Thursday, July 2, 2009

A new politics of the common good - Reith Lectures 2009

BBC's Reith Lectures 2009 have come to an end with the last lecture and it has been a wonderful ride. Except for the second lecture, that had wee too many examples to support the point, it was pretty persistently an outstanding series. The returning point, to be rounded off in the last lecture (transcript), was that we have been giving too much freedom to the market, resulting in a situation where real policies and real debates are no longer part of the public discourse, but rather left to be decided by market forces. Sandel's plea to let fundamental issues to be decided politically and publicly is therefore a plea for firm democracy and involved citizenship.

He even calls it a new citizenship, though I think it has always been there and needs, as he rightfully points out, be reinforced. To this point, in the last lecture, he looks at policy making itself and shows how the reduction of decision making to cost-benefit analyses, leads to absurd consequences. Some issues have value beyond the monetary and therefore, making a real decision demands of policy makers and the public debate to go beyond cost benefit considerations. He gives a couple of examples, that triggered my own example: noone has suggested we should kill off all citizens beyond the age of 75, even though it almost surely means a huge benefit in cut costs of health and welfare spendings. It is just immoral as everybody knows.

The real problem is to accept that this means we must be ready and be able to hold political and public debate over real issues, over values, over morality. We have developed a sense that values and morality are totally subjective, or part of beliefs and therefore are not open for debate. But in reality we have simple been evading real issues by allowing market forces to decide or rely on cost benefit analyses. To reverse that culture and bring values back into the realm of debatable issues, require a new citizenship and Sandel goes into describing this citizenship. I feel that he does a very good job, but am nagged by the thought we have maybe lost the language and logic to talk about these. As I see it, Sandel makes a point against the consequentialism, the utilitarialism, that have come to dominate our thinking and have monopolized public debate. We need to steer away from that logic and I hope we can.

More Reith:
The bioethics concern,
Morality in Politics,
Morality and the Market,
Michael Sandel - Philosophy Bites.

The experts love Ersatz TV

A regular reader of this blog is Ronald van den Boogaard, a Dutch radio maker of the much admired VPRO. On the basis of my reviews he discovered Ersatz TV and wrote an enthusiastic piece on its maker Annik Rubens or Larissa Vassilian as Van den Boogaard reveals in his blog is Annik's real name.

It is all nice and charming that I love Ersatz TV and many of the other podcasts I review at this blog, but I am basically an amateur. The fact that Ronald van den Boogaard agrees with me on this particular point is most of all the achievement of Annik Rubens, but I am willing to admit I feel flattered myself no small amount.

In the mean time Ersatz TV has a new video out, which I love to embed here.



More Ersatz TV:
Deja-vu on Ersatz-TV,
The science of Ersatz TV,
Erzatz TV - German Vodcast.

More Ronald van den Boogaard:
Interview Ward Ruyslinck,
Interview G.A. Wagner,
NRC FM podcast,
Interview Ina Muller-Van Ast,
Ronald van den Boogaard geeft plug,
Interview Jan Wolkers. (Excellent!)

Maarten Ducrot - Voor 1 Nacht

De Tour de France zit er weer aan te komen en dus is het voor de gemiddelde media (en ook dit blog) interessant om weer eens wat aandacht aan het wielrennen te besteden. Daartoe had KRO's Voor 1 nacht oud-coureur en wielerjournalist Maarten Ducrot in de studio.

Ducrot vertelt openhartig over het lijden in de sport en hoe de toprenner verschilt van de recreant en de amateur in de mate waarin hij pijn kan lijden. Aan de hand van zijn eigen ontmoeting met de pijn komt dit aspect heel levendig uit de verf. Het onderscheid met de absolute winnaars in de wielersport is dan weer hierin gelegen dat dezen niet alleen heel erg veel pijn kunnen lijden, maar ook over lijken gaan.

