Dear Readers,
I have begun taking a break from the blog. In due time I will be back to posting, but for the time being it will be very infrequent.
To keep you busy, here are a couple of recent finds I wish to recommend:
1- 2011 Reith Lectures; the lectures have resumed and a looking into the question of protecting Freedom in society. (feed)
2- History of England by David Crowther (feed) - a very nice history of England by following the line of the Royal Family of England as far as it can be traced back. One thing to keep in mind when you start: Crowther calls the Britons 'British' which can easily confuse or even confound (a war of the English on the British? That is between Britons and Anglo-Saxons)
3- History of the First World War - a history with emphasis on the military aspects of the war and with an interesting batch of stories about fronts other than the Western or the Eastern front. In stead of looking up the feed, I recommend to download from the site as the feed contains only the last handful of the entire 44 episodes so far.
Anne
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Zomertip: Marathon Interviews
Ian Buruma kon in podcast beluisterd worden via het inmiddels ter ziele UChannel Podcast (Taming Religion). Dat was in 2009, er was toen ook een interview met hem op de VPRO radio dat ik niet kon achterhalen, maar ik kreeg wel het Marathon Interview met hem uit 2004 te pakken. Dat was echter in de oude feed en het werd wachten totdat de nieuwe feed dit interview opnieuw uit zou brengen. Dat duurde tot nu. (Djoeke Veninga in gesprek met Ian Buruma)
Het is een echte aanrader. Je kan Buruma trouwens ook kort horen in de podcast Voices on Antisemitism (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) (feed) (Ian Buruma on Freedom of Speech), maar dat is nogal kort.
Voor lange zomerdagen is het de moeite waard om meer interessante Marathon Interviews op te zoeken. Hier zijn een paar recente die ik zelf ook beluisterd heb:
Hanny Michaelis,
Theun de Vries,
Wim Kok,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
Afshin Elian,
W.A. Wagenaar,
Douwe Draaisma.
Meer Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
Ideas,
UChannel,
Interview Vrijdag.
Meer W.A. Wagenaar:
New Books In Law,
Simek 's Nachts,
Meer Douwe Draaisma:
Simek 's Nachts (1),
Simek 's Nachts (2).
Het is een echte aanrader. Je kan Buruma trouwens ook kort horen in de podcast Voices on Antisemitism (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) (feed) (Ian Buruma on Freedom of Speech), maar dat is nogal kort.
Voor lange zomerdagen is het de moeite waard om meer interessante Marathon Interviews op te zoeken. Hier zijn een paar recente die ik zelf ook beluisterd heb:
Hanny Michaelis,Theun de Vries,
Wim Kok,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
Afshin Elian,
W.A. Wagenaar,
Douwe Draaisma.
Meer Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
Ideas,
UChannel,
Interview Vrijdag.
Meer W.A. Wagenaar:
New Books In Law,
Simek 's Nachts,
Meer Douwe Draaisma:
Simek 's Nachts (1),
Simek 's Nachts (2).
Friday, August 19, 2011
Summertime tip: across podcast listening
While your favorite podcast may be on a summer break you probably are looking for something else to listen to. Suppose your favorite podcast's subject is what you are generally interested in and this might be the time to look for other podcasts who touch upon the same subject and get a broader perspective.
When I listened to the Irish History Podcast (feed) I got fascinated by its episodes about the Viking era in Irish history. For lack of a Viking History Podcast, some holes in this history are not covered by the Irish History Podcast. What was their trade? Where did they exactly come from? Why did they go on plunder?And how is it they got to be so successful? It goes to show there is much to be found out about Vikings and Normans, Scandinavian history in general and the time in the Middle Ages that they dominated Europe. Although there is not one podcast that takes care of the subject, there are several that touch upon it (like the Irish History podcast) and by listening across podcasts, a lot can be learned.
Not only Ireland was beset by Vikings, also Anglo-Saxon England was visited and the podcast History of England (feed) by David Crowther does a very good job of relating this era. In a good portion of the first thirty episodes you get to learn a lot and it wonderfully complements the Irish story. For example, from David we learn that the Vikings that landed in Ireland were mostly from Norway, whereas England was dominated by the Danes. The Swedes concentrated their efforts towards the Baltic. Those Vikings that got hold of Normandy, eventually became the Normans, a Francophone branch of this Scandinavian family. The podcast Norman Centuries (feed) is dedicated to the Normans.
The Norman story and the English story obviously come together around 1066, which is also elegantly told by Notes on History (feed), but apart from England, Norman conquests also take us into the Mediterranean and eventually all the way to Constantinople, where Normans became the famous Varangian Guard, about whom you will also learn in the podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers (feed)
There in the east, the Normans met Vikings who reached the same point but through a different route. Swedish Vikings conquered eastward and became known as the Rus, the founders of later Russia as we learn in the opening issues of the Russian Rulers History Podcast (feed)
As usual with Historic subjects, the archives of BBC's In Our Time are worth a visit and offer among others:
Athelstan,
Volga Vikings,
The battle of Stamford Bridge,
Alfred and the battle of Edington
And The Norman yoke.
