Podcast summary review - clean up the desk

I have been listening to a lot of the regular podcasts that I follow and many of those I do not review all the time or did not find the strength to write about this time around. So, I decided to give you a quick overview of those good podcasts that went unmentioned in the past week or two.

BBC's In Our Time about Baconian Science. A great show that gave a nice addition to the Bacon I knew from my introduction to philosophy of science. Bacon the politician, the lawyer, the scheming unsympathetic character. As he appeared in one of those films about Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Elizabeth that was referred to in History 5 as: the Elizabeth that read Plato in Greek, not the one that reads Horse and Hound.

The Word Nerds about nostalgia. As charming and lovable the podcast is, I just didn't know what to write about this one. The Shepherd brothers sit in Chapel Hill and are being nostalgic. Yes.

Veertien Achttien about Pancho Villa. Villa is a character that ha everything for a historical podcast, but what does he do in a WW1 series? He gives some background understanding in which the Zimmermann Telegram can be framed. The Zimmermann Telegram deserves a podcast episode by itself, but about whom should the biography be? History is about people, but apparently not all history can be captured in human interest tales.

The Bitterest Pill went onto the Ocean to see dolphins and whales. Rain, sea sickness and the announcement that 'this is the time the dolphins sleep' give Dan Klas enough to rant about.

Volkis Stimme always cheers me up on Sunday morning when I make it to the office. Last time I laughed out loud. The murderous SMS text message and the friendly automated 911. 'What is the first letter of the city you call from?' Try and say H for Hamburg when you are choking. 'Augsburg?'

The New York Coffee Cup is about to finish Dave's visit to New York. I think Georgette is a spoiled brat. Anything that doesn't work out for her has her cry this is the worst day of her life. Why does Dave continue to feel the awkward father?

Oh, Forgotten Classics with the next installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin. In chapters 10 and 11 Harriet Beecher Stowe commits more racism. In addition, the heroes are so shining and the villains so evil. There is a crude mind set on which the novel is built, the quality must come from the drama.

Making History with Ran Levi announced the 50000th listener on an episode about the portable computer, 3d representation and pasta eating monkeys.

BBC's Thinking Allowed took on communism as religion and Stalin as the messiah - oh my god!

Crusades - Virginia Tech lecture series

Back to the podcasting professor from Virginia Tech Matthew Gabriele. He also coordinates public lecture series at VT that are supposed to be podcast in a podcast that I had reviewed before Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events (see Virginia Tech history podcast page). In March 2008 I wrote about the excellent and thought provoking lecture by Joseph Miller about the history of Africa. I was keeping an eye on the feed, but found nothing new.

By chance I ran into some parallel feeds. It just so turned out these podcast lectures are put in a separate feed for each semester. Hence, from the fall 2008 feed, I extracted a lecture that I had missed. Jay Rubinstein spoke about the first crusade and how the feats in this crusade had a formative impact on Europe. Godfrey of Bouillon managed to capture Jerusalem and became the first king in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a state that maintained its grip in the east for some 70 years. This feat captured the imagination of the west. It took on apocalyptic meaning and even if the dream of prophecies come true had to pass, it changed Europe. It brought unity and self-esteem into Christendom.

From the introduction is appears that Rubinstein's lecture is the second in a series that consists of a handful of lectures. Apparently they were not (successfully) recorded and so Rubinstein's is the only one available. Also in the spring 2009 feed there is but one lecture present. Soon I will be listening to that one as well.

More Virginia Tech:
Medieval Heroes in short, (no link available yet - expect update soon)
Thinking outside the European box,
Medieval Texts.

US History since 1877 - history podcast review

Another history podcast series by Gretchen Ann Reilly that is currently available is US History since 1877. Reilly's history podcast lecture series (there are at least four - on top of my head) are not always available. The feeds are up or down, apparently for reasons of bandwidth, but are always back up when the lecture series run again on Temple College. I also think I have noticed, they are frequently renewed.

