New podcasts in February 2009 - Anne is a Man

The month of February has been ravishingly busy although that is not reflected in the amount of new podcasts I have reviewed this month. Only three in total:

Stuff you missed in history class (review, site, feed)
Very light history podcast by How Stuff Works dot com. Every week a short dialog about a wide variety of history subjects such as Marco Polo, the Plague and revisionist history.

From Israelite to Jew (review, site, feed)
Bible Scholar and religious Jew Michael Satlow in a podcast series revealing the history of the Jewish people in the pivotal transitional post-exilic period in which they transformed from being a nation (Israelites) to a religious ethnic group (Jews). There is also a very loosely related episode about the Talmud in this series.

De Geschiedenis Podcast (review, site, feed)
A podfaded history podcast in Dutch by Hugo Teerds with a particularly worthwhile episode about the Code of Hammurabi.

Two podcasts were suggested to me this month, but I could not come around reviewing them:

Something Live (feed); a music podcast by P.J. Shapiro delivering his own work. Although I did not manage to review the podcast I did come round listening to P.J.'s music and liked it enough to download and keep for repeated listening what he offered on MP3.

The boxcutters podcast; a very entertaining Australian podcast that reviews television, in Australia. I found it amusing, but did not see how I could review a podcast about TV that I won't watch. But if you are in Australia, go ahead and check this out.

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It rules the waves - Binge Thinking History Podcast review

The Binge Thinking History Podcast is, considering the charts of iTunes, a rather popular podcast in the history sections. This could come as a surprise for those who assume that the audience must be served regularly and be offered a clear schedule. BTHP has been delayed several times (this time around for over three months) and it has been taking more episodes that projected to cover subjects, now and before.

If indeed the high rating in iTunes is indicative of the public's approval than it must be for the one quality BTHP offers in between hiatus. Host Tony Cocks retells the history in his subject with tangible delight, understated humour, relevant quotations and sound effects. One is immersed into the history, which in the last two episodes and in the coming one (at least) is the history of the British Navy. The product is entertaining and informative, full of facts and story, yet light and easy to follow.

This last episode took us from the moment in the seventeenth century the Dutch and the English stopped being opponents, became allies and faced the formidable French of Louis XIV. Cocks explains how the English step by step outdo the French and then move on to become the empire that ruled the waves. This takes us also to the subject of piracy, the dangerous navigation at sea and the immense profits made of sugar and slaves.

Previously about BTHP:
Royal Navy,
Win, lose or draw,
Blitz on London,
Battle of Britain,
The American Constitution's British roots.

Ran Levi tackles urban myths and pseudo-knowledge

The Hebrew podcast Making History with Ran Levi spent the last episode on debunking an impressive list of factual assumptions we are hooked up with, but that turn out to be urban myths and pseudo knowledge. Ran Levi calls them myths, but I think that is too good a word for common misunderstandings and too little credit for mythos.

My favorite debunking is the countlessly repeated statement that the whirlpool in your bath tub turns counter-clockwise if you are on the northern hemisphere and clockwise if you are on the southern hemisphere of this earth. Not true. The direction is determined by the build of your tub. Whatever pull there is from the earth's rotation, that make storms turn in a different direction dependent on position on the globe is way too small to have any effect in you bathroom.

Another one that I never believed if only because of the exaggerated Freudian overtones, is the idea that Adolf Hitler had Jewish ancestry. He did have an unknown grandfather and that leaves ample room for speculation, but Levi attempts to bring some plausibility in that material.

One that I had never questioned and also invites cheap psychology is about the height of Napoleon. Levi claims the emperor was not short at all. 1.70m or thereabouts. The misunderstanding stems from incorrect translation of French feet to English feet, which is not the same measurement.

This is really a must listen. Get that ammunition needed to spoil the downtrodden commonplaces and unchallenged factual claims.

More Making History:
What goes up, must come down,
Douglas Adams,
Sophie Germain,
Max Planck,
Isaac Newton.

Sartre - Philosophy Bites review

For a while I was confused, when I listened to the last episode of Philosophy Bites. My common sense idea of 'bad faith' has to do with an unreliable person. But when Sebastian Gardner speaks of Sartre's idea of bad faith this is appears to be more about false consciousness, about wrong faith, misguided faith, rather than bad faith.

