Juan Cole - Media Matters podcast review

The news podcast Media Matters, with Bob McChesney had as a guest historian Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, who is a specialist in the Middle-East. One can directly read Juan Cole's updates in his thoughts about the region if one follows his website JuanCole.com which has the simple form of public emails containing assorted remarks. Aside from more breadth, much more depth is to be found there than in the podcast.

In the podcast, McChesney tried to get Professor Cole to explain the Middle-East to the average American. Relatively much time was dedicated to Iraq and Afghanistan. While the assessment is certainly worth listening to, Cole necessarily, because of the time constraints is forced to paint with crude brush strokes. It results in inapt representation of facts, for example sorting the Iraqi populace into categories Shii, Sunni and Kurd - mixing religious denomination with ethnic. Maybe it works for all practical purposes, but adds as much as it takes away from ignorance.

When there are a mere six minutes left in the show (it is, after all broadcast on radio) Israel and Palestine are rushed through the ether. How much can one say to inform the public in six minutes about a complicated issue? I had a feeling Cole got wasted on an effort to discuss too much in too diluted a way. Still a worthwhile show, but really this should be an initial step towards more investigation to get the records straight and some real insight in.

Previously about Media Matters:
The Crisis.

The brain and tech-nurture - SRR podcast review

There is a recurring theme in Shrink Rap Radio the psychology interview podcast: modern technology and the brain. This is not just about AI, robotics, the extension of our brains into our PCs, but also the implications of new insights in neuroscience, pharmacy and genetics about the brain.

In social science in general and necessarily also in psychology there is the age-old dichotomy of nature and nurture. With the latest developments in neuroscience, pharmacy and genetics we know so much more of the brain, this sort of automatically, almost implicitly, moves us towards the nature side of the divide. Technology also plays a part in that and basically, a nature stance, will also allow more for a fixed view of the brain and leave more room for theories of AI and artificial extensions of the brain. Yet, in the interview with Gary Small about technology and the brain the conversation takes a nurture perspective: how does a modern technologically designated environment affect the brains of human beings?

Small makes in this context a difference between digital natives, the younger generation that grows up with the modern technology and the digital immigrants, the older generation that has had to acquire access to the cyberworld. Small and Van Nuys discuss the way in which the brain starts functioning differently and different people with different psyches emerge in this internet age. Apart from being a fascinating conversation by itself, it also shows how in a more technological world, where I thought the idea of human beings became more nature-oriented new reasons for taking the nurture side of factors that make us come into relevance.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Nova Spivack,
Relationships and the brain,
Psychologist writer,
Dana Houck, Prison Psychologist,
The humane working place.

Why isn't the whole world developed?

TV Ontario's program Big Ideas is dedicated, so it claims, to the art of lecturing. Occasionally the lectures are in my humble opinion not exactly top notch, but frequently good content can be found. Apparently the makers of the program have a taste for the polemic, because I find a tendency to rather provocative lecturing.

Maybe also the idea is that some provocation and a bit of a polemic style are effective tools in making lectures arrive with the audience. In the competition for best lecturer, the finalist Anton Allahar and his lecture are certainly full with this quality. Even if Allahar is not really taking a position himself (at least not in this particular lecture), he does present a series of opinions on the subject at hand and goes over them in a very critical way.

The subject is 'Why isn't the whole world developed?' Big Ideas treats this as a lecture in itself, but Allahar makes it clear from the start this is just the opening lecture in a series for which this is just the opening question and an entry point to a much wider issue. It is a bit of a nasty start, making you feel shut out, but to the issue at hand, I was rather thrilled to find a couple of strong criticisms to widely held and relatively unchallenged ideas about development like ideas rooted in Social Darwinism, in the sociology of Durkheim and Weber, in utilitarian economics, in Marxism and so on. Allahar makes in his criticism no exception for any of them and produces a good variety of food for thought.

More Big Ideas:
The role and place of the intellectual,
Disaster Capitalism,
The Bad News about Good Work,
History.

Arthur Japin, Johannes van Dam

Nog voordat de podcast van Martin Simek heenging, was al een groot deel van het archief van tien jaar interviewen van het internet gehaald. Daarom is het niet meer mogelijk om terug te gaan naar de interviews met onder meer Johannes van Dam en met Arthur Japin. Dat had uitstekend vergelijkingsmateriaal opgelevered voor de recente Marathon Interviews bij de VPRO. Nu echter ben ik op mijn geheugen aangewezen

