European Unity - Europe from its origins

The multimedia podcast Europe from its Origins tells a history of Europe treating it as a cultural unity stemming from the Western part of the Roman Empire. It relates history from around the third century and aims to continue until today. This extraordinary project deserves much praise and attention. Although it can be listened to as an audio podcast, it pays to sit down and actually watch the multitude of slides and video that accompany the narration. (feed)

The maker Joseph Hogarty not only treats Europe as a unity, while chronologically going through its history, he also tries to make and argument for this idea as he goes along. Also in the latest issue (Episode 19: AD 1347 - 1396) the question of Europe's unity or division comes up. As he argued before that Christendom was the concept and culture that unified Europe, he argues here that states are not what divided Europe. States, he goes on to show, is an idea that was developed later and applied to Europe of the Middle Ages where neither the practice nor the concept existed.

If, in Hogarty's view, there was at all something of a state in the Europe of the 14th century, it was the pagan Lithuania, that over the 14th century got incorporated into Christendom, which makes Europe as large as the EU today. The Plague sets in to give that Europe a unified experience of disaster.  Meanwhile, this unity succeeds in keeping the Muslim Arabs at bay, however not the Ottoman Turks. This enmity is to continue for many more centuries. This is where Hogarty -apparently- will continue the 15th century into the next installment. I cannot wait.

More Europe from its origins:
A history of Europe (3),
Cultural shift in the High Middle Ages,
A history of Europe (2),
Podcast with pictures - Europe from its origins,
A history of Europe (1).

Het Marathon Interview met Kerst 2010

Het Marathon Interview brengt niet alleen oude interviews uit het rijke verleden (bijvoorbeeld met Herman Bianchi), maar voegt ook regelmatig nieuwe toe. Rond de Kerst van 2010 waren er zes gasten die avond aan avond geinterviewd werden en meteen verschenen de interviews ookm in de podcast (feed). Van die zes nieuwe heb ik er drie beluisterd: Piet de Rooy, Tijs Goldschmidt en Bas Heijne.

Historicus Piet de Rooy wordt geinterviewd door Jos Palm die we ook van OVT kennen en daarmee kan je al vermoeden dat het gesprek vooral over de geschiedenis van Nederland zal gaan en voor een groot deel is dat ook zo. De Rooy's biografische verhaal wordt moeiteloos ingevlochten in de recente Nederlandse geschiedenis en dat samen met de huidige politiek culturele crisis wordt het gesprek vooral een zoektocht in de geschiedenis naar de Nederlandse identiteit en een antwoord op de vraag waar het met ons naartoe moet.

Rik Delhaas' gesprek met Tijs Goldschmidt was het eerste dat ik uit de feed plukte, omdat ik zo goede herinneringen had aan het interview van Goldschmidt met Martin Simek. Waar Simek destijds een uur nodig had, kom je onder Delhaas in drie uur ongeveer hetzelfde te weten. Wellicht iets meer over de joodse identiteit van de de vader, maar zoals we uit het eerste interview al weten - daar verbindt Tijs zich niet mee. En hoewel het een van de meest boeiende interviews blijft, is er dus ook een teleurstelling. Dat er te weinig uitkomt en ook dat Goldschmidt niet echt kleur bekent (ook niet als schrijver of als bioloog) en dat Delhaas daar ook niet erg op aandringt.

Ook Bas Heijne hadden we al gehoord bij Simek en ook hier komen we onder Djoeke Veninga niet heel veel meer te weten. Wat dan weer wel heel interessant is, is hoe Heijne praat. Je moet even wennen aan zijn onafgemaakte zinnen, maar je krijgt wel het gevoel dat hij echt zijn best doet om iets onder woorden te brengen dat niet helemaal vanzelfsprekend is. Veninga zorgt ervoor dat alle onderwerpen aan de orde komen, al krijg je niet het idee dat ze bijvoorbeeld zijn boeken heeft gelezen.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Michiel van Erp,
Ger van Elk,
Ileana Melita,
VPRO's Marathon Interview,
Hans Galjaard.

