that is drawn along the lines of ethnic categorization and profiling. It means that only if The Stranger would not be written in French and not be set in Algeria in the 1940's the novel would have a beginning of a chance to get away with this kind of inherent racism. It would no longer be The Stranger and would no longer be by Camus. So we will have to live with the criticism no matter what.

More Camus on the blog:
Entitled Opinions (2009),
In Our Time (2008),
In Our Time (2009),
The Partially Examined Life (2011),
Philosophy Bites (2008),
Philosophy Bites (2009).

Stephen Fry reads Eugene Onegin (Pushkin)

Russian literature translated into rhyming English - that could go wrong a million ways. In 1832 Alexander Pushkin published the final version of his novel about the eternal bachelor Eugene Onegin. The novel is comprised of eight chapters written in stanzas of iambic tetrameter with a unique rhyming scheme. The book has been translated many times and the James Falen translation is now available as an audio book, greatly performed by Stephen Fry. The files can be downloaded in two ways Fry Reads Onegin Zip and Fry Reads Onegin from iTunes. Delightful and exquisite. I wish I could compare it to the original.

India and the Mahabharata

Professor Vinay Lal (UCLA) can be heard again on podcast with his History of India (UCLA - History 9A) (feed), about which I have written before in 2009 when it was also podcast. As then, also this time, there is a considerable difference in the characteristics of the material delivered between the first lectures and that those towards the end of the course. Whereas the history is more recognizably history, that is political history, economic history, as we approach the present, the very early history of the Indian subcontinent is presented by Lal with very little political and economic data. Much of the first 10 lectures are spent on discussing culture, religion (as much as the term can be applied, which is doubtful according to Lal) a bit of archeology and the literary traces of old India the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Two years ago, the series of lectures that discussed hardly any data, but delved into those texts were very hard for me to follow and I am happy to report it is different this time around. The kudos in this respect go entirely to another podcast: The Mahabharata Podcast (feed). Lawrence Manzo's retelling of the Mahabharata, which has progressed to the 90th episode (Bhisma's Final Teachings part 2), has made the story as well as the cultural scope of the epic much more familiar to me. As a consequence, whenever Lal is referring to the Mahabharata's characters and anecdotes, they are familiar, easy to place and his point is coming through.

I want to recommend Manzo's podcast to anyone, regardless whether you are thinking of latching on to History 9A. The Mahabharata is a most fascinating, entertaining and at times mind boggling tale to engage with. Should you seek some shorter preparation, you can also turn to Rick ALbright's series on World Literature (feed) which has a two part issue addressing the Ramayana.

Next on Lal's schedule is the Kama Sutra, which, incidentally was also discussed on the last program of BBC's In Our Time. (feed)

More History of India:
History of India - the search goes on
8 podcasts I listened to,
History of India or Europe?
History of India.

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

More Rick Albright's English 205:
World Literature.

More In Our Time:
In Our Time Archive,
A reminder of the great BBC podcasts,
Diarmaid MacCulloch in podcast,
The Indian Rebellion of 1857,
Frankfurt School.

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.

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.

Rachel the poetess - Biocast

A new Israeli podcast has begun to publish: BioCast which does fifteen minute biographies of the most divergent characters - from scientists to pop musicians, biocast does them all. In addition, it has two tiny rubrics at the end of each show, one in which for half a minute little children associate on the theme of the show (for example on the question what is an explosion after the bio of Robert E. Oppenheim) and after that something that sounds like a Rabbi giving his Judaism inspired take on the same theme. I have not decided yet whether that last entry is serious or not. (feed)

The last chapter really stood out. It took on the biography of the Hebrew Poetess known as Rachel. The show really expressed a great love for her persona and for her poetry, replete with extensive readings and, obviously, song. For those who master the Hebrew language, this is really a must listen.

As with many beginner podcasts, Biocast is still struggling with audio quality. Not only are the recordings not yet up to speed, the total production has varying sound levels which makes for very irritating fluctuations in the volume. I am sure that will be sorted out in due time. And by all means, this should not scare you away from listening about Rachel.

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.

Duke Ellington

The great Jazz Musician Duke Ellington had a career that already started in the 1930's and while it went on until his death in 1974, as of the 1950's new musical trends began to compete with Ellington and his popularity dipped.

