History and sociology - Thinking Allowed

BBC Radio Four's Thinking Allowed is a very charming weekly program about social science that is always worth a listen. Today there will be a new program, so be quick to download last week's and if possible the one before.

Host Laurie Taylor has repeatedly revealed he has studied criminology and since I studied the same, I am not surprised by his choice of subjects and lines of questioning. A subject like two weeks ago, about the ever growing amount of inmates in prisons, especially in the US but also in the UK, is typically interesting to criminologists. Be advised to listen and think of this in advance: the size of prison populations says more about policy than about crime rates.

For the average follower of this blog, last week's issue should be even more of interest since the subjects, although sociological in nature, are heavily touching upon history. Taylor spoke about alcohol politics and grave goods. As to the first subject: over the centuries governments have been worried about alcohol abuse and one way or another attempted policies to do something about it. The definitions of what counted as abuse and who were targeted as the prominent abusers are of both historic and sociological significance. The second item was a brief inventory of what goods people choose to bury their deceased loved ones with. Does this seem just social science? An archeologists is in the studio to explain what lessons are in this study for his field.

More Thinking Allowed:
Boffins and WW I,
Richard Hoggart,
Secular vs. Religious,
Renoir and Slumming,
Mizrahi Jews.

Laura speaks Dutch - language learning podcast

One of the most successful and broadly applied genre of educational podcasts are the language learning podcasts. On the website of Open Culture (which is one of the best sources for free educational content) an extensive list of language learning podcasts is available, covering many different languages. So far I have been postponing to review this genre, but I think the time is more than ripe to get started. Please let me know of specific language learning podcasts you would recommend or would like me to review.

I have spent all my life picking up foreign languages. My native is Dutch and from the Dutch culture and educational system I have inherited both extensive learning in English, German and French, as well as the everlasting intention to address people, wherever possible, in their own tongue and therefore to never stop learning languages left and right. Thus I have dabbled in Danish, Arabic, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Portuguese and last but not least, on account of emigrating to Israel, I have learned Hebrew in its natural environment. It will allow me to evaluate a wide variety of language learning podcasts.

The first to pay attention to is Laura speaks Dutch by Brenno de Winter (picture). Brenno's friend Laura needed to learn Dutch and this is why he started making the podcast over three years ago. The podcast is still kicking and true to its original format. In short, 5-10 minute lessons Brenno teaches a couple of sentences and some idiom, allows for on the spot practice by leaving a pause to repeat and then he closes off with some trivia about The Netherlands. Although far from impeccable (it could do with some more post-production), this podcast plainly delivers the handy phrase book level which is needed for initial survival on the spot. (feed)

Brenno's pronunciation falls in the main stream of Dutch speakers, which is important, because the pronunciation of the language is rough and being taught from a dialect sample could be very confusing. Some podfaded podcasts I have tested did not evade this pitfall and with the immense variety of dialects this can cause terrible error. Brenno also has chosen a main stream, tending to the polite and slightly outdated, speaking style, which may sound a bit awkward in Dutch ears, but surely offers a safe haven for the dabbling speaker. Better to sound a bit bookish and old-fashioned, than gamble with the subtle mannerisms of everyday language.

For the more advanced in Dutch one may try some Dutch podcasts to listen to:
Argos (research journalism),
Bommel (audio drama),
De Geschiedenis Podcast (history),
Flavius (Jewish culture and history),
Hoor! Geschiedenis (Dutch history),
Hoorspelen (collection of radio plays),
Interview Vrijdag (interviews about current affairs)
Het Marathon Interview (in-depth interviews, 3-5 hours long),
Simek 's Nachts (interviews by Martin Simek),
Sterke Geschiedenis (general history by Tom Tacken),
Veertien Achttien (history of World War I by Tom Tacken),
Voor een nacht (interviews with Marc Stakenburg).

Shia theology against Ahmedinejad - BBC Analysis

I was just preparing a review of last week's issue of BBC Analysis, which was a wonderful discussion about small states (states of less than 1.5 million inhabitants), what are their advantages and make for their success, like with Singapore and why can they so miserably go down, like Iceland. Refreshingly inconclusive, was the analysis; there seem to be good arguments why small states are healthy, strong and good and arguments why small states are (always on the brink of) being vassal states at best, failed states at worst.

But then the week was full and BBC analysis came with a new issue and the old one got removed from the podcast feed. I hope you have it stored, otherwise, at least read the transcript. And then, do not despair, the latest Analysis, Ayatollogy, was just as fascinating.

