The Invisible Hand
Pulse
Pulse: Chris Gondek welcomes Douglas Hubbard back to the show to discuss the dramatic advancement on using the internet as a social and business research tool.
(review, feed)
The Economist
Whither the Arab Spring?
Our correspondents on the threat posed by counter-revolution and the role Islamist parties will play in Arab democracy
(review, feed)
New Books in Philosophy
Robert Pasnau, “Metaphysical Themes: 1247-1671“
What was the scholastic metaphysical tradition of the later Middle Ages, and why did it come “crashing down as quickly and completely” as it did towards the end of the 17th Century? Why was the year 1347 a “milestone in the history of philosophy”? And why didn’t philosophy itself collapse right along with the scholastic framework?
(review, feed)
Veertien Achttien
Summer edition with three new issues: Odon van Pevenage, Siegfried Sassoon and Pope Benedict XV.
(review, feed)
ITV Tour de France Podcast
TDF Stage 12 2011
Bastille Day and the French were gripped by Yellow Fever but stage honours went to Spain with Samuel Sanchez. The boys discuss moving day in the mountains.
(review, feed)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
A Podcast Playlist for 14 July 2011
A Short History of Japan
The Gold Pavilion
The Ashikaga Shoguns oversaw Japan’s tumble into the Warring States Period (Sengoku-Jidai) along with the split in the Imperial family into the Northern and Southern Courts. They also nurtured the Zen Buddhist sect and built the Gold Pavilion in Kyoto while the country starved of hunger, suffered famine, earthquake and disease.
(review, feed)
Thinking Allowed
Liverpool Riots and Political Children
Laurie explores the riots of Liverpool 30 years on with Richard Philips and Diane Frost. He talks about political influence on children with Dorothy Moss.
(review, feed)
Beyond the Book
Aggregation Violation
Whether from misguided practices, or misplaced good intentions, or lack of editorial oversight, the Huffington Post is on the carpet this week for aggregation violations that stop just short of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
(review, feed)
New Books in African Studies
Erin Haney, “Exposures: Photography and Africa”
In Chapter 3 of Erin Haney’s excellent book Photography and Africa (Reaktion Books, 2010) there are seven photos taken in central Africa at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Six advertise progress – from the smartly dressed and armed native troops (though still barefoot) to a posed photograph of a caravan of ivory and a depiction of rubber tapping. These images were taken to show the success, the organization, and the wealth of the Congo to the people of Brussels, Antwerp and beyond. The seventh photo shows a man sitting silently next to two indistinct objects, with a bland backdrop of open ground and two or three palm trees. This photo was also taken to inform public opinion in Europe (mainly Britain), but in this case as part of a movement against Belgian interests (and atrocities) in the Congo. The two indistinct objects in front of the man, incidently, are the severed foot and hand of his murdered five year old daughter.
(review, feed)
The Gold Pavilion
The Ashikaga Shoguns oversaw Japan’s tumble into the Warring States Period (Sengoku-Jidai) along with the split in the Imperial family into the Northern and Southern Courts. They also nurtured the Zen Buddhist sect and built the Gold Pavilion in Kyoto while the country starved of hunger, suffered famine, earthquake and disease.
(review, feed)
Thinking Allowed
Liverpool Riots and Political Children
Laurie explores the riots of Liverpool 30 years on with Richard Philips and Diane Frost. He talks about political influence on children with Dorothy Moss.
(review, feed)
Beyond the Book
Aggregation Violation
Whether from misguided practices, or misplaced good intentions, or lack of editorial oversight, the Huffington Post is on the carpet this week for aggregation violations that stop just short of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
(review, feed)
New Books in African Studies
Erin Haney, “Exposures: Photography and Africa”
In Chapter 3 of Erin Haney’s excellent book Photography and Africa (Reaktion Books, 2010) there are seven photos taken in central Africa at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Six advertise progress – from the smartly dressed and armed native troops (though still barefoot) to a posed photograph of a caravan of ivory and a depiction of rubber tapping. These images were taken to show the success, the organization, and the wealth of the Congo to the people of Brussels, Antwerp and beyond. The seventh photo shows a man sitting silently next to two indistinct objects, with a bland backdrop of open ground and two or three palm trees. This photo was also taken to inform public opinion in Europe (mainly Britain), but in this case as part of a movement against Belgian interests (and atrocities) in the Congo. The two indistinct objects in front of the man, incidently, are the severed foot and hand of his murdered five year old daughter.
