Anne is a Man! - Podcast Reviews

The future of Pakistan - BBC Analysis

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

I have taken up listening to BBC's Analysis (feed), a program which attempts to analyze what ideas and powers shape British public policy. After issues about ecological policy and social science studies into moral choices, there was the last program of the season, which really stuck out and needs to be heard together with the latest podcasts I highlighted about geopolitcs, about Pakistan.

The scare word applied to Pakistan is 'Jihadistan'. The main point of the program is to show how Pakistan is edging dangerously close to becoming a state controlled by Jihadists. This as a result of a two way development, where the more moderate powers and the establishment are having little or a lessening grip on the country and religious fundamentalists are springing up in all regions together, albeit concerted or independently.

There is also a point that as a state Pakistan was never quite capable of controlling all regions and this called, in me, for questions about it being, maybe, a failed state. In that case a Jihadistan does not only mean a threat to Britain, to India and to geopolitical stability, but it would mean a deterioration of internal order, much in the way is already happening in remote areas such as Waziristan or the notorious Swat valley. The description of how jihadist militias recruit young kids are reminiscent of examples of other failed states such as Sudan and Congo.

More:
Sudan and the fallacy of nationhood,
Repairing failed states,
Lakhdar Brahimi about Afghanistan and Iraq,
Global Geopolitics,
Faith based diplomacy.

Henk Spaan - Voor een nacht

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

KRO's Voor 1 nacht is geen podcast die bol staat van de kwaliteit. De kans op interessante gesprekken wordt veelal gesmoord in formules en in het geval van gast Henk Spaan overdadige aandacht voor de successen met Harry Vermeegen en een ongeneerd pluggen van Henk Spaan's nieuwe boek 'De rapen zijn gaar', waaruit de schrijver enkele stukjes mag voorlezen en je je afvraagt of er werkelijk geen betere fragmenten te kiezen waren.

Kortom, het was een bar slechte uitzending. Marc Stakenburg valt opnieuw als interviewer door de mand. (Of hij mag niets van zijn redactie, maar waar sta je dan eigenlijk nog voor?) De formule met muziekjes en de openingsvragen waarin de gast uit tweetallen een keuze moet maken, bewijst zich opnieuw als obligaat en verwaterend. Waarom is het dan toch nog de moeite waard om te luisteren?

Het is omdat Henk Spaan heel sympathiek en relativerend over zijn werk en over media praat. Zolang het boek niet geplugd wordt en er niet al teveel gedweept wordt met het Harry Vermeegen tijdperk en Spaan gewoon aan het woord wordt gelaten om iets verstandigs te zeggen, dan werkt het gewoon. Ik heb al vaak gezegd dat een goede gast een interviewprogramma kan redden, maar dat het programma en de interviewer de uitzending kan bederven blijkt eveneens een serieus gevaar te zijn. Dat er ten slotte ook veel spannender uit De rapen zijn gaar kan worden voorgelezen, blijkt wel uit de onderstaande video. En dan snap je die titel ook eindelijk.

Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
Maarten Ducrot,
Candy Dulfer,
Olga Zuiderhoek en Paul Rosenmoller,
Gijs Wanders en Adjiedj Bakas,
Arnon Grunberg.

Lawrence Freedman - Big Ideas

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

TVO's podcast Big Ideas had a lecture with Lawrence Freedman (audio) in which he comments on his book A choice of enemies; America confronts the Middle East. This is a lecture with a historical perspective on US foreign policy in the Middle East.

In many ways, Freedmans outstanding lecture was an echo of a point also made in the excellent history and political science series from Stanford: The History of the International System. 1979 is a year with a couple of occurrences in the geopolitcs of the Middle East that break away from the Cold War logic of the time and are the harbingers of a new world order that is to come and that we have become familiar with today. The Egypt-Israel peace initiative, The revolution in Iran and (of you wish) the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.

What makes Freedman's lecture refreshing is the emphasis on history. It gives a much clearer perspective on the geopolitics of the Middle-East and makes many of its feature much less surprising. So much less so that Freedman hardly avoids scolding foreign policy makers for not knowing their history and rerun old policies with old failing over and over again. After the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan came the US variety, with equal problematic outcome. After the British failure to dictate state building in Iraq, the US ran into the same conundrum. This lecture is indispensable for the podcast listener who tries to get a grip on the Middle-East.

More Big Ideas:
New Learning - Don Tapscott on Big Ideas,
On Crime,
Why isn't the whole world developed?,
The role and place of the intellectual,
Disaster Capitalism.

More History of the International System:
The State in The International System,
A century of geopolitics,
History of the International System.