Als de vraag zich toch al niet opdrong, wordt het hierdoor wel noodzakelijk om over doping te spreken. Aan het begin van de uitzending maakt Ducrot het zonneklaar dat hij graag wil praten over doping en toch wacht presentator Marc Stakenburg tot het eind om erover te beginnen en in plaats van vragen te stellen, laat hij Ducrot maar praten. En die loopt hoofdzakelijk vast in zijn eigen, wat warrige monoloog. Dat is jammer, want hij lijkt een frisse kijk op de problematiek te hebben en een originele oplossing voor te stellen.

Ten slotte de vraag wie er dit jaar gaat winnen. Dat zou haast Contador moeten zijn, maar daar ziet Ducrot een paar heel interessante haken en ogen aan. Onze nationale hoop is gevestigd op Robert Gesink die hieronder op Eurosport aan het woord komt.



Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
Candy Dulfer,
Olga Zuiderhoek en Paul Rosenmoller,
Gijs Wanders en Adjiedj Bakas,
Arnon Grunberg.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

282 Podcasts - Anne is a Man's list for July 2009

UPDATE: we now have 316 podcasts reviewed. (click this link for the latest list)

Every first of the month I publish a full list of podcasts I have reviewed. You can find the list below. If however you want to have them presented to you in a more orderly fashion, look up my list of directories. The disclaimer must be that the directories are not as up to date as the full list is. I have recently updated the history podcast inventory (which is the largest), the rest is under way.

Stay tuned this month. I will set up one or several podcast feeds that will allow you to connect to the podcasts I recommend (especially). Contact me if you have any special requests in this realm.