Wat ik me nog kan herinneren van het interview met Van Dam is dat Simek nauwelijks gesproken heeft over eten. Dat is in het marathon interview wel anders - daar krijg je trek en ook zin in koken. Simek gaat veel dieper in op een centraal voorval uit Van Dam's jeugd: het auto-ongeluk waar Johannes zelf ook bij betrokken was en waarbij zijn vader om het leven kwam. Van Dam heeft het er liever niet over en waar Simek hem niet loslaat, geeft VPRO interviewer Olaf Oudheusden de gelegenheid om de aandacht naar de periode daarna, Amsterdam in de jaren 60, te verleggen. Wat voor mij het belangrijkste was om Van Dam te horen over het Zionisme. Zijn ongezouten mening komt bij de VPRO meer genuanceerd uit de verf maar is nog altijd niet mals. De Zionisten in het Nederland van de jaren 40 hebben in zijn ogen de ondergang van vele joden in de holocaust in de hand gewerkt door een verkeerde inschatting van de Nazis. Omdat zij dachten dat de Nazis hen zouden helpen om de joden naar Palestina te brengen, waren ze niet echt geporteerd voor verzet. Daar is Van Dam heel kwaad over, maar bij de VPRO noemt hij het niet, zoals bij de RVU, collaboratie.

Ook het interview met Arthur Japin van Simek is er veel meer aandacht voor de vroege jeugd. Ook Japin raakt zijn vader vroeg kwijt, wat een diep effect achterlaat. In het marathon interview laat Djoeke Veninga daar wel wat ruimte voor, maar gaat het veel nadrukkelijker over schrijven en over publiciteit. In beide gevallen zou het archief van Simek niet alleen goed vergelijkingsmateriaal hebben opgeleverd, maar eveneens een welkome aanvulling. Wat is er van al dat prachtige materiaal geworden? Kom het nog ooit weer voor de internetter beschikbaar?

Meer Marathon Interviews:
Mr. G.B.J. Hiltermann,
James Kennedy,
Dick Berlijn,
Ward Ruyslinck,
Marte Röling.

The buddha in the world today - SOF review

I will try to be careful in my review of Speaking of Faith's issue with the Indian journalist Pankaj Mishra under the title The Buddha in the World (transcript) Much is said that can be taken in very many directions and so let me start out by saying this is an absolute must listen. In addition to the regular program, one can also tap into the unedited interview with Pankaj Mishra.

The figure of the Buddha, Mishra reveals, was actually unknown to him, a Hindu from India. Even though the Buddha is revered among Hindus as well and the story is known, the message is sort of pushed aside. Buddha is sort of co opted into Hinduism as a reincarnation of Vishnu. But when in his later years Mishra dug into the history and the teachings of the Buddha, it became a journey of great learning for him. In his conversation with Krista Tippett, he relates the insights he has gained and how he applies them into a deeper understanding of the world today.

Mishra is very critical of capitalism, the optimism about progress, technology, open market and democracy. He characterizes the idea that progress, technology and democracy will make for some kind of ideal society as rather naive (in my words). Riches, assuming it is riches that this will bring and what is aimed for, but we are talking a capitalist ideal, has its limits and eventually gives some protection only to minor inconveniences and dangers in life. Real suffering remains. This also implies a warning against wrong methods to reach that goal of democracy and open market. As if good results (if good at all) make good for violent means. The Buddha's emphasis to live in the present means for Mishra a very practical lesson to be careful with grand assumptions, bad methods (even to good ends) and begs for an understanding of other cultural traditions and perspectives.

Enough. I will never do justice to Mishra's words and thoughts this way. One must listen in order to not just hear more accurately what I have penned down so bluntly, but also to feel Mishra's pleasant voice and modest style of expression. It is a wonderful experience.

More Speaking of Faith:
Doubt,
Listening Generously - Rachel Remen, (recommended)
The Sunni-Shia Divide and the future of Islam,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Karen Armstrong.

Anne is a Man in the weekend of March 6

Here is a list of reviews I am planning to publish over the weekend (Friday - Sunday).

-Speaking of Faith. I haven't listened to SOF very regularly lately, but just now I was taken by an issue about depression. Once on the roll, I took another one and found it even better: About the Buddha in the world today

-The Dutch podcast by the VPRO Marathon Interview allowed me to make comparisons with the disappeared interview podcast by the RVU Simek 's Nachts. Arthur Japin and Johannes van Dam have also been interviewed by Simek. Marathon Interview gave me a second look at them. This time around for three hours in stead of one. (Dutch)

-TVO's Big Ideas has the occasional lecture I want to pick up. This time I chose one by Best Lecture Finalist Anton Allahar who observes the question Why isn't the whole world developed? from a variety of angles, evaluating each briefly and critically.

-In Shrink Rap Radio, the psychology interview program, Dr. David van Nuys spoke a long time ago with Gary Small about the effect modern technology has on the brain.

- On Media Matters Bob McChesney had an interview with Juan Cole, the historian from Michigan, about the Middle-East. Most of the attention goes to Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are also, obviously, a couple of minutes for Israel.

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