The Iran power struggle - LSE podcast

The LSE Public Lectures and Events at the London School of Economics, in short the LSE podcast, is great series of guest lectures at the LSE, which are almost invariably worth listening in on. Subjects that are of great interest are being discussed by world specialists and responded to by an educated audience.

Whether Hooman Majd, an Iranian journalist who lives in the US, is such a great specialist is something he actually shed doubt on in his own lecture The Ayatollah Begs to Differ - the path to an Islamic Democracy. Although he has written a book under the same title and he frequently visits Iran, he states there are no Iran experts and he certainly doesn't regard himself as one. The audience also turns out to have second thoughts. When Majd wants to argue that Iran is not a dictatorship, critical questions about that statement are met with cheers in the hall.

Nevertheless, this lecture is very interesting. It emphasizes once more, as we have heard in other podcasts, that Iran is in no way a monolithic state. It is not so culturally, ethnically, religiously and even politically. As others have done Majd paints a picture of two factions vying for power, the fundamentalists with Ahmedinijad in their side and the moderates with Moussavi. There might even be more flavors in the spectrum, but even in this picture, Majd tells how free, open and carefully democratic Iranian society is. And in this version of Iran, the road to further liberalization is open. And as to the nuclear program, Majd sees that as a scientific and energy project.

I have added the episode to the composite podcast feed Anne is a Man - Iran.

More LSE Events:
Justice,
In Search of Islam’s Civilization,
Religion and the Market - John Gray on LSE,
John Gray's cultural pessimism,
Omniculturalism.

Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

Also this year I will participate in Blog Action Day, which is held every year on October 15th. Bloggers from all over the world and from all walks of life will pay attention to one and the same subject. The subject in 2009 will be Climate Change



Last year on October 15th I re-posted all podcast reviews that were related to that year's subject (poverty). This amounted to a manageable series. If I were to repost all podcast reviews on Climate Change, I'd hand you too much. I think I will summarize in stead of repost and, wherever possible, present all those podcasts in a composite feed (thanks to Huffduffer).

If you have any suggestions, let me know through the comments.

More Blog Action Day:
2008: Poverty,
2007: Environment.

What can you do with philosophy?

On Philosophy Bites Nigel Warburton and David Edmonds spoke with writer John Armstrong about the question 'What can you do with philosophy?'. For a philosophy podcast that reaches a wide public this is almost an obligatory question. One would almost expect the defining podcast for Philosophy Bites.

As the dialog set out, I was reminded of a radio program I heard many years ago with a mathematician who was addressing the similar question, what practical use does mathematics have. And surely this mathematician set out to tackle the problem of choosing the right partner in life with chance theory, stochastics and deliver the exact answer. Fine, but yet I feel that somehow the mathematician, or the philosopher for that matter, is in a way degrading himself by forcefully applying to the profane and should have some arrogance in not wishing to be practical.

Yet, in the end, John Armstrong seemed to have established more than the reported mathematician as I found myself discussing this episode with others who had heard it and noticed we all began applying the trains of thought and refining questions Armstrong had suggested. And so, especially in hindsight, this was indeed a very good issue of the podcast.

More Philosophy Bites:
Morality without God,
Pascal's Pensées,
Fourth Revolution,
Michael Sandel on what cannot be sold,
Aristotle's Ethics.

Ab Osterhaus - Voor 1 Nacht

KRO's voor 1 nacht sluit aan bij de actualiteit en had viroloog Ab Osterhaus bij Marc Stakenburg in de uitzending. Osterhaus mag daarin een poging ondernemen om de dreiging van de Mexicaanse griep en andere virus-infecties in perspectief te zetten. Daarmee is dit niet de eerste podcast waarin Osterhaus te beluisteren viel. Eerder was hij al te gast bij Martin Simek.

Osterhaus verschijnt kennelijk niet in de media op persoonlijke titel, maar als een man met een missie en die missie is de zaak der bestrijding van virusinfecties te dienen. Daarbij denken we vandaag vooral aan de Mexicaanse griep, maar Osterhaus maakt duidelijk dat die griep vooralsnog nog redelijk meevalt en dat de Nederlandse overheid aardig voorbereid is. Veel problematischer is de situatie met HIV en potentieel veel dreigender was de vogelgriep. Een mondiale ramp als in 1919 met de Spaanse griep, waarbij 50 miljoen mensen, 1% van de wereldbevolking omkwam, is bij de huidige pandemie niet te verwachten, maar ook met de huidige stand der wetenschap evenmin uit te sluiten, niet vandaag en niet met het virus van volgend jaar.