Jewish varieties - From Israelite To Jew

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

The podcast From Israelite to Jew studies the cultural development in Judaism from a historical perspective. As explained by the beginning of the series, around the 6th century BCE there were Israelites that adhered to Judaism. Israelites were a rather loose federation of tribes. Over time they developed into an ethnicity called the Jews.

When speaking of THE Jews, the impression may arise that there is some kind of unity and there is one Judaism. The podcast's host, Michael Satlow, turns to what little sources there are and attempts to measure that unity. For one there are the Hebrew bible and apocryphal Hebrew sources, which mostly concentrate on the worship around the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition there are Greek and Latin sources that paint a radically different picture of assimilated Jewry, but does this mean there are these two, the real Judaism and the watered down, bound to disappear Hellenistic Judaism?

Satlow proposes a different idea, one that breaks away from the dichotomy of observant and assimilated Jews. There had been Jewish communities throughout the Greek Empires ever since the second Temple Period (500 BCE - 70 CE) started. if you look at the Temple cult in Jerusalem, the alleged pure Judaism, it would have been impossible for Jews in faraway places to maintain this kind of Judaism. However, this does not necessarily mean, that all these Jews assimilated to disappearance. Satlow suggests a wide variety of ways these Jews must have maintained and developed their Judaism. This is where the shift from Temple to Synagogue may have started, way in advance of the destruction of the Temple and the last diaspora. Satlow's history is a history of a Judaism that is in continuous development driven by many Jewish varieties.

More FITJ:
Jews in the Hasmonean era,
The Maccabee Uprising,
Hellenism,
Jews of the Persian Empire,
The fox and the hedgehog.

Two great shows on New Books In History

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Just when I was about to write a raving review about Marshal Poe's interview with Mark Bradley about the Vietnamese perspective at the Vietnam War, up along came the interview with Susan Brewer about American war propaganda since the end of the nineteenth century when President McKinley had to sell to the public the war with Spain and on the Philippines. Both are very interesting especially for those who are interested in a new perspective on US foreign policy.

Mark Bradley's book is obviously most needed; after all that has been said and written about the Vietnam War, what was sorely missing was an insight in how this war is perceived among the Vietnamese. After Bradley's book, maybe more should follow. Though Marshall Poe has high praise for the book and based on the interview one certainly gets a really good impression about Bradley as an historian, there still is room left for discovery. The most pronounced reason for this is that Vietnam is still not the open society with accessible archives and an established discourse among historians to allow for a definitive Vietnamese version. But certainly Bradly has paved the way.

Brewer's book raises first of all the question of propaganda. What is propaganda? Is it necessarily a bundle of lies to manipulate the public? Can any government live without it? Since the answer to the last question seems to be no, the government will always need some explanatory policy. Even if propaganda is not be a set of outright lies, it certainly is an information initiative to influence the public. Brewer's book (and the podcast) give some insight into the workings of propaganda, from times when media, probably, could be controlled, to the modern age when there is always plenty room for opposing voices. The bottom line is that propaganda never seems to have lost its efficacy.

More NBIH:
Two old and one New Books In History,
The latest in New Books in History,
Three recommendations,
American Exceptionalism,
The Great War in short.

The Royal Navy and the Seven Year War - BTHP

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

I came out of the last episode of Binge Thinking History Podcast's series about the Royal Navy thinking that the British by the beginning of the 18th century had already begun to rule the waves. Yet the latest episode, around the Seven Years War, takes the narrative further and slightly adjusts this point.

Host Tony Cocks acknowledges the advanced position the navy has. Other important navies in Europe had been pushed off the scene, notably the Dutch and the Spanish. However, this left the British to compete with the French and France with its bigger population and fast growing economy looked to become even more formidable than the British. The covert competition, fast deteriorates from enmity to all out war. The Seven Year War, fought on all sides of the globe, from Canada, to the Channel, the Mediterranean, to India sees the French gain the upper hand.

In an exciting narrative accompanied with wonderfully apt sound effects, Cocks spells out what the positions are, where the key players go and how the tables are turned. Can we say that in the end the British indeed rule the waves? They surely assume that ruling the seas is the key to empire. The French however maintain strength on land and confrontations with the competition on the other side of the channel are still going to come up again. The next chapter will continue from the end of the 18th century I gather.

BTHP is an amateur podcast and the quality it aspires to is extremely demanding for host Tony Cocks as is for many of his colleagues who try to keep up their own history podcasts. What I see with BTHP and its likes, is that these demands are met, but the price across the board is that these good podcasts appear very infrequently. Months between issues are no exception. I think I am not the only one in their public that applauds the maintenance of quality and takes the long stretches as part of the bargain.

More BTHP:
Britannia Rules the Waves,
Royal Navy,
Win, lose or draw,
Blitz on London,
Battle of Britain.

