Sinterklaas - The Biography Show

TPN's Biography Show just did a show on Santaclaus and with it has outdone itself in sheer entertainment, historic enchantment and even some raised eyebrows on my part. The show was fun, had great historic information which was compelling and thought-provoking, yet produced some details about Sinterklaas that sounded off in the ears of this semi-average Dutchman.

The entertainment lies with the opinionated disposition both David Markham and Cameron Reilly take in this show. Markham minces a few words on some conservatives in the US whose sense of injury is great enough to perceive a "War on Christmas" and feel the need to protect a tradition of which Markham shows that it is hardly a tradition if there is a war at all. And should you think there must be a tradition, wait for Cameron Reilly to deconstruct Santaclaus.

The greatest charm of Cameron Reilly's view of the origins I find is that he links back to Odin and the pagan traditions, just as most of the other rituals around Christmas root in European paganism. It is where he tries to render the morphing from Odin into Sinterklaas, so familiar for the Dutch, I think he makes a couple of mistakes, but nothing awful, to get back on track and reveal how the Dutch Sinterklaas morphs into the American Santaclaus with some of the details around this figure date back less than a century.

Reilly claims that Odin had a staff that was called 'zwartpiet' and that just can't be. But he when he reveals that the Byzantine Saint Nicholas had an Ethiopian servant, the next step makes it right again: for the Dutch, Sinterklaas comes from Spain and has a Moorish servant (or several) and this is Zwarte Piet, black Pete. Even in Israel the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet and the tradition of giving presents and they do so on the 5th of December. Let this be added to fill out a minor omission in an otherwise fantastic show.

More TPN's Biography Show:
Charlemagne,
Biography podcasts,
Sargon of Akkad and Ramses II,
Helen of Troy,
Alexander the Great - Biography Show.

Genealogy for beginners and more - podcast review

When dealing with history, I am usually swept to the grand scheme of things, but whatever we claim to be able to say about it boils down to meticulous research and delving into the details. The details of history, when told as uninterpreted facts, have run the love of history for many a listener into the ground, but a sure way, I venture, to get hooked into the details of history, is when you get involved in family history, especially your own.

On the subject of genealogy, which is a science and a skill in itself, which overlaps history and these days goes beyond it as well, I have discovered (with the help of some friends) a couple of great podcasts. One for the beginners and one for the advanced genealogist. Both podcasts are produced by a greatly talented lady Lisa Louise Cooke. So here goes.

For those who want to try their hand at genealogy and have need of advice how to go about uncovering their family's history, Lisa makes the podcast Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. This podcast helps you get started. There is advice how to organize your data (good tips what software to use in all sorts of price ranges) which is very important because many amateur family historians find along their way they have to go back and reorganize their work. And a lot of advice where and how to find out what you need to know.

For those who have been on the road for a long time and need the encouragement and connection with tales of genealogy there is the Genealogy Gems podcast. If you ever thought there is only so much you can find out, only so far to get - this podcast tells you there is always more. And should you have thought that family history stays small scale micro-history and never connects with the grand scheme of things, you may be in for a surprise.

The crisis - podcasts galore

If the economic crisis is on your mind and you want to listen in podcasts what people have to say about it, you have a million options to go. On the LSE events podcast, there was a lecture on the subject that had a spectacularly large audience turning up. This triggered the remark: 'We should be using the words Credit Crunch in each of our lecture titles'. (Central Banking and the Credit Crunch)

Apart from the question how Central Banking has in one way or another contributed to the current downturn, the lecture makes a thorough assessment of central banking throughout the world today. Frankly, I wasn't aware there were so many different models and had no idea that the model I knew best, that of The Netherlands, is rather the exception than the rule. Needless to say, lessons are learned and changes as a response to the crisis are expected. The speaker, Howard Davies, reveals that the US is considering adapting to the UK model, while the UK tends to develop towards the US model. So, if you are confused, you are with the best of them.

If you weren't gloomy enough about the prospects, here is a remark made at the podcast Media Matters. Bob McChesney talks with guests and frequently with listeners calling in about current affairs. In the recorded (hence without callers) issue of November 23rd, the outcome of the US election were analyzed and guest John Nichols almost casually made the remark: "We do not yet feel the credit card crisis." So there may be even more bad news to come.

However, there may be also a very different angle to take on the crisis. This is proposed by Speaking of Faith in a short conversation with Rachel Naomi Remen (exclusively on the Speaking of Faith podcast). Remen takes the philosophical inroad: a crisis is a moment of change. This crisis is focusing us on questions we need to ask and reorient ourselves. The happy note then is that crisis is the chance for renewal and betterment. Remen suggests that the credit crisis forces us to ask what we trust. We have been trusting our money and our investments, yet we find this was wrong. This is the moment to single out the stars that we sail by and she adds: the stars characteristically only come out in darkness. So, we may also be happy with our crisis.

More LSE Events:
Desiring Walls,
The Post-American World,
Reparing Failed States,
Europe and the Middle East,
Nuts and bolts of empire.

