This week on Anne is a Man!

Some of the posts you can expect this week are about

Veertien Achttien
The Dutch podcast about WW1, which I follow devoutly. Two episodes are to be paid attention to. One about the fallen soldiers and one about the range of exotic participants, from a named Pashtun to scores of Sikh, Maori, Zouave and more.

Celtic Myth Podshow
After two shows about Fintan, the storyteller, I'd like to tell you what the Celtic Myth Podshow told about him.

Globalization was started by Gengis Khan (MMW 4)
I wondered why MMW didn't pay attention to the Middle Ages in one fell swoop, but rather cut it in two. The early Middle Ages were part of MMW3 and MMW4 starts with the 13th century and then goes on beyond the Renaissance. In the latest lecture I cam to understand why: The Mongols changed the world in the 13th century and made it globalized for the first time.

Do I do Profiles?
I do. You can connect to me on a handful of them and here is where.

and more...

Over the following weekend there will be at least the following:
New podcasts of October
All podcasts list on Nov 1st

Historyzine at its best - history podcast review

Historyzine reflects the passion of its maker Jim Mowatt. We could have guessed after 12 episodes, Jim is passionate about history in general and about all things regarding the Spanish War in particular, but in episode 13 he makes it explicit. He explains what were the consequences of the allied victory in Blenheim. And he shows and tells what fascinates him about the Duke of Marlbourough.

Other than that, Historyzine's rubrics are back. The review of a history podcast (All Things Medieval), of a historic movie (The Duchess with Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley) and the historic roots of a word (Macaroni). Also this is done with the inspiring enthusiasm that make Historyzine such a splendid amateur history podcast.

If there has been anything missing in Historyzine it was compensated this time around. It is what in my opinion tends to haunt most history podcasts, amateur podcasts in particular. The host retells the historic facts, but spends too little time explaining their importance. It is one thing to hear some exciting facts, but it is history, where you explain why these facts matter. Jim Mowatt for the first time makes clear how the Spanish War of Succession brought down France as the Mega-Power of the day and triggered the French revolution, enabled the independence of the US and gave way for British domination of the world. This is by the way also done very concisely and charmingly in one of Historyzine's audio promos.

More Historyzine:
The battle of Blenheim,
Reliving the War of Spanish Succession,
The year 1703,
On admirals and more,
18th Century Warfare.

Zimbardo cuts - Science & the City podcast review

After I reviewed a podcast with Philip Zimbardo, a reader of this blog pointed me to the science podcast of the New York Acadamy of Sciences: Science & the City. (feed) One of their latest issues contains the voice of Philip Zimbardo explaining about the Time Paradox.

Zimbardo claims his analysis is supported by years of research and collected data, but the podcast sums the thought up in a popularized way. The idea is that people have five different ways of experiencing time, two for the past, two for the present and one for the future. Zimbardo claims that every individual is dealing with time in either one of these fashions, or alternately (I didn't get this too clear) is inclined predominantly towards either one. The central point that is being made, is how this decisively influences how each and everyone of us, makes decisions about our lives and how we experience our lives. Two of the five styles have serious tendencies towards depression and other disorders.

Interesting as this may be, the podcast left quite a lot to be desired. The basis for the audio was a much longer dialog or lecture with Professor Zimbardo, but it was cut into fragments and assembled to something that was intended (I suppose) to give a good condensation. However, this was done in a substandard way. The cuts were of different audio quality (there are open source tools to deal with this; for example Levelator) and were glued together with superfluous overlap and maintaining the line of thought in a rather tentative way. No voice over or other technique was applied to bring about more unity and cognitive order. It leaves Zimbardo sounding like a charlatan. I'll be listening to more issues of this podcast, but they need to be better than this one in order to be a serious science podcast.

More Philip Zimbardo:
at TED,
at UChannel,
and at Shrink Rap Radio (see both previous reviews).

What was has been - מה שהיה היה

If you want to get a feel of radio for the future, listen to Har Hatzofim. The Hebrew University allows tomorrow's talents to make radio today. And of course, modern radio is also podcast. The program that captured my heart was What was, has been - מה שהיה היה.



