Twentieth century famines

Here is a podcast with a weird name, The Ripple That Drowns, which contains the same lecture in three versions. You can hear the straightforward audio, which I did, or take the enhanced podcast or even the video of the lecture. And even though this lecture took place some time in 2007, it is still very interesting and relevant. (feed)

Professor Cormac O'Grada from the University College of Dublin spoke about new evidence on the causes of 1959-61 Chinese famine as well as the Bengal famine of 1943-44. These two famines, in his mind stand out for the sheer size of the disaster.

In general famines in the twentieth century, he argues, are not that great. There are fewer famines than in other eras and if they are there there are fewer excess deaths. This is on account of smaller scale and also on account of modern insight in disease. The problem with famine in earlier times, as to the excess deaths, was not so much starvation, but rather the ensuing diseases. During famine, more people die of typhus and such rather than sheer undernourishment. Especially famines in regions where there is peace, have become very small if they happen at all.

Exceptional, though, are the Chinese and the Bengal famines. In both cases, political incentive to ignore and downplay the famine by the authorities turn out to greatly contribute to the extent. In Bengal it is the British war effort in World War 2 and in China it is the Great Leap Forward.

Heads-up for 22 September 2010

First of all, check out the blog DIY Scholar and find today's post pointing to the new lecture podcasts coming up at UCLA and UCSD. Three of these have also been reviewed by me:
MMW 4 (new feed)
East Asian Thought (new feed)
Formations of Modern Art (now with a video feed)

History 5, with Thomas Laqueur (Berkeley )
Lecture 8: English Revolutions, Dutch Revolutions and Constitutionalism
Law grounded somewhere other than in God and the person of the king; Civil liberties enshrined in law; The possibility of a strong state combined with some version of representative government; Political legacies: (1) secular contract theory (Locke and Hobbes) (2) the peoples’ place in the political nation put on the agenda with the levelers; A history of revolution is born.
(review, feed)

Rear Vision
Roma history
President Nicolas Sarkozy accuses the Romani people of 'illicit trafficking and exploitation of children for begging, prostitution or crime'. Romani camps across France have been bulldozed and Roma with Romanian or Bulgarian citizenship have been given a choice of 'voluntary repatriation' or deportation. Rear Vision looks at the history of the Romani people -- where they came from and why they remain one of the most isolated groups in Europe.
(review, feed)

Scientific American Podcast aka Science Talk
Could Time End?
Scientific American staff editor George Musser joins podcast host Steve Mirsky to discuss his article in the September issue about the possibility of time itself coming to an end.
(review, feed)

The Memory Palace - history telling

The Memory Palace is a great podcast I cannot recommend enough (feed). Nate DiMeo has an exquisite feel to take a history trivia and turn it into a story full of suspense and humane irony. He tells his stories in five to ten minutes so that it hardly takes any of your time, but these short histories are full of delight.

Just recently I enjoyed his culinary history of the lobster, how this crustacean went from poor people's meat to a career of cheap, mass produced canned food, to haute-cuisine. Another is the story of the mythical John Frum which is the name of a Messianic figure some people in the Pacific are waiting for and until his coming, bring them to most unexpected ritual.

If you have not encountered this podcast yet, sign up now and listen. But savor the experience. I think these tales need to be told far apart and not listened to in a big batched chain.

More The Memory Palace:
Another Memory Palace fantastic find,
The Death of Edgar Allan Poe,
A Great Escape,
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences.

The Art of Choosing with Sheena Iyengar

It has been some time since I last listened to the psychology podcast Shrink Rap Radio. This podcast in which psychologist David van Nuys interviews authors of recently published psychology books, still signifies to me one of the best produced amateur podcasts around and the only reason I stopped following it so closely is because lately I have been less interested in psychology and more in economics and politics. History has always been my top interest. (feed)

But if you want to get a fine example of what this podcast is about and what a very good interview podcast sounds like, take up Van Nuys's interview with Sheena Iyengar about her research how people make choices. I discussed this show with a couple of friends who had also listened to it and was struck that some were surprised by Iyengar's findings and quite to the contrary, the others thought it all to be common sense. So I cannot tell what you will find, but do listen and hear what freedom of choice and amount of options for choice do to choosing.

Personally, while the subject was still truly interesting, I was struck by Iyengar's personal story and here I do not want to spoil the surprises by giving it all away. But promise that this is a story of many drawbacks to overcome to achieve what she did achieve. Together with this one, Shrink Rap Radio offers a near 250 more such interviews, making it one of the longest standing and still regularly publishing podcasts around.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Surviving in the Wilderness,
Happiness and Health,
Resurrection after Rape,
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts.

Heads-up for 21 September 2010

A History of the World in 100 Objects (BBC)
077 Benin Plaque - the Oba with Europeans
Plaque showing aspects of Benin court life. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, examines some of Africa's most famous artworks, the Benin Plaques, and the effect these brass portraits first had when they arrived in London at the end of the 19th century. With contributions by Sokari Douglas Camp and Wole Soyinka on the art and heritage of Benin.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
IGC Growth Week 2010 - Managing Natural Resource Rents: China and Africa
Is China's strategy - of negotiating deals in which resources are exchanged for infrastructure - mutually beneficial, or a new variant of the plunder of Africa? China 'asks no questions' of African governments: is that respectful of African sovereignty or an abrogation of responsibility?
(review, feed)

TED Talks
Where good ideas come from - Steven Johnson
People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.
(review, feed)

Bengal Renaissance

Here is a quick review to point to some bonus material to an Open University Course that comes in a podcast. This is a paid history course that quite generally studies the issue of religious tolerance by looking historically at religious co-existence, religious conversions and obviously conflict. Hence the title: Religion in history: conflict, conversion and co-existence.

From what I can see as one that has not signed up to the study, the course is heavily centered on Europe and besides Christianity, touches on Judaism and Islam. The same is true for the free podcast that comes along with it and can be had on iTunesU. It contains five chapters four of which also concentrate on Christian and European subjects. (feed)

My attention was drawn by the last though: a conversation about the Bengal renaissance in the nineteenth century. We learn about a cultural flowering in this region which today is partly within India and the rest in Bangladesh and which contains Hindu and Muslim communities coexisting. The renaissance as discussed is examined in the light of this co-existence and the question is asked whether this was a Hindu cultural development or a Bengali one that gave room for the Muslims as well. The podcast wants to claim that it is a broad Bengali occurrence, but already the question suggests how this is contentious.