Americans warning their countrymen for losing connection with reality and thus rushing towards disaster, is something we hear in this podcast as well as the previous podcast I reviewed. This time I listened to Media Matters which, incidentally, in its previous episode with Glenn Greenwald, who warned about the decay of journalism and its controlling role for democracy, is no less in style. Beware of getting too gloomy.
This broadcast of Media Matters had Christoper Hedges as a guest. Hedges is worried about the decay of literacy in US society. His point is that the big problem is not analphebetism per se, but rather the culture that has replaced the written one. There has always been an elite in culture that was informed and educated and as such steered culture and policy. When this was a culture of the written word, it had values such as giving sources, checking sources, making investigation and so on.
This literate culture has been replaced by a visual culture and in this culture it is the spectacle that reigns. In that culture there is no value for checking sources and making thorough investigations and consequently, this new culture is one of dreams. Hedges warns that Americans, also the elite, is losing their connection with reality and lack the means of catching up. This in a world with threats of climate change and continuous dwindling of US supremacy, militarily, economically and culturally, is ultimately suicidal. he paints a picture of America happily consuming its way into oblivion, without even noticing it.
The podcast Open Source with Christopher Lydon gives a critical view on current affairs. Lydon interviews guests on their specialized subjects. The frequency of the editions (more than once a week) make it impossible for me to keep a close track of the show, but I will skim the subject and occasionally listen in.
This time around I listened to a fascinating interview with Jackson Lears, who tries to make a point about a fundamental weakness in American foreign policy. The basic paradox to begin with is that American ideology is against empire and Americans persist in view their country not as an empire. The foreign policy however, has been that of an empire ever since the beginning of the twentieth century. Lears add to this an almost Freudian point with the example of president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, he claims , had an idea that was inspired by his Presbyterian background of personal elation. Lears claims that the American culture is full of this strive to improve oneself. And on the collective level Roosevelt thought of war as elating for the nation.
Lears warns that this idea has taken a strong hold on the American psyche, especially under Bush, but with Obama has not gone away. He pleads for less of this idealism and more realistic pragmatism in foreign policy.
The next podcast I am going to review is not about foreign policy, but is also warning the American Psyche for itself and its tendency to lose track of reality. Stay posted.
Op indrukwekkende wijze gaat Tom Tacken voort met zijn serie over de Eerste Wereldoorlog, Veertien Achttien. Het niveau blijft onveranderd hoog. Elke week een biografie van een van de spelers in de oorlog, waarbij elke biografie een zeker aspect van de oorlog in het bijzonder voor het voetlicht brengt. Beluister de meest recente bijdragen over Adolphe Pegoud en Robert Grimm.
Elke podcast duurt ongeveer een kwartier en de grote kracht van Tacken is dat hij dat kwartier vult met een zorgvuldig gecomponeerd verhaal. Als geen ander weet hij de aandacht vast te houden en met enkele zinnen de kwesties te typeren. Als ik al ooit kritiek op de podcast heb gehad, dan is het dat Tacken een zekere voorliefde voor versimpeling heeft en maar al te graag de podcast giet in de vorm van een mooi zwart-wit perspectief van goed en kwaad, daders en slachtoffers. Het formaat dicteert dit echter en de narratieve kracht maakt het meer dan goed.
Voor wie er geen genoeg van kan krijgen, is het mogelijk om de uitzendingen op CD te bestellen en als toegift krijgt men dan ook de teksten toegestuurd (Volger Veertien Achttien). Kijkend naar de teksten, dringt zich de eis op: zo'n goede podcast met kant en klare scripts moet vertaald kunnen worden naar het Engels. Wie zal Tom Tacken daarbij helpen?
I will admit that BBC's Thinking Allowed is a podcast I do not listen to every week. I feel I should, since I used to regard myself as a sociologist, or at least half a sociologist, but in podcasts I am usually more attracted to history. I will check Thinking Allowed every week, though, in order to skim the subject and pick regularly something that appeals to me.
Last week's issue about Richard Hoggart was one such episode. I found it fascinating to get acquainted with this theorist and how his work developed. I gives a taste for how varied sociology can be and how much we invest our own in it. I hope you can still extract the program from the feed and if you can, I recommend you listen.