  1. 12 Byzantine Rulers
  2. 7th Son
  3. Africa (Stanford Travel)
  4. Africa Past and Present
  5. All Things Medieval
  6. American Environmental and Cultural History (Berkeley ESPM 160AC)
  7. American History before 1870
  8. Ancient and Medieval Podcast
  9. Ancient History - Alternative Theories
  10. Ancient Philosophy (Berkeley)
  11. Antisemitism (USHMM)
  12. Are we alone?
  13. Armistice Podcast 
  14. Backstory
  15. BBC History Magazine
  16. Behind the Black Mask
  17. Behind the News with Doug Henwood
  18. Beyond Good and Evil (Librivox)
  19. Big Ideas (TVO)
  20. Bike Radar
  21. Binge Thinking History 
  22. Bioethics podcast
  23. Biography Podcast (Learn Out Loud)
  24. the Biography Show (TPN)
  25. Biota Podcast
  26. Birth of the Modern (Arizona State University)
  27. the Bitterest Pill 
  28. BMS World Mission
  29. Bommel Hoorspel
  30. British History 101
  31. Cambridge Alumni Podcast
  32. Car Talk
  33. CAT 2 Culture Art and Technology (UCSD)
  34. Cat Crave
  35. CATS 2 Culture and Technology Studies (UCSD)
  36. Celtic Myth Podshow
  37. CFR Podcast 
  38. Chronicles Radio Dispatches
  39. Church History
  40. Dan Carlin's Common Sense
  41. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
  42. Das Rätsel der verschollenen Schatulle
  43. David Kalivas' World History
  44. De Geschiedenis Podcast 
  45. Distillations
  46. Drinking matters (Warwick)
  47. Early American Social History (Warwick)
  48. East Asian Thought (UCSD)
  49. Economics 100B (Berkeley)
  50. the Economist 
  51. EconTalk
  52. Engines of our Ingenuity
  53. English 117S (Berkeley)
  54. Entitled opinions
  55. Environmental History Videocast
  56. Ersatz TV 
  57. The Ethicist (NYT)
  58. Ethics Bites (Open University)
  59. Everything Lincoln
  60. Existentialism in Literature and Film (Phil 7 - Berkeley)
  61. Exploring Environmental History 
  62. F1Cast
  63. Fact or Fiction
  64. Family History - Genealogy made easy
  65. Feed Me Bubbe
  66. Flavius (Joodse Omroep)
  67. Forgotten Classics
  68. Frankenstein, or modern Prometheus (Librivox)
  69. Freedomain Radio
  70. Fresh Air (NPR)
  71. From Israelite to Jew
  72. From our own Correspondent (BBC)
  73. Game Theory (Yale)
  74. Genealogy Gems Podcast
  75. Geography 110C (Berkeley) Economic Geography of the Industrial World
  76. Geography 130 (Berkeley)
  77. Geography of Europe (Arizona State University)
  78. Geography of World Cultures (Stanford)
  79. Georgian Britain (Warwick)
  80. German Cultural History
  81. Geschichtspodcast (Chronico)
  82. Geschiedewistjedatjes
  83. Gilder Lehrmann history podcast 
  84. Global Geopolitics (Stanford)
  85. Grammar Girl 
  86. Guns and Rubles (Warwick)
  87. Hank's History Hour
  88. Hannibal (Stanford)
  89. Haring Podcast
  90. Harvard Business IdeaCast
  91. Historical Jesus (Stanford)
  92. Historicast
  93. History 106B (Berkeley)
  94. History 131 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
  95. History 132 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
  96. History 167B (Berkeley)
  97. History 181B (Berkeley)
  98. History 1c (UCLA)
  99. History 2311 (Temple College)
  100. History 2312 (Temple College)
  101. History 4A (Berkeley)
  102. History 5 (Anderson - Berkeley)
  103. History 5 (Hesse- Berkeley)
  104. History 5 (Laqueur - Berkeley)
  105. History 7B (Berkeley)
  106. History according to Bob 
  107. History Compass Blog
  108. the History Faculty 
  109. History Network
  110. History of Holland (Librivox)
  111. History of Rome
  112. History of the International System (Stanford)
  113. History on the Run 
  114. History Podcast
  115. Historypod
  116. Historyzine
  117. Hoor! Geschiedenis
  118. HUM 4Enlightenment, Romanticism, Revolution (UCSD)
  119. HUM 4104 (Virginia Tech)
  120. ICT Update
  121. In My Living Room! 
  122. In Our Time (BBC)
  123. In the Media (WNYC)
  124. Inspired Minds (Deutsche Welle)
  125. Interview Vrijdag (VPRO)
  126. Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Yale)
  127. an Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Berkeley)
  128. Introduction to German Politics (Oxford)
  129. Introduction to Language (Arizona State University)
  130. Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (Yale)
  131. Iran Podcast
  132. Irving Poetry podcast
  133. Isaiah Berlin Centenary (Oxford)
  134. Islamic Medicine (Warwick)
  135. It was 20 years ago today 
  136. ITV
  137. Jung Podcast
  138. Junggesellenblog
  139. KMTT
  140. KQED Forum
  141. La Resistance
