Listening ideas for 9 May 2011

Witness
The death of Ulrike Meinhof
Ulrike Meinhof was one of the leaders of a group of violent, anti-government extremists in West Germany. She was on trial for murder when she killed herself in May 1976.
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Ideas
Wild Journey: The Anne Innis Story
At the age of 23, Anne Innis was the first person to study African wildlife in its natural habitat. She blazed a trail that was distinctly Canadian, like her father, the political economist, Harold Innis. Sandy Bourque's documentary, told through Anne's eyes, is the story of one woman's courage and determination to study wild giraffe in South Africa in the 1950s. She offers a provocative witness to the terrible ease and disturbing normality of what would later come to be known as apartheid.
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UC Press Podcast
Someplace Like America- UC Press Podcast
Chris Gondek talks with Dale Maharidge about the struggles of working class Americans.
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Listening ideas for 8 May 2011

Forgotten Classics
Genesis, chapter 26
In which we resume our acquaintance with Isaac and Rebecca.
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Science Friday Podcast
Thomas Dolby, Gadgets and Privacy, Video Pick
Musician and techie Thomas Dolby, privacy and mobile gadgets, fluorescent rocks.
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William Rivers en de stroom van neurotici
Door shell-shock getroffen soldaten werden door psychiaters onder stroom gezet, met malaria geïnfecteerd of in vochtige doeken gewikkeld. Zoniet William Rivers. Hij was meer van de talking cure.
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Listening ideas for 7 May 2011

Witness
Victory in Europe day
On May 8 1945 Winston Churchill announced the end of World War 2 in Europe. For Germany it meant hardship and defeat but the celebrations in Britain were joyous.
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Philosophy Bites
Simon May on Love
Can love be defined? In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Simon May, author of a recent book on the topic, argues that there's more in common between different kinds of love than many people realise. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy
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Listening ideas for 6 May 2011

The Economist
Slow change in Cuba
A veteran from the Bay of Pigs and a student have different views on how their country has fared under communism
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The Partially Examined Life
Locke on Political Power
Discussing John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1690). What makes political power legitimate? Like Hobbes, Locke thinks that things are less than ideal without a society to keep people from killing us, so we implicitly sign a social contract giving power to the state. But for Locke, nature’s not as bad, so the state is given less power. But how much less? And what does Locke think about tea partying, kids, women, acorns, foreign travelers, and calling dibs? The part of Wes is played by guest podcaster Sabrina Weiss.
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WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show
The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Bob Riesman tells the life story of Big Bill Broonzy, a major figure in American blues and folk music. Reisman’s groundbreaking biography I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy, traces Big Bill’s career—from his rise as a nationally prominent blues star to his influential role in the post-World War II folk revival to his overseas tours in the 1950s, which ignited the British blues-rock explosion of the 1960s.
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New Books in Public Policy
Michael Auslin, “Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations”
How have the United States and Japan managed to remain such strong allies, despite having fought one another in a savage war less than 70 years ago? In Michael Auslin’s Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations (Harvard University Press, 2011), the author, an Asia expert at the American Enterprise Institute, explores the history of cultural exchange between the United States and Japan, and how important that exchange has been, and continues to be, from a political perspective.
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Listening ideas for 5 May 2011

In Our Time
Islamic Law
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins and early development of Islamic law. With Professor Hugh Kennedy, Professor Robert Gleave and Professor Mona Siddiqui.
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The Korea Society
North-South Korean Issues
On February 10, 2011, The Korea Society’s Korea In-Depth Lecture Series hosted professor Charles K. Armstrong, Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University, for a lecture entitled, “North-South Korean Issues." Armstrong explored the history of conflict and cooperation between North and South Korea from the time the two contemporary Korean states were established in 1948 until the present day. The 2011 Korea In-Depth Lecture Series by noted scholars of the history, politics, literature, art, and architecture of Korea is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.
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NeuroPod
March 2011
Adventurous and conservative worms, mapping the brain in super-high resolution, the role of psychiatry when disaster hits and a gene mutation that wipes out pain and sense of smell.
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The Economist
John Key on New Zealand's economy
As an election nears, New Zealand's prime minister advocates austerity measures to control the national debt and bolster the economy
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Check out the great listening tip from DIY Scholar today:
A great lecture series
A great place to look for new insights in foreign affairs and public policy is the lecture archive of Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. While the lectures are not in an RSS feed, it’s easy to download each one individually or to watch online.

Listening ideas for 4 May 2011

New Books In History
Francis Fukuyama, “The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution”
In his excellent The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011), Francis Fukuyama bucks the trend. Of course, he’s done it before with elegant and persuasive books about the fall of communism, state-building, trust, and biotechnology among other big topics. Here he takes on the emergence of modern political institutions, or rather three modern political institutions: the state, the rule of law, and accountable government. He begins with human nature, takes us through a massive comparison of the political trajectories of world-historical civilizations (Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, European), and, in so doing, tells us why the world political order looks the way it does today. His answers are surprising, and not directly in line with what might be called the “conventional thinking” about these things.
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Rear Vision
Syria
Popular unrest in Syria has been met with violent government repression and hundreds have been killed. The Alawite elite have ruled a predominantly Sunni Muslim country for more than 40 years.
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Leonard Lopate Show
The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother
Award-winning reporter Janny Scott talks about Stanley Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama’s mother. To write A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, Scott interviewed nearly 200 of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this independent woman's inspiring and nontraditional life. Scott shows how Dunham shaped the man Obama is today.
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