Are you aware of the kind of hole you are opening up, when you can be found on Facebook? I have noticed many people are aware of that, but to what extend is this real?
A technical podcast I ran into, because of reader comments, gave an answer. The 118th episode of Dogear Nation, paid attention to this subject (Social Privacy). According to their sources, employers use the information you put on Facebook to make their impression when you apply for a job. Among the information they manage to pull from Facebook, are the answers you gave at the popular quizzes there. The 'what kind of character in Star Trek' kind. These quizzes are applications embedded in Facebook and the default security settings give a very free hand to extract information to anybody.
Dogear nation is a technical podcast consisting of a dialog between two or three presenters, who do this very well. The subjects they choose are actually listener-directed. Anybody who is on Delicious, and tags any content on the web with Dogear-Nation draws their attention. For making the show, they take into account what has been tagged and they choose a representable extract from this content. The issues therefore are always in the same realm: issues of software and technology. The audience serves itself. It is a method of making a podcast, many others could consider.
The University of California Berkeley, has always been the prominent supplier of lecture podcasts. Today when many more institutions deliver their academic content to the wider pod-public, Berkeley is still on the forefront. Berkeley is also on iTunesU, but still maintains the straighforward Berkeley Webcast site where each semester the courses are listed together and can easily be accessed. The Fall of 2009 is going to allow us to choose from yet another forty-plus courses from all disciplines.
Here are ten of those courses that I am going to give at least some attention the coming months.
Environmental Economics and Policy (audio feed)
I am looking forward to this one. I have not tried it yet, but I have been giving a lot of attention on the blog lately to issues around Climate Change. I think the upcoming Blog Action Day, may also have this subject. I'd like to get some academic input.
History 162A: Europe and the World: Wars, Empires, Nations 1648-1914 (audio feed)
David Wetzel turns out to be a lecturer I will have to get used to. After hearing the first lecture I can give you the good news and the bad news. The good news is that the course will be very insightful - no doubt. The bad news is that Wetzel has this strange way of speaking and resorts to continuous repetitions to make his point, up to simply repeating words one after the other. "The first point to make; one, one, one..." This is quirky and hopefully not too bothersome.
I have always liked the history courses at Berkeley, so I am going to sit this one through no matter what.
Philosophy 135: Theory of Meaning (audio feed) (video feed)
Philosophy has so far been the most challenging subject on podcast lecture series. But I am not giving in. Besides: why is there video for this course? Enhancing visuals? Need to find out.
Philosophy 138: Philosophy of Society (feed)
More philosophy. I want to find out what we get here? Plato's Republic? The various theories about the state, constitution and political liberties? The strand Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mill, Rousseau? Or will it be more sociological and are Marx, Weber and such added? Or else?
Political Science 179 (feed)
I have done this one before. It is a very accessible and at times entertaining introduction to political science.
Foundations of American Cyber-Culture ( audio feed) (video feed)
I have picked up several of the lectures in this course in the past when it was taught by another professor. It sure escapes me why this is under the rubric 'Practice of Art', but it certainly did give some insight in the current life in cyberspace - which is relevant to bloggers, podcasters and their followers by all means.
And the one you must not miss: Letters and Science also known as Physics For Future Presidents (audio feed) (video feed)
This is one of Berkeley's classics and a recommendation for literally everybody. Richard Muller teaches you everything you ever needed to know about physics, but where afraid to ask because of the math. No math is needed. Yes there are numbers, but these are few and important numbers. Hardly any equations or formulas. Yet, you will come out of this course understanding a lot more about physics. It will allow you to have an informed opinion about important politics and feel comfortable about the technological and scientific stuff involved. Below is an interview with Professor Muller.
This broadcast of Media Matters had Christoper Hedges as a guest. Hedges is worried about the decay of literacy in US society. His point is that the big problem is not analphebetism per se, but rather the culture that has replaced the written one. There has always been an elite in culture that was informed and educated and as such steered culture and policy. When this was a culture of the written word, it had values such as giving sources, checking sources, making investigation and so on. 
