Harmonious dialogs - The Word Nerds

Common advice for podcasters is to have more than one voice on the show. When podcasts contain conversations, they are easier to follow. As much as this is true, there is, in my opinion, also a trap: making the dialog work. If the participants are completely free, they may start rambling and the conversation becomes tedious. What many podcasts with more than one host do is to script the dialog between the hosts. This more often than not is so artificial, it does more harm than good.

Here I wish to highlight the podcast The Word Nerds that has always more than one host (sometimes up to four) and has perfect dialogs. I have always been wondering whether these dialogs were scripted. The speakers collaborate so well, that some scripting must be at work, but then again it also sounds so natural, it can't be entirely acted. Then, in the last show (about Writing) a real discussion arose. For the first time it really appeared that the dialog was not scripted at all. The hosts just have a splendid rapport and in this harmony an excellent podcast emerges.

The Word Nerds is more than a light show about 'language and why we say the things we do'. It is also an example of a good amateur podcast. Apart from the excellent dialog the show is an example of good balance between sections, between talk and music, good audio quality and an altogether pleasant atmosphere that makes one connect to a show.

Previous reviews of The Word Nerds on this blog:
Word Nerds on Facebook,
Abrrev & txt,
Stories and Story Telling,
Debate,
Ambiguity and linguistic tics,
Syntax.

The Ethicist - a New York Times podcast

Erno Mijland of the blog Alles kan altijd beter reminded me of the assorted podcasts by the New York Times. I had reviewed Times Talks in the past - and not liked it very well - but took Erno's reminder as an incentive to look once again. Thank you Erno!

The first podcast I began to listen to was The Ethicist (feed). This is a short (5 minutes) weekly podcast in which one or two letters, allegedly from NYT readers, are read by one of the NYT employees. Each letter presents a moral issue of day to day life and writer Randy Cohen responds with the ethical solution. The letters and cases as presented, occasionally made the impression they were a bit stylized, but seemed largely authentic. The reading varies in quality as does the delivered advice. As to the bottom-line of the advice, I could agree with all of the ones I heard (a dozen or so), but the tone was frequently a tad paternalistic, rhetorical and pedantic. This exaggeration is not persistent, otherwise I had taken the whole show as satire.

Though it is a nice, practical and accessible podcast, even if satirical, it can be putting off at times. The whole thing is a little bit over the top. It starts with applying a huge word, ethics, to what ultimately is pretty common sense advise. The handling of the alleged letters, when not read in an authentic fashion and stylized to a more interesting (for whatever reason) case gives rise to suspicion of collusion towards the pedantic answer. Only when the case seemed authentic and the issue a tough dilemma, I found myself truly excited and wondering how Randy would solve it and only then the pedantic set up was overcome.

The story and God - Speaking of Faith

Under the title The novelist as God, Speaking of Faith had Krista Tippett converse with Mary Doria Russell writer of various SciFi novels that trigger issues of philosophy and theology. It was not an angle or a title that immediately drew me in, but a reader of this blog recommended this specific episode and so I set out to listen.

As predicted by my reader, Russell is dealing with the issues of the existence of God, the nature of God and the reconciliation of God's existence with human suffering in a humorous and light-hearted fashion. She is in fact so expressive and lively in this respect, she leaves her interviewer Tippett trailing behind. I am inclined to say Tippett and her staff didn't even get the message, when they chose the title, as neither God is treated as a novelist, nor the Novelist treated as a god. God is taken as the highest, widest and most omnipresent character in our narratives. Russell points out how such a figure as part of a narration, seen from the standpoint of a novelist, that is, one who is interested in the quality of the narrative, sheds light on certain theological issues.

And then, since we are dabbling in the dynamic, flexible and discretionary field of narration, you can take that idea of god in many more directions and not bother too much about consistencies. That is how Russell takes it lightly, because it is not about how it is, but about how you tell the tale. And even if it were a mere tale, it would be great, she reveals. And this has led her from Christianity, to atheism to Judaism, which I found a better story than much of what was quoted from her novels.

More Speaking of Faith:
The Buddha in the world,
Doubt,
Listening Generously - Rachel Remen, (recommended)
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Sir Ian Hamilton - veertien achttien

In de Eerste Wereldoorlog betreedt een negentiende eeuwse mentaliteit het slagveld met twintigste eeuws oorlogsvernuft. Ik schrijf het hier op en ik weet niet meer precies wie ik paraphraseer - zovelen heb ik dit al horen zeggen. Een van de vele manieren waarop je deze weergave van de Grote Oorlog kan navertellen is door middel van de biografie van Sir Ian Hamilton. De podcast Veertien Achttien die de oorlog navertelt door middel van 228 verschillende biografieën, doet precies dat.

