When do I write in my blog?

Right now I am on vacation and have a series of posts that are regularly coming out while I am away. But normally pieces are written within the 24 hours preceding the publication date. With the occasional backpost, you may have noticed. I try to post at least once a day and that usually works out.

Normally I write in the early morning. I get up at 6 am, wake my kids and then have about 30-45 minutes to sit down and flesh out a post, while they are having a cereal, get dressed and ready for their respective school and daycare. Around seven I bring one of them to their place for the day and proceed to work. While I have a breakfast at work, I review the post and click the button to publish. Hence, you see, most posts are stamped between 6 and 7 in the morning, Jerusalem Time (GMT+2).

When I sit down to write, I have the ideas more or less ready in my head. They mostly present themselves while I am listening and I make a mental note of them. If there is nothing specific, I write some general impression that was left on me. What I always try to do is write something positive. I do not believe in negative reviews of podcasts. There may have been an exception or two to the rule and I will not completely rule it out, but in principle I write what is good about a podcast. I try to figure what reason one (if not me, then anybody) might have, to want to listen to this podcast and enjoy it.

More about the blog:
About Anne is a Man,
Why don't I give ratings to podcasts?,
What to write about a podcast?,
When do I listen to podcasts?,
Time to start again.

Night's Knights - fictional podcast review

I have read and liked Stephen King, but generally I am not partial to horror. Horror writer Emerian Rich figured that when she wrote me a request to review here horror podnovel Night's Knights. Nevertheless I took up listening to the first chapters of this fictional podcast.

Horror is a genre of effect, or at least that is the way I see it. It really doesn't matter too much how the effect of horror is established, certainly not whether it is logical or believable in any way. When it works, it is good horror. Emerian's novel does exactly that: it works the effects. To the extent I have listened to it, this much I can say: the story stands in its genre. Should you like it, it may well serve your taste.

Take for example the main character Jespa. She is a young girl living in San Francisco, working in a bar, being cheated upon by her boyfriend (and her best friend - of course) and she looks for a place to stay other than home. A place to 'crash' obviously. The atmosphere reminds me of Shadowrun roleplay, gritty, sleazy urban society. The sexual morality reminds me of Pohl's Gateway: bi-sexual across the board - and sex is a major issue. Jespa is walking sex, she is supposed to drive everybody's hormones crazy ("man or woman, from age 5 to 95"), yet she is cheated upon. And yet, she couldn't stand to be without a partner for the night. It really doesn't matter how coherent this is, it works like hell. Gritty, sleazy, down and out, that is where Jespa is at. The effect is completed with the music that is mixed in. The chorus is a hefty beat going: 'run, run, go and get yer gun' - which takes on very different meaning among the various scenes.

Here is the scene where vampires can appear and what have you. I trust it goes on just as well. The fact that I was not looking for this effect does not make it bad. As far as I can see it, it is well done, it sticks to the genre, it sticks to its tone, it rides at the proper pace. This is a podcast that does aptly what it promises to do.

More narration and fiction podcasts:
New World Orders,
Namaste Stories,
Forgotten Classics,
Celtic Myth Podshow.

The Collapse - UChannel podcast review

Here are two podcast issues from the compiled archives of UChannel Podcast. Both address US internal political, societal and economic situation. Both speak of collapse. The first just of the Republican Party, the second of the US as a whole.

The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party; Sydney Blumenthal claims the Republicans are losing ground and they have themselves to blame. The party has been taken over by its radicals and is scaring away the moderates. The atmosphere he projects is one of incompetence within the party. Sentiments rule and the leaders have been ignoring what is really important for their electorate.

Beyond the Bush Years: the tough challenges facing the US in the early 21st century; also on the larger level, as Bob Herbert sees it. The sentiments ruled and the really important issues were ignored. Thus the US has been going down the drain. Its peak was around 1973 and generations ever since are having tougher and tougher lives. Though the American dream has been betrayed, he thinks it is not squandered - but people must wake up and take America in their hands.