Emmeline Pankhurst - Veertien Achttien

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Er is een mooi bruggetje te maken tussen de voorlaatste en de laatste aflevering van Veertien Achttien. Toen de hoofdpersoon van vorige week, Lord Kitchener, de Britse mannen opriep om dienst te nemen het nieuwe vrijwilligerlseger, Kitchener's Army, kreeg hij steun uit een opmerkelijke hoek: van de feministe Emmeline Pankhurst, hoofdpersoon deze week.

De feministes onder Pankhurst deelden witte veren uit aan elke man die nog ongeschonden door Londen rondliep. Waarom? Op het oog betekent de witte veer: lafaard, neem dienst. Maar waarom waren het juist de feministische Suffragettes die opeens de oorlogszaak zo hartstochtelijk oppakten? Twee gedachtes dringen zich op. De beweging voor vrouwenkiesrecht gold als tamelijk radicaal, een opposant van de gevestigde orde en zoals wel vaker met dit soort ideele groeperingen, kunnen zij hartstochtelijk nationalisme aannemen om een zekere legitimiteit te verkrijgen. Patriotisme is in de moderne historie een handig middel om de publieke opinie te bewerken, vooral in tijden van oorlog.

Maar dankzij Tom Tacken wordt nog een idee geopperd: hoe meer mannen dienst nemen, hoe meer het Home Front door vrouwen gerund moet worden. Hoe meer vrouwen aan het roer staan, hoe meer invloed in de samenleving, hoe meer de actieve participatie in politiek door vrouwen dichterbij komt. Het wordt vaak verondersteld dat de Eerste Wereldoorlog het algemeen kiesrecht versneld dichterbij heeft gebracht. Tacken suggereert dit ook, maar in dit verband is het wel aardig om de luisteraars te wijzen op een aflevering van BBC's In Our Time (Suffragism) dat iets anders oppert: het vrouwenkiesrecht was er al bijna en de oorlog heeft de boel alleen maar vertraagd.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Lord Kitchener,
Walther Rathenau,
Komitas Vardapet,
John Condon,
Koning George V.

History of Medicine podcasts - Oxford Brookes University

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:29:00 +0000

Each episode in the series History of Medicine Podcasts from Oxford Brooke University (School of Arts and Humanities) begins with calling itself: Another podcast of 'Moments in Medicine'. What does this mean? Have the makers inherited recordings of another podcast? Have they changed the name in the process? Whatever the final decision is going to be about the proper name, both names carry an indication onto what kind of podcast this is: Brief historic moments that marked the science and profession of medicine are being discussed. And they are more Medicine with a History backdrop, than chapters in the history of Medicine. On that account I'd personally prefer Moments in Medicine.

Thus far this podcast has seven short chapters in its feed which cover interesting subjects such as: Why do human beings have a tendency to obesity? Medicinal clothing. Pandemics. Sickle Cell disease. And Eugenics. The last one was highlighted on Twitter by the tweets of the Reith Lectures 2009 and this is how I found the podcast. As said, the focal point is medicine. The subjects are addressed by and to those interested in medicine and have a historic perspective for better understanding.

For the purpose of identifying the category for this podcast, I am therefore inclined to put it both in history and science (or medicine). In comparison with other podcasts, I want to recommend this one as it is very professionally made and very informative.

More Medical History:
Medieval Islamic Medicine (University of Warwick),
Pain in paradigm (Missing Link),
Medicalhistory - podcast review,
Four Humor Medicine (BBC - In Our Time),
Avicenna (BBC - In Our Time).

More about BBC Reith Lectures 2009:
A new politics of the common good,
The bioethics concern,
Morality in Politics,
Morality and the Market,
Michael Sandel - Philosophy Bites.

Rear Vision sequels to Iran and Versailles

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

It was promised at the start of the two last programs of Rear Vision I reviewed: both would be part of a double show, yet it took some time for the second of each to appear in the feed. Today I listened to these two follow-ups and I want to warmly recommend both, but also want to add: don't listen to them in the order I did.

I first listened to the first installment about Iran, which gave the background to the coup of 1953 and then I listened to the first installment on the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Both were great, but their sequels proceed so neatly from where the first chapters ended, it is really best to listen to the couple in one fell swoop.

The Iran show (Iranian Revolution) will take the narrative further from the 1953 coup and describe the regime of the Shah, how it could stay in place for over 25 years. It was a regime of terror and intricate division of the opposition. Yet, when somehow Khomeini managed to become the focal point for opposition unity, the Shah's regime crumbled in little time.

