Battle of Britain - BTHP podcast review

The Binge Thinking History podcast, after having concluded the series about the British roots in the American constitution, has started a new series about the Battle of Britain. Has the battle been won only by a hair? Was the battle as decisive to WW2 as we used to be taught? Recently we saw BBC history magazine shed some doubt to these widely accepted facts.

Whether Tony Cocks will reach different conclusions in the BTHP remains to be seen. After two issues he is first and foremost entrenched in getting the data in place. For me that is a taxing listening experience. I was glad he took the time to explain RADAR, but felt my terrible lack of understanding in military matters when he went about the details of the planes involved and the confrontations between them.

At least two more issues on this subject are to be expected and hopefully, once the data are sorted we will see some conclusions. I'd love to find out about the importance of the Battle of Britain in the perspective of BTHP. Was it nearly lost? Was it as decisive? Has an invasion of the British isles ever been a danger? Will Tony address these questions?

Previously reviewed podcast from BTHP:
The American Constitution's British roots.

Urban Air Pollution - Environmental History Podcast reviewed

The Environmental History Podcast took on the subject of air pollution in the last episode. Host Jan Oosthoek interviews Stephen Mosley of Leeds Metropolitan University who did research on the subject, most notably about the pollution in the city of London. However, what we would call pollution and look down upon, was not so perceived in London for a long time.

The air in London was polluted, maybe as early as the middle ages, but as off the 17th century it is well documented. The amount of smoke hanging about the city may have bothered some, but was welcomed by many. Oosthoek's example of such is the French painter Monet who came to London because the smog gave such wonderful sky-views. In addition, the smoke, especially with the industrial revolution taking on, was a symbol of progress. Another assumed positive effect was on germs. As soon as understanding of contagious diseases started to spread, the idea smoke drove out the germs came along. And these attitudes persisted for a long time.

What brought about the change? Mosley discusses this at length, but the bottom line is that in spite of a larger amount of respiratory problems in polluted areas, only the smog disaster of 1952, when thousands of people died, made the balance shift. Finally the political efforts to regulate were strong enough and the Clean Air Act came into effect. This has been yet another very interesting issue of the Environmental History podcast. I can recommend this podcast to everybody.

More Environmental History podcast on this blog:
Apartheid and Environmental History,
Environmental History and South Africa,
Environmental History.

Podcast reviews till the end of February

Within 12 hours:
- Environmental History (Urban Air Pollution)

Within 36 hours:
- Binge Thinking History (Battle of Britain)
- Africa Past and Present
- Celtic Myth Podshow, Tales & Stories of the Ancient Celts


In the coming days
- Open Source (Parag Khanna)
- Historypod
- UChannel Podcast
- Irvin Yalom (on KQED and Wise Counsel)
- Susan Yacoby (The Age of American Unreason)
- Shrink Rap Radio (Mindmentor and others)
- Simek interviews Jaap van der Zwan
- Speaking of Faith: No more taking sides

This month: A new podcast directory to be added, Geography Podcasts.

New podcasts on trial:
History 106B (The Roman Empire)
Chronicles Radio Dispatches (review by guest author)
Engines Of Our Ingenuity

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Alexander the Great - Biography Show

The formula that works so well for the long show about Napoleon is repeated in TPN's (The Podcast Network) The Biography Show: Host Cameron Reilly presents the show and is accompanied by historian David Markham for the content. The natural mix of dialog, interview and conversation makes for a very effective formula.

The difference will be, the Biography show will take a new character to talk about every episode and not dig into the life of (for example) Napoleon and meticulously follow his chronology. More superficial from the get go, but aptly justified by Markham. He uses the movies about Alexander the Great (the first to be discussed in the Biography show) as an example. Anybody who has some understanding of history and especially of the era and the person of Alexander can be aggravated about the omissions, mistakes and simplifications of the movies. However, it is the accessibility of the movie to the wide public, that allows history to be enclosed to a wide audience and is more likely to entice people to investigate some more, than a well-founded work of an academic.

As superficial quickies go, I think the biography podcast has little to be bashful about. I am not especially knowledgeable about Alexander, but I have seen the movie, have followed the Alexander podcast of Bob Packett and Dan Carlin as well as the History of the Ancient Mediterranean by Isabelle Pafford (Berkeley). Enough ground for comparison and the result is rather good. One example, Reilly and Markham point out the merits of Alexander's father Philip whose success in uniting Greece gave the excellent starting point for his son to become truly great. Now that was original, in stead of the more usual buffoon, Philip is awarded the greatness due to him. Very refreshing.

More Alexander the Great:
The Funeral Game,
Alexander crippled by TV

More TPN:
TPN Napoleon 1O1.

An animated History of Evil

Thanks to Open Culture and its YouTube Playlist. I came by this charmingly funny piece claiming to show the History of Evil




Other video material on this blog:
Ben Dunlap at TED

Distillations - a chemistry podcast review

Sometimes it is not easy to categorize a podcast. I will put Distillations under science, as it is all about chemistry. This is a very original and fantastically performed podcast though one which takes many varying angles on chemistry. A historical one, a didactic one and more. With music and various items, among others the rubric, the element of the week. This can be an elelement of the periodic system (like Chromium) or an element such as 'fire', telling the historical sense of the show. I was fortunate to find this podcast thanks to a recommendation from The Missing Link, great science and history podcast in its own right.

The last three episodes concentrate on Chemistry in the class room - an issue concentrated on the chemistry education with among others the use of Second Life for chemistry education. The chemistry of love; all you ever wanted to understand about the chemicals in attraction but were afraid to ask, along goes a history of aphrodisiacs. And color; that wonderful world of hues, how they work and how chemistry made it possible to dye.

Distillations is a rather new podcast and what it does very well is improve on the somewhat singular style of many older podcasts. What we see with, let's call it old style podcasts, is that there is a single podcaster that delivers a lesson on the subject at hand, possibly deals with some feedback and questions and that is that. Newer podcasts are much more varied, have sound effects, more voices on the cast, rubrics and such. In many ways, I suppose, podcasting is growing up and beginning to resemble more and more conventional, professional radio, with the added advantages of podcast.

More Science.
More History.

The Missing Link on this blog:
Time's Arrow,
On Time and on Counting - The Missing Link,
Strength in Numbers,
Constant Companions,
From Berlin,
History of Science.