When the steppe meets empire - MMW 4 review

UCSD podcasts are invariably a brief pleasure. Available as long as new installments in the feed are expected, but taken from us, swiftly after the last lecture as the lights flicking on in the cinema, when the end titles are still rolling. History lovers will need to be on guard and rake in MMW 4 (Making of the Modern World, era 1200 - 1750) by Professor Matthew Herbst, when they still can. (feed)

MMW 4, just as MMW 3 last year, distinguishes itself from other world history podcasts in that it pays so much more attention to the world beyond the Western. This slight shift in perspective brings with it new insights, like in the previous review, where we learned about the Mongols taking over nearly the entire Eurasian continent. This is where globalization began. And this meant trade as well as plague.

The rule of the Mongols was to be short, but the steppe proxies they put in power, even if assimilated, ruled so much longer and continued to add a steppe flavor to the old empires. Elements of this steppe flavor were religious pluralism and a more equal position for women. This went even for the Muslim Mughals, who ruled India and who, as so many other Mongols (Mughal is a Persian word for Mongol) had converted to Islam. It allowed them to rule the largely Hindu peoples of India and maintain a stable rule. They gave us Akbar and Shajahan. They built the Taj Mahal.

More Matthew Herbst:
Gengis Khan,
MMW 4 first review,
The Kingdom of Ghana,
Gupta History,
World history outside the European box.

Preference settings per podcast

Under the label Instructions, I try to compile a set of help posts, giving some guidance to listening to podcasts and more. The first four are a quick guide for the beginner:

1- listen on line
2- download audio files
3- get iTunes
4- put feeds in iTunes

The next post I made, explains about RSS. This mainly showed how you can sign-up with an RSS reader (Google reader) and start following this blog.
5- RSS readers

6- For advanced users I posted my own strategy to manage podcast feeds by the dozens with the combined use of iTunes and Google Reader.

On the same subject an update for those big users of iTunes.

You have been suffering, like myself, I assume, from the default settings for podcasts: download the latest episode. This sounds like a nice middle road between the other two options download all episodes or do nothing. However, even with this method, once you are subscribed to a medium amount of podcasts, bit by bit, iTunes will fill up you storage room with endless stream of audio you probably are never going to listen to, even if you wanted to.

Therefore, like me, I assume, you have changed this setting to do nothing, leaving it for you to occasionally drop by iTunes and decide what to download and what to leave on-line. This is where I used Google Reader as an early warning system. Although it works fine and this still is my default approach, with version 8, iTunes has improved the options.

You can now set the preferences for each podcast specifically. This comes in especially handy for those podcasts you are sure you want ot listen to, or those notorious podfaders like the UCSD and BBC podcasts. When you select your podcast in the list, down the bottom of your screen you can click settings... and the dialog comes up. Choose well and live happily ever after.



The only thing left to desire is that you can access this option through a right click on the podcast, and not just by select and the clicking settings downstairs. We're getting there all right.

Some things classical

As I projected earlier this week, I have been looking at the classics in a number of podcasts. Notably, this was BBC's In Our Time about Aristotle's views on politics. In stead of waiting to wrap my mind around a full review, I'd rather mention it here right now, before this cast falls out of the feed (which is expected to happen in the next 24 hours or so). Go and get that podcast. It gives so much insight in how our political thinking started off.

Once you are into going to the roots, there are two more sources to point to. First of all, from Aristotle, inevitably one points back to Plato and from him to Socrates. A long time ago Socrates was on In Our Time, which can be heard on the stream, but still available is Philosophy Bites. The philosopher McCabe is explaining the Socratic Method, which still has so much standing in our thinking today.

Why not dig into the Greeks altogether. This can be done with a free course from Yale, which can be downloaded, but strangely, is not available on podcast. I have done the earliest lectures, so little is to be said yet. We have covered the Minoans and Myceneans as well as the dark age and Homer afterwards.

Jacques Brel - מה שהיה היה

The latest episode of מה שהיה היה (What was, has been), the first of the new season, has hardly any of the features I experienced in the latest edition of the previous season. It consequently lacked the pace, drama and excellent humor, however, it profoundly positioned itself as a cultural and history radio program. Fortunately the radio station of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem הר הצופים (Mount Scopus) releases the program as podcast.