Wat tussen de regels duidelijk wordt is dat Osterhaus nogal eens wordt verweten dat hij te vaak en te nadrukkelijk alarm slaat. Een aantijging dat hij wellicht financieel belang heeft (aandelen in de farmaceutische industrie), blijft onbesproken. Hij is er vrij koel onder en ik kan me dat wel voorstellen; hij heeft een missie en de ergernis laat alleen maar zien dat hij in staat is om de aandacht te trekken. Wie zou het risico durven nemen dat hij toch gelijk heeft, lijkt hij te denken. Je zou in hem een venter van verzekeringspolissen kunnen zien, als je alleen het interview bij Stakenburg hoort. Bij Simek ligt al meer de nadruk op de algemene problematiek en dus op een arme mensendoder als HIV. Dan klinkt hij veel meer integer. In beide gevallen blijft hij een man met een missie.

Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
Freek de Jonge,
Bennie Jolink,
Henk Spaan,
Maarten Ducrot,
Candy Dulfer.

Capitalism and Confusion - Amartya Sen

The UChannel Podcast, also known as University Channel Podcast (audio feed, video feed), is a composite podcast which brings together lecture recordings from outstanding institutions all over the world. Among them are, The Council on Foreign Relations, The London School of Economics and the Royal Society for the Arts, which also have their own feeds out of which I review regularly.

The lectures are guest lectures on select topics, held by the leading authorities in the field. One such was a lecture at Cornell University by Professor Amartya Sen titled: Capitalism and Confusion. In this lecture Sen tackles some of the misconceptions about capitalism that are common in the wider public, but for the critical audience should hold no great surprises. Of course socialism has not been definitively defeated by capitalism. Of course capitalism cannot easily be defined. And of course, the crudest ideas about total freedom for market forces are not even held by a capitalist icon such as Adam Smith.

This is the first confusion that Sen addresses, but there is more confusion and more profound at that. Assuming that even Adam Smith accepted some level of government intervention in the market the confusion among capitalists as to how, when and to what extent becomes very compelling in the light of great global problems. Climate change, poverty, human rights and such are recognized by capitalists and are in need of effective address, but fail to get that address, even in capitalist theory.

More UChannel Podcast:
Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and the Middle East,
Taming Religion - Ian Buruma trilogy,
Averting the disasters of climate change,
Interfaith and Compassion,
Talent is overrated.

More Amartya Sen:
Justice.

Hoarding - Wise Counsel

An excellent psychology podcast is Wise Counsel (feed), which consists of interviews conducted by Dr. David van Nuys PhD. with assorted guests. David van Nuys is both a psychologist as well as an experienced podcaster and interviewer. His other podcast, Shrink Rap Radio (feed), also on the subject of psychology can also be warmly recommended.

In the latest edition of Wise Counsel, Dr. Van Nuys spoke with Gail Steketee on the subject of hoarding. Everybody has to a certain extent a hard time throwing away what he no longer needs, but for some people, gathering stuff in the house can become a problem and this is called hoarding. The clutter can take over the dwelling space and get out of control. Apart from the sanitary and other practical problems this entails for those who have to live in the clutter, it will frequently also lead to socially unfit behavior, where the hoarding person will shy away from company, or will let nobody in the house. Steketee has studied this problem and relates on its symptoms and treatment.

The DSM sticks hoarding under OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but she claims that this classification is not right and predicts that in future editions the classification will accordingly be changed. Hoarding is a disorder of itself. It is most common among peopel over 50, but those who hoard, usually will have shown initial signs already at a very early age. Mostly the hoarding is checked by significant others until later age. The treatment is through CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) as, so far, no medication has been found that has a persistent effect on hoarding. Patients respond to the therapy, relatively well.

At the episode's page, you can also read a transcript of David van Nuys's interview with Dr. Gail Steketee.

More Wise Counsel:
History of Marriage,
Jonathan Engel,
Self-Help with PTSD,
Wise Counsel - Psychology Podcast Review,
Irvin Yalom.