Heads-up for 11 December 2010

Shrink Rap Radio
Creativity and The Brain with Shelly Carson
Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson PhD, is a researcher and instructor of creativity, psychopathology and resilience. She is the author of Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity and Innovation in Your Life (Jossey-Bass/Wiley). Based on scientific findings from studies involving brain imaging, brain injury cases, neuropsychological testing and interviews with hundreds of highly creative individuals, Dr. Carson has created a model of seven different brain states related to creative thought, which she calls the CREATES brainsets model. In her book she offers a route to greater creative productivity through a series of engaging exercises and problem sets (based on cognitive behavioral therapy methods) that enable us to strengthen our brainsets and switch among them with ease.
(review, feed)

The Economist
The return of the big three
Our correspondents discuss how Ford, Chrysler and GM are raising their sights, upgrading their models and moving into emerging markets
(review, feed)



Big Ideas
William R. Newman on Why Did Isaac Newton Believe in Alchemy
Indiana University professor of History and Philosophy of Science, William R. Newman presents his lecture, entitled Why Did Isaac Newton Believe in Alchemy? Through historical documents and experiments that demonstrate alchemical processes, this lecture explains why one of the most insightful scientists in history was convinced that alchemical transformations were scientifically plausible. It was delivered at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, on October 6th, 2010.
(review, feed)

New Books In History
David Shearer, “Policing Stalin’s Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953″
The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg en het koken van de soep (zondag 10 december 1916)
De morele standaard van rijkskanselier Von Bethmann Hollweg bezwijkt keer op keer onder nationalistische krachten. 'Ik ben mij bewust van mijn eigen beperkingen', zal hij zelf de slotsom opmaken.
(review, feed)

Heads-up for 10 December 2010

Harvard Business IdeaCast
The Glass Cliff Phenomenon
Susanne Bruckmüller, research associate at the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and coauthor of the HBR article "How Women End Up on the 'Glass Cliff'."
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
European democracies and human rights: from present failures to future protection
In a lecture marking UN International Human Rights Day, Thomas Hammarberg discusses the gap between human rights standards and realities in the EU. Thomas Hammarberg was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 5 October 2005 by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. He took up his position on 1 April 2006, succeeding the first commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles. Prior to his appointment, he spent several decades working on the advancement of human rights in Europe and worldwide.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
A call to men - Tony Porter
At TEDWomen, Tony Porter makes a call to men everywhere: Don't "act like a man." Telling powerful stories from his own life, he shows how this mentality, drummed into so many men and boys, can lead men to disrespect, mistreat and abuse women and each other. His solution: Break free of the "man box."
(review, feed)

Heads-up for 9 December 2010

Thinking Allowed
Cuban Science and Moral Panics
How did Cuba manage to become a world leader in bioscience despite and economic blockade and a developing world economy? Laurie talks to Simon Reid-Henry. Also what does the term 'moral panic' mean and is it overused. Jewel Thomas and Chas Critcher discuss.
(review, feed)

KQED Forum
WikiLeaks, Free Speech and National Security
Last week, WikiLeaks distributed more than 250,000 classified embassy cables to newspapers around the globe that provide an unvarnished view of U.S. foreign policy. While proponents of WikiLeaks herald the release of the documents as a victory for free speech and open information, critics contend that it undermines national security. We speak with experts on the both sides of the debate.
(review, feed)



In Our Time
Thomas Edison
Melvyn Bragg examines the life of the great American inventor, Thomas Edison. Creator of the phonograph and the mass-produced electric lightbulb, not to mention his pivotal role in the development of motion pictures, Edison was a true technological pioneer. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Kathleen Burk, Professor of History at University College, London; Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science and Fellow of Darwin College at the University of Cambridge; and Iwan Morus, Reader in History at the University of Aberystwyth.
(review, feed)

Exploring Environmental History
Slavery, fossil fuel use and climate change: past connections, present similarities
What is the connection between the abolition of slavery, the Industrial Revolution, the use fossil fuels and climate change? Jeff Mohout of Birmingham University recently discussed this question in an article in the journal Climatic Change. In this episode of the podcast Mohout presents his idea that that slaves in the past and fossil-fuelled machines at present play similar economic and social roles: both slave and modern societies externalised labour and both slaves and modern machines freed their owners from daily chores. Consequently, modern society is as dependent on fossil fuels as slave societies were dependent on bonded labour. Mohout also suggests that, in differing ways, suffering resulting (directly) from slavery and (indirectly) from the excessive burning of fossil fuels are now morally comparable. The pocast concludes with some suggestions of the lessons which may be learned from the abolition of slavery in the 19th century for dealing with modern climate change and the associated energy transition.
(review, feed)

Geography shifting big history

Several history podcasts wonder about this: how is it that the fringe region of Europe came to dominate the world in the past 500 years? A follow-up question could be: How is this domination going to shift? The answer to the second question will be highly flavored by the answer to the first. At Radio Open Source host Christopher Lydon spoke with historian Ian Morris, who has done some big history and attempts a shot at both. (feed)

Morris reduces the answer to the first question to geography: until 1500 geography was in favor of Asia and the Mediterranean. Yet, by that time, starting in China, ocean travel became possible and once that technical hurdle was taken, everybody followed and an element of geography became relevant that had been without meaning until then: the Americas were much much closer to Europe than to Asia. It allowed the Europeans to get there first and extract the wealth and get the economic and military boost that was to be had.

Those distances have by now lost their meaning again and so Europe is losing the edge. Morris tries to extrapolate the factors he sees at work in big history and predicts major changes and a reversal of the balance by 2103. I love this kind of history with broad strokes and if you do so too, you are going to love this interview. Also if you do not, it serves to tap into the logic Morris presents. A very thought-provoking podcast.

More Radio Open Source:
Kai Bird,
Amartya Sen on India,
Mustafa Barghouti,
Jackson Lears,
Two communities in one region.

Heads-up for 8 December 2010

Forgotten Classics
Genesis, chapters 8-9
In which Noah and family leave the ark and God promises rainbows.
(review, feed)

Rear Vision
Irish lament
Ireland's turbocharged transformation from rural poverty to global affluence overshot the mark and now the British and German banks that funded the building boom want their money back. Rear Vision looks at what went wrong.
(review, feed)

Witness
John Lennon
Two days before he was killed outside his New York apartment, John Lennon spent several hours talking to a young BBC music journalist. Andy Peebles remembers that interview.
(review, feed)

KMTT - The Torah Podcast
Parshat Vayigash
By Rav Alex Israel - Joseph's Economics
(review, feed)

History, Holocaust and Human Rights

The great history lecture series in Berkeley History 5 (feed) has ended this week. As usual it has been a delight in history teaching. Never listened to History 5? Go and try.

Here I would like to add some information to Lecture 26 which deals with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Professor Thomas Laqueur pays less attention to the size and methods of the Holocaust, but rather emphasizes the reception of it. How got it to be treated as not just another massacre? He talks of the trials and of the conception of the term genocide.

He also refers to a broader course he teaches, which is about the history of human rights. It just so happens that this course can be had on podcast: Letters and Science 140D (feed), The history and practice of human rights. This is a very intensive course which needs, in my experience, closer listening than History 5, but once you dedicate the attention is all the more worth it.

More History 5:
The fall of democracies,
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010.