(review, feed)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A Podcast Playlist for 13 July 2011
The Economist
Europe's crisis takes a bad turn
Italy enters the European debt crisis, and politicians and central bankers begin a long summer of painful negotiations
(review, feed)
New Books in East Asian Studies
Michael Keevak, “Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking”
In the course of his concise and clearly written new book Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (Princeton University Press, 2011), Michael Keevak investigates the emergence of a “yellow” and “Mongolian” East Asian identity in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Becoming Yellow incorporates a wide range of sources in its exploration of the European imagination of an East Asian racial identity, including poetry, travel accounts, medical and anthropological texts, and children’s toys. Over the course of our interview, we talked about the difficulties and rewards of trying to situate the idea of a “Yellow Peril” in historical context, and the potential pitfalls along the way.
(review, feed)
New Books in Military History
Konrad Jarausch, “Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front”
Konrad H. Jarausch, whose varied and important works on German history have been required reading for scholars for several decades, has published Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front (Princeton University Press, 2011), a collection of his father’s missives from Poland and Russia during the early years of the Second World War, now translated into English. As you can imagine, this was an intensely personal project, and one that says almost as much about the postwar generation of “fatherless children” like Jarausch as it reveals about men like his father (also named Konrad) who found themselves in the cauldron of war.
(review, feed)
New Books in Human Rights
Aziz Rana, “The Two Faces of American Freedom”
America, wrote the late historian and public intellectual Tony Judt, is “intensely familiar—and completely unknown.” America’s current position as the globe’s single superpower means that almost everyone, from a farmer harvesting his crops in Missouri to a street vendor in Kazakhstan, has a strong an opinion about what America is. For example, in its 2011 “World Report,” Human Rights Watch condemned the unlawful arrest of three Georgian poets who peacefully protested on George W. Bush Street in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, demanding that it be renamed in honor of Walt Whitman. “George W. Bush does not represent what America is. Walt Whitman does,” said one of the protesters, Irakli Kakabadze, after being released from detention. It’s not accidental that Aziz Rana‘s new book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press, 2010), opens up with an epigraph from Walt Whitman’s “Facing West from California’s Shores.” According to Rana, Whitman’s verse highlights the disjuncture between essential American ideals and the politics the country often pursues today.
(review, feed)
New Books in Popular Music
Jim Tuedio and Stan Spector, “The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation”
In a career that spanned three decades the Grateful Dead are rock music’s ultimate jam band. To jam, of course, is to improvise, to engage in “spontaneous, extemporaneous expression.” In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation (McFarland, 2010), Jim Tuedio, professor of philosophy at California State University-Stanislaus, and Stan Spector, professor of philosophy at Modesto Junior College, collect essays from an eclectic group of writers on just this subject. The thread that binds the twenty-nine essays together is that improvisation in the Grateful Dead world was not limited to the band’s music (though this is where it is most clearly stated). Improvisation also occurred more broadly in the philosophies of the band members, in the band’s business practices, and in the spontaneous behaviors of the band’s loyal following of Deadheads. All these forms of improvisation are addressed in these stimulating essays.
(review, feed)
Het Marathoninterview
Peter Vos, tekenaar
Volgens kenners was hij de beste tekenaar van Nederland en leefde een leven vol poëzie, literatuur, vriendschap, liefde en kroegpraat. Vijftig jaar na het verschijnen van zijn eerste tekeningen keek Peter Vos daarop terug in een Marathoninterview met Chris Kijne op 11 juli 2003.
(review, feed)
Europe's crisis takes a bad turn
Italy enters the European debt crisis, and politicians and central bankers begin a long summer of painful negotiations
(review, feed)
New Books in East Asian Studies
Michael Keevak, “Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking”
In the course of his concise and clearly written new book Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (Princeton University Press, 2011), Michael Keevak investigates the emergence of a “yellow” and “Mongolian” East Asian identity in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Becoming Yellow incorporates a wide range of sources in its exploration of the European imagination of an East Asian racial identity, including poetry, travel accounts, medical and anthropological texts, and children’s toys. Over the course of our interview, we talked about the difficulties and rewards of trying to situate the idea of a “Yellow Peril” in historical context, and the potential pitfalls along the way.
