What is hot on 26 January 2011

Rear Vision
Sudan
Rear Vision this week tells the story behind the recent referendum in Sudan and explores why the people of southern Sudan are so determine to separate from the north.
(review, feed)

Radio Open Source
David Rohde’s Taliban Captivity
What can Taliban captivity do to a man’s judgment, even to his soul? It made David Rohde root for the CIA’s drone missiles buzzing on the horizon, even when his captors assured him the drones were hunting for them and him, and were going to take his life with theirs
(review, feed)

The Christian Humanist Podcast
The Italian Renaissance
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the Italian Renaissance and the broad spectrum of intellectual and artistic activity that emerges from that period. On the way we focus on the strong continuities between the concrete continuities between this fascinating time and what people in that moment called "the Dark Ages," and that discussion takes us into the realms of sculpture and politics and philosophy as well as poetry. Among the authors, artists, and others discussed are Dante, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Castiglione, Pico de Mirandola, and the Medicis.
(review, feed)

Witness
Conflict in Somalia
It is 20 years since the government of Siad Barre collapsed in Somalia. Since then the country has not had a permanent central authority, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the fighting and famine.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
Drawing upon humor for change - Liza Donnelly
New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly shares a portfolio of her wise and funny cartoons about modern life -- and talks about how humor can empower women to change the rules.
(review, feed)

Meaning of Life - LSE

At the London School of Economics (LSE Podcast) you can hear a lecture by Robert Rowland Smith about the Meaning of Life. As much as this subject is most interesting and the lecture laudable, it is also barely audible. Rowland Smith walks up and down the stage, causing varying levels in the sound and constantly interacts with his audience, while there are no microphones to catch what feedback he is reacting to. (feed)

Still, what will make it worthwhile to spend an hour and a half struggling with this irregular lecture is that Rowland Smith gives an amazing overview of what is implied in questions about the meaning of life. It is the broadest inventory of relevant issues to the meaning of life I recall to have heard. In stead of being bothered by the lapses in the audio, you can take them as breaks and ponder your own reaction to it, until the next tidbit comes up.

Nice, inspiring I hope, but scattered.

More LSE:
Palestinian perspectives - LSE and CNES,
The impending war,
Quest for meaning,
The plundered planet,
China and India.

What is hot on 25 January 2011

Mahabharata Podcast
The Golden Plough
Episode 41 - This one covers Duryodhana reaction to the humiliation of being captured by the Gandharvas and then released by the valor of his hated cousins the Pandavas.
(review, feed)

Analysis
On Trust
In the first program of a new series, Edward Stourton interviews the eminent political philosopher, Onora O'Neill, on trust and mistrust, the subject of her 2002 BBC Reith Lectures.
(review, feed)

Entitled Opinions
Commedia dell'Arte
A conversation with actor, teacher and director Mace Perlman, about masks, mime, and the Italian Commedia dell'Arte.
(review, feed)

Ger Harmsen - Marathon Interview

Gisteren heb ik in een ruk drie uur podcast beluisterd: Ronald van den Boogaards interview met Ger Harmsen in 1997 in de serie Marathon Interviews (feed)

Als je de aankondigingen leest of beluistert word je in drie opzichten op het verkeerde been gezet, of althans, dat gebeurde mij. Ger Harmsen wordt aangekondigd als communist, historicus en filosoof. Hoewel er wordt gesproken over Marx, over sociale geschiedenis en Hegel, het gesprek met Harmsen voelt niet als een ontmoeting met een communist, historicus en filosoof of als een gesprek over communisme, geschiedenis en wijsbegeerte, het is vooral een persoonlijk document.

We leren Harmsen kennen als de timmermanszoon, het buitenbeentje, het mannetje dat zich ondanks een BVD rapport op weet te werken. We lichten een tipje van de sluier op over drie mislukte huwlijken en verder vastgelopen relaties, maar dat lijkt toch vooral bijzaak voor een man bij wie het om het werk gaat. En als hij er al iets naast doet dan is het botaniseren. Harmsen is in het interview ook vooral over zichzelf aan het woord en het is dankzij een voortreffelijk interviewer als Ronald van den Boogaard dat het interessant is om hierin mee te gaan. Van den Boogaard, zoals gewoonlijk, heeft zich goed ingelezen en weet door te vragen op punten waar ook echt iets onder de gepresenteerde lagen verder te ontdekken valt. Daar mogen andere interviewers in de serie een voorbeeld aan nemen.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Het Marathon Interview met Kerst 2010,
Michiel van Erp,
Ger van Elk,
Ileana Melita,
VPRO's Marathon Interview.

What is hot on 24 January 2011

The History of Rome
The Tertrarchy
In 293 AD Diocletian and Maximian invited Constantius and Galerius to share in their Imperial burdens, forming what we today call the Tetrarchy.
(review, feed)

EconTalk
Fazzari on Stimulus and Keynes
Steve Fazzari of Washington University in St. Louis talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of Keynesian stimulus. They discuss the stimulus package passed in February 2009 and whether it improved the economy and created jobs. How should claims about its impact be evaluated? What can we know as economists about causal relationships in a complex world? The conversation includes a discussion of the underlying logic of Keynesian stimulus and the effect of the financial crisis on economic research and teaching.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
Understanding the rise of China - Martin Jacques
Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of "When China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become.
(review, feed)

What is hot on 23 January 2011

Tapestry
Mavis Staples
Mary Hynes talks to the legendary Mavis Staples. For more than six decades she has used her gift of music to advance civil rights and social justice. With her father and siblings in the Staple Singers, they performed at rallies and the sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King and created what is known as the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.
(review, feed)