Anne is a Man! - Podcast Reviews

In Our Time archive

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:58:00 +0000

How long has this been going on? I do not know since when, but this morning I suddenly noticed that the BBC has opened up the entire In Our Time archive for podcast.

I used to write that one should always download the In Our Time podcasts and keep for ever. The BBC used to keep only the last episode in the feed. In case one had not kept the episode, the only option to listen was to go to the on-line archive and listen while streaming. While that has become less and less of a bother with WiFi all around and capable smartphones, it still was a pity you had no option. All of this now belongs to the past; the archive is also available for download and one can lay ones hands on any chapter ever.

The archive has been broken down in five subject feeds:
In Our Time Archive - Culture, (IOT Culture feed)
In Our Time Archive - History, (IOT History feed)
In Our Time Archive - Philosophy, (IOT Philosophy feed)
In Our Time Archive - Religion, (IOT Religion feed)
In Our Time Archive - Science, (IOT Science feed)

I immediately tried the history archive in order to find an issue from 2006, that I remembered as especially informative and the copy of which I had long lost: The Diet of Worms - which has nothing to do with food, in case you wondered. The Diet was an imperial assembly held in the German city of Worms and this program was about the one in 1522, during which Martin Luther had to defend his theology in public. If you ever needed 40 minutes to get a handle on Luther, the man and his ideas, this is the place to go.

Not only the Diet of Worms can be found in the feed, I saw the archive goes back as far as 1998 with promising titles such as Money, Byzantium, the Celts, the Aztecs, the East India Company, the Mughal Empire and on and on. A veritable treasure trove.

Melvyn Bragg and the Written World

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:18:00 +0000

It is in the style of Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that the BBC offers us Melvyn Bragg and the Written World. What showed up in the podcast feed of In Our Time (with Melvyn Bragg) and consequently disappeared, has now been published as an independent podcast: Written World with Melvyn Bragg (feed).

As I reported in the past days about this series, I got a comment from reader Richard Walker, to point out that this podcast had been spawned from In Our Time. Thanks Richard.

Update to the break update for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Did I write In Our Time started a miniseries The Written World? Well they did and for 24 hours the first two parts were in the feed. Even the third part was there for a couple of minutes, but now, the feed has been cleaned. The series exist, but not in podcast - what a shame. And sorry about sending you on a wild goose chase.

In case you really want to listen, check with In Our Time, The Written World and invoke the BBC iPlayer.

Break update for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:35:00 +0000

Also in 2012 I will be on a prolonged break for the blog. 2011 has been a very busy year, simply too busy to engage in blogging. What has contributed to that, among others, is the fact that I have changed jobs twice. However, I have not stopped listening to podcasts and so let's have a couple of recommendations from my playlists.

The first is In Our Time, which has started a five part series about the human invention of writing and how writing and its innovations have had a fundamental impact on human history. Subscribe to In Our Time's feed and look for the episodes about The Written World.

The second is a sub-series in the China History Podcast which has been going on for 7 episodes already and is still running. Laszlo Montgomery is telling us the biography of Deng Xiaoping and this is the best introduction to recent Chinese history I have had in a long time. (feed)

Break update

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:41:00 +0000

Dear Readers,

Here is to tell you I am still on my break. It is a relief to be exempt from the pressure of posting every day. It is also a relief to be listening fewer podcasts and only those that I feel like listening to and not all those that I have to get a bite of in order to be able to write about them. The blogging and the listening had begun to resemble a job rather than a hobby. If it were a job, I'd do it with pleasure and ten times better than I ever did. But it is not and to have to squeeze it in with a real job and family life, while the blog was becoming more and more demanding (more and more podcasts to keep track of) got just a tad too much.

So, that is why I am away. That is why I listen less, but surely,while updating you, I might as well relate what I am listening to these days.

I find myself with three podcast about the First World War:
Veertien Achttien, the unmatched weekly bio of a participant in the war, be it on war or the home front. This remarkable Dutch podcast aims to supply a weekly bio for as long as the Great War itself lasted, that is for some 230 weeks. By now the podcast has reached week 170 without ever failing and at an outstanding constant quality. Another aim is said to translate the podcast into English and to start repeating the weekly feat from 2014 until 2018. Stay posted! (feed)

First World War Centenary podcast by the Imperial War Museum, offering extracts from their unique oral history program.

History of the First World War, an amateur podcast that offers a very accessible military history of the first world war. Currently the podcast is on hiatus, hopefully not for long. (feed)

As the Palestinian bid for statehood is pending at the UN, I also want to point you to a couple of podcast episodes that offer an unexpected perspective on the Middle-East conflict, but that I will report in another post. Stay tuned.