In the New York Review of Books podcast Geoffrey O'Brien talks with Chris Carroll about Duke Ellington's mid-career crisis and stunning comeback, revisiting his often-overlooked albums of the 1960s and 1970s. Caroll gives a lively account of how Ellington underwent the crisis and struggled to find a way out. He plays splendid audio fragments to illustrate the new musical compositions Ellington came up with and induces a great appreciation of the later Ellington sound. (feed)

More NYRB podcast:
Changing medical profession
David Cole,
Amateur Science - Freeman Dyson,
Roger Cohen in Tehran,
Ronald Dworkin.

World Literature - HACC

In the past month I have listened to an entire course I found on iTunesU. It is a series of short lectures about a large variety of stories from World Literature, delivered by Rick Albright at the Harrisburg Area Community College. (feed)

Albright takes the Norton Anthology of World literature and sort of chronologically travels the world and its ages. Albright retells and discusses classics such as Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey as well as the Aeneid and European Medieval literature and also non-western stuff from India, China, Japan and the Americas. What he also does not shy away from are the Bible and the Koran. You get a good feeling of the stories and the poetry while you are also informed about some of the tropes and some of the historic frame - though I would have loved to get a little bit more from that.

I did not exactly follow Albrights order, which seems strictly chronological and this explains why he kicks off with age-old Gilgamesh and ends with Popul Vuh, which was inscribed rather recently. I have taken the culturally linked stories in batches. So that I took the Greek and Roman classics together, which made the literary discussion more coherent. The same method worked while taking the Chinese stories in one blow and so on. Very informative and great, narrative, fun.

Christian Humanist Podcast

I began to listen to the Christian Humanist Podcast (feed) as a follow up to the Jewish Humanist podcast Kol Hadash (feed) I discovered a couple of weeks ago (read my review of Kol Hadash). I learned from Kol Hadash to view the Jewish, or respectively the Christian, tradition as a cultural luggage I carry with me which can be taken seriously and therefore studied and taken to heart also for the secular. I was hoping to find a Christian pendant to Kol Hadash.

There is a website called The Christian Humanist which offers a load of articles along this line of thinking. However, a podcast they do not offer. The podcast with the same name, is not secular, it is openly confessional as they say. However, it is still a very interesting listen, also within the framework of looking at the Christian tradition as a substantial part of our (my) cultural baggage. Although the three hosts Michial Farmer, David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour profess their faith and express themselves in the language of the believers and imply assumptions that I cannot identify with, I find we still have something in common. And that was an interesting find in itself.

What the Christian Humanist Podcast obviously attempts to do is to reconcile the Christian world view the presenters have with their other cultural luggage. The three are academics, versed in the humanities tended towards modern open-minded, rational, tolerant and liberal thinking. In that respect, they are not only the kind of humanists they identify with such as Erasmus and before that Thomas Aquinas and Augustin which results in very interesting issues such as the ones about Calvin, about politics or about the incarnation (to name a few I have listened to). They are also very similar to the non-believing secular, whether Christian or Jewish who just as much is trying to be a modern person with conscious historicity which leads him to understand and accept his connections with both the religious traditions he stands in as well as the secular, scientific, rationalistic etc.

Flood tales; Noah, Gilgamesh and Manu

One thing leads to another - this we know. Forgotten Classics was reading Genesis, got to the story of Noah and then inserted an issue about Gilgamesh. In this way we could hear and compare the more known flood tale to its probable Mesopotamian predecessor. Host Julie Davis sat down with her daughter who has had Gilgamesh in her literature class. In her own adolescent lingo she recounts the tale and then mother and daughter discuss its meaning. (feed)

I vaguely knew there were more flood tales in ancient narratives, but frankly, I would not have been able to name one but Noah and Gilgamesh. Fortunately, and completely by chance, in the same week Forgotten Classics came with Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata Podcast came with Episode 37 - The Markandeya Sessions Pt. 1 which recounts how the Pandavas sit with the sage Markandeya and push him to tell tales of Brahmins. He tells two, the second of which is the tale of Manu, a formidable sadhu who is being foretold of a flood to come and instructed to build an ark. (feed)

So there we have it, a flood story in the Mahabharata. Manu builds the ark, takes on it a bank of seeds and other material which eventually will enable him to bring life back to the world and then, obviously, the world gets inundated. The ark drifts around for a long time until the waters slowly recede and the first mountain peaks pop up again - in this tale not the Ararat, but rather the peaks of the Himalaya of course. Go and listen for more.

With me, as said, one thing leads to another and I went on to look for more podcasts on flood tales and among others ran into an iTunes collection of Harrisburg Area Community College with a World Literature course that addresses Genesis, Gilgamesh and many other important tales.

