Making of the Modern World - UCSD

MMW was my first choice from the various lecture series UC San Diego has put on line as podcasts. MMW stands for Making of the Modern World and it is a lengthy series of history lectures presented at the Roosevelt College. It is cut into numbered consecutive series of which MMW 3 is the current.

MMW 3, is subtitled, Medieval Heritage and it consists of two different series delivered by two different lecturers. One by Matthew Herbst and one by Charles Chamberlain. I am still trying to figure out how they have divided the Medieval Heritage between themselves, but I have heard enough to know we have a great history podcast on our hands. Chamberlain's first two lectures did not make it to the podcast, but with the third lecture we dive head first into the roots of Christianity - viewed from within. Herbst's first lecture I advise to skip as it is too much of an overview and too much of administrative deliberation for the students, but with lecture two, we kick off into the hellenistic world and prepare for the roots of Christianity, but more from a state and religion perspective.

Here we see an approach which surprised me as to what I expected under the title Medieval Heritage. For me, Medieval stands for Middle Ages and I roughly place that between 500 and 1500 AD. The San Diego history course on the other hand, kicks off 100 BC and projects to continue till 1200 AD. Starting this early also shifts geographically the attention to the Middle East. Presumably, attention will shift westwards, as this is the direction in which the Modern World developed.

Apart from this lack of framework, which will keep the listener somewhat at a loss in the beginning, the series kicks off to a very promising start. One of the great advantages for me: it takes on the foundations of Christianity and the political and cultural developments that made Europe into the Renaissance, where Berkeley's History 5 starts.

Previously on UC San Diego's podcast courses.

UC San Diego - podcasts

Many academic institutions have found their way to iTunes U, but I have an additional appreciation for those who also disclose their content in the straightforward way Berkeley does on their Webcast site. To be a podcast listener, does not have to imply one is an iTunes user. For one, I find browsing iTunes U, or the iTunes podcast directory too bothersome. Too much loading time, too many graphics, too much of what I do not need and that takes up time and other resources. Alternately I can go to the simple list of courses at Berkeley and have it all in one instant, in one glance (or two).

The university which has follow suit, as I discovered this week, is the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Just as Berkeley, they have listed the current courses and you can directly subscribe or listen from the list. A couple of courses have immediately caught my eye: Medieval heritage, Language, The Planets, Twentieth-Century East Asia, Languages & Cultures/America and Introduction to Western Music - to name a handful.



Later this month you will be seeing the first reviews.

Conscious Living

Yet another fascinating issue of Shrink Rap Radio, should not scare you off, if you think it is about death. As a side note, there have been more podcasts in the series about death and they were quite good as well. This particular one, Conscious Living and Dying, is a case in point.

The best lesson to learn is that confrontation with death, not just one's own impending death or a near death experience, can mean a very positive turn for one's life. This is where the title inherits the conscious living element. Shrink Rap Radio's guest Annamaria Hemingway makes an convincing claim to this effect.

In modern life, death is much less near and people are less than ever capable of dealing with it. In fact, however, death can be a positive impulse. Death makes the true important elements in life much more clear, rather than the sometimes imposing, but basically diverting day to day worries and drives.

Once again, David van Nuys has pulled off a great show in this lengthy and very wonderful series. Shrink Rap Radio is one of the best podcasts around. It does so much more than bring psychology to an audience that covers professionals as much as interested amateurs. This podcast also shows what podcasts in general have to offer: on-demand talk radio of the very best quality.

All previous reviews of Shrink Rap Radio:
The Happiness Hypothesis,
Sign language for babies,
Doll Work and what with the brain,
Confronting Death (and more),
Process Work,
Authoritarianism,
Leadership and AI,
Shrinkrapradio at the San Francisco Exploratorium,
Dysfunctional personalities in the workplace,
Adventure Therapy,
Maternal bonding,
Materialism and its dragging feet,
Friendship in Shrinkrapradio,
At the New Media Expo,
David van Nuys invited by students,
The Commercialization of Childhood,
Bush on the couch,
David Lukoff,
War and the Soul,
The Dream interview method,
The Bitch, the Crone, and the Harlot,
Jerry and Dave discuss the podcast in its 100th issue,
Dr. Dave and the Zodiac,
Freud and Jung,
Dreaming as a Bridge Between Religion and Science,
Stanley Krippner,
Alan Siegel,
Mark Blagrove,
Curtiss Hoffman,
Dream language,
The Secret Spiritual World of Children.