More:
Irish History Podcast,
Norman Centuries,
Notes on History,
12 Byzantine Rulers,
Russian Rulers History Podcast.
When I listened to the Irish History Podcast (feed) I got fascinated by its episodes about the Viking era in Irish history. For lack of a Viking History Podcast, some holes in this history are not covered by the Irish History Podcast. What was their trade? Where did they exactly come from? Why did they go on plunder?And how is it they got to be so successful? It goes to show there is much to be found out about Vikings and Normans, Scandinavian history in general and the time in the Middle Ages that they dominated Europe. Although there is not one podcast that takes care of the subject, there are several that touch upon it (like the Irish History podcast) and by listening across podcasts, a lot can be learned.
Not only Ireland was beset by Vikings, also Anglo-Saxon England was visited and the podcast History of England (feed) by David Crowther does a very good job of relating this era. In a good portion of the first thirty episodes you get to learn a lot and it wonderfully complements the Irish story. For example, from David we learn that the Vikings that landed in Ireland were mostly from Norway, whereas England was dominated by the Danes. The Swedes concentrated their efforts towards the Baltic. Those Vikings that got hold of Normandy, eventually became the Normans, a Francophone branch of this Scandinavian family. The podcast Norman Centuries (feed) is dedicated to the Normans. The Norman story and the English story obviously come together around 1066, which is also elegantly told by Notes on History (feed), but apart from England, Norman conquests also take us into the Mediterranean and eventually all the way to Constantinople, where Normans became the famous Varangian Guard, about whom you will also learn in the podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers (feed)
There in the east, the Normans met Vikings who reached the same point but through a different route. Swedish Vikings conquered eastward and became known as the Rus, the founders of later Russia as we learn in the opening issues of the Russian Rulers History Podcast (feed)
As usual with Historic subjects, the archives of BBC's In Our Time are worth a visit and offer among others:
Athelstan,
Volga Vikings,
The battle of Stamford Bridge,
Alfred and the battle of Edington
And The Norman yoke.
More:
Irish History Podcast,
Norman Centuries,
Notes on History,
12 Byzantine Rulers,
Russian Rulers History Podcast.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Summer time tip: learn a language
What to do these months when your regular podcasts are on a summer break and you, the listener, actually has more time to spend on listening. Gotten past the backlog yet? Here is something new to try: why not take up a foreign language through podcast?
Podcasting is highly developed in the realm of language learning and although a lot of good content comes at a premium, also a lot is free. If you search 'learn nn through podcast', especially when nn is a rather commonly used language, you will find an astonishing amount of productions. Many are very similar and most of the free content is on beginners level, but through a couple of sessions of initial listening you can certainly identify the podcast that matches your level and preferences.
For example pick up some French. Here is a quick sample of what I collected when I was looking for a refresher of my high school French:
Beginners:
French for beginners; Real life French (feed)
Learn French by Podcast (feed)
Learn French With Alexa (feed)
Learn French with daily podcasts (feed)
The FrenchPodClass - Frenchie Productions (feed)
More learning language on Anne is a Man:
Learn German through podcast,
Learn Hebrew through podcast,
Podcasting is highly developed in the realm of language learning and although a lot of good content comes at a premium, also a lot is free. If you search 'learn nn through podcast', especially when nn is a rather commonly used language, you will find an astonishing amount of productions. Many are very similar and most of the free content is on beginners level, but through a couple of sessions of initial listening you can certainly identify the podcast that matches your level and preferences.
For example pick up some French. Here is a quick sample of what I collected when I was looking for a refresher of my high school French:
Beginners:
French for beginners; Real life French (feed)
Learn French by Podcast (feed)
Learn French With Alexa (feed)
Learn French with daily podcasts (feed)
The FrenchPodClass - Frenchie Productions (feed)
More advanced:
More learning language on Anne is a Man:
Learn German through podcast,
Learn Hebrew through podcast,
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Summer time tip: Mystery at Geneva
If you are looking for something different to listen to during long Summer days, whether on vacation or on dreary office days, you might consider listening to a piece of ironic narration from the public domain. Breakaway fro a moment from the lectures, the panel discussions and the interviews.