What the episode deals with is the human paradox of historicity and freedom, of social conventions and of choice. The bad faith lies herein that we assume our social role as identity, or our personal history as designating, or even our being non-committal at times. The paradox lies herein that we are neither completely free of the facts of our life, nor are we completely defined by them. Sartre's freedom of choice offers a very radical way of reassessing our own convictions, away from common sense as far as possible.

On the question whether Sartre is still a worthwhile philosopher to study, Gardner wholeheartedly agrees. Accessing the thoughts of Sartre seems something most appealing for the adolescent, but Gardner claims there is to be had for all ages.

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More Philosophy Bites
Idealism,
Alternative Hedonism,
Non-realism of God,
Virtue,
Nietzsche.

Jonathan Engel - Wise Counsel podcast review

A wide insight in the varieties of psychotherapy, the research and the practices is given by the podcast Wise Counsel. In the series, many individual techniques are discussed, but the last interview with Jonathan Engel the attention goes to an overview. Under the title of the history of American psychotherapy the discussion mostly engages into an evaluation of the available main streams of therapeutic approaches and the issue of efficacy.

Dr. Engel's view is that in the abundance of techniques, three main streams can be discerned: 1) Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic approaches, 2) Humanistic psychotherapy, and 3) Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies. Although the podcast interview shows some criticism to the simplification, but I think the audience may experience some relief with the order in the chaos and will find the categorization helpful.

On the subject of efficacy, the takeaway message seems to be that we have little reliable data on the subject. Usually the therapist is asked, whether the therapy worked and the response, obviously, is dependent. Similarly (though less profoundly stated) the client's answer to the question is not independent. Dr. Engel is hardly suggesting what the proper methodology in this research should be.

More Wise Counsel:
Self-help with PTSD,
Wise Counsel - psychology podcast review,
Irvin Yalom,
David H. Barlow,
Richard Heimberg.

Rosa Luxemburg - veertien achttien recensie

In de podcast serie Veertien Achttien, geeft de maker Tom Tacken zichzelf alle ruimte voor een oordeel over de hoofdrolspelers en de figuranten in de eerste wereldoorlog. Zijn wekelijkse vertelling over de oorlog, opgehangen aan de biografie van een van de grote of kleine deelnemers, worden bevolkt door slachtoffers, helden, daders, meelopers, aanstichters en leiders met veelal een verkeerde opvatting van politiek en vooral oorlog. De slogan die de podcast meekrijgt 'Het verschrikkelijke verhaal opnieuw verteld' en de woorden op het blog van de podcast laten deze benadering onverhuld: "Steeds staan we stil bij een karakter uit de Grote Oorlog. Politici, kunstenaars, soldaten, vorsten, denkers, schrijvers, burgers - ze komen allemaal langs - de daders en de slachtoffers, de ezels en de leeuwen."

Daarom rijst de vraag, waarom wordt er stilgestaan bij Rosa Luxemburg? De oorlog heeft ze doorgebracht in de gevangenis. Haar socialistische opvattingen zijn eveneens marginaal in de oorlog. Pas bij de Weimarrepubliek komt het socialisme terug op het toneel en is er de politieke moord op Luxemburg. Haar verhaal is er vooral een van Duitsland na de oorlog.

De gedachte komt op dat Tackens sympathie bij Rosa Luxemburg ligt en dat hij het socialisme een warm hart toedraagt. In dat geval is in Tackens feuilleton het socialisme de onmachtige god die de waanzinnige slachting niet kan stoppen. Die het proletariaat niet kan redden van het valse, nationalistisch bewustzijn. En dan is Luxemburg de onbegrepen profeet. De gedachte vindt hier een daar bevestiging in Tackens biografieen, maar hij weet het afdoende te maskeren, zodat we niet zeker kunnen zijn van zijn politieke kleur, niet zo zeker als we kunnen zijn dat hij begaan is met het lot van de slachtoffers in de oorlog. Meer nog dan een verhaal van mislukte klassenstrijd lijkt voor hem het verhaal van de oorlog een verhaal van eindeloos menselijk leed.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Marie Curie,
August von Mackensen,
Franz Hipper,
Enver Pasha,
Veertien Achttien premium.