Listening ideas for 18 May 2011

Rear Vision
Life after the GFC
The Global Financial Crisis had its roots in the collapse of the US housing bubble, which caused the values of securities tied to US real estate to plummet, in turn threatening the existence of many of the world´s biggest financial institutions. Rear Vision looks at how the aftershocks of the crisis are playing out around the world.
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Radio Lab
Dogs Gone Wild
In this short, a family dog disappears into the woods...and the mystery of what happened to him raises a big question about what it means to be wild.
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Mahabharata Podcast
The Bhisma Parva
Episode 58 - The Battle Books, but not the battle, begin here. Since we are at the second most important beginning of the epic, aside from the very beginning, there is a lot of unnecessary material stuffed into the narrative. I tried my best to make sense of it, and to leave out the voluminous details that had nothing to do with the story at hand. I also tried to iron out the repeated descriptions of the armies' dispositions, and the scene of the two sides lined up prior to battle. This is one of the most difficult episodes I've had to produce, so I hope I was able to make some sense out of it.
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New Books In History
Blair Ruble, “Washington’s U Street: A Biography”
I used to live in Washington DC, not far from a place I learned to call the “U Street Corridor.” I really had no idea why it was a “corridor” (most places in DC are just “streets”) or why a lot of folks seemed to make a big deal out if it.
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New Books in Public Policy
Reuel Marc Gerecht, “The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East”
In his new book The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East (Hoover Institution Press, 2011), Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, looks at the push for democracy in the Middle East and suggests that Americans need to back the democratic impulse, even if it is messy. Gerecht, who is also a former Middle East specialist in the Clandestine Service at the Central Intelligence Agency, recognizes that Americans may not like what Middle Eastern democracy looks like, certainly at first, but – echoing Churchill –he says that it is much better that the alternatives. In our interview, we talked about Iran, the Arabs, Turkey, and how America should deal with it all. Read all about it, and more, in Gerecht’s timely new book.
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Listening ideas for 17 May 2011

Elucidations
Quassim Cassam discusses transcendental arguments
In this episode, Quassim Cassam discusses an influential strategy for arguing against the idea that (for example) we're all in the Matrix.
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Center for Near Eastern Studies
From the Shah to the Ayatollah, Continuities and Ruptures
A lecture by Abbas Milani, Stanford University
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Some Books Considered
Program 133
Isabel Allende says the inspiration for her latest novel started with a visit to New Orleans. Her research on the culture of the Big Easy took her back to Haiti during its colonial era and the revolution at the turn of the 19th century. The novel spans four decades in the life of a woman named Zarite, who was born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue and eventually travels to New Orleans in search of love and freedom. Isabel Allende was born in Peru, raised in Chile, and now lives in California. Her books have been best sellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Listening ideas for 16 May 2011

The History of Rome
The Christian Emperor
This episode brought to you live and direct from Constantinople! After defeating Licinius, Constantine found his dream of a united Christian Empire foiled by a very disunited Christian Church.
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Norman Centuries
Rise of a King
Roger II was never supposed to inherit his father's possessions. He was the youngest of 18 children, and only five when the Great Count died. The nobility dutifully pledged their allegiance but there seemed little chance that his mother - an Italian foreigner in the Norman court - could hold the regency until he matured. And yet, against the odds Roger II emerged from his uncertain childhood as the most forceful personality on the Mediterranean stage. Under him Norman rule in southern Italy blossomed into its most brilliant flower. Join Lars Brownworth as he looks at the rise of Roger II, Sicily's first and greatest king.
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Listening ideas for 15 May 2011

New Books In History
Ricardo Duchesne, “The Uniqueness of Western Civilization”
One of the standard assumptions of modern Western social science (history included) is that material conditions drive historical development. All of the “Great Transitions” in world history–the origins of agriculture, the birth of cities, the rise of high culture, the industrial revolution–can, so most Western social scientists claim, be associated with some condition that compelled otherwise conservative humans to act in new ways. This premise is of course most closely linked to Marx, but it is found throughout post-Marxist big picture scholarship (including my own humble contribution to that literature). Ricardo Duchesne argues in his new The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Brill, 2011) that we have it all wrong.
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Witness
The Easter Rising
In 1916 Irish nationalists tried to start a rebellion against British rule. Next week Queen Elizabeth will visit a memorial to those who died in the failed uprising.
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Veertien Achttien
Miklos Horthy en de netten van staal
In de oorlog poogt Miklos Horthy als admiraal voor Oostenrijk-Hongarije uit de Adriatische Zee te breken. Erna moet hij als regent van Hongarije de schande van Trianon uitwissen.
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Listening ideas for 12 May 2011

Forgotten Classics
Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible
In which we hear a bit of Isaac Asimov's nonfiction writing.
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London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
A World Without Superpowers: de-centered globalism
As the inequality of power between the West and the rest diminishes, the most likely scenario for world politics is de-centered globalism, in which there will be no superpowers. But what does a world with no superpowers mean for regional coexistence and international cooperation? Barry Buzan is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at LSE and senior fellow at LSE IDEAS.
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The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show
Richard Wolff; Corporations are Threatening and Bullying America
Corporations are threatening the US, threatening US citizens. How to fight back.
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The Roundtable
James Stewart - Tangled Webs
Joe speaks with James Stewart about his latest book, Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff .
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KQED's Forum
Bharati Mukherjee: 'Miss New India'
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Bharati Mukherjee travels deftly between tradition and modernity in her many works, including eight novels and two short story collections. Her latest novel, "Miss New India, delves into the issues of arranged marriage, ambition, culture and class. She joins Michael Krasny to discuss the book.
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Listening ideas for 11 May 2011

The Economist
You Are What You Speak
Robert Lane Greene, our business correspondent and editor of our Johnson blog, discusses his new book on the politics of language
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Rear Vision
Microfinance and Politics: the removal of Muhummad Yunus from the Grameen Bank
In a move that surprised many people outside Bangladesh, Muhummad Yunus, founder of the influential microfinance institution the Grameen Bank, has been removed from his position as head of the bank. Yunus won a Nobel prize in 2006 for his role in developing the concept of microfinance and microcredit, helping people—especially women—lift themselves out of poverty with the help of very small loans. Just five years later, he's out. So on Rear Vision, we ask: what is this all about?
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The Christian Humanist Podcast
Christian Humanist University
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about Christian Humanist University, a Platonic ideal of a college, and what such an ideal might do for the way that we imagine and evaluate real colleges. Among the texts, ideas, and other realities we discuss are core curriculum, the purpose of a university, college athletics, specialization, relationships between college and society, and college architecture.
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Mahabharata Podcast
Amba, part 2
Episode 57 - Bhisma finishes bringing us up-to-date on who Sikhandin is, who he used to be, and why Bhisma won't fight him. This also finishes the Udyoga Parva; the Book of the Effort. Next time, we start in on the Bhisma Parva, the first of the eight Battle Books. Don't assume that the war is about to start, just because we end off on the dawn of the first day of the war. We still have a lengthy introduction in the Bhisma Parva, and then there is the Bhagavad Gita, which will take a few episodes-- we don't want to rush things!
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Oxford Biographies
Sir Stanley Matthews, footballer
Sir Stanley Matthews, (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards.
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