In addition to new lectures, Big Ideas (TVO) also frequently reruns old lectures from their archives. Here is one from 2004 which was very interesting and, obviously, very entertaining with all the Jewish jokes in them, Ruth Wisse (Weiss?) analyzes Jewish humor and debates its strengths and weaknesses. (feed)
I regret not having posted this review a week ago on Yom Kippur, because Wisse tells a very charming comic tale from Sholem Aleichem which takes place on Yom Kippur in one such a proverbial Shtetl. On this holiday and huge sum of money appears to have been stolen. Nobody is let out of the synagogue until the perpetrator is revealed. But what to do when the town's most pious and promising Talmud student turns suspect?
There are many more jokes Wisse retells, but within this joyous framework she discusses the anxieties, workings and dynamic of Jewish humor, as well as for Jews as for gentiles. Where the humor might be seen as a strategy to deal with being a weak minority, it works both as a strength as well as a weakness, as it not only reaffirms the minority identity, but also the prejudices about them.
The podcast New Books In History is one of my favorite podcasts around. In general I have a great appreciation for interview podcasts - they bring the kind of dynamic that works especially well in audio - but NBIH has my special fondness for being about history and persistently bringing us a new and interesting issue each week. By today there will be yet another new interview, I expect, but here I want to briefly point you to the three last ones.
Kip Kosek, “Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy”
They seem like a completely insignificant fringe phenomenon: religiously motivated conscientious pacifists. Yet, Kosek comes to argue how influential they have been in American politics. And Marshall Poe takes him also up on discussing the theological foundations of nonviolence.
Elaine Tyler May, “America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation”
The pill changed our world - there seems to be wide consensus about this. Elaine Tyler May's research shows that even if this is the case, it did not work exactly in the way we thought. The pill did less for sexual freedom and more for bringing women into the workplace - to sum it up very short.
In Our Time (BBC) Imaginary Numbers
Melvyn Bragg grapples with the concept of imaginary numbers. Perplexing digits that underpin the majority of technology we take for granted today, from radios to computers to MRI scans; not to mention quantum mechanics. Melvyn is joined by Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University; Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick; and Caroline Series, Professor of Mathematics, also at the University of Warwick.
(review, feed)
The China History Podcast The Western Zhou Dynasty
Today we take a 走马看花 look at the 790 year Zhou Dynasty, the longest dynasty in Chinese history. Then in this episode we will focus on the Western Zhou Period which lasted for 275 years. Next week we will finish the Zhou Dynasty by examining the Eastern Zhou Period.
(review, feed)
TED Talks (2) Annie Lennox: Why I am an HIV/AIDS activist
For the last eight years, pop singer Annie Lennox has devoted the majority of her time to her SING campaign, raising awareness and money to combat HIV/AIDS. She shares the experiences that have inspired her, from working with Nelson Mandela to meeting a little African girl in a desperate situation. Mitchell Besser: Mothers helping mothers fight HIV
In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV infections are more prevalent and doctors scarcer than anywhere else in the world. With a lack of medical professionals, Mitchell Besser enlisted the help of his patients to create mothers2mothers -- an extraordinary network of HIV-positive women whose support for each other is changing and saving lives.
(review, feed)
Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast Podcast: Jose Serebrier’s Symphony No. 1
Jose Serebrier was 16 years old when he wrote his Symphony No. 1, and although he is better known as a conductor, he has been an active composer for more than five decades. This podcast, and this CD, trace his musical journey through music he has composed in four different decades. Included are the Symphony No. 1, composed in 1956, his Double Bass Concerto, composed in 1971, the Violin Concerto, composed in 1991, and three shorter works composed in the past decade. On this CD, Jose Serebrier serves as both composer and conductor, and is joined by a stellar group of musicians – double bass virtuoso Gary Karr, violinist Philippe Quint, actor Simon Callow, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
(review, feed)
Fraunhofer Podcast Aus Pulver gebaut
Maßgeschneiderte Zahnkronen oder Knochenimplantate, Bauteile für Autos und Flugzeuge — das sind einige der ersten generativ gefertigten Produkte. Sie werden direkt aus den Konstruktionsdaten Schicht für Schicht aus Pulver hergestellt — schnell und kostengünstig.
(review, feed)
Here is a podcast with a weird name, The Ripple That Drowns, which contains the same lecture in three versions. You can hear the straightforward audio, which I did, or take the enhanced podcast or even the video of the lecture. And even though this lecture took place some time in 2007, it is still very interesting and relevant. (feed)
Professor Cormac O'Grada from the University College of Dublin spoke about new evidence on the causes of 1959-61 Chinese famine as well as the Bengal famine of 1943-44. These two famines, in his mind stand out for the sheer size of the disaster.
In general famines in the twentieth century, he argues, are not that great. There are fewer famines than in other eras and if they are there there are fewer excess deaths. This is on account of smaller scale and also on account of modern insight in disease. The problem with famine in earlier times, as to the excess deaths, was not so much starvation, but rather the ensuing diseases. During famine, more people die of typhus and such rather than sheer undernourishment. Especially famines in regions where there is peace, have become very small if they happen at all.
Exceptional, though, are the Chinese and the Bengal famines. In both cases, political incentive to ignore and downplay the famine by the authorities turn out to greatly contribute to the extent. In Bengal it is the British war effort in World War 2 and in China it is the Great Leap Forward.
History 5, with Thomas Laqueur (Berkeley ) Lecture 8: English Revolutions, Dutch Revolutions and Constitutionalism
Law grounded somewhere other than in God and the person of the king; Civil liberties enshrined in law; The possibility of a strong state combined with some version of representative government; Political legacies: (1) secular contract theory (Locke and Hobbes) (2) the peoples’ place in the political nation put on the agenda with the levelers; A history of revolution is born.
(review, feed)
Rear Vision Roma history
President Nicolas Sarkozy accuses the Romani people of 'illicit trafficking and exploitation of children for begging, prostitution or crime'. Romani camps across France have been bulldozed and Roma with Romanian or Bulgarian citizenship have been given a choice of 'voluntary repatriation' or deportation. Rear Vision looks at the history of the Romani people -- where they came from and why they remain one of the most isolated groups in Europe.
(review, feed)
Scientific American Podcast aka Science Talk Could Time End?
Scientific American staff editor George Musser joins podcast host Steve Mirsky to discuss his article in the September issue about the possibility of time itself coming to an end.
(review, feed)
The Memory Palace is a great podcast I cannot recommend enough (feed). Nate DiMeo has an exquisite feel to take a history trivia and turn it into a story full of suspense and humane irony. He tells his stories in five to ten minutes so that it hardly takes any of your time, but these short histories are full of delight.
Just recently I enjoyed his culinary history of the lobster, how this crustacean went from poor people's meat to a career of cheap, mass produced canned food, to haute-cuisine. Another is the story of the mythical John Frum which is the name of a Messianic figure some people in the Pacific are waiting for and until his coming, bring them to most unexpected ritual.
If you have not encountered this podcast yet, sign up now and listen. But savor the experience. I think these tales need to be told far apart and not listened to in a big batched chain.
I regret not having posted this review a week ago on Yom Kippur, because Wisse tells a very charming comic tale from Sholem Aleichem which takes place on Yom Kippur in one such a proverbial Shtetl. On this holiday and huge sum of money appears to have been stolen. Nobody is let out of the synagogue until the perpetrator is revealed. But what to do when the town's most pious and promising Talmud student turns suspect?