(review, feed)
New Books in Military History
Konrad Jarausch, “Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front”
Konrad H. Jarausch, whose varied and important works on German history have been required reading for scholars for several decades, has published Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front (Princeton University Press, 2011), a collection of his father’s missives from Poland and Russia during the early years of the Second World War, now translated into English. As you can imagine, this was an intensely personal project, and one that says almost as much about the postwar generation of “fatherless children” like Jarausch as it reveals about men like his father (also named Konrad) who found themselves in the cauldron of war.
(review, feed)
New Books in Human Rights
Aziz Rana, “The Two Faces of American Freedom”
America, wrote the late historian and public intellectual Tony Judt, is “intensely familiar—and completely unknown.” America’s current position as the globe’s single superpower means that almost everyone, from a farmer harvesting his crops in Missouri to a street vendor in Kazakhstan, has a strong an opinion about what America is. For example, in its 2011 “World Report,” Human Rights Watch condemned the unlawful arrest of three Georgian poets who peacefully protested on George W. Bush Street in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, demanding that it be renamed in honor of Walt Whitman. “George W. Bush does not represent what America is. Walt Whitman does,” said one of the protesters, Irakli Kakabadze, after being released from detention. It’s not accidental that Aziz Rana‘s new book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press, 2010), opens up with an epigraph from Walt Whitman’s “Facing West from California’s Shores.” According to Rana, Whitman’s verse highlights the disjuncture between essential American ideals and the politics the country often pursues today.
(review, feed)
New Books in Popular Music
Jim Tuedio and Stan Spector, “The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation”
In a career that spanned three decades the Grateful Dead are rock music’s ultimate jam band. To jam, of course, is to improvise, to engage in “spontaneous, extemporaneous expression.” In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation (McFarland, 2010), Jim Tuedio, professor of philosophy at California State University-Stanislaus, and Stan Spector, professor of philosophy at Modesto Junior College, collect essays from an eclectic group of writers on just this subject. The thread that binds the twenty-nine essays together is that improvisation in the Grateful Dead world was not limited to the band’s music (though this is where it is most clearly stated). Improvisation also occurred more broadly in the philosophies of the band members, in the band’s business practices, and in the spontaneous behaviors of the band’s loyal following of Deadheads. All these forms of improvisation are addressed in these stimulating essays.
(review, feed)
Het MarathoninterviewPeter Vos, tekenaar
Volgens kenners was hij de beste tekenaar van Nederland en leefde een leven vol poëzie, literatuur, vriendschap, liefde en kroegpraat. Vijftig jaar na het verschijnen van zijn eerste tekeningen keek Peter Vos daarop terug in een Marathoninterview met Chris Kijne op 11 juli 2003.
(review, feed)
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
A Podcast Playlist for 12 July 2011
ThoughtCast
Faculty Insight: Honor and Fair Play in Homer’s Iliad
In this fifth installment of Faculty Insight, produced in partnership with Harvard University Extension School, ThoughtCast speaks with the esteemed Harvard classicist Gregory Nagy about one of the earliest and greatest legends of all time: Homer’s epic story of the siege of Troy, called The Iliad. It’s a story of god-like heroes and blood-soaked battles; honor, pride, shame and defeat. And Nagy is the perfect guide to this classic tale. He’s the director of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC, as well as the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard. We spoke in his office at Widener Library.
(review, feed)
Witness
The Srebrenica massacre
In July 1995 thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica.
(review, feed)
New Books in Food
Silvia Lehrer, “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End”
It’s not that Silvia Lehrer dislikes the rich people who flock to the Hamptons every July and August. It’s just that she prefers to celebrate those who have more blood and history invested in the land and sea on the East End of Long Island. “The local farmers, the families, all of these people have committed to generations of working the farms.” she says in this interview with New Books in Food. I interviewed Silvia on the back patio of her house in Water Mill, New York. The conversation is like a gentle journey taken on a warm July morning, a pleasant tour through a fertile land where sea foam and tractors meet, where fishermen bring in a catch that potato farmers might eat for dinner. Her new book, Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End contains recipes Silvia developed from decades of writing about the food people of the North and South forks of Long Island, and brief profiles of many of the salty and sweet characters there.