  142. Language (UCSD)
  143. Leben und Überleben mit 45+
  144. Letters and Science (Berkeley)
  145. LSE Podcast  
  146. Lyrics Undercover 
  147. Making History with Ran Levi - עושים היסטוריה
  148. Marathon Interview (VPRO)
  149. Masters of None
  150. Matt's Today In History
  151. Media Matters (NPR)
  152. medicalhistory 
  153. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Fall 2008 (Virginia Tech)
  154. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Spring 2008 (Virginia Tech)
  155. Medieval Podcast
  156. Meetings Podcast 
  157. Meiky's Podcast Show 
  158. The Memory Palace 
  159. Midwest Writer
  160. Mighty Movie Podcast 
  161. Military History Podcast
  162. Missing Link
  163. MMW 2 , the great classical traditions (Chamberlain - UCSD)
  164. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Chamberlain - UCSD)
  165. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Herbst - UCSD)
  166. MMW 4 (UCSD)
  167. MMW6 (UCSD)
  168. Muscular Judaism
  169. My Three Shrinks
  170. Namaste Stories
  171. Napoleon 1O1 (TPN)
  172. National Archives Podcast
  173. Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast
  174. New Books In History
  175. New World Orders
  176. New York Coffee Cup
  177. Night's Knights
  178. Nilpod
  179. Nonviolence (Berkeley PACS 164A)
  180. Nonviolence today (Berkeley PACS 164B)
  181. NRC FM
  182. Only in America
  183. Open Source 
  184. Out of the past
  185. OVT (VPRO)
  186. Oxford Biographies
  187. Oy Mendele!
  188. Parnell's History Podcast
  189. Peopletalk's Podcast
  190. Physics for future Presidents (Berkeley)
  191. Philosopher's Zone (ABC)
  192. Philosophy 103
  193. Philosophy 7 (Berkeley)
  194. Philosophy Bites
  195. the Philosophy Podcast
  196. Philosopy 6 (Berkeley) Man, God, and Society in Western Literature
  197. Podcast history of cooking
  198. Podcasts on Medieval Texts (Virginia Tech)
  199. Pods and Blogs 
  200. Podwatch
  201. POLI 120A - Political Development of Western Europe
  202. Political Science 10 (UCLA)
  203. Political Science 179 (Berkeley)
  204. Politics 114B (UCLA)
  205. Politics and Warfare (UCSD)
  206. Pope Podcast
  207. Practice of Art (Berkeley) Foundations of American Cyber-Culture
  208. Prosperity show
  209. PSYC 105 - Introduction cognitive psychology (UCSD)
  210. Psyconoclasm
  211. Radiolab (WNYC)
  212. Rav Dovid's
  213. Real Talk
  214. Rear Vision (ABC)
  215. Red Panda
  216. Redborne History
  217. Reith Lectures 2009 (BBC)
  218. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155A)
  219. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155B)
  220. Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
  221. Replaceable You (Stanford)
  222. Rhetoric 10 (Berkeley)
  223. Rpgmp3
  224. RSA Current Audio
  225. Schlaflos in München
  226. Science & the City
  227. Science Fiction and Politics
  228. Science Friday (NPR)
  229. Science Times (NYT)
  230. Sex History Podcast
  231. Shrink Rap Radio
  232. Šimek 's Nachts (RVU)
  233. Šimek 's Nachts (Elsevier)
  234. the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
  235. Skythen-Podcast
  236. SOCD 188JChange in Modern South Africa (UCSD)
  237. Social Innovation Conversations
  238. SOCL 1B - the study of society (UCSD)
  239. Sonic Society
  240. Sparkletack 
  241. Speaking of Faith (APM)
  242. Stanford U History 
  243. Stem Cells: Policy and Ethics (Stanford)
  244. Sterke Geschiedenis
  245. Straight talk about stem cells (Stanford)
  246. Stuff you missed in history class 
  247. Sunday Sundown 
  248. Talking Robots
  249. TdF London
  250. Teaching American History
  251. Teaching Company
  252. TED Talks
  253. That Podcast Show (aka Edgy Reviews)
  254. Theories of Law and Society (Berkeley)
  255. the Things We Forgot To Remember
  256. Thinking Allowed
  257. Time Out for Truth
  258. Times Talks
  259. Tudorcast
  260. UCLA Israel Studies 
  261. University Channel Podcast (aka UChannel Podcast)
  262. US History since 1877 (Temple College)
  263. Veertien Achttien
  264. VIS 22Formations of Modern Art (UCSD)
  265. Volkis Stimme
  266. Volkskrant Podcasts
  267. Voor 1 nacht (KRO)
  268. We the People Stories
  269. Welcome to Mars
  270. What is Judaism?
  271. Wise Counsel 
  272. the Word Nerds
  273. World View (NYT)
  274. the Writing Show
  275. Wynyfryd's meditation room
  276. the Your History Podcast
  277. Your Purpose Centered Life
  278. zencast
  279. zoem
  280. האוניברסיטה המשודרת
  281. מה שהיה היה
  282. קטעים בהיסטוריה 