Anne

A break

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:55:00 +0000

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

Zomertip: Marathon Interviews

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:23:00 +0000

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).

Summertime tip: across podcast listening

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:47:00 +0000

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.

Summer time tip: learn a language

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:54:00 +0000

What to 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 advanced:

One thing in a French day (feed)

More learning language on Anne is a Man:
Learn German through podcast,
Learn Hebrew through podcast,

Learn Dutch through podcast.

Summer time tip: Mystery at Geneva

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:56:00 +0000

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.

Listening ideas for 17 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

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)

Summer time tip: In Our Time

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:08:00 +0000

During the summer in podcasting just as in other media, there is a slight dip in activity. Although there is still enough new audio coming out every day to keep you very busy, I can imagine that during the month of August you may be looking for something else. So, here is are a short series of posts where to look for old material that is worth listening to again.

My first recommendation is the famous BBC four programme and podcast In Our Time. As you probably already know, this podcast offers 40 minute episodes in which Melvyn Bragg discusses one subject from the history of ideas with a panel of three specialists.

In the past I could not have reasonably point you at this podcast over the summer, as the BBC always removed the podcast episode from the feed as soon as a new one was added. This however changed in the last season. The whole of 2010 / 2011 is still available and there is much to choose from.

An additional quality of In Our Time has become apparent to me: in the world of podcast it has authority. I have noticed over the years an increasing number of (history) podcasters that refer to In Our Time in their own audio. These references are more and more explicit, but I have also noticed implicit ones - where the content was obviously directly informed by an issue of In Our Time. For me this is very much as in books the way authors refer to standing works on the same subject within the text or within footnotes. While this kind of referencing is not yet common within podcast, where it happens, it has frequently involved reference to In Our Time.

More In Our Time:
A reminder of the great BBC podcasts,
Diarmaid MacCulloch in podcast,
The Indian Rebellion of 1857,
Frankfurt School,
The history of the Royal Society.

Listening ideas for 16 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Ideas
Citizen Mel - Part Two
His name is synonymous with the words "Canadian nationalist". Mel Hurtig's voice has been prominent in discussions about the country for almost fifty years. He is a bookseller, a publisher and a catalyst for debate on subjects ranging from child poverty to nuclear arms. IDEAS producer Kathleen Flaherty traces Mel Hurtig's lifelong quest to shape a Canada he passionately believes in.
(review, feed)

Documentary on One
Malaria 2.0
Microsoft's Bill Gates dreams of eradicating malaria; he's given millions to those working on the problem. In this fascinating story, Elizabeth O'Neill meets people receiving Gates' money, including a Dublin man with an invention inspired by spy movies.
(review, feed)

EconTalk
Brady on the Electorate and the Elections of 2010 and 2012
David Brady of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the lessons of the election of 2010 and what we might expect from the elections of 2012. Brady draws on political history as well as survey results from work with colleagues Doug Rivers and Morris Fiorina to speculate about the elections of 2012. Along the way he discusses the power of the independent vote, how ObamaCare affected the election of 2010, and the prospects for the Republican nominee in 2012. Taped a few days before the deal on the debt was reached, Brady gives his thoughts on the politics of the negotiations. The conversation concludes with a discussion of whether Obama will have a primary challenger.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 15 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Philosophy Bites
Nick Bostrom on the Simulation Argument
Could you be part of a computer simulation of reality? Sounds unlikely, doesn't it. But Nick Bostrom might make you think again about this. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast he discusses the Simulation Argument. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
(review, feed)

The History of Rome
Capitulation
Jovian extracted the Roman legions from the east at a heavy price. He then ruled the Empire for eight months before suddenly dying on his way to Constantinople in early 364.
(review, feed)

ThoughtCast
Talks@Harvard Book Store: Sean Dorrance Kelly
Sean Dorrance Kelly, a voluble, high-octane philosopher and Harvard professor, spoke at the Harvard Book Store recently about his latest creation: All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age, which he co-wrote with Hubert Dreyfus, another professor of philosophy, this time at Berkeley.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 14 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Tapestry
To Err is Human
We all know that to err is human, but for some the fear of making a mistake can lead to a diminished experience of life. We'll talk to celebrated Canadian designer Bruce Mau about the importance of making friends with failure. And we'll hear from research professor Brene Brown, author of The Gifts of Imperfection. For the past decade she has been exploring the role of shame, empathy, vulnerability and authenticity, and it's brought her a unique understanding of imperfection.
(review, feed)

Veertien Achttien
Miguel Almereyda en het einde van de schoenveters (zondag 12 augustus 1917)
Links komt in Frankrijk onder vuur te liggen. In de nasleep van de Bonnet Rouge Affaire valt het kabinet-Ribot. Met de anarchistