Mustafa Barghouti - Open Source

In the wide range of podcasts that address the Israeli/Palestinian ethnic conflict and possible roads to its resolve an interesting issue to pick up is the interview with Mustafa Barghouti conducted by Christopher Lydon on Open Source Radio. Right after I had picked it up from the feed and begun to listen, I also saw a recommendation by Bernard Avishai on his blog

Mustafa Barghouti (a distant cousin of Marwan Barghouti) tries to represent a third force in Palestinian politics, independent from Hamas and Fatah. His aim is to begin to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution and as to the Palestinian state in this constellation he drives for greater democracy, economic development and what is important to note, a strict policy of non-violence regarding Israel. He claims it is possible for Jews and Arabs to peacefully live together gives the pre-1917 situation as an example. I had wanted to know his opinion on the developments from the Balfour Declaration until 1947, but the podcast mostly speaks of the present.

Barghouti's tales of the horrors in Gaza are hard to listen to and while this litany is not at all bereft of righteous indignation towards Israel, the really interesting thing is what he has to say about Israeli society. His opinion is that the current policies are not only obviously bad for Palestinians, but are also hurting the Israelis. Even though one may want to disagree, he certainly knows the Israelis well and another point he makes is that Israelis hardly know the Palestinians at all and there it is my experience he has a point.

More Open Source:
Jackson Lears,
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama,
The end of Hegemony,
Go for a walk with Open Source.

Archaeology, Politics and the Media - Duke University

The Center for Jewish Studies at Duke University has its own podcast on iTunesU that I started listening to. The audio that sits in the feed reflects the sessions of a conference that was held at the center on the subject of Archaeology, Politics and the Media. (feed)

The relationship between archaeology and politics and the media should not be so strong, neither so problematic I thought. However, we have just had a media hype around an alleged find of Noah's Ark and this shows both. A hype that is widely mentioned on the conference is the James Ossuary and here the same problem arises: an archaeological find is captured by the media, before serious science has had a chance to draw conclusions. The idea is just too sexy to ignore, this find is alleged to be Jesus's tomb (or alternately the actual Ark built by Noah). And as the conference shows, here are not just the media guilty, also the archaeologists involved are giving in to the temptation to make a sensational appearance and get their name connected to a fantastic find.

Alternately, careful archaeologists, who evade the temptation, who are invited to comment in the media, no always succeed in defusing the hypes. Hence, the conference explores how serious science should deal with the media and once the media is talked, it is clear that there is also politics on the scene. Both the Ark and the Ossuary show this: the meaning of these finds get the importance of a verification of a religious claim. It has people passionately involved in making these finds true and their meaning engraved in stone.

Deep wreck diving - Omega Tau Podcast

The bi-lingual science and technology podcast Omega Tau made by Markus Völter and Nora Ludewig consists of excellent interviews with guests about their field of specialty. Depending on the guest's language, the podcast is done in either English or German. It is possible to subscribe to the entire podcast: Omega Tau podcast feed, but also to connect to feeds in either of the languages: Omega Tau in English and Omega Tau in German.

The latest show was in English and consisted of an interview with John Chatterton on deep wreck diving. Chatterton is a professional diver who has made a name with diving to shipwrecks at great depth. Markus Völter interviews him and discusses the intricacies of this trade. The result is an absolutely riveting expose about the extremely risky affair of diving really deep waters and entering the remains of vessels that have been lying there for ages. It is not only a talk of the technologies involved, the stringent safety measures, but also the mental resilience that is required.

Most of the conversation is about deep wreck diving in general, but there is ample mention of one of Chatterton's major achievements: the discovery in 1991 of the U-869 which was a German U-boat that went down before the coast of New Jersey in WW2. Chatterton wrote a book about this (Shadow Divers) which Markus read and made him invite Chatterton to the show. Well, he did not actually read it, but listened to it as an audio-book and on the show he reveals how you can acquire the audio-book, which he very much recommends - needless to say.

More Omega Tau:
Omega Tau - bilingual science podcast.

Desmond Tutu - Speaking of Faith

Speaking of Faith and its host Krista Tippett were delighted to have Desmond Tutu on the show and it sure turned out to be very interesting and inspiring. The start, however, in my humble opinion, was slow and awkward. What was supposed to be funny, remarks about dried fruit on the table and Tutu's laugh about the Beyers-Naude highway, missed the mark. One should listen and forget about that beginning.

What is great is how Tutu tells about the struggle against apartheid, also when it was already gone as a system. The struggle to let the amnesty and forgiving work. And most of all, to rid the soul of its thinking in racial terms. Tutu reveals of his own fall into the trap. It makes the lessons of South-Africa universal.

With respect to universality it is interesting to hear Tutu speak about the Dalai Lama. I always wonder how true believers of one faith look at those of others. Tutu says:

Do you really think that God would say, "Dalai Lama, you really are a great guy, man. What a shame you're not a Christian."?

More Speaking of Faith:
China, secularism, religiosity,
Three issues of Speaking of Faith,
Preserving Ojibwe,
The story and God,
Fragility and Humanity.

Discussing Alexander the Great

Entitled Opinions as opposed to other podcasts put him in a less favorable light. Where others are blinded by the military successes and get carried away with the size of the empire he allegedly conquered, Entitled Opinions on Alexander the Great emphasizes the folly of his campaign. It emphasized the fact the conquered land could not be held. And most of all it showed how the hero got carried away by his own issues, not least of all poetry.

The point the show begins with is this: a hero needs a poet. There is no hero if his story is not sung. Alexander understood that and as an aspiring hero he, in turn, was inspired by poetry, by Homer's Iliad. His example was that of Achilles, and so it is also poetry, that teaches the hero, what is heroism. Alexander in his uninhibited campaign was driven by the wish to emulate Achilles - for good and for bad.

Added to that is the celebration of alcohol and drunkenness. Added to that is Alexander's diminutive posture and deformation in the neck and we see an entirely different picture emerging. This is not the story of the hero of heroes, but rather of the lunatic with too much power and with generals too good to fail on the battle field. Generals who, as is told, feared the battle field less than their crazed emperor in the drinking party.

More Entitled Opinions:
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno),
King Lear,
Albert Camus,
Unabomber world views,
Byzantine Culture.

More Alexander,
The Biography Show,
Hardcore History,
History according to Bob.

Anne is a Man looks different as of today

Today it is three years ago I started the blog. It was and continues to be a happy ride. I have a lot of fun reporting about the podcasts I listen to and I feel privileged with the readership the blog gets. The feeling is that podcast reviews are followed by hundreds of people daily. There are around 250 subscribers, around 200 unique visitors (who read more than two posts on average), over 130 followers on Networked Blogs, over 170 followers on Twitter and in addition to that, my friends read my blog through Facebook, where I channel my posts through.

For the occasion I have changed the look and feel of the blog. Also, this change was long due. I had been using the old look for nearly two years. It was an entirely customized scheme, which had some initial advantages, but made the whole blog less and less adapted to Blogspot's feature over time. Now I have switched to the new standard templates that turn out to be extremely flexible and answer to my needs. They are, in fact, so easy to adapt, I may continue to play around and as a consequence you will find occasional changes.