Whalen / Rohrbough - NBIH

Somehow I have managed to keep up with the production schedule of New Books in History and in the same week listen to both a new and an old issue from this eminent podcast series.

The latest episode, an interview with Brett Whalen, takes us much further back than what we usually get in NBIH: to the age of the Crusades. The need for Crusades was connected with the eschatology notion that the word of Christ needed to be known onto the whole world and that Jerusalem better be in the hands of the Christians. What was it that only by the tenth century these ideas became so convincing that they could trigger an age of Crusades? Whalen takes us into the logic of the Crusades and in the process also shows how this crusading idea never died. Gives new thoughts on George W. Bush's use of the word Crusade in the context of the War against Terror.

For the older episode I simply went to the beginning of the feed and took the oldest issue: an interview with Malcolm Rohrbough. With Rohrbough, Marshal Poe speaks about the trans-Appalachian frontier. Rohrbough is said to be the one who has written the 'definitive story' on this issue. This is basically the effort to take the history of the western frontier from its earliest point and try to tell it as one from the beginning.

More NBIH:
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey,
Substance abuse in the midwest,
How could they continue - NBIH on WW1 soldiers,
After slavery was abolished.

Oude Hoorspelen - Huffduffer feed

Dankzij een artikel op het blog van Ronald van den Boogaard, kwam ik terecht op een webpagina van de radiomaker Gerrit Kalsbeek, waar hij door middel van playertjes een aantal oude hoorspelen beluisterbaar heeft neergezet. Het gaat om drama's die in de jaren vijftig en zestig werden geschreven en rond die tijd ook zijn uitgezonden.

Ik heb ze nog niet allemaal gehoord, maar die waar ik aan heb kunnen snuffelen zijn om uiteenlopende redenen zeer de moeite waard. Neem bijvoorbeeld De Korawa Expeditie. Dat is een hoorspel dat voelbaar oubollig is in zijn totaal verouderde weergave van de romance tussen de man en de vrouw in het verhaal en door de koude oorlog atmosfeer waarin het is neergezet. Maar die oubolligheid is nou juist ook de charme. Voeg daarbij een verrassend element. Zonder dat ik teveel wil weggeven over de plot, het gaat ten slotte om een thriller, is wel op te merken dat in het verhaal een motief van klimaatverandering gepaard gaand aan een stijgende waterspiegel meespeelt. Dat is toch iets voor een stuk dat in 1967 geschreven is, buitengewoon visionair.

Om kort te gaan, het is meer dan de moeite waard om hier eens naar te gaan luisteren, maar waarom on-line? Ik heb de herkomst van de geluidsbestanden uit de pagina achterhaald en ben begonnen ze in een Huffduffer feed te zetten. Onder AnneisaMan | Hoorspelen zal ik ze allemaal invoeren (feed). Eventueel andere hoorspelen die ik op het spoor zou komen (hulp is welkom) zal ik aan deze feed eveneens toevoegen.

Natural Resource Management - LSE podcast

At the LSE podcast there was a lecture as part of a conference at the newly established International Growth Center. This is an institute within the London School of Economics that concerns itself with the practical study of how underdeveloped countries can come to proper development. Especially important in that respect is Natural Resource Management

Professor Paul Collier speaks of natural resource management and eloquently builds the argument how this should go about. Many of the natural resources in underdeveloped countries are still not discovered. It is reasonable to assume they are there and in that rspect they form an excellent ticket out of poverty. But in order to prevent that other should profit and not the country and its population, these resources need to be carefully searched for, sold, exploited, taxed and the money properly invested.

Be aware that the first 16 minutes of the podcast are spent on welcoming and other ceremonial talk that pertain the conference rather than the specific talk. My advice is to skip them.

More LSE Events:
The Iran power struggle,
Justice,
In Search of Islam’s Civilization,
Religion and the Market - John Gray on LSE,
John Gray's cultural pessimism.

Omega Tau - bilingual science podcast

Here is a new and very interesting find in the realm of science podcasts: Omega Tau Podcast. There have been eighteen episodes to date and it looks very promising. On subjects of science and technology the podcast presents interviews with specialists in the chosen fields.

I very much enjoyed the last two episode. One about robotics and the last about Astrobiology. It is always good to hear the specialists talk, but let them be guided in an interview to make connection with the wider public and the listening easier. In addition, what is special about this podcast is that it is bilingual. Half of the episodes are in English, the other half in German. The production is in German hands, but depending upon the guest - apparently - the interview is conducted in English.

It is possible to subscribe to the entire podcast: Omega Tau podcast feed, but also to connect to feeds in either of the languages: Omega Tau in English and Omega Tau in German. Needless to say, when you subscribe to either of these, you get the episodes in that language only and the numbering will not be continuous.

Environmental history: an applied science - EEH

The Exploring Environmental History Podcast has delivered the fourth issue in the series of defining the field of environmental history. This time Jan Oosthoek did not interview a fellow historian, but rather read an essay on the subject. An interesting conclusion to the series, but be aware that listening to an essay is more demanding than listening to an interview.

More Exploring Environmental History:
Defining Environmental History with Marc Hall,
Defining Environmental History - Paul Warde,
Defining Environmental History - Donald Worster,
Natural Disasters,
Canada and New Zealand.

David Cole - NYRB

The podcast of the New York Review of Books (feed) is always worth to take a listen. I choose my subjects as I do with so many other interview and lecture podcasts. The latest issue was one I listened to with great interest.

Lawyer David Cole was interviewed on the subject of lawyers who authorize torture. About the subject he also wrote an article in the NYT called The Torture Memo. He refers to memo's that came from lawyers who informed the Bush administration how they could legally use enhanced interrogation techniques (a euphemism for torture) or alternately use them and avoid being called to defend the use in court. These memos have been secret until recently, but bit by bit are becoming public only now, thanks to legislation under the Obama administration.

The picture becomes clear of what Cole and his fellows long guessed was the case: torture was widely used and intentionally so. The legal foundation of it, he argues, has created a situation that torture is at the discretion of the president. If you have a president who wants to use torture, it shall be used and the cases shall be held out of court. The implicit argument is that this has no place in a state under the rule of law, according to Cole.

More NYRB podcast:
Amateur Science - Freeman Dyson,
Roger Cohen in Tehran,
Ronald Dworkin.

More David Cole:
Less safe, less free.