Islam meets Europe

The University Channel Podcast (or UChannel for short) is one podcast that is near impossible to follow completely as it combines lecture recordings from all over the world, not just from the host Princeton University. The sheer size of the feed alone makes it unmanageable for a single listener - they go on average on one podcast per day. The range of subjects covers all hot issues in regular media, with outstanding speakers also from outside Academia. It is a directory to pick and choose from according to area of interest.

This week I chose to listen to a panel discussion from January 17th, under the title The Encounter of Islam with Europe. (audio) Main speakers were Timothy Garton Ash and the famous Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Timothy is offered to set the stage and challenge in a way Ayaan to a discussion. After the relatively short round of exchange between the two, the public is invited to join with questions and remarks.

No matter how carefully Ayaan chooses her phrases (she even reads her speech rather than ad lib), her view of Islam and Europe appears to be foremost rooted in her experiences and from that onset translated into the language of academia in the vernacular of enlightened rationality. This is radically different from Timothy, who is detached and whether abstractly, theoretically or anthropologically tries to portray Islam as a wide vessel for a multitude of political and philosophical outlooks and tries to veer Ayaan away from addressing it as a monolithic structure. Deep down they do not seem to speak the same language.

More UChannel on this blog:
The rise and demise of Palestine,
Alan Johnston,
Nuclear Terrorism,
Attack Iran (or not),
Less Safe, Less Free (Losing the War on Terror).

More Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
Interview Vrijdag (Dutch)

Climate Change in recent history

The Environmental History Podcast (or longer: Exploring Environmental History) used to publish at least an issue each month. In the last months however, it went missing and it seems to have gone over to a two-month schedule, skipping January and March. Or at least so it seems. Host Jan Oosthoek doesn't go into explanations.

Jan Oosthoek, just took his recording equipment with him to a conference in Birmingham (UK) titled An End to History? Climate Change, the Past and the Future. He sat down to interview to of the speakers on the conference. (listen) For one, Gill Chitty, Head of Conservation of The Council for British Archaeology, about the important contributions of archeology to the national debate about climate change. Second, Jim Galloway of the Center for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research in London, about the impact of storm surges on the lands bordering the Thames Estuary during the fourteenth century.

Gill Chitty's main point is that climate change has always occurred and archeology can show this. She hopes to alter the mind set that somehow is clinging to the idea that there shouldn't be change. In addition, she surmises climate change can be a concept too large to cope with, but archeology can show this in concrete and local environments. One such example is delivered by Jim Galloway, of how the environment in the Thames Estuary changed with the storm surges in the fourteenth century. Jan Oosthoek goes on to add that also other shores of the North Sea went through this, most notably the Netherlands.

More Environmental History podcast on this blog:
Urban Air Pollution,
Apartheid and Environmental History,
Environmental History and South Africa,
Environmental History.

Getting Published

"The more I write, the more I write," Mark Leslie reveals on The Writing Show. The fact he appears on the podcast and the audience is challenging him to keep up his production, he has achieved major advancement with getting his horror novel A Canadian Werewolf in New York ready. It does have some bad effect on his health. Show Host Paula jokes: this must remain Getting Published with Mark Leslie, and not become Getting a Pneumonia. (part 8, part 7)

So the writing show brings the struggles of writers really up close, especially in the Getting Published series. Recently this series has received yet another new author. Janice Ballenger, who is working as a coroner in Pennsylvania and had decided always she was going to write her memoirs about this exclusive job. So she had some journals, but wasn't turning this into a book, as long as she was still on active duty. This changed however with the Amish School Shooting to which she was called.

Now she had to write the book, simply had to. And these feelings become very tangible in the emotional interview Paula has with her on the show. Despite the effects of the shooting and its aftermath still lingering, she has set out to write the book. Writing it was relatively easy, but getting all the technical additional stuff right, less so. This podcast is an absolute must listen for every aspiring writer.

More Writing Show on this blog:
Getting Published with Mark Leslie,
Psychological Aspects of Writing,
Getting published with Jean Tennant,
Self-publishing,
The art of coherence.