More Forgotten Classics:
5 podcasts I listened to (Genesis),
The Riddle of the Sands,
The message of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Cooking with Forgotten Classics,
Forgotten Classics - podcast review.

More Mahabharata Podcast:
Indian roots of the Unicorn,
Endless cloth,
The Mahabharata Podcast.

Liverpool arts and music - Mercy Podcast

Even if you do not live in Liverpool or have missed out on the Biennial over there, the Mercy Podcast is something to listen to. (feed)

The podcast is produced by the arts company Mercy and although there is ample attention to the visual arts, the real treats in the podcast are the attention to performance, music and poetry. The podcast started with the Biennial in Liverpool and has been reporting on the activities while it has been running, but this podcast surely has the potential to go on beyond the activity of the season.

What more is there to say? One should better listen, the taste to the mercy is in the devouring.

The Riddle of the Sands - Forgotten Classics (3)

By the end of this week Julie of Forgotten Classics will finish her reading of The Riddle of the Sands. Right after that, she has promised, she will be reading Genesis to us. I am very eager to find out how that works out. (feed)

In comparison, reading Genesis will be very different from The Riddle of the Sands. Not just because the one is a relatively modern spy novel and the other an age old text translated from Hebrew. Genesis is loaded with meaning, with historical reception and probably with much confusion. You cannot 'just' read it and I trust Julie will do so much more.

With the Riddle of the sands - which I recommend, especially for those of you who have an interest in sailing or in the cultural starting point for the First World War - she did not do much commentary, and that was not really needed. If there is need, Julie is capable of delivering the accompanying thoughts. This we saw in one of her previous projects: the reading of Uncle Tom's Cabin. She spent a great deal of time introducing the work and delivering to us the various interpretations and she dealt with the common trope in our time, that dismisses the novel as a racist work. Genesis will be in need of a similar treatment.

More Forgotten Classics:
The Riddle of the Sands - Forgotten Classics (2),
The Riddle of the Sands (1),
The message of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Cooking with Forgotten Classics,
Forgotten Classics - podcast review.

Two issues of Entitled Opinions

One of the best podcasts around, Entitled Opinions, is off to summer hiatus and in addition to recommending to you the latest issue (about The Doors) I would like to encourage you to dive into the long history of the show and try an old issue. (feed)

First about The Doors. This is a great show in the Entitled Opinions tradition of shows about classic heroes in pop music which have already seen outstanding shows about Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. The Doors is mostly about Jim Morrison, about his road to artistry and hence, more show about the creative process as a personal journey rather than the musical genre, culture and era of The Doors. And something to point out to you: this show defines for you what is 'cool'.

An old show I picked up thanks to the tip from a reader of the blog was a show from November 2005 in which Robert Harrison has Joshua Landy on the show and the two discuss Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Accompanied by single-malt whiskey we are treated with a grand overview of this long work and the meaning of human memory. Where Proust seems to be telling us that our memories are false and what we think we remember is eternally lost, the real verdict turns out to be much much more subtle.

More Entitled Opinions:
Heidegger,
Pink Floyd,
Alexander the Great,
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno),
King Lear.

The Riddle of the Sands - Forgotten Classics (2)

On Forgotten Classics, Julie Davies discusses podcasts and other subjects, but the main content is dedicated to her excellent reading of books from the public domain. She offers a wide variety and on occasion I choose a title to follow. When I do, I am always captivated until the end. Previously I was caught by Uncle Tom's Cabin, right now Julie has me hooked on The Riddle of the Sands

I have extensively written about it when I took up listening (The Riddle of the Sands) and the simple reason I want to pay attention to this series again is that it is coming to a close. The plot is unraveling, the drama is getting to a maximum and I want to say: this is worth your listening time.

The Riddle of the Sands is a pre-WW1 spy drama which pitches the British against the Germans - which was unusual at the time. As such, the meaning of the book is to be the novel that warned the English of a German naval threat as well as to be a first spy genre novel. Other than that, it is also a very charming tale to listen to. Even if Julie has a hard time getting the pronunciation of German, Frisian and Dutch names right.

More Forgotten Classics:
The Riddle of the Sands (1),
The message of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Cooking with Forgotten Classics,
Forgotten Classics - podcast review.

George Hrab - The Geologic Podcast

Often I find podcasts by chance, this time I found one by accident, or more accurately, by misunderstanding. One of my methods to induce these chances (or accidents) is by following podcast related tweets and there was one that simply said 'checking the geologic podcast' with a feed link. And I copied without checking.