Sir Ian Hamilton was een Britse legerleider die dankzij de Boerenoorlog in Zuid-Afrika wel beter had kunnen weten. Ook uit bepaalde uitspraken die de verteller Tom Tacken van Hamilton aanhaalt, blijkt dat hij wel begon te begrijpen dat de techniek van de twintigste eeuw de verhoudingen op het slagveld veranderd hadden. Bepaalde tactieken stelde Hamilton voor te moderniseren, maar op het grotere plan, bleef men denken in oude patronen. En dat zie je in het door hem geleide offensief op Gallipoli.

Die oude patronen combineren twee elementen die in Gallipoli dramatisch uitpakken. Het ene is de overschatting van de aanval. Totdat de tank wordt toegevoegd aan het arsenaal van wapentuig, bepaalt het machinegeweer dat de verdediging in het voordeel is. Het tweede aspect, dat Tacken nauwelijks aanstipt, maar dat volgens mij ook meespeelt: overschatting van het Westen. Het speelde Rusland al parten tegen Japan en ik denk dat de Britten ook niet echt doorhadden dat de Turken hun mannetje wel stonden. En dus trokken de Britse troepen, waaronder veel Australiërs en Nieuw-Zeelanders, ten strijde met dubbele overmoed. Gallipoli werd een debacle waar velen, waaronder Hamilton, niet meer bovenop zouden komen.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
H.H. Asquith,
Anton Kröller,
Rosa Luxemburg,
Marie Curie,
August von Mackensen.

Sudan and the fallacy of nationhood - UChannel review

On UChannel Podcast at Princeton University spoke Jok Madut Jok,Associate Professor in the Department of History at Loyola Marymount University about Sudan. We have written before about failed states and the notion of a failed state and even with the very general and little knowledge we tend to have about Sudan, we can assume it is a failed state. Jok Madut Jok goes a step further however to speak about the fallacy of nationhood; the treatment of Sudan as a state, even a failed one at that, is wrong and has terrible consequences.

It needs to be repeated: we know so little about Sudan. Jok is kind enough to fill us in on many details and I advise everybody to listen at least for that: to become a little bit more informed about Sudan. To know of its enormous size, its being straddled on the transition between North Africa and subsaharan Africa, of its numerous ethnicities, languages and religious diversity. It is at this background Jok shows how political Islam has disrupted the country (that was hardly one country to begin with). He also shows that once there is this failed state, assuming nevertheless it is a state, allows for the government to use warlords and wage a brutal war by proxy.

The consequences as always are extremely dear on the ground. Not only is there anarchy, violence and starvation, there is also slavery, child soldiering and terrible cases of rape. The apparent intention is not only to show how the land is ravaged, but also how Sudan failed as a state (cannot be a one state?) and how the notion of nationhood actually works as a detriment rather than as a good ideal to salvage Sudan, if bit by bit.

More UChannel Podcast:
Against intervention,
Lakhdar Brahimi on Afghanistan and Iraq,
Europe versus Islam,
Power of Cities,
Gaza (Tony Blair).

Anne is a Man in the week of March 16

I am planning to give seven reviews this week, although I have not yet decided which they are going to be. Here is a list of the likely candidates.

- A recent issue of UChannel Podcast paid attention to Sudan. Speaker Jok Madut Jok from Sudan, explains the failed state and the entailing sufferings and injustice.

- The latest episode of Veertien Achttien tells the biography of Sir Ian Hamilton. (Dutch)

- The New York Times has a podcast in which the readers' moral questions are addressed. The Ethicist.

- Another recent issue of UChannel Podcast has a lecture about the use of robots in warfare

- VPRO's Marathon Interview had Chris Kijne interview the artist Jan Montijn, with a lot of attention to Montijn's experiences in World War II, most notably in the German Army. (Dutch)

- Upon a tip from a reader I will be listening to Speaking of Faith's conversation with Mary Doria Russell about The Novelist as God.

- There are two new episodes of The Word Nerds waiting for me to listen to and review.

- Also, I have a couple of weeks of BBC's Thinking Allowed that are waiting for a review.

- The London School Of Economics (LSE Events) invited Jean-Pierre Filiu to speak of the EU's contribution to peace in the Middle-East.

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