New podcasts in November 2008

Here is a short post to give an overview of the new podcasts that were reviewed this month.

Pods and Blogs (BBC) (review, site, feed)
medicalhistory (review, site, feed)
Armistice Podcast (National Archives) (review, site, feed)
La Resistance (review, site, feed)
Grammar Girl (review, site, feed)
History on the run (review, site, feed)
In My Living Room! (review, site, feed)
Political Science 10 (UCLA) (review, site, feed)
Leben und Überleben mit 45+ (review, site, feed)
Junggesellenblog (review, site, feed)
Meiky's Podcast Show (review, site, feed)
Das Rätsel der verschollenen Schatulle (review, site, feed)
Meetings Podcast (review, site, feed)
Geschichtspodcast (Chronico) (review, site, feed)

The Report a Podcast feature on this blog is beginning to supply such a huge amount of new podcasts to review, I will have to find ways of limiting my commitment. Even though I would love to review every single one that is recommended there.

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Natural Disasters - Environmental History podcast review

As much as Jan Oosthoek's Environmental History Podcast is first of all a history podcast, the focus on environment invites other disciplines, or, the lessons the history teaches, affects other disciplines. This is not always ecology or geology, as we found out in the last two issues of the podcast.

The question what exactly is environmental history, will be treated in the podcast however has been postponed until the next show, but we can at least take the last two shows and take their common denominator (natural disasters) and see what was done with that. The twentieth show about floods in Northumbria (mp3) takes this ecology and geology route. The history of floods in the Tyne basin, show us that the recent floods are of a bigger magnitude than the floods that were had in the past centuries. In addition to issues of climate change, this teaches us how human activity has affected the geological features of the area.

The twenty-first show about cultures coping with natural disasters (mp3) regularly, on the other hand, takes us into economics and anthropology. The country of the Philippines, for example, is naturally disaster prone on account of both meteoric and seismic conditions. The country doesn't have the economic capacity to put into place the kind of disaster coping systems rich countries have and so there is a reality that disasters happen, all the time. Consequently there is a different culture of coping with disasters. A wisdom is to be found in the approach that rather tries to live with hazards rather than avoid them at all costs.

We are looking forward to the next shows, when the definition of Environmental History is going to be tackled.

Image credit: public domain, United States Geological Survey

More Environmental History:
Canada and New Zealand
Environmental history,
Climate Change in recent history,
Urban Air Pollution,
Apartheid and Environmental History.

Gabriela Shalev - UCLA Israel Studies

The new ambassador for Israel to the UN was the guest of the UCLA institute of Israel Studies. She gave a lecture that was broadcast in the series of the Israel studies podcast.

The gathering starts with a lengthy introduction for the new ambassador, ms. Gabriella Shalev. She fulfilled a large variety of public functions in Israel and was a leading professor in civil law, until she was appointed to this post at the UN. There is both room to be impressed and room for doubt: where is her international and her diplomatic experience? It is a point that sticks with the listener and does not come out too well. She admits to be learning on the job and relates a couple of lessons she picked up, which, in my humble opinion, make her come out frighteningly naive. Too naive to be put on such a high function, to go and learn as you go. Israel, the UN and the world deserve better.

What remains to be impressed about is the rise of women in Israeli politics. Not only is Shalev Israel's ambassador to the UN. The president of the Israeli Supreme Court is justice Dorit Beinish, the president of the Knesset is Dalia Itzik and at the time of the lecture, Tzipi Livni was still trying to build a new government in place of Olmert. That is all nice and indeed these are very capable women, but Shalev is likely to be that more within Israel as leading legal professional than as a diplomatic experiment.

Previously about UCLA Israel studies podcast:
Galia Golan, Aaron David Miller,
Shimon Shamir.

Listening Generously - Rachel Remen

Speaking of Faith's show with Rachel Naomi Remen was rerun this week. Here is my review about the original interview again. It was so wonderful, at the time I proceeded immediately to listen to the full, unedited interview (download) and found in that one even more gems of thought.

Rachel Naomi Remen is a medical doctor who has discovered how much healing is different from curing and how it needs to involve listening, what she calls generous listening - let the patient talk as long as he needs. Apart from explaining how this works, she really delves into the essential roots of this and that is how we deal with loss, or alternately with the imperfections of our lives. That, of course, is more universal than just disease and dealing with being ill, or the illness of a close one.

What she insists is that we can have the good life, even if it doesn't seem perfect, easy, or in any way exemplary, heroic, successful or whatever grand goals we are taught to strive for. In her opinion we do not need to be perfect and the next step is even more important. What does it mean if we do not need to be perfect; it means our wounds, our imperfections, our failures and drawbacks are an integral part and we are still exactly what is needed. That is not just consoling (one should hope), but is also pulling us back to our own responsibility to actively live the life we live.

There is so much more to say. You must hear Remen explain the importance of stories, you must hear two specific stories. One of these stories involves the sponge cake and unfortunately it has been cut from the broadcast parts of the interview. Hence, listen to this podcast and also, please do, to the uncut interview.

More Speaking of Faith:
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Karen Armstrong,
Wangari Maathai,
Faith based diplomacy.

Last weekend of November

Here we are at the last days of November. More than in other months I have attempted to project my posts ahead and announce them in posts such as this one. For me it works rather well, but I'd like to know whether they work for you as well - let me know.

This weekend, at least, we will have a review of
- Speaking of Faith. The rerun of that most ecellent interview with Rachel Naomi Remen.
- UCLA Israel Studies podcast. A lecture by the new ambassador of Israel to the UN: Gabriela Shalev
- An overview of the 'new' podcasts this month - those podcasts that were reviewed for the first time on this blog.
- Environmental History. A review about two issues exploring how people deal with natural disasters.

We also may have
- In Our Time
- The Word Nerds
- Freedomain Radio

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Victor Davis Hanson - Hardcore History podcast review

The latest issue of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is of an unusual format. Host Dan Carlin interviews historian Victor Davis Hanson, whereas normally the show consists of Dan Carlin retelling history in a very compelling narrative and ponder on it. It is interesting for the views expressed and for those who know Dan Carlin's work and want to understand a bit more of how he is influenced, but it is surely not representative for what Hardcore History is normally about.

The amazing talent Dan Carlin has in telling a story with contagious enthusiasm works slightly less in an interview. Dan's strength lies in how evocative he is, but an interviewer needs to be more in the background and cause the interviewed come out in a representative and coherent fashion. In this, Carlin succeeds less and so the quality of the show needs to be hauled in by Hanson and how his answers to Carlin's questions and remarks work together and make an impact.

Some subjects that are touched upon are, for one the importance of the classics for our culture and the impoverishment is caused by the fact that the classics are less known than ever. Another is a kind of nature versus nurture issue, translated to history: are people in the past significantly different, because of their profoundly different circumstances, or are people, just people and can we assume that they react to situations pretty similarly. The result is a good podcast, but not as excellent as the regular Hardcore History.

More Hardcore History:
Punic Nightmares III,
Punic Nightmares II ,
Punic Nightmares I,
Under the Influence,
Apaches.