This program is a combination of history items with comedy items. And in spite of the fact that I am a history buff, I was mostly taken in by the comedy aspect. Take for example the last show (before summer recess), where even the history item (about a song from a 1930's movie about the Kibbutzim in the Yizreel Valley) had a tongue in cheek character. The song is a rather famous song of the Kibbutz movement and in the film sung by the members of Beit Alfa and other Kibbutzim from the valley, while they do their work. The podcast also plays their find: a rock version of the song.

Violently funny were the sketches and the radio play though. The radio play tells the tale of the Library of the Hebrew University trying to hire a gorilla librarian. They find the excellent candidate that doesn't smell, make noise and actually understand librarian work. Then it is discovered though, the candidate is actually a librarian in Gorilla disguise. One of the sketches features diseased politician and journalist Tommy Lapid (impersonation with some voice skill), complaining he is in hell (with all the 'Frenkim') and forced to listen to מה שהיה היה all the time.

That Podcast Show #51 - the blog entry

My colleagues at That Podcast Show, have put out their last issue of podcast reviews, containing:

The Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell
Category: Science and Medicine
Dr. Ginger Campbell gives in-depth discussions on advancements in neuroscience - the study of the human brain. Dr. Campbell is a well-informed and well-spoken host, but the specific material being delivered in each episode is crucial to whether this show is interesting or monotonous. The Brain Science Podcast is heavily dependent on which guest Dr. Campbell is able to interview. When Campbell serves as the only voice for a specific episode, it can be quite dull because of the monotonous delivery and dryness of the material being covered. Guests are able to balance-out Campbell thus allowing her to demonstrate her ability to interview. This show could also benefit from being shortened and somehow broken into smaller segments with more bumpers, such as the currently used instrumental music, to break up the monotony. The Brain Science Podcast is well-produced and professional and worth a listen to anyone interested in the human mind.

DVD Weekly Podcast
Category: TV and Film
Don and Jarrod Schockow are two brothers who discuss upcoming DVD releases each week. As brothers, they have excellent chemistry and talk animatedly about their subject within a regular format consisting of upcoming releases, that week’s most wanted DVD, and funny or unusual DVD titles. Each host gets random bursts of energy as if he were receiving shots of caffeine throughout the show. Both cover their topic in great detail, at times running a bit long. They are very opinionated and should be careful about alienating listeners with their opinions. Also, the blowing of fans and children playing are heard numerous times in the background. Overall this is a well-produced show with good sound quality, presentation, and consistency. Some listeners will find it to be very entertaining.

HYH Radio: The Yvonne Pierre Show
Category: Personal Journals
Host Yvonne Pierre interviews a variety of guests on different topics relevant to personal growth and emotional health. Her goal is to uplift, inspire, and inform. Yvonne shows a clear interest in her topics and her guests and seems to be driven by a desire to help others achieve inspiration and satisfaction in their lives. Yvonne, while passionate in intent, suffers in her delivery. More time spent in post-production to eliminate unnecessary transition words such as “um” and “uh” would greatly improve the presentation. HYH Radio also employs the easy-to-use yet sound quality-compromising Blog Talk Radio. While this causes some problems with audio, it does a fair job of getting the material across. It is evident that Yvonne is trying to find her feet, and we encourage her to keep going.

(This is a quotation from Edgy's blog)

This weekend on Anne is a Man (or afterwards)

Dear Readers,

This weekend I am planning to make the following posts:

• An announcement of That Podcast show relating what podcasts they reviewed on their 51st podcast
  
• A review of the Hebrew podcast מה שהיה היה, which is a recording of Radio Har HaTsofim, the radio station of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
  
• A review of the new podcast Science & the City, a podcast of the New York academy of science. Among others there was an episode dedicated to Philip Zimbardo's research on how people experience time and how this affects their decision making and well-being in life.
  
• A review of the last episode of Historyzine, which turned out to be an especially good one.
  

Other reviews that are to be expected are among others about Veertien Achttien, the Dutch podcast about World War I. On a side note, the maker of Veertien Achttien, Tom Tacken, told me he had misspelled the last name of one of the soldiers in the Great War. When discussing Otto Weddigen, he thought the name was Weddingen. This has been corrected, also by me in my review of this cast.

I have also found yet another blog that points to mine: Gwyn's Blog, the personal blog of a Welshman named Gwyn Hughes. Gwyn is a Man, so to say!

Happy weekend to all of you,

Anne