US History since 1877 is a follow-up on the currently unavailable American History before 1870. Also this course is delivered in the Reilly recipe: monologue podcasts of fifteen minutes maximum at a very accessible level. When a subject demands more than fifteen minutes, she rounds off at fifteen minutes and proceeds in the next installment. And so she moves, chronologically and from subject to subject through the era. All you needed to know from the basics, properly framed in a thirty something podcast episodes.

I ran to the tail of this series to the Watergate part. Reilly starts with 'everything you ever wanted to know about Watergate' and that is exactly what I needed. She begins with Nixon's vice-presidency under Eisenhower and then moves through his political career until the downfall in 1973. Halfway she reaches Nixon's huge win in 1972. Then the break in into Watergate takes center stage. We learn of Creep and Plumbers and their covert activities. I was surprised how Reilly's narration has it that much was already getting uncovered, and official investigation was going on. The rope slowly tightened around Nixon's neck, but the news from the Washington Post is nearly lacking and the mysterious Deep Throat is omitted.

More Gretchen Ann Reilly:
The west since 1600,
Gretchen Reilly history podcasts,
American History before 1870.

Theodore Roosevelt - Gilder Lehrmann history podcast

The Gilder Lehrmann Institute for American History gave me an opportunity to learn something about a great American president, I did not know anything about. At the Gilder Lehrmann Podcast there was a lecture by Patrica O'Toole about him.

The lecture is about Theodore Roosevelt, but not so much about the 'TR' presidency, but rather about TR after his presidency. Had it been up to TR, it would have been about his life between his first and second presidency. In 1912 he still wanted to run, but the Republican candidacy went to President Taft. Taft was ill and had his doctor's advice not to run been relayed to him, Taft might have stepped down and Roosevelt would have had a good chance to win as a Republican. Eventually he ran on a new party of his own and lost to Taft and the new President Wilson. But that is besides the point.

TR rises from the lecture as a kind of aristocrat and in addition, a man of great intellectual and physical prowess. He wrote widely and traveled similarly, with a preference to the wild of regions like the Amazon and Africa. Moreover, TR remained politically active and even if he did not make it back into the Oval Office, O'Toole claims TR remained influential until his death in 1919.

More Gilder Lehrmann:
Slave Culture.

Medieval Heroes in short - HUM 4104 Virginia Tech

Professor Matthew Gabriele from Virginia Tech is using podcast as a supplement to his lectures. This is different from many other university podcasts, where the podcast is the lecture. Gabriele offers help with the reading on the podcast. Consequently, the non-student listener, such as us, is a bit shut out, but still some value can be had.

Take the course about heroes (HUM 4104 - see Virginia Tech history podcast page). Each podcast prepares for the reading about another hero or two. Beowulf, Boniface, Lancelot - aren't those the characters you had always wanted to know more about. Gabriele is giving that and more heroes, but only a bit. From there you will have to take the reading yourself or find your way to Virginia.

Still, what I like about this podcast series is that the issues are short. Each one under five minutes, so that you can drop them anywhere on your playlist. You can squeeze in a listen any time and you will get a tiny pearl handed to you.


More Virginia Tech:
Thinking outside the European box,
Medieval Texts.

Peopletalk - history and culture podcast

I have briefly reviewed Peopletalk before. The podcast still has an audiobook section where history texts are being read to the listener. However, by now (I do not recall it was there then) the feed also offers episodes in which someone is being interviewed.

I took up listening to the interview with Michael Anthony of the British History 101 podcast (which I have also reviewed a long, long time ago). Anthony gets to explain how he became interested in British history. His high school days in Indiana, saw no significant attention to British History in history class. It was through a literature class and an enthusiastic teacher and the ensuing depiction of historical backgrounds with the read works that he was exposed to the subject and came to love it. In addition came a few visits to England. By now he is a history student and has many inroads into history. Still he is most attracted to British History and finds it particularly relevant for the US.

The episode is more of a conversation than an interview as the interviewer actively participates with his views. There is more to discover here. I want to thank the reader of this blog who attracted my attention to Peopletalk again. (feed)