What is hot on 4 January 2011

KQED Forum
'All Things Shining': Finding Meaning in a Secular Age
Philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus's classes on existentialism and phenomenology were long among the most popular classes at UC Berkeley. One of those classes formed the basis of Dreyfus's new book "All Things Shining," co-authored with Harvard philosophy professor Sean Kelly. The authors join us to discuss the book, which deals with moments of meaning and transcendence in great works of Western literature.
(review, feed)

Lyrics Undercover
I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye (and more!)
This week on Lyrics Undercover, we’ll look at a Motown breakup song that is a classic. “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” is sung by a narrator who has no clue that his relationship is ending. Only from gossip, ‘through the grapevine,’ does he discover that his partner is cheating.
(review, feed)

Science Times
NYT: Science Times for 01/04/2011
This week: The top science, health and environmental stories of 2010 and research indicating that gay teens are no less likely to be unhappy than straight teens.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
On reading the Koran - Lesley Hazelton (2010)
Lesley Hazelton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found -- as a non-Muslim, a self-identified "tourist" in the Islamic holy book -- wasn't what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazelton shares the grace, flexibility and mystery she found, in this myth-debunking talk from TEDxRainier.
(review, feed)

Intermarriage - Kol Hadash

Two months ago I discovered the podcast Kol Hadash and wrote an excited review of it. Last week Kol Hadash came with a new issue that had me even more excited and inspired. It really seems that Rabbi Adam Chalom (pronounce as Shalom) has very similar views that I have. And in this issue also spoke about a subject that goes to my heart. (feed)

Intermarriage is not exactly an easy subject, for Jews nor for any other faith or cultural unity. Chalom describes the various ways intermarriage has been met. From plain rejection (sitting 'shiva' for those who intermarry) to conversion of the other to some half-hearted acceptance (you can be in our synagogue but not rise to the podium on a bar-mitzva). Chalom proposes to do more than that. He proposes to accept and even value intermarriage. He himself takes part in mixed faith ceremonies and reveals how exceptional a rabbi he is in this respect and how large the demand is. He makes his arguments mimicking advertising: why ignore two-thirds of the market?

That is enough for one podcast, but it leaves a couple of fundamental ends unresolved. Much of his talk is still informed by that deep Jewish self-image of being a small community under pressure of assimilation and the main aim of acceptance seems to be to preserve mass. But what does this mean? What kind of a Judaism is his? What kind of a Jewish community does he envision, when more and more non-Jews will become part of it? And what are these Jewish non-Jews in the community; are they real Jews in his view, or do they need conversion? If so, what kind of conversion? And what about the non-Jewish sources the outsiders bring into the mix? Will they receive equal rights? Will Chalom's congregation openly give authority to Greek philosophy or even Gospel? It seems to me that his courageous and laudable approach is opening a box of Pandora. It makes me very curious, again, to find out more and I am waiting for more installments of the Kol Hadash podcast.

More Kol Hadash:
Rabbi Adam Chalom - Kol Hadash Podcast

What is hot on 3 January 2011

The Bitterest Pill
The Red Curtain Hangs Down
I got the HBO job. Apparently I was hired by the hottest director in commercials. Not bad. That was Monday. I had an audition Tuesday and came back to get into my car but it wasn’t there. Oh. So, let’s get this straight: my car is gone, my kids need to be picked up at school and my house keys are in the car. Great. Luckily, my friend Tim was available to pick me up and take me to the Santa Monica Police Department. They didn’t have my car. So, now what?
(review, feed)

Office Hours
Orit Avishai on Women and Religion
Orit Avishai talks about her Fall 2010 Contexts article, Women of God. People often assume that conservative religions are bad for women, but Avishai shows us the ways in which women within fundamentalist religions can have empowering experiences as well.
(review, feed)

The China History Podcast
The Tang Dynasty Part 2
Laszlo is back after a holiday illness to continue where we left off in 705 with the passing of Wu Zetian. After an initial golden age during the Taizong emperor, the Tang will reach new heights of glory under Tang Minghuang a.k.a. the Xuanzong emperor. The magnificent city of Chang'an is once again the center of the world where the arts flourished like never before and traders, travelers and explorers from around the world came to gather and marvel at the splendor of Tang Dynasty China.
(review, feed)

What is hot on 2 January 2011

Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
Podcast 5.13: Jesus as Healer and Exorcist
Here I investigate the historical Jesus within the context of contemporaries who were viewed as healers and exorcists in Galilee and Judea. This is part of series 5 (The Historical Jesus in Context) of the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean podcast.
(review, feed)