This issue brings us the intricacies of Shia theology and its restrained relation with the idea of an Islamic Republic in general and the regime as such in Iran in particular. In a nutshell, Ahmedinijad could be a heretic, the Islamic Republic an oxymoron and the opposition has more clerics in their rank than the sitting rulers, including Ayatollah Khamenei. If you are not in love with Ahmedinejad, this is a good news bad news sum. The good news is that he has weak support from the clergy the bad news is the kind of heretic he is: an apocalyptic. One that would love to force the coming of the twelfth imam by bringing chaos to the world. What is that man doing with nuclear capabilities?

More BBC Analysis:
The future of Pakistan.

POLI 113A - East Asian Thought

The fate of UCSD podcast lecture series is invariably they disappear from the web by the end of the semester. Also, eventually, most of them, are back in due time. And so, POLI 113A - East Asian Thought, which I followed in the summer of 2008, is back now. (feed) This is formally a political theory course, but it dwells in relevant realms for philosophy, anthropology and is generally recommended to anyone.

Professor Victor Magagna is a very good lecturer, though he does not make any attempts to make the matter easy or entertaining. Magagna delivers a clear and well structured course and this is the stuff for every serious student. He systematically introduces us to East Asian Thought (Confucius, Mencius and others), makes a point how this thought permeates through all cultures in East Asia - China, Japan, Korea, Indo-China etc - even among the Maoists who formally reject Confucianism. He also compares these basic lines of thought about man and social order with fundamental Western thought.

This is the time to pick up this course, and grab all the lectures (we have reached lecture 10 by now) and safely store them. Then, one must take the time and concentration to carefully go through them. This is no leisure listening, but when sufficiently attended, this podcast lecture series is extremely worthwhile.

More POLI 113A:
East Asian Culture.

Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand - NBIH

New Books in History went along with a recommendation I made, of all people. I was alerted to a book written by historian and history podcaster Jennifer Burns (Berkeley's History 7b) and passed this on to Marshall Poe, the host of New Books in History. On the show two weeks ago, he interviewed Jennifer Burns on this book of hers about Ayn Rand and the American Right.

Ayn Rand, was not born in the US and Ayn Rand was not her original name. She actually came from the Soviet Union and Burns and Poe discuss with awe and excitement how Rand managed to become an icon of the American right. Not just any right. These days, the right is mostly associated with strong conservatism, but Rand's was another kind of right. She propagated a life of stark individualism, atheism and libertarianism with a free market and little government.

She also lived that life. Taking on few bonds, being libertarian also about sexuality and drugs - she used amphetamine. Some of her erratic behavior can be ascribed, as Marshall Poe sees it, to her addiction, though Burns seems less inclined to go that road. In any case, Rand seen in this light, I wonder, may in some years' time be viewed as a leftist rather than as a rightist. Or the god-fearing, family values conservatives must have turned left, by then. They won't fit in the same church, that is for sure.

More NBIH:
Atlantic History,
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough,
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey.



More Jennifer Burns:
History 7b - history podcast review,
American Civil Rights Movement,
Whittaker Chambers,
Scopes Trial,
US History - from Civil War to Present.

Petty frustrations - Namaste Stories

The latest story on the fictional podcast Namaste Stories (feed) is full of innuendo. More than ever Dave P plays his magic. As always the podcast is filled with a certain atmosphere that just hangs there and is not made explicit by any one sentence of the tale. And it is not just the music or the fatalistic voice of the narrator - although they undoubtedly add in.



In The Spoiled Brat that aboding presence is woven into the descriptions, the lines and the actions of the characters Melissa and Casper. This is what makes literature powerful: subtext. You will have to look beyond the subject of Capser and Melissa's conversation, the spoiled brat. What really matters is why they discuss him and not what their expressed convictions are, but what they tell us. The more they emphasize the brat is spoiled, the more they are envious of him and the more they reject him, the more they are attracted.

In the seeming consensus of their dialog, their petty frustrations are played out. Their repressed sexuality, the dissatisfaction in their relation, their failure of accomplishment. And all of this is expressed with utterly unconvincing self-congratulatory self-righteous bourgeois judgmental statements or silently and childishly hidden aggression. What a feat.

More Namaste and Dave P:
Surviving those family dinners on the holidays,
The new direction of Dave P,
New York Coffee Cup,
Namaste Stories, podcast as an art,
Namaste Stories, fiction podcast.