Heads-up for 2 August 2010

Ideas (CBC Radio)
The ancient philosophy of Stoicism can still direct to lead a good life, even today. Philosopher William B. Irvine offers us a refreshing look at a school of thought that teaches the importance of tranquility.
A Guide to the Good Life
(review, feed)

In the past days a lot of new poems were brought by Classic Poetry Aloud (review, feed)

The History of Rome with a episode about The Equestrian. Carcalla was killed by his Praetorian Prefect Macrinus in 217 AD. Macrinus then spent a troubled year as Emperor before the House of Severus came back to challenge his rule.
(review, feed)

Wikileaks - NPR Fresh Air

The revelations of Wikileaks are constantly on the news and on NPR's Fresh Air last month (Entering The Secret World Of Wikileaks) Philip Shenon expresses the expectation that some time in August more disclosures are to follow. (I am writing this post a couple of days before publishing so there may be more news by the time you read this) And so it is worth taking a listen to the interview with Shenon on Fresh Air.

The radio program Fresh Air is broadcast five days a week and the last two weeks' issues are available in the podcast feed, even though the entire archive is available for streaming. Unlike the BBC, NPR allows these old issues also to be downloaded. So if you want to have it as a podcast still, subscribing to NPR won't help, but you can take it from my huffduffer wikileaks feed. With the help of huffduffer I also can offer the issue as a stream embedded on the blog, below.



I was alerted to this interview on the blog Open Culture. Open Culture is a blog anyone who likes Anne is a Man, should follow as well. It offers daily great pointers to great cultural content on the web which is also free, whether it is audio or any other kind of media.

More NPR Fresh Air:
Kissinger and the president.

Heads-up for 1 August 2010

New issues today are available for the following commendable podcasts:

Veertien Achttien, a Dutch history podcast telling the history of the First World War by means of short biographies. This week about Franz von Papen. (review, feed)

Volkis-Stimme, a German comedy podcast which makes fun of the news. Today: Plastik, Pitbull & Placebo. (review, feed)

410 podcasts reviewed on Anne is a Man

Take a look at the updated podcast list. Here you can find all the podcast titles that were reviewed on this blog with a link to the latest review. There are 410 in total.

This month I will occasionally be away enjoying a couple of vacation days. I will be writing posts in advance to make sure the blog does not get into a hiatus that will last too long. By September I hope to be back on the regular track.

During the fall I will hope to get closer to the two post a day pattern that I aspire to at this blog. One of the ways I will allow myself to make more updates is to give you a daily heads up of what good podcasts came out with new promising content that day. I hope you will like the idea. If I get round to it, I will attempt to make few such posts in August already.

New podcasts in June and July 2010 - Anne is a Man

I have not summarized the newly reviewed podcasts in two months, so finally here goes:

History:
History of Jerusalem (UCLA) (review, site, feed)
All you needed to know about the Middle-East in a 3000 year span nut shell is offered in this course.

Irish History Podcast (review, site, feed)
New podcast that takes on the history of Ireland in chronological order, starting in Roman times and quickly proceeding to the Middle Ages.

Irish Hedgerow history Lessons (review, site, feed)
Irish roots podcast with assorted items about Irish history.

History of the American Revolution (review, site, feed)

Kurtis Ford, retells the American history in quite extensive detail and with great narrative power with a very personal touch.

Culture:

The Geologic Podcast (review, site, feed)

Comedy podcast by George Hrab - this is not about geology.

Mahabharata Podcast (review, site, feed)

Narrative podcast taking on the mighty task of retelling (and abridging) the Mahabharata.

Sports (World Cup and Tour de France):

World Cup Daily (The Guardian) (review, site, feed)

FIFA World Cup Today (ESPN Radio) (review, site, feed)

ITV Tour de France Podcast (review, site, feed)

The Cycling News Podcast (review, site, feed)

VeloCast (review, site, feed)

Le Journal du Tour (Radio Sud) (review, site, feed) (in French)

Mark Schauss: Russian Rulers History Podcast

Two months ago I reported about the Russian Rulers History Podcast for  the first time. Then it had just started and by now it has picked up speed. Maker Mark Schauss has improved the podcast while churning out a good stream of some 10 new episodes. The sound is better, the reading is better, the main subject is adorned with additional rubrics, in short: this podcast is becoming a joy to listen to. (feed)

Before I started listening I knew a very little bit of Russian history. Just enough to place it in the larger scheme of things and to make the mental connection from the Rus, Kiev, Moscow, Czars to Bolshevists and the present. Schauss is not only filling in the gaps, but also tackles the theory of this history for example by delving into the question why is it that Moscow came to dominate Russian history and not Kiev, Novgorod, Rostov, Vladimir or other cities.

It seems Schauss is rising to the task of filling not just my gap. He manages to reach a wider audience and he also interacts with it. He takes on the questions and suggestions and lately he has been rewarding the audience also with free iPhone apps for the podcast.

More Russian history:
Russian Rulers Podcast,
The Caucasus,
Jews in the Russian army,
Lies and truths by Jan Struys,
The great dictators.