The show about the Peace conference (Impact of Versailles) will highlight and discuss all the alleged bad effects on specific nations. Not just the question whether it was Versailles that brought Hitler to power, but also about Yugoslavia, other parts of Eastern Europe and importantly the Middle East. It is said that especially in the Middle East the effects of 1919 are still felt and the invented nations (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon) and overlooked nations (Palestinians, Armenians and probably also Kurds though they are not mentioned) are still troubled by the artificial terms set in that time.

More Rear Vision:
Versailles 1919,
Iran 1953,
Coffee,
Fiji.

Nico Frijda - Simek 's Nachts

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

We hebben ze wel eens vaker meegemaakt, gasten in Simek 's Nachts, of het nu bij de RVU of bij Elsevier was, die over bepaalde dingen niet willen praten. Het meest fascinerende is dan hoe Martin Simek naar de grens gaat, tot waar de gast zich nog veilig voelt, en er dan toch overheen probeert te gaan. Soms krijg je dan toch nog iets meer te horen dan de afbakening toeliet. Zo ook bij het laatste interview.

Al bij de inleiding vertelt Simek dat zijn gast, Nico Frijda niet graag over zijn oorlogservaringen spreekt. Je voelt dat hij daarnaartoe zal gaan werken en dat maakt het meteen al spannend. Maar behalve dat gaat het ook over Frijda's werk, over liefde en trouw en over sommege van zijn kinderen. En ook in die prive-sfeer die niet met de oorlog te maken heeft zijn er zaken niet bespreekbaar. Frijda zegt simpelweg: hier wil ik niet over praten.

En zo gaat het gesprek ook expliciet over die grenzen, over die afgesloten aspecten van de mens Frijda en waarom daar niet over gesproken kan worden. Het is het dilemma van het trauma onderdrukken of oprakelen; hij is er niet een die onverkort gelooft dat erover praten oplucht. En terwijl we bezig zijn krijg je toch nog onverwacht veel te weten. En er vallen een paar stiltes waarvan ik vermoed dat Frijda zijn tranen verbijt. Het maakt de uitzending hier en daar spannend, interessant en teglijkertijd een klein beetje ongemakkelijk, maar dat hoort erbij.

EXCLUSIEF via dit blog, drie feeds waarin oude Simek interviews zijn op te halen, die niet meer door de RVU rechtstreeks aangeleverd worden.

Meer Simek 's Nachts:
Aaf Brandt Corstius,
Freek de Jonge,
Kees van Kooten,
Connie Palmen,
Dhyan Sutorius (RVU).

A plea for integrated historiography - Gilder Lehrmann

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

The Gilder Lehrmann Institute for American History has a history podcast that I have come to appreciate more and more. A wide range of academics are invited to lecture on their field of interest and this results in a high level podcast about history. The list of available lectures is long, there is much to pick and choose from, but I have found the quality increasing over time and recommend the most the recent lectures.

One of those is a lecture by Thomas Bender, 'American history, views from abroad' in which Bender notices a kind of division that I also see, at least in history podcasts. This division is between American History and history of the rest of the world. These two histories are taught and studied separately and barely influence each other, almost to the extent as if we are dealing with two different unconnected worlds. Needless to say the world is connected, but Bender goes beyond stating the obvious and makes two important points. The one is that in the past, American academicians never thought of their history to be separate, hence this is a relatively new (say since 1945) phenomenon. Furthermore, he brings examples of how specific elements in American History that are widely thought to be exceptional are hardly so at all.

And so, Bender pleads for integrated history, or better, since history is integrated anyway, an integrated historiography. And this is a point that should go both ways: not only should Amercian Historians integrate with world history, other historians should also integrate with America. I would like to stretch this even further and plead for more integration with non-western historiography. Taking the world of history podcasts to be representative; historiography barely goes beyond Europe and Neo-Europe and if it does, it is more likely to be treated as curiosa, than as a substantial part of 'real' history. But there is no West without Islam and no Islam without Persia, without the Roman Empire and there is no Roman empire without Africa, Asia and so on.

More Gilder Lehrmann:
The Cuban Missile Crisis (Sergei Khrushchev),
African American generations (Ira Berlin),
Theodore Roosevelt (Patrica O'Toole),
Slave Culture (Philip Morgan).

Defining Environmental History with Marc Hall - EEH podcast

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0000

The Exploring Environmental History Podcast is nearing the end of a very interesting series of short interviews with important names in the field of Environmental History. The question to each of the was to give a definition of the field and host Jan Oosthoek asked them to expand a bit on the given points.

In the third interview he spoke with Marc Hall (Marc Hall on mp3) and Hall reacts very much like the previous speakers, Donald Worster and Paul Warde, by not fitting the discipline in one catchy line. He also points out there is a historic development of the field which has made is enlarge from using history to view the problems with environment, to studying the environment as a phenomenon in human history whether troubling or beneficial. Eventually the field of Environmental History could also be seen as an umbrella under which historians with a different subjects and angles meet each other.

What they then have in common is that they not only interact with sociologists and economists as other historians but also with other, ecological, disciplines. Consequently they add to the subjects in history of race, class and gender, new subjects like health, globalization, evolution and so on. Just like the previous speakers he regards the field as new, stil relatively small and still in development. Surely taking the human habitat as a relevant point has enriched perspectives in history. It is very interesting to take in these short interviews one after the other.

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

From Pavlov to Milgram - Ran Levi

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

The series עושים היסטוריה! עם רן לוי (Making History with Ran Levi) never ceases to amaze me with the sheer width of subjects in both science and history it is capable of effectively taking on. The latest show was yet again an excellent one and this time about psychology.

When psychology ceased to be considered part of philosophy and began applying methods of empirical sciences a whole world of psychological testing was developed. With, necessarily, an emphasis on behavioral psychology, Ran Levi takes us through the range of lab tests psychology performed and what these tests taught us. From the dogs of Pavlov - yes this is psychology as well, to the Milgram tests. About learning, reflexes and the limits of our control.

This was a very good show, completely consistent with the level we are used to. But to get this from a show that has a tendency for the technical and is presented by an engineer, I am more than a little bit impressed it could pull off such a great quality also in the social sciences.

More Making History with Ran Levi:
A history of pandemics,
Surviving the atom bomb,
Robert Heinlein,
Diamond Rain and other phenomena,
Blood.

Jimi Hendrix - Entitled Opinions

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Last year, thanks to Jesse Willis of SFF Audio, I was exposed for the first time to the podcast Entitled Opinions and it took me some time to really begin to connect. It is an acquired taste so to say. Host Robert Harrison rides his own interests, starting from his own scholarly level of knowledge and this can be a handicap for the unfamiliar, but basically is a strength in the end.

The podcast is also a radio program with semester seasons. Spring 2009 has been closed with the last show, which is a solo show, that means there was no guest whom professor Harrison interviewed, about Jimi Hendrix. If the shows have a personal touch all along, this solo show has it even more so. And that personal touch is, needless to say, Harrison's own fascination and adoration for Jimi Hendrix. We surf with him on the tones of the music, propelled by the lyrics through the show.

Harrison treats Hendrix as a phenomenon and concentrates on the effort to come to grips with the nature of this phenomenon. How can you explain this power of expression? What drove him, what inspired him? Harrison rejects the application of any kind of psycho-analysis, or socio-political embedding of Hendrix. He takes the man as a kind of singularity, an angel, an alien, a voodoo child and joins Hendrix's lyrics into this search into the mystics of True Identity and Deeper Nature. Listening to the podcast turns into an experience pur sang.

More Entitled Opinions:
Nietzsche,
Romanticism,
Sartre's Existentialism,
Five Free Favorites of Jesse Willis.

Logical Positivism - In Our Time

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Before the episode is going to be taken off line tomorrow, here is a reminder to go ahead and download BBC In Our Time's latest issue Logical Positivism.

Somehow, it was especially fascinating to hear this episode so shortly after finishing the BBC Reith Lectures by Michael Sandel. Maybe it is my personal impression, but somehow, Sandel's plea to allow for morality to enter the public debate seems to fit not so well with logical positivism. Logical positivism was all about pushing away from science (and thus in many ways, away from the public debate) all issues that could not rationally be decided by data and systematic observation. By all means this seems to reflect our qualms to debate issues of morality, religion, spirituality and grand ideologies.

Certainly, logical positivism only addressed science, not the public or the political debate. But in a technocratic society, science seems to be the highest authority to turn to for ultimately deciding about false and true. Albeit, truth is a rather tricky fellow to capture and it is therefore surprising that the program about Logical Positivism hardly addressed Karl Popper's contribution through the approach of falsification. But surely this is because Popper had his own chapter of In Our Time.

More In Our Time:
The Sunni - Shia split,
Revenge Tragedy,
The Augustan Age,
The trial of king Charles I,
St. Paul.

More BBC Reith Lectures 2009:
A politics of the common good,
The bioethics concern,
Morality in Politics,
Morality and the Market.

Bommel Hoorspel podcast - NPS podcast recensie

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Twee jaar geleden schreef ik al over het Bommel Hoorspel (Website: podcast NPS | Bommel) dat ik destijds als een beetje kinderachtig afdeed. (feed) Het viel me op dat na al die jaren de podcast nog steeds bestaat en ben maar weer eens gaan luisteren.

Nu zit ik in het midden van een serie die een van mijn Bommel favorieten De Grote Onthaler als hoorspel brengt. Het verhaal wordt prachtig gelezen door Maartje van Weegen en het spel is net een beetje pittiger dan ik me van twee jaar geleden herinner. Verder zijn de muziek en geluidseffecten nog geraffineerder geworden. Kortom, wat mij destijds wat flauw en versukkeld overkwam is nu een heel aangename ervaring geworden.

Meer Bommel Hoorspel:
Bommel Hoorspel.

Resurrection after rape - Shrink Rap Radio

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Shrink Rap Radio the outstanding psychology interview podcast had a most intriguing talk with Matt Atkinson about his work with victims of rape. Atkinson is a therapist who shows a remarkable ability to combine the latest scientific insights with the qualitative and creative demands to the therapist patient relationship.

Trust is an issue in therapeutic relationships in all circumstances, but when a man is the therapist to (mostly) women who are trying to survive the experience of rape, that tension is all the more obvious. Atkinson adds to this disadvantage his large posture and the fact he is an American native (Ojibway) complete with the attributes that go with that ethnicity. He relates how he manages to let this work as an advantage to him and his clients. Then we can talk about resurrection.

The truly fascinating angle Atkinson takes is one that has been mentioned generally with PTSD, that the victim has been hurt in the soul. The recovery to the soul demands much more than the standardized therapies, but rather the personal focus and creativity of the therapist and the dedication of the client. Atkinson manages in a very convincing and inspiring fashion to give us touch of this intensive experience. It is one of these amazing SRR interviews you have to hear.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack,
Relationships and the brain,
and notably: PTSD and the soul (Ed Tick).

Cuban Missile Crisis from Soviet perspective - Gilder Lehrmann

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

The Gilder Lehrmann Institute for American History had an exceptional issue in their Historians on the Record podcast. Their guest was Sergei Khruschev, the son of ... , to talk about the Cuban Missile crisis. The lecture was both informing and entertaining.

There are two charming and thought provoking aspects to Khrushchev's lecture. The expected and still fascinating part is the one that is filled with his personal memories. With him we follow his father step by step through the crisis. Nothing could be more exciting than that. The Soviets regarded Cuba as an unreachable, remote backwater and had no real intention to push the US to the brink. You get to understand why the Hot Line was established afterwards.

How is that the US was pushed to the brink? It is psychology and Khrushchev makes mild fun of the Americans, but also challenges with an idea: the cold water was an event in which the adversaries carefully eyed the other, but were thus looking into a mirror. They project onto the enemy their own sate of mind, their own logic. And so, the Soviets could not anticipate how even the tiniest threat from Cuba could push the Americans into a frenzy. they had been living with menace on each border and overlooked the fundamental difference with the US, which has always had remote enemies. Similarly, he argues, the Americans overreacted to 9/11. Very nice line of thinking.

More Gilder Lehrmann:
African American generations (Ira Berlin),
Theodore Roosevelt (Patrica O'Toole),
Slave Culture (Philip Morgan).

Reload your Exploring Environmental History feed

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The Exploring Environmental History Podcast is in the middle of an interesting series of interviews in which various experts in the field are being asked to define Environmental History. The last chapter in the feed is supposed to contain an interview with Marc Hall, but this file has by accident been replaced by an old episode of EEH.

Everybody who has downloaded the file until this morning probably now has the 23 minute long old episode downloaded, in stead of the correct 11 minute long file. If you delete the file and resubscribe to the feed, you will get the right file.

Later this week I will review the interview with Marc Hall.

More Environmental History:
Defining Environmental History - Paul Warde,
Defining Environmental History - Donald Worster,
Natural Disasters,
Canada and New Zealand,
Environmental history.

Tolkien Professor - podcast review

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

A new podcast that has many people excited is The Tolkien Professor (feed). Professor Corey Olsen from Washington College teaches the works by J.R.R. Tolkien in a way, as he claims, would have been approved by Tolkien himself.

Tolkien's work not only has no great appreciation among the discerning of High Literature, but Tolkien also opposed to many of the interpretation methods modern literary studies prefer. In the first episode Olsen gives an expose of these methods, psychological, metaphoric and allegorical, what Tolkien thought of these and why these indeed are not applicable to such famous works as The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

The following chapters serve as discussions of Tolkien's work and apply interpretations that find favor in the eyes of Professor Olsen and hopefully, in retrospect, Tolkien's. These take on the stories, first of all The Hobbit, by its language as its narrative and hardly any connection to the person of Tolkien and possible representations in real life or allegoric nature. Keep your Tolkien texts handy when you go and listen to these podcasts.

Lord Kitchener - Veertien Achttien

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Vorige week besteedde het VPRO radio programma OVT opnieuw een korte recensie aan de podcast van Tom Tacken, Veertien Achttien. De lovende woorden zijn meer dan verdiend. Veertien Achttien is een van de meest constante en hoogwaardige podcasts in geschiedenis op het internet - en daarbij reken ik het enorme aanbod in het Engels mee. Eigenlijk is VA zo goed dat OVT er een voorbeeld aan zou mogen nemen, maar ja OVT is niet alleen live, het is ook radio. De oude media tellen nog altijd meer dan de nieuwe.

Intussen gaat Tom Tacken onverstoorbaar verder met zijn onafzienbare reeks korte biografieen die de geschiedenis van de Grote Oorlog omgeven. Een die daarin absoluut niet mag ontbreken is de Engelse minister van oorlog Lord Kitchener. Kitchener's naam is natuurlijk onlosmakelijk verbonden aan het Engelse vrijwilligersleger dat in 1916 uit de grond gestampt werd om The expeditionary force te versterken. Kitchener prijkte op de onsterfelijke geworden wervingsposters waarin hij rechtstreeks naar YOU! wijst - een kleine honderd jaar voordat YOU een begrip in Web2.0 werd.

Dankzij Tacken komen we erachter wie die Kitchener nu eigenlijk was, met zijn koloniale verleden, zijn persoonlijke betrekking met de oorlog en zo meer. Het oude adagium dat de oorlog een verhaal van 'Lions led by Donkeys' herken je vaak in de verhalen terug. Daarom vallen vele van de leiders in de oorlog bij Tacken als regelrechte Donkeys, of erger, door de mand. Bij Kitchener is dit niet eenduidig zo. En als de man omkomt doordat het schip waarop hij zich bevindt op een mijn vaart is de oorlog ook nog lang niet voorbij.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Walther Rathenau,
Komitas Vardapet,
John Condon,
Koning George V,
Colmar von der Goltz.

Versailles 1919 - Rear Vision

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

A watershed moment for modern history is the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, better known as Versailles, for the name of the treaty which set the terms for peace with Germany. It is widely accepted this peace lay the ground work for the Nazi rise to power and World War II. It is also not far-fetched to see in the peace treaties in Paris 1919 the origins of the Cold War.

Australia's ABC Rear Vision took on the peace conference and went even a step further to show how this conference drew the national borders we know today and triggered many of the international tensions, hot spots and wars we have today, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Palestine. While the top dogs of the conference, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson did the high level setting of terms, a series of subcommittees had numerous specialists working on the new borders, sometimes with plenty of knowledge of the real situation on the ground, sometimes with very little. Invariably they set borders where they had never been before setting aside older, cultural and natural boundaries, attempting to create spheres for nation states - the high ideal of the time.

The tragedy as it comes out in the podcast is that while the spirits were high and the hopes were for ever-lasting peace, the enterprise was bound to fail. The gap between what was politically necessary for France and Britain especially, acceptable for Germany, but also for 'winners' such as Japan and Italy was impossible to bridge. And the idea of imposing a grid for nation states in realms where no such creature had ever existed, seemed laudable, but was unfeasible. Failed states were created before we coined the term.

More Rear Vision:
Iran 1953,
Coffee,
Fiji.

Hulp bij het vinden van oude Simek interviews

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Het is nog altijd mogelijk om oude interviews van Martin Simek op te halen op het internet, maar het is verre van makkelijk. De RVU heeft de homepage van het programma Simek 's Nachts min of meer gedeactiveerd en wie de oude feed nog in iTunes heeft, kan maar een beperkt deel van het archief bereiken. Niettemin zijn er nog zo'n 90 uitzendingen te downloaden via de omroep. Deze files hebben geen duidelijke naam en je zal ze dus allemaal moeten afspelen om erachter te komen of ertussen zit wat je zoekt.

Op mijn bescheiden wijze heb ik geprobeerd hier iets aan te doen door dat gedeelte van de RVU feed, die nog wel werkt, maar niet meer in iTunes te zien is, om te leiden via mijn Google Reader. Dit resulteert in een feed waarin nog 44 oudere interviews van Simek met naam en toenaam herkenbaar en downloadbaar worden. Een paar tests hebben uitgewezen dat ook hier niet onder alle omstandigheden alle files door iTunes aangeleverd worden. Er lijkt een maximum te zitten op de lengte van de lijst en om dat weer te omzeilen heb ik de 44 interviews over drie feeds verdeeld. Op deze feeds kan je je abonneren en naar hartelust oude Simek interviews terugluisteren.

Feed 1, heet AIAM Simek1 en omvat de interviews met Daniel Lohues, Wim van Ophem, Fabienne, Jan Slagter, Rita Verdonk, Loek Kessels, Simon de Waal, Professor Wagenaar, Frans Lomans, Jeroen Willems, Marlies Dekkers, Stella Braam, Seth Gaaikema, Robbert Dijkgraaf en Elena Simons. Kopieer de link en via iTunes > Advanced > Subscribe to podcast... het inplakken van de link en OK, abonneer je je op deze feed.

Feed 2, heet AIAM Simek2 en omvat de interviews met Jan Rot, Thomas von der Dunk, Maya Lievegoed, Helmert Woudenberg (2 uur), Roos Rebergen, Christine van Broeckhoven, Arthur Japin, Dirk van de Wijngaard, Sophie van der Stap, Geert Jan Knoops, Meryem Kilic-Karaaslan, Hugo Verbrugh, Ben Mak en Raphael Creemers. Kopieer de link en via iTunes > Advanced > Subscribe to podcast... het inplakken van de link en OK, abonneer je je op deze feed.

Feed 3 heet AIAM Simek3 en omvat de interviews met Robert Kranenborg, Paul Frissen, Jos Brink, Douwe Draaisma, Mayita Sickesz, Jeroen Pauw, Anne Hermans, Hans Dorrestijn, Niko Koffeman, Renate Dorrestein, Carola van Alphen, Maurice de Hond, Jef Vermassen en Guus te Riele. Kopieer de link en via iTunes > Advanced > Subscribe to podcast... het inplakken van de link en OK, abonneer je je op deze feed.

Opmerkelijk is dat langs deze weg het interview met Rita Verdonk beschikbaar is. Dit gesprek, in de aanloop van de verkiezingen in 2006, leverde een onverkwikkelijke clash tussen Verdonk en Simek op. Simek kwam met emotionele kritiek op Verdonks vluchtelingenbeleid en Verdonk kon er niet met de air van een kalme politica op reageren. Simek raakte van zijn stuk en Verdonk ook. Hoewel het tenenkrommende radio opleverde, vond ik het persoonlijk heel fascinerend en veelzeggend, zowel wat betreft Verdonk als Simek. De RVU schaamde zich er teveel voor en heeft al een paar dagen na de uitzending de file afgeschermd in de eigen feed. Tot mijn eigen verbazing staat deze file nog wel op de server en is via AIAM Simek1 gewoon te beluisteren. Om het nog makkelijker te maken, heb ik dit interview hieronder embedded.

Alle nieuwere interviews van Simek zijn op te halen in de officiele feeds van RVU en Elsevier.

Fourth Revolution - Philosophy Bites

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

This post is in some ways a follow up of the previous one, Helprin on Copyright. In my review I already expressed my idea: even if Helprin is right that copyright needs extension and that the modern information age is taking a huge toll on writing, I have a feeling it can't be helped. Our world has changed and our solutions to problems such as the protection of writings need to change accordingly.

This radically changing world of hours is called the Fourth Revolution by Luciano Floridi on Philosophy Bites. He sees the fundamentally different way in which we handle information these days as a major revolution in humanity, one that decidedly changes the way we experience ourselves and our environment. By these terms Helprin seems to voice not only a concern but also a mind set of a gone age.

Our access to information is nearly instantaneous. We communicate with people all over the world, we have a significant electronic identity and cross traditional borders with an ease that was previously unimaginable. This goes for the digitally versatile. Next to them a new subclass emerges of those are not taking part in this rapid exchange, either by choice or for lack of ability. Listen to Floridi how this, in his mind, changes our selves, our sense of community and our sense of environment.

More Philosophy Bites:
Michael Sandel on what cannot be sold,
Aristotle's Ethics,
Sartre,
Idealism,
Alternative Hedonism,

Helprin on Copyright - EconTalk

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:00:00 +0000

On EconTalk Russ Roberts hosted the writer Mark Helprin to talk about copyright. In this era of information technology we hear many voices plead for a reduction to copyrights. Helprin however, pleads for an extension.

An important part of Helprin's argument is that the writer needs to be able to leave his capital to his off spring, just like any other entrepreneur. And I find this the strongest argument. Helprin makes an attempt to defend copyright also in the name of democracy and here, it seems to me, his statements are too much filled with examples of what went wrong or what can go wrong in specific cases.

I agree that each of these cases are showing a problem, but for one it is not certain whether an extended copyright will necessarily solve the problem, neither is it certain whether a world with shorter copyright necessarily will not be able to find ways to address the problems Helprin mentions. His ideas are stemming from a view on society where there is just the individual (who needs protection of his copyright) and the large, rather undefined general public and nation state. That, I think, is a world view from an old world. The current world is changing to a new world, just like the information technology changes so radically, copyrights may no longer be tenable, even if Helprin is right.

More EconTalk:
Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia,
New Deal and War Economy,
The Depression,
Wildlife, Property and Poverty.

A competing view on copyrights:
James Boyle.