Heads-up for 21 December 2010

Mighty Movie Podcast
Brad Bird on THE IRON GIANT
In 1999, Warner’s released THE IRON GIANT. Well… released may not be the best term. Slipped into theaters under the cover of night so that anyone who might be remotely interested couldn’t possibly know of its existence… yeah, that’s the term. Despite the stealth marketing, director Brad Bird’s animated tale of a young boy who lives in red-scare, 1950’s America and manages to bond with a giant, gentle, metal-eating robot managed to catch a few discerning eyes (mine included), and has since been championed as a tremendously entertaining animation classic. As for Bird, well, the guys at Pixar took note, too, and Brad wound up helming a couple of minor trifles you might have heard of: THE INCREDIBLES and RATATOUILLE.
(review, feed)

Scientific American Podcast aka Science Talk
Anna Deavere Smith: Let Me Down Easy
Actor, playwright and journalist Anna Deavere Smith talks about the health care crisis and her play about people dealing with illness, health and the health care system, Let Me Down Easy.
(review, feed)

The Korea Society
After the G20: Issues & Outlook
On November 18, 2010, Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, Chairman of the Korea Society, hosted a discussion of the economic, trade, and regulatory issues covered at the G-20 Summit. The panel included Ambassador Young-Mok Kim, Consul General of The Republic of Korea in New York, William Rhodes, senior advisor to Citigroup and a G-20 participant, and James E. Glassman, a managing director and senior economist at JPMorgan Chase.
(review, feed)

Stuff You Missed in History Class
Did Empress Wu's reign change China?
During the Tong Dynasty, Chinese women were often treated as second-class citizens. This made the rise of Empress Wu even more extraordinary. But did her work have a lasting effect? Learn more about how -- or if -- Empress Wu permanently changed China.
(review, feed)

Heads-up for 20 December 2010

The History of Rome
120- Interregnum
After Aurelian's death, an old Senator named Marcus Cluadius Tacitus briefly reigned before the throne fell to Probus, who ruled from 276-282.
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Binge Thinking History
1914 to the decline of Empire
The First World War marks the end the supremacy of the battleship and the beginning of the end for Pax Britannia. The decline of Royal Navy mirrors the that of the British Empire for obvious reasons and the it's future is unclear.
(review, feed)

EconTalk
Nocera on the Crisis and All the Devils Are Here
Joe Nocera, New York Times columnist and co-author with Bethany McClean of All the Devils Are Here, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the origins of the financial crisis. Drawing on his book, Nocera identifies many people he considers devils for contributing to the crisis and a few angels who tried but failed to stop it. The discussion covers the history and development of securitization and the peculiar incentives created by securitization and the relative lack of regulation of the securitization process. The conversation also includes a discussion of whether past bailouts contributed to the crisis.
(review, feed)

University of Warwick Podcasts
Dating the Birth of Jesus and the 'first Christmas' with a Herodian Coin
Anno domini. Today we use the system devised by the sixth-century monk, Dionysius Exiguus, as a way of synchronising events, and associate its origin with the nativity of Jesus and the 'first Christmas'. But did Dionysius get his dates right? Professor Kevin Butcher from the Department of Classics explores how a coin issued by Herod Antipas suggests not.
(review, feed)

Heads-up for 19 December 2010

Exploring Environmental History
Reframing a vision of lost fens
Wetlands were once common over a large part of eastern England. Of these so-called fens only two percent survives today and most of it is now situated in nature reserves. One of these reserves is Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. Today Wicken Fen is the focus of a controversial proposal to radically expand the area of managed wetland around the reserve and to return arable land to its former wetland condition. On this podcast we interview Stuart Warrington, Nature Conservation Advisor for the National Trust at Wicken Fen, about these proposed changes and the role of history in recreating the wetlands. The second half of the podcast is devoted to a talk delivered by Ian Rotherham of Sheffield Hallam University. In his talk Ian analyses the attitudes towards the fens over the centuries and how these influenced the desire to drain thousands of square kilometres of wetland. He also considers the rich wild life in these wetlands and what a rich resources these provided for its inhabitants. Music credit: Mechanics in Love (Cue 3) flac Stems by boomaga, available from ccMixter.
(review, feed)

Norman Centuries
Episode 11 - The Great Count
Roger de Hauteville was a strange conqueror. The youngest of twelve sons he was the last to come to Italy and treated as the least capable of the siblings by a jealous Guiscard. His first raid in Sicily was a disaster that seemed to confirm the worst suspicions about him. But Roger persevered and over three decades he managed to carve out a kingdom that rivaled that of William the Conqueror's. Along the way he won one of the most spectacular battles in medieval history and managed to die with all of his vast conquests at peace. Join Lars Brownworth as he looks at the surprising life of the last Hauteville brother.
(review, feed)

