The History of 2050 - UChannel podcast review

UChannel podcast served a lecture and Q&A session with futurist Richard Watson at the RSA. For the podcast listener there was a lot to be expected, yet also a lot to be missed. Expectations were high because of the subject:  the history of the next 50 years. The RSA public was similarly affected and arrived in great numbers.

The lecture disappointed me. Fun though it is, to be informed about current trends and to let someone project them onto each other - even if the charts were not made visible for the iPod audience. (It would do to serve these as enhanced podcasts. Also in vodcast the element of charts and maps goes lost. We do not need to see the speaker, we just need the occasional glimpse at the slide. If one looks for a comparison, one needs only to look at Stanford.) However, getting the hotchpotch of trends only resulted in some sexy one-liners, but hardly in some coherent image that could serve as a history, let alone anything close to a narrative.

The real value, for me, was, that Watson taught me to look at trends, not only as far as new and upcoming developments, but also to look at things that are disappearing. As a new medium user, I can only agree TV and Radio are to disappear, but to my dismay, Watson also included blogging - let's hope not. Anyway, some food for thought, but a much ado about very little.

More UChannel:
The Arab-Israeli Conflict,
Civilization and the Hills,
New World Order,
The Invisible Hand,
The Second World.

Making History - Hebrew podcast review

Ran Levy of עושים היסטוריה replied to my previous review about his podcast with a delicate hint about my Hebrew. He suggested to write my reviews about Hebrew shows in English, because the audience masters English anyway. I took this as a discouragement to write in Hebrew. Too bad, I could do with the exercise, but maybe he is right that here is not the place.

Since the last review Ran has made a new episode of Making History and continued on a sidetrack of the previous subject. Previously, when dealing with simultaneous discoveries in science, he already mentioned how Leibniz and Newton discovered differential equations. In the latest episode this comes back because ran has decided to deal with Newton altogether. The differential equations are a side in a much larger tale of a poor boy who by chance got the opportunity to learn and become the genius he became.

Rather than the picture of the genius, Ran paints us Newton as the sociopath. In all stages of his life, Isaac Newton, in Ran's biography is unstoppable in his career and not willing to share the fame with others. Among his victims are not just Leibniz, but also Robert Hook. Newton took Hook's findings in optics and elaborate upon them without reference to Hook as if the findings were his, Newton's that is. It seems a leading thought in Ran's podcast: without sweeping away what stands as well accepted in history (Newton was a genius with the most important effect on science), but Ran feels the need to make some marks on the side and put all this in perspective.

Previously:
Making History with Ran Levy

This week on Anne is a Man (and afterwards)

There are a couple of podcast reviews in the making. In addition there are some podcasts I have listened to that in one way or another will enter some reviews soon. I would like to list some of those and together with that give you some insight in my listening schedule for this week.

Some of the podcasts that are to be reviewed in the coming days are:

Making History with Ran Levy.
Ran enters with the question who was the most influential scientist of all time and while you may have expected an expose about Einstein, you are getting one about Newton. Newton, the eccentric, the egomaniac, the ruthless self serving politician and Newton the rags to fame genius. In addition I'll explain why I review this Hebrew podcast in English.

More Hebrew podcasts to be reviewed soon are: קטעים בהיסוריה and מה שהיה היה.

I have listened to In Our Time's chapter about Godel's Incompleteness Theorems and I am about to take on Vitalism. Even though I feared the Godel issue a bit, on account of the mathematics, I was pleased to be able to follow, yet I still have to work some more on what I have to say about it. I might make a combined review of the last programs.

In the making is also another review of the Celtic Myth Podshow. A two-part series about the fate of Fintan, Erin's great story-teller has started. I'll have to decide whether I'll wait for the second part with the review.

Furthermore, I have listened to issues of Philosophy Bites, Philosopher's Zone and UChannel podcast that need reviewing.

In the series of university lectures, I am not sure I will give more reviews, but to give you an idea what I am following completely, here is the list:
Berkeley's History 5 (A survey of Europe from the Renaissance to the present), Philosophy 6 (Man, God, and Society in Western Literature), Philosophy 7 (Existentialism in Literature and Film).
UCSD's MMW4 (World History from 1200 to 1750) and Poli 113A (East Asian Thought).

Some more podcasts I am about to listen to are:
Veertien Achttien
Science & the City

Before the weekend I will update you again on what to expect on Anne is a Man.

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Volkis Stimme - German podcast review

I had not heard this kind of comedy on podcast yet, though there must be plenty around. The mock news bulletin is a comedy routine that sort of begs to be done. The German podcast Volkis Stimme therefore draws recollections of all the others who I have heard do that before. Have I Got News For You, Eretz Nehederet and Hans Dorrestijn are my handful memories that burst through. I am sure everybody will have their own reminiscing to do. (feed)

Host Volker Klärchen takes twelve news items of the week, including at least some politics, sports and one weather item and fills a six minute podcast with mock news. Volker handles this podcast very true to the art. It takes familiarity with the German actuality landscape to follow the majority of the items, but by all means each and every gag is bound to make you smile at least. The leaders in the program are of the regular TV news style and the inserted audio fragments are snippets Volker managed to clip from true sources, but also some that he makes by himself, revealing him to be a rather promising voice artist.

The result is a light podcast that gives you the weekly laugh at the news you just needed. Don't let your impression be ruined by Volker's last name. This is not Klärchen erzählt ein Märchen which is the rhyme I keep making in my head. This show is truly befitting the stand-up comedy of Have I Got News For You and Eretz Nehederet. And as far as Hans Dorrestijn is concerned; I was wondering whether Volker might understand Dutch and has heard Dorrestijn. In one of the sports items he uses the exact same joke I have heard Dorrestijn make over twenty years ago. When reporting on an athlete having broken a record, he adds: "the record was not seriously hurt." Coincidence, I suppose.

Anne is a Man - continues to grow

Dear Readers,

Three months ago, I happily reported that Anne is a Man is a small but growing blog. I had a hundred readers on a good day. In the past three months, the blog has continued to spread and I can now divulge that, on a good day, I have two hundred readers. So the trend is maintained and I take this as a great encouragement of what I am doing.

The below graph shows the visitor statistics for Anne is a Man! (thanks to Statcounter):



I'll keep on blogging and hope to keep you reading. Thanks,

Anne

Edgy Reviews from That Podcast Show

Podcasters Daniel and Jana Sellers had the same idea I had: there is need for a source of podcast reviews. They decided to do this in a podcast format. Every week they review three new podcasts and rate them in a scale of 5 stars. They choose full podcast series, never specific episodes, as I frequently do.

The overlap between their podcast, That Podcast Show, and my blog is minimal. Out of some 150 reviewed podcasts they have covered and over 200 I have, we both touched on less than 10 of them. Their attention goes to no field of podcasting exclusively, whereas my starting point are the educational podcasts. As a consequence, their reviews go into a much lighter variety than I do.

With their star scale and Daniel's emphasis on the technical aspects of the podcast (notably sound quality), the reviews might, on the face of it lack information , but that is not true. Maybe if you just read the blog, you might get that impression, but always, the podcast discussion contains much more information. So much more, I usually have made up my mind, before I know what rating Jana and Daniel each give.

So, check them out: site, blog, feed. See the left sidebar for a list of reviewed podcasts, ordered in section corresponding with iTunes's categories.