Heads-up for 6 September 2010

Ideas (CBC Radio)
Beauty Will Save the World
While imprisoned in the Soviet gulag, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would compose speeches expressing the cruelty he suffered. However in 1970, upon receiving the Nobel Prize he simply said: "Beauty Will Save the World!" CBC producer Frank Faulk explores this provocative statement.
(review, feed)

Het Marathon Interview
Harry Kuitert
Er moet toch Iets zijn… Ethicus en theoloog Kuitert dacht na over de mens, het geloof, de kerk en het ietsisme. Daarmee opende de zomerreeks van het Marathoninterview in 1993. Piekeraar Ger Jochems sprak met Harry Kuitert.
(review, feed)

SFFaudio Podcast
The SFFaudio Podcast #074 - Jesse and Scott talk about the recently arrived audiobooks with assistance and commentary by Luke Burrage
(review, feed)

EconTalk
Kling on Knowledge, Power, and Unchecked and Unbalanced
Arnold Kling of EconLog and author of Unchecked and Unbalanced, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the book and the relationship between knowledge and power. In a modern economy, specialization has increased and knowledge is increasingly dispersed. But political power has become more concentrated and fails to exploit the potential for decentralization. Kling discusses these trends and the potential for decentralization of power under different policies.
(review, feed)

What is the Stars - RTE podcast

RTE, the Irish national broadcaster has a short weekly radio program that superficially looks like an astrology item. However, it is a short monologue by astronomer Frances McCarthy who points out a tidbit of astronomy and the history of astronomy.

The title of the item 'What is the Stars' has me puzzled a bit. It looks like a sentence missing something or mixing singular with plural. I guess I first read it as: What is in the stars, to make the astrology connection. Considering the charmingly done serious content, I wonder why it was not What are the stars or even What is it with the stars. (feed)

What is it with this name?

History of Japan - Cameron Foster

In the past weeks I have found a number of podcasts addressing the history of a certain nation state. Consequently I gave them a short review and thus we have had, in short succession been reading about the histories of Korea, China and Pakistan. Today we follow up with Japan.

A Short History of Japan is an amateur podcast by Cameron Foster. If you click through to the website, you will see a message that this podcast has run out of bandwidth. That was the case in August and I have been waiting until the beginning of September to be able to begin downloading. Under these circumstance the bandwidth may run out again and so I would advise you to grab the issues before the connection is used up. (feed)

I have begun this series with the first episode Myths and Migrations which digs into the origins of Japanese history. Foster works with the legends around Japan's origins and its mythical first emperor and tries to make as much hard history facts from them as possible. This may sound rather tentative, but it turns into a very entertaining and informative chapter. It surely wets my taste for more.

Heads-up for 5 September 2010

The China History Podcast
Li Ka-shing
Li Ka-shing is a Hong Kong billionaire tycoon who has played a great role in not only Hong Kong's prosperity but in China’s as well. He is respected not only for his achievements in business and industry but also for his rise from humble beginnings in Chaozhou, China.
(review, feed)

History According to Bob
Fallout from Nuclear Testing
This show is talks about all sorts of problems with fallout from the testing of nuclear weapons during the 50's and 60's.
(review, feed)

Volkis Stimme
Ausgabe 099: Best of Gesellschaft
Why is Volki giving us a series of his 'Best of..'? Will the podcast quit? Anyway, here are the best of society news items.
(review, feed)

Kritisch Denken
Het gevaar van wetenschapsontkenning
Vandaag spreken we over de gevaren van wetenschapsontkenning. De oorspronkelijke tekst komt van Tedtalks en is een speech van Michel Specter.

(review, feed)

New Books In History
Elaine Tyler May, “America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation”
Shows that the Pill really didn’t live up to expectations then and it hasn’t now. After all, the Pill is a form of contraception, and contraception has been available for a long time.
(review, feed)

Shrink Rap Radio
The Art of Choosing with Sheena Iyengar
Sheena Iyengar, Ph.D. is a Professor at Columbia Business School. Sheena’s primary research interest is how people perceive and respond to choice. Her work is regularly cited in the popular press, as well as in bestselling books such as Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. She has recently written her first book, The Art of Choosing, which explores the mysteries of choice in everyday life.
(review, feed)

Richard Huelsenbeck - Veertien Achttien

De podcast Veertien Achttien brengt ons elke week een biografie in vijftien minuten die op een of andere manier iets met de Eerste Wereldoorlog te maken heeft. Er zijn sinds vanochtend al 115 afleveringen verschenen en er zijn er nog 115 te gaan, want de maker, Tom Tacken, heeft zich ten doel gesteld om de podcast net zolang te laten duren als de lange oorlog zelf.

En daarmee schept hij een even dringend als dwingend portret van een van de grootste tragedies van de moderne wereld. Daarmee heeft hij zich ook voor een formidabele taak gesteld. Vind maar eens voor elk relevant aspect van de oorlog een persoonlijk portret. Breng in elk protret een aspect van de oorlog naar voren. En hoe houd je een portret consequent binnen de twintig minuten? Het moet effectief geschreven worden, kort, duidelijk en toereikend. En ga zo maar door.

De uitzending van vandaag, over de Dadaist Richard Huelsenbeck, brengt nog weer een andere uitdaging van de podcast eminent naar voren. Zo'n portret moet ook afdoende voorgelezen worden. Daarbij heeft Tacken het zich vandaag niet makkelijk gemaakt door de incourante teksten van Huelsenbeck in het portret te verwerken. Een protest tegen de oorlog in een lange volzin heeft hij effectief vertaald en voorgedragen. En dan het klankdicht geen sinecure, maar Tacken brengt het als een echte performer. Het is alsof je Jan Hanlo zelf Oote Boe hoort voordragen. Tabla tokta tokta takabla taka tak. Geraffineerd verweven in het portret. Zowel Dada als de oorlog zijn erin te horen.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Veertien Achttien nieuwsbrief (PTSD versus shellshock)
Sir Mark Sykes,
De Eerste Wereldoorlog in podcast,
Ford en anderen,
Sigmund Freud.

History of Pakistan - Rear Vision

Rear Vision is always a good source for short informative programs about recent history. In the past month it reported about Pakistan and it gave a very concise and insightful expose about Pakistani internal politics from 1947 until now. It shows how the new and traditionless state is torn, from the start between very different power factors, from Taliban and other Islamists to western oriented politicians looking to the US for support. (feed)

More Rear Vision:
Israel's Nuclear Program,
Kashmir,
UK Elections - recommended podcasts,
Two podcast issues on the history of Haiti
History of Yemen.

More Pakistan:
The future of Pakistan.