I was mesmerized by Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings, written by Dame Rose Macaulay and skillfully read to us by Cathy Barratt at Librivox (feed)
Henry Beechtree is a British journalist who attends a session of the League of Nations in the early twenties and tries to solve the disappearance of the president of the League. Soon enough Beechtree not only gets into trouble, he also gets involved in the case. While on the surface the story evolves around the mystery plot, some of the best stuff Macaulay has to offer is not related to the plot, but rather the elegant irony with which she describes the machinations of international politics, lobbyists and journalists. In that respect the story is just as relevant today as it was in the 1920s and it can apply just as much to the buzz around UN sessions as the activities around Capitol Hill or any other political power center for that matter.
More Librivox:
Beyond Good and Evil,
Bhagavad Gita,
Frankenstein,
History of Holland.
I was mesmerized by Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings, written by Dame Rose Macaulay and skillfully read to us by Cathy Barratt at Librivox (feed)
Henry Beechtree is a British journalist who attends a session of the League of Nations in the early twenties and tries to solve the disappearance of the president of the League. Soon enough Beechtree not only gets into trouble, he also gets involved in the case. While on the surface the story evolves around the mystery plot, some of the best stuff Macaulay has to offer is not related to the plot, but rather the elegant irony with which she describes the machinations of international politics, lobbyists and journalists. In that respect the story is just as relevant today as it was in the 1920s and it can apply just as much to the buzz around UN sessions as the activities around Capitol Hill or any other political power center for that matter.
More Librivox:
Beyond Good and Evil,
Bhagavad Gita,
Frankenstein,
History of Holland.
Listening ideas for 17 August 2011
New Books in Psychoanalysis
Susie Orbach, “Bodies”
“Why is the body the site of so much ongoing, current and growing attention in the West”? asks the feminist psychoanalyst and public intellectual Susie Orbach in her book Bodies (Picador, 2009). In this interview, the groundbreaking author of Fat is a Feminist Issue (inter alia) speaks to New Books in Psychoanalysis about how the body is “no longer a place we live from” but rather a place where the capitalist marketplace has hit a sort of pay dirt. From trendy diets to vaginal recalibration to liposuction, the body is big business. Indeed, as women and men feel a greater and greater need to control their bodies, losing touch with our natural appetites, and attempting to look a certain way, the market that exploits our fears and anxieties is making a fortune.
(review, feed)
New Books in Language
David Crystal, “Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language”
In an enormously prolific writing and editing career, David Crystal has excelled in supplying volumes hitherto missing from the field: here a balanced and accessible introduction to general linguistics, there a lucid specialised textbook in an emerging field. With this memoir, Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language (Routledge, 2009), he fills another gap, and offers a vivid picture of the working life of a professional linguist.
(review, feed)
New Books in Philosophy
Susan Schneider, “The Language of Thought: A New Philosophical Direction”
In 1975, Jerry Fodor published a book entitled The Language of Thought, which is aptly considered one of the most important books in philosophy of mind and cognitive science of the last 50 years or so. This book helped launch what became known as the classical computational theory of the mind, in which thinking was theorized as the manipulation of symbols according to rules. Fodor argued that certain features of human thought required that any human-like computational cognitive system had to have a structured format analogous to the structure that sentences have in natural languages. That is, according to Fodor, we must think in a Language of Thought, sometimes also called Mentalese.
(review, feed)
Susie Orbach, “Bodies”
“Why is the body the site of so much ongoing, current and growing attention in the West”? asks the feminist psychoanalyst and public intellectual Susie Orbach in her book Bodies (Picador, 2009). In this interview, the groundbreaking author of Fat is a Feminist Issue (inter alia) speaks to New Books in Psychoanalysis about how the body is “no longer a place we live from” but rather a place where the capitalist marketplace has hit a sort of pay dirt. From trendy diets to vaginal recalibration to liposuction, the body is big business. Indeed, as women and men feel a greater and greater need to control their bodies, losing touch with our natural appetites, and attempting to look a certain way, the market that exploits our fears and anxieties is making a fortune.
(review, feed)
New Books in Language
David Crystal, “Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language”
In an enormously prolific writing and editing career, David Crystal has excelled in supplying volumes hitherto missing from the field: here a balanced and accessible introduction to general linguistics, there a lucid specialised textbook in an emerging field. With this memoir, Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language (Routledge, 2009), he fills another gap, and offers a vivid picture of the working life of a professional linguist.
(review, feed)
New Books in Philosophy
Susan Schneider, “The Language of Thought: A New Philosophical Direction”
In 1975, Jerry Fodor published a book entitled The Language of Thought, which is aptly considered one of the most important books in philosophy of mind and cognitive science of the last 50 years or so. This book helped launch what became known as the classical computational theory of the mind, in which thinking was theorized as the manipulation of symbols according to rules. Fodor argued that certain features of human thought required that any human-like computational cognitive system had to have a structured format analogous to the structure that sentences have in natural languages. That is, according to Fodor, we must think in a Language of Thought, sometimes also called Mentalese.
(review, feed)
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