More Speaking of Faith:
Listening Generously,
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Karen Armstrong,
Wangari Maathai.

Scythians (Skythen) - review of history podcast in German

I think podcasts are an excellent promotional device for museums, yet I have not yet seen the medium applied very much. I thought it would help for museums to publish their audio tours they have anyway and while at it, they might add some more content. What better way for a visitor to come prepared after a series of podcasts. What better way to become interested in an exhibition when you have been sufficiently warmed up. In Germany an exhibition about the Scythians has applied this method and done so very well. Museums in Hamburg and Berlin have profited - I hope.

I traced the podcast through Chronico's Geschichtspodcast, that I have reviewed before (Geschichtspodcast - history podcast review), where the maker of the Skythen-podcast (Im Zeichen des Goldenen Greifen; Königsgräber der Skythen), Birge Tetzer was interviewed and explained the ratio of making a podcast series for a museum exhibition, just as I pointed out above. She also explains how to cut the issues for an audience as wide as to range from the ignorant and mildly interested, to the enthusiast experts.

Tetzer interviewed Hermann Parzinger, of the German Archeological Institute, to explain about the Scythians and his research after them and cut this to thematic, short and to the point podcasts. They range from explaining the origins of the Scythians, the range to where they lived, the sources we have for them (mostly Herodotus) and eventually what remains of them today. Between the sound bits of Parzinger's, Tetzer explains what can be seen on the exhibition, relevant to the theme at hand. It feels I have already been there and as soon as I get near the exhibition, or it gets near me, I will attend.

Previously:
Geschichtspodcast - history podcast review,
When Steppe meets Empire,
Gengis Khan,
Dan Carlin about the Scythians and other steppe people.

Keynes - RSA podcast review

An impression that I took with me from economics classes in secondary school and university was that Keynes was hardly relevant any longer. His models were nice to explain economics and to understand anti-cyclical policy, but with those policies firm in place there were no longer the depressions Keynes had developed his ideas on.

Not surprisingly, even if the above idea was a crude misconception, just as we enter economic depression today, Keynes is back on the lips of economists and others who need to comment on the current situation. The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) invited several of those to speak of Keynes. From this wide variety of speakers one receives the impression Keynes should not have been abandoned at all. As one of the speakers puts it: "with all of the spending you do and with asset prices going up, Keynes would have said: you are going to get a depression." So a more prolonged attempt is made to apply Keynes to today. Let Keynes and his influence on the Bretton Woods agreement be a model for today to conjure up a similar international system to keep heavy fluctuations in the economy in hand.

Keynes is credited to have discovered 'the grammar of economics', but what also is discussed is the more contemplative, poetic as it were, side of his thinking. Keynes seemed to have envisioned a limit to economic policy and economic strive. His ideas, so it is presented, were to ascertain a level of security for all and not to be applied ad infinitum for wealth without end. Terms like usury and avarice go over the table. Have I ever heard those words used by economists before? Asking the question is giving the answer.

Dhyan Sutorius - Simek podcast recensie

In de uitzending van 14 december jongstleden van Simek 's Nachts lijkt het doek echt te vallen. Heb ik het nou goed begrepen dat er nog een, of twee, uitzendingen komen? Het einde was al aangekondigd en Simek had er in de vorige uitzending die ik recenseerde voor het eerst ook aan gerefereerd, maar in de uitzending van afgelopen zondag was het haast of er een andere Simek zat. De oude Simek die we zo goed vinden.

Het moet aan hem geknaagd hebben. Het heeft in ieder geval aan mij geknaagd. Vaak had ik in het afgelopen jaar het gevoel dat Simek wat mat was. Maar nu dat het echt echt voorbij is, kwam er opeens een vechter naar boven. Het leek wel alsof hij nog een maal aan de ether wilde laten voelen waar hij toe in staat is. Zijn gast was de lach-therapeut Dhyan Sutorius en Simek pakte hem aan zonder mededogen. Onthulde de argeloze gast en pakte hem met liefde weer in.

Het is wel vaker gebeurd dat Simek zijn gast met stomheid slaat. Vaak komen ze daar wel weer uit, meestal met een beetje terugvallen in de 'comfort zone', soms door het interview grondig te verpesten - zoals Rita Verdonk deed. Maar hoe het ook uitpakt, als Simek zijn gast op het verkeerde been heeft gezet, hoe ongepolijst het verderr ook mag lopen, dan heb je de beste Simek dan heb je de meest onversneden podcast die je kan hebben. En Dhyan Sutorius had de ongelofelijke moed om op het verkeerde been te blijven staan en ook al betekent dat vele stiltes en kom je zoveel niet te weten. Het levert het meest intrigerende tweegesprek op dat ik in tijden heb gehoord.

Blijft dit een daverend slotakkoord? Niet zeker, want er zijn al geruchten dat Simek doorgaat op de een of andere manier. (Martin Simek en Gijs Groenteman)

Meer Simek:
Louis Tas,
Piet Hein Eek,
Ernst van de Wetering,
Ageeth Veenemans,
Marc de Hond.