(review, feed)
New Books in Language
Robert Lane Greene, “You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws and the Politics of Identity”
Isn’t it odd how the golden age of correct language always seems to be around the time that its speaker was in high school, and that language has been going to the dogs ever since? Such is the anguish of declinists the world over, pushing the commercial success of language-bashing stocking fillers. But what’s the real reason that we get hung up on greengrocers’ apostrophes and the superiority of certain language forms over others? Robert Lane Greene’s premise is that for those who hold up the standardised variety as the one true voice, the authority of the prestige language is not about words and rules, but about the perceived superiority of the people who use it. Hand-wringing over glottal stops and ‘ain’t’ contractions obscures attempts to define ‘us’ and distance ‘them’, and is a tool to support class, ethnic, or national prejudices.
(review, feed)
Fraunhofer Podcast
Licht steuert Zellen
Die Wunschliste von Ärzten und Patienten ist lang: Wirkungsvollere Medikamente gegen Krebs und andere Krankheiten, besser verträgliche Implantate – und am besten sollen sie alle ganz ohne Tierversuche entwickelt werden. Große Erwartungen sind an zellbasierte Testsysteme geknüpft.
(review, feed)
Faculty Insight: Honor and Fair Play in Homer’s Iliad
In this fifth installment of Faculty Insight, produced in partnership with Harvard University Extension School, ThoughtCast speaks with the esteemed Harvard classicist Gregory Nagy about one of the earliest and greatest legends of all time: Homer’s epic story of the siege of Troy, called The Iliad. It’s a story of god-like heroes and blood-soaked battles; honor, pride, shame and defeat. And Nagy is the perfect guide to this classic tale. He’s the director of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC, as well as the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard. We spoke in his office at Widener Library.
(review, feed)
WitnessThe Srebrenica massacre
In July 1995 thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica.
(review, feed)
New Books in Food
Silvia Lehrer, “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End”
It’s not that Silvia Lehrer dislikes the rich people who flock to the Hamptons every July and August. It’s just that she prefers to celebrate those who have more blood and history invested in the land and sea on the East End of Long Island. “The local farmers, the families, all of these people have committed to generations of working the farms.” she says in this interview with New Books in Food. I interviewed Silvia on the back patio of her house in Water Mill, New York. The conversation is like a gentle journey taken on a warm July morning, a pleasant tour through a fertile land where sea foam and tractors meet, where fishermen bring in a catch that potato farmers might eat for dinner. Her new book, Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End contains recipes Silvia developed from decades of writing about the food people of the North and South forks of Long Island, and brief profiles of many of the salty and sweet characters there.
(review, feed)
New Books in Language
Robert Lane Greene, “You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws and the Politics of Identity”
Isn’t it odd how the golden age of correct language always seems to be around the time that its speaker was in high school, and that language has been going to the dogs ever since? Such is the anguish of declinists the world over, pushing the commercial success of language-bashing stocking fillers. But what’s the real reason that we get hung up on greengrocers’ apostrophes and the superiority of certain language forms over others? Robert Lane Greene’s premise is that for those who hold up the standardised variety as the one true voice, the authority of the prestige language is not about words and rules, but about the perceived superiority of the people who use it. Hand-wringing over glottal stops and ‘ain’t’ contractions obscures attempts to define ‘us’ and distance ‘them’, and is a tool to support class, ethnic, or national prejudices.
(review, feed)
Fraunhofer Podcast
Licht steuert Zellen
Die Wunschliste von Ärzten und Patienten ist lang: Wirkungsvollere Medikamente gegen Krebs und andere Krankheiten, besser verträgliche Implantate – und am besten sollen sie alle ganz ohne Tierversuche entwickelt werden. Große Erwartungen sind an zellbasierte Testsysteme geknüpft.
(review, feed)
Wittgenstein - Saeed Ahmed guest post
Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein are arguably two of the most important philosophers of the 20th century. However, whereas Heidegger is well-represented in academic podcasts (see previous reviews by Anne on offerings by Hubert Dreyfus of Berkeley and Sean Kelly of Harvard), Wittgenstein is not heavily featured.
Therefore, I would like to point out a recent post in Philosopher's Zone (ABC Radio National, Australia), in which Gavin Kitching, professor at University of New South Wales discusses Wittgenstein with Alan Saunders, the interviewer. What I liked about this podcast was the clarity of the questions and responses, culminating with a devastating and foundational critique of methodology used by the Social Sciences in the 20th century, specifically the deliberate removal of the personal voice from academic discourse. It is difficult to deliver such a blow after a 30 minute conversation, but this Kitching and Saunders make a case worth considering, which follows from principles laid down by Wittgenstein. (feed)
Generally speaking, Philosopher's Zone podcasts are kept on for about 4 weeks, so download while you can.
Saeed Ahmed
More Saeed Ahmed:
Political and current affairs podcasts,
International Political Economy,
A podcast on climate, energy and food,
Two podcasts on the brain,
Comedy podcasts and philosophy.
More on Heidegger:
Heidergger in podcasts - news,
Entitled Opinions - conversation,
J Drabinsky - university course,
Dichter und Denker in Freiburg - lecture (in German).
Therefore, I would like to point out a recent post in Philosopher's Zone (ABC Radio National, Australia), in which Gavin Kitching, professor at University of New South Wales discusses Wittgenstein with Alan Saunders, the interviewer. What I liked about this podcast was the clarity of the questions and responses, culminating with a devastating and foundational critique of methodology used by the Social Sciences in the 20th century, specifically the deliberate removal of the personal voice from academic discourse. It is difficult to deliver such a blow after a 30 minute conversation, but this Kitching and Saunders make a case worth considering, which follows from principles laid down by Wittgenstein. (feed)Generally speaking, Philosopher's Zone podcasts are kept on for about 4 weeks, so download while you can.
Saeed Ahmed
More Saeed Ahmed:
Political and current affairs podcasts,
International Political Economy,
A podcast on climate, energy and food,
Two podcasts on the brain,
Comedy podcasts and philosophy.
More on Heidegger:
Heidergger in podcasts - news,
Entitled Opinions - conversation,
J Drabinsky - university course,
Dichter und Denker in Freiburg - lecture (in German).
Monday, July 11, 2011
A Podcast Playlist for 11 July 2011
The Korea Society
The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea
On May 26th, 2011, Harvard University’s Dr. Ezra Vogel spoke to The Korea Society about the monumental new political history he co-edited, The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Charles Armstrong, the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences and director at the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University in the City of New York.
(review, feed)
Ideas
The Munk Debates - China
Be it resolved that the 21st century will belong to China. Renowned historian and lecturer Niall Ferguson, and the celebrated Chinese economist David D. Li argue for the motion. Speaking against it are CNN foreign affairs commentator and TIME magazine's editor-at-large, Fareed Zakaria, and former US secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. The Munk Debates is an initiative of the Aurea Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 2006 by Peter and Melanie Munk to improve the quality and vitality of public debate in Canada.
(review, feed)
The History of Rome
Julian the Pre-Apostate
After a childhood spent mostly in exile, Juian was elevated to the rank of Caesar in 355. His first assignment was to clear Gaul of Germanic invaders.
(review, feed)
ITV Tour de France Podcast
ITV TDF Stage 9 2011
Another extraordinary day of highs and lows on the Tour. Ned & Chris examine and reflect. (Among others about the Flecha/Hoogerland crash - see video)
(review, feed)
1: The crash
2: How to make the men suffer some more:
He can barely stand on his feet and insist on putting him through the motions. Never before have I seen a cyclist cry for real pain while getting the awards (and the polka dot jersey as well as the combative award as REAL prizes).
The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea
On May 26th, 2011, Harvard University’s Dr. Ezra Vogel spoke to The Korea Society about the monumental new political history he co-edited, The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Charles Armstrong, the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences and director at the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University in the City of New York.
(review, feed)
IdeasThe Munk Debates - China
Be it resolved that the 21st century will belong to China. Renowned historian and lecturer Niall Ferguson, and the celebrated Chinese economist David D. Li argue for the motion. Speaking against it are CNN foreign affairs commentator and TIME magazine's editor-at-large, Fareed Zakaria, and former US secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. The Munk Debates is an initiative of the Aurea Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 2006 by Peter and Melanie Munk to improve the quality and vitality of public debate in Canada.
(review, feed)
The History of Rome
Julian the Pre-Apostate
After a childhood spent mostly in exile, Juian was elevated to the rank of Caesar in 355. His first assignment was to clear Gaul of Germanic invaders.
(review, feed)
ITV Tour de France Podcast
ITV TDF Stage 9 2011
Another extraordinary day of highs and lows on the Tour. Ned & Chris examine and reflect. (Among others about the Flecha/Hoogerland crash - see video)
(review, feed)
1: The crash
2: How to make the men suffer some more:
He can barely stand on his feet and insist on putting him through the motions. Never before have I seen a cyclist cry for real pain while getting the awards (and the polka dot jersey as well as the combative award as REAL prizes).
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