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

New podcasts in June 2009 - Anne is a Man

Should I make a podcast of my own? It has been suggested over and over again. I must say I cannot even get done with simple audio promos for this blog. (Who will make a new one? There is only one so far)

But here is another idea. I could set up a feed for podcasts I especially recommend. You could subscribe in iTunes or any other podcatcher you use and get those recommendations in one list. Would you be interested in that? Comment or send mail to let me know.

There are several ways open. I could make a feed for everything I listen to (up to 4 podcasts a day), make one for every podcast I review (around 1 or 2 a day), give special recommendations (1 or 2 per week) or make separate feeds. A history feed, a philosophy feed, a Dutch, German and Hebrew feed etc. Give me your input and some time in July this feed (or these feeds) will come into place. And if you are willing to beta-test, all the better.

In the mean time, let us list the podcasts that have been given a first review this month:

Philosophy:
Isaiah Berlin Centenary (Oxford) (review, Oxford on iTunes, feed)
Series of lectures to commemorate a hundred years since the birth of Isaiah Berlin. One lecture about him, the rest recordings from lectures by Berlin in the 1950s.

Ethics Bites (BBC, Open University) (review, site, feed)
An ethics series by the makers of Philosophy Bites. The feed has not been updated since 2008, but ethics can never be podfaded, can it?

Reith Lectures 2009 (BBC) (review, site, feed)
An excellent series of four lectures by Micheal Sandel about a new citizenship. Fresh insights about morality in market, politics and bio-medical technology.

History:
Early American Social History (Warwick) (review, page in iTunes, feed in iTunes)
Extensive lecture series about US History before 1870. Mind the low audio that comes with live recorded lectures.

Georgian Britain (Warwick) (review, page in iTunes, feed in iTunes)
Series of thematic monologues about Britain during 1714-1830.

Guns and Rubles (Warwick) (review, page in iTunes, feed in iTunes)
A couple of short podcasts about the Soviets and their military industrial complex.

Drinking matters (Warwick) (review, page in iTunes, feed in iTunes)
The history of early modern pubs in Europe and their influence on the history of Europe.

Environmental History Videocast (review, site, feed)
A vodcast that goes along with the audio podcast Exploring Environmental History. The videos are not playable on iPod.

Antisemitism (USHMM) (review, site, feed in iTunes)
Scholarly lectures about antisemitism, held at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Other:
Cat Crave (review, site, feed)
A podcast for fans of the Carolina Panthers - American Football.

Masters of None (review, site, feed)
A conversational podcast in which, among others, comics and movies are discussed

BMS World Mission (review, site, feed)
A show made for the partners of the Baptist Mission world wide. A rather light radio style program with items related to missionary work.

An introduction to Biological Anthropology (Berkeley) (review, site, feed)
University lecture series that takes on human anthropology from the perspective of evolution and genetics.

Psyconoclasm (review, site, feed)
A psychology podcast that explores psychology in as vast as the definition takes and needs to be met with skepticism.

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The Podcast Parlor.

Fragility and Humanity - Speaking of Faith

At Speaking of Faith Krista Tippett spoke with geo-physicist and thinker Xavier Le Pichon. This is a wonderful podcast that gives but an indication to a fascinating conversation that can also be heard in full (unedited interview with Le Pichon - mp3 download).

If you decide you will listen to the podcast or the complete interview, you may want to take this from my experience: Quite important is the concept of fragility, which, for some reason, is pronounced by Tippett as fergility. It may sound silly, but it took me through half the program to finally figure this out.

The importance of fragility is this. It is Le Pinchon's view (and discovery) that contrary to natural instincts, humanity puts fragility in the center. It doesn't leave the weak behind, but rather makes them important to be treated - provided we talk of the humane side of humanity of course. This is elevating, in his opinion, because by taking in the weak in society, we allow ourselves to learn from the weak. It is his belief we always learn from each other, we can only learn in community. And by not driving away the vulnerable and value only on merit, we actually enrich ourselves. Moreover, it is now that our knowledge and technology has truly made is into one humanity, we have the chance to fully enjoy this togetherness. Provided we take the chance of course.

More Speaking of Faith:
The Sunni-Shia divide and the future of Islam,
Wangari Maathai,
Rumi,
The story and God,
The Buddha in the world.