What strikes me with these lectures are two things. One is how many people (not just these two speakers - see also The End of Hegemony) struggle with the loss of American dominance in the world. Trying to explain it and trying to see a trajectory for the future. Another is how deeply important in this election year are the questions of what kind of America the Americans want to have. Above all, there seems to be a crisis in American identity.

More UChannel:
New Map for the Pentagon,
Slavery and the Supply Chain,
Iran 2009,
The denials of yesterday,
Nuts and bolts of empire.

When do I listen to podcasts?

Keeping this blog involves quite some time and since I have a full time job and a family, people naturally ask how I manage to get so much listening done. The answer is that I squeeze listening to podcast in, into every spare moment I can and there turn out to be quite a lot.

I listen during my commuting, which half an hour back and forth, five days a week. Then, I listen during some menial tasks: a weekly two hour (at least) regular shopping at the supermarket, more time during additional shopping, during cooking, laundry and other car rides. Every fortnight we clean our apartment, which takes us about five hours. In addition, every month there is a day I spend around the house doing repairs, maintenance - what have you. I reckon I put in about 15 hours of listening each week, at the minimum.

On average podcast episodes last around 45 minutes (though some considerably less), which means that I manage to listen to around 20 issues a week. This would give material for up to 20 blog posts, though I hardly ever reach that. I post a little over one post per day. Many posts address more than one podcast episode, and here and there I decide not to write about an episode that I heard, at all.

More about the blog:
About Anne is a Man,
Why don't I give ratings to podcasts?,
What to write about a podcast?,
When do I write in my blog?,
Time to start again.

Sustainable health care - Social Innovations Conversations

Can we have a sustainable health care system? Can we serve the broader population at low cost, offering public health across the board and still operate without a huge deficit? Social Innovations Conversations speaks with Thulasiraj Ravilla who is part of a successful chain of hospitals in India that started with supplying basic medical services to prevent or treat blindness among the poor and grew into a wide system of general hospitals serving the rich and the poor together.

Ravilla relates the tale of learning on the job, applying to circumstances and eventually, by large scale and meticulous resource management how the chain could turn to such a booming success. So much so, the world comes by to learn and among those visitors, interested parties from richer countries no less. It appears the whole world can learn from this example of efficiency.

There is a point of worry Ravilla expresses, that in my humble opinion, is not only going to prove to be a major problem the scene in India as it develops, but elsewhere may be exactly the reason why the model can't easily be copied. He worries, whether he will be able to continue to employ the staff he has, especially the low skill, low pay staff. That seems to me to be the critical issue. The efficiency in India is that no task is done by anybody overqualified, but delegated down the chain as much as possible. India has the low skill, low wages employment market, exactly because of its poverty. But as soon as development starts to kick in, that is where workers become scarce. That is where health care will turn expensive, too expensive to be sociable and sustainable at the same time, I fear. Or at least so, this conversation gives no answer to that thought.



More Social Innovation Conversations:
Waste Management,
Social Innovation Conversations - podcast review.

Missing Link in Devon - history podcast review

The Missing Link Podcast always takes on a particular additional charm when it is on location. Last year's excursion to Berlin was great. This year we are addressed from the lovely countryside of Devonshire in south-west England.

Devon was the place of the health resorts as early back as the eighteenth century. City life was disastrously unhealthy, so getting out to pastoral horizons was a good idea anyway, but the county of Devonshire was supposed to sport the right air and seaside environment that as especially supposed to be healthy. So, Devon developed seaside resorts, before this was even conceived to be anything near a tourist attraction. One went there because one had to on account of convalescence, not entertainment.

Apart from the physical health centers, Devon also developed, very early on, institution for psychological health. These were the Victorian insanity asylums. Host Elizabeth Green Musselman reveals the details of two mental cases in those asylums. Two children. A fascinating podcast once again.

More about The Missing Link on this blog:
Curious and curiouser,
Domestic Science,
Missing Link with monotheists,
Missing Link with Popper,
An evolved controversy.