Anybody paying attention to Jacques Brel is going to draw my listening ear, but the podcast did more than that. The sole host (usually they come in a pair) ventured a bit into the background of Brel giving some clout to the pretense of the program being a history podcast. And the versions of the songs that were delivered, were all Hebrew translations, so that one can see in this also a culture podcast. Having experienced Brel in many other languages than the French (and the occasional Flemish) original, I can vouch for the quality of the Hebrew versions that both in the words as well as the performance maintained the typical Brel touch. However, I would have wanted to hear at least one of the originals.

And so, this was a mature and entertaining as well as informative program. It left me with two peeves. One, was its description of Brel as a 'French speaking Flamand', which may be correct as Brel was Francophone, yet of Flemish descent, but for anybody remotely familiar with the controversy between the Flamands and Walloons seems a contradiction in terms. As the the Flemish are by definition Dutch speakers and the Walloons French. The second, less importantly, but worse as a mistake, was the comment on the Hebrew version of Marieke. The host announced that the Dutch (Flemish) phrases of the song had been replaced by German in the Hebrew version, yet as it played, I found they had remained untouched. Zonder liefde, warme liefde...

More מה שהיה היה:
What was has been

Hot, flat and crowded - Thomas Friedman on podcast

When Thomas Friedman had his previous book out (The World is Flat), he also made an appearance on the UChannel Podcast (review).His latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, expands on the findings of the flat world and adds global warming into the geopolitical equation. The London School of Economics had Friedman invited to talk and the podcast appeared recently on UChannel.

I remember a lot of criticism on Friedman's previous book, that I cannot reproduce here. There is also a lot of criticism on Al Gore's representation of the dangers of global warming, as it being overstated, but Friedman claims Gore must apologize for having under-estimated the dangers. Hence I assume there will be quite some criticism on the latest book as well. Friedman's stunning power, however, is his oratory performance on this podcast. In an amazingly masterful fashion he takes in the audience and makes the case. The logic seems impeccable, the anecdotes are juicy and serve as perfect illustrations and the cognitive arc is composed to perfection.

If you need the case made for immediate, capitalist, government guided, technological attack on global warming and its implication, this is the show to listen to. For a whole range of current problems, Friedman makes it clear the straightforward solution lies in an energy revolution. We need to invest in energy technology and come up with clean and effective alternatives for our current energy needs now and on the largest scale fathomable. Even if you do not need that case made, but need to hear a great piece of rhetoric, here is where you need to go. Any case can hope to have Friedman as its advocate.

More UChannel:
In 2050,
The Arab-Israeli Conflict,
Civilization and the Hills,
New World Order,
The Invisible Hand.

Japan en de vraag hoe het kan verkeren - 14 18 recensie

Ik heb groot respect voor de discipline en de constante kwaliteit waarmee Tom Tacken zijn podcast Veertien Achttien produceert. Podcasting is ook in Nederland niet meer iets wat je zomaar even met een microfoon en een PC doet. Er is research te doen en er moet een zorgvuldig script gecomponeerd worden en er moet gezorgd worden voor een constante stroom van episodes die een onderlinge samenhang vertonen. Ik zie velen ermee worstelen, maar Tacken krijgt het, ogenschijnlijk vanzelf, vlekkeloos voor elkaar.

In de laatste aflevering staat hij still bij Kato Takaaki, de Japanse minister van Buitenlandse zaken. Daarmee kom aandacht voor de perifierie van de oorlog, de gevechten in Azie en de deelname van Japan in het bijzonder. De Japanners zijn in zekere zin de meest succesvolle deelnemers in de oorlog. Aan de zijde van de geallieerden, ontnemen ze de Duitsers hun koloniale bezittingen in de Pacific en in China. Het kost nauwelijks bloedvergieten en er zijn geen tegenslagen.

Alles in de eerste wereldoorlog, heeft vrijwel direct effect op de tweede. Zo zien we hier hoe de Japanse imperie-zucht gestalte krijgt, maar er is toch nog wel meer voor nodig om van ongeschonden overwinnaar tot gefrustreerde agressor te worden. Let daarom goed op bij deze aflevering van Tacken en denk aan de toekomst. Bedenk ook dat voor 1914, de Japanners de Russen al eens verslagen hebben. Nu dan zijn de Duitsers aan de beurt.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Maximilian von Spee,
Khudadad Khan,
Käthe Kollwitz,
Sir Robert Borden,
Carol I.