History According to Bob
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
This show is about the construction and political fallout from the first Berlin Wall 1961 .
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Tapestry
Franciscan Priest
Mary Hynes talks to Richard Rohr. One of the world's best-known religious thinkers and activists, he is both adored and denounced. Many see him as a spiritual leader who lives the teachings of the 13th century friar, St. Francis. Rohr is an advocate for urban renewal, the eradication of poverty, male spirituality, as well as for gay and lesbian rights. He is a priest, a former prison chaplain, author, and a man who spends half the year living out of a suitcase, teaching around the world
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Dogear Nation
The Death of Delicious
We end the year with some bitter news, and we need your help to move into 2011. Delicious, our site of choice for getting your tags, is being shut down by Yahoo. How do you want us to get your input for the show? Please drop us an email at dogearnation@gmail.com or comment on the blog. Should we use an open Google Doc? Should we use Twitter Hashtags? Should we use the Facebook? Should we use Google Buzz? Or do you have an idea? We hope everyone has a great year end, and we will be back with a new episode Recorded January 7th, 2011.
(review, feed)

Chris Hedges - Radio Open Source

Here is a quick recommendation to listen to Radio Open Source, where Christopher Lydon interviews Chris Hedges about his bleak outlook on modern world in general and the US society in particular. Here he explains how he think our democracy is run down the drain - with Democrats and Republicans equally guilty. (feed)

About a year and a half ago, we also heard him on Media Matters with an equally grim depiction of where we live. Also here his concern is liberal democracy, but here he discusses how our culture is dumbing down and thus is undermining the proper political state. (feed)

More Radio Open Source:
Geography shifting big history,
Kai Bird,
Amartya Sen on India,
Mustafa Barghouti,
Jackson Lears.

Heads-up for 18 December 2010

New Books In History
Ann Fabian, “The Skull Collectors: Race, Science and America’s Unburied Dead”
What should we study? The eighteenth-century luminary and poet Alexander Pope had this to say on the subject: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man ” (An Essay on Man, 1733). He was not alone in this opinion. The philosophers of the Enlightenment–of which we may count Pope–all believed that humans would benefit most from a proper comprehension of temporal things, and most particularly humanity itself. For them, understanding humanity meant, first and foremost, understanding the human body. Naturally, then, the philosophes and their successors paid close attention to the body. They cut it up, took it apart, measured it and attempted to see how it worked. They were most interested in one part in particular–the human head. It was the seat of the human characteristic the Enlightenment scientists admired most: intelligence. If one could get a handle on the human cranium, then one would understand what it meant to be human. Or at least so they thought.
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Valuing the Humanities
James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol and co-editor of the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science. Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Lord Rees of Ludlow is President of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College Cambridge. Richard Smith is a Former editor of the British Medical Journal and Director of the Ovations Institute. Mark Lawson from BBC Radio 4 and The Guardian.
(review, feed)

Big Ideas
Art historian Francis Broun on The Art of Sir Edwin Landseer
Art historian Francis Broun presents his lecture entitled Genius Denied: The Art of Sir Edwin Landseer. It was recorded at the Women's Art Association in Toronto on May 24th, 2010.
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Philosophy Bites
Philip Pettit on Group Agency
When a group of people acts together we can hold that group morally and legally responsible. But how does the group decide to act? Is a decision of the group simply the majoritarian sum of individual group members' views? Princeton philosopher Philip Pettit, who has written a book about this topic with Christian List of the LSE, discusses these issues with Nigel Warburton for the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Charles Mangin en het succes van de vijfde golf (zondag 17 december 1916)
'De slager' noemden de soldaten hem wel. Erger nog: 'de menseneter'. Charles Mangin nam in het krijgsbedrijf menselijke verliezen voor lief. Met het eind van de oorlog had hij ook geen vrede.
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Heads-up for 17 December 2010

Being aka Speaking of Faith
The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi
This Peabody award-winning show explores the spiritual world of Rumi, a 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet, with Persian scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz. Rumi saw human love as a mirror of the divine, and searching as a form of arrival. Hear his poetry and its echoes in our world.
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Forgotten Classics
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Deluge. In which we hear a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh
and also consider myth and literature.
(review, feed)

Russian Rulers History Podcast
Peter Takes on the Turks
Peter, having partied for 5 years, is ready to take control of things and take the fight to the Turk backed Tatars in Azov.
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Witness
Washington Snipers
On December 18th 2003, one of the 2 Washington Snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, was convicted of murder. He and John Allen Muhammad had terrorised the US capital and its suburbs for 3 weeks in 2002, killling at random.
(review, feed)

Harvard Business IdeaCast
Guilty People Make Good Managers
Frank Flynn, Stanford Business School professor and subject of the HBR article "Guilt-Ridden People Make Great Leaders."
(review, feed)