I was expecting a podcast about geology and even though it struck me as odd and out of place that it should be labeled 'explicit' I still put it in my playlist and gave it a shot.

The reason for using a playlist of podcasts is that one effortlessly moves from one podcast to the next. Moreover, the next button is a one touch option to move along and believe me, I use that one lightly. It is what you get with being a podcast reviewer. It is professional impatience. And so, while I figured within seconds I had the wrong expectations with The Geologic Podcast (feed), I could have skipped instantly and if not instantly then within a couple of minutes of additional listening.

But George Hrab had me engaged. He was witty, intelligent, opinionated and provocative. Obviously this was no scientific podcast, this was comedy. One hour of monologues by George Hrab, comedian and musician, good enough to keep me captivated for 60 minutes - that is telling

The death of Marat - History by picture

Let's start this review with a picture: The Death of Marat, by David. Any podcast that pays ample attention to the French revolution is likely to make reference to this picture and if not to the picture then at least to the political murder that David envisaged with it. Marat was an influential figure during the reign of terror. Charlotte Corday felt he threatened the nation and decided to kill him.

The story of the murder and the details of the painting are an excellent starting point for getting a grip on the phase of the Reign of Terror during the revolution. Not only the fundamental lecture podcasts discuss the episode and the painting - Berkeley's History 5 and UCLA's History 1c. Also in UCSD's art history class Formations of Modern Art, Professor William Bryson extensively discusses this work by David and its historic and political implications.

Not only the murder is political, also the painting is. David was a supporter of Marat and he went to great lengths in this depiction to make Marat into a martyr for the revolution and Corday into the reactionary ghost of all that was wrong with France. Surely, she is not in the painting, but one must realize that the story was widely known. Corday had with a false pretense gained entrance to Marat's bathroom. Marat spent most of his days in a bath, because of a skin condition. So there was nothing weird in him receiving her. There she stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife. What is left to see of her in the painting is the letter. Her letter, together with his are carefully constructed by David to achieve his effect. Listen to Bryson on UCSD (when the course is available) and the others to be filled in on the details.

Picture: La Mort de Marat - 1793 by Jacques-Louis David
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
Public Domain

Pink Floyd - Entitled Opinions

Previously on Entitled Opinions there was a fantastic show about Jimi Hendrix. It was only too bad that I knew Hendrix only from legend, I just a tiny bit too young to have experienced him. How different is this for the last show, where Robert Harrison and his brother Thomas Harrison will talk Pink Floyd. I collected many Pink Floyd albums, I analyzed the lyrics, I lived the music, I loved them. Admitted, this is the Pink Floyd of Roger Waters. Just as I missed out on Hendrix, I missed out on Syd Barrett, but hey, there was quite some Floyd after him. So, now, let's listen.



It is amazing. Robert and Thomas say exactly the things I feel about Pink Floyd, they pick out exactly those features, those songs and those lyrics that have struck me. Now I have to go find those albums, because apart from 'Hey You' I have none of that digital...

By the way, I have not hijacked the podcast and placed it in my blog. I use an embedding solution offered by Huffduffer, which directly points at the podcast's servers.

More Entitled Opinions:
Alexander the Great,
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno),
King Lear,
Albert Camus,
Unabomber world views.

Philology guest lecture - Tolkien Professor

A podcast that has many people excited is The Tolkien Professor (feed). Professor Corey Olsen from Washington College teaches the works by J.R.R. Tolkien in a way, as he claims, would have been approved by Tolkien himself. I know people who do the readings before they listen to the next podcast - that shows how involving these lectures are.

From time to time Olsen invites guest speakers and one of the regular listeners alerted me to one of them: Michael Drout (download). Drout is a philologist just as J.R.R. Tolkien and aside from studying the same subjects, he studied the work of Tolkien from a philology perspective. He starts the lecture by reciting Beowulf, as Tolkien would start his, and kicks off from the text and the words of Beowulf, taking it to Tolkien and to the Lord of the Rings from there.

The point Drout so elegantly and entertainingly makes is that specific words and philological mysteries in texts such as Beowulf force the philologist to make wide stretching assumptions and conjectures. In that process, when he has to leave the realm of science and more and more enters the world of imagination, as a philologist he has to stop. Tolkien would not stop. And so, Drout argues, in order to give the words he struggled with a life, he invented a whole world for them. And he gives a number of examples from both Beowulf and Tolkien's literary work. Even if you are not into following the entire course, at least pick up this bonus lecture.

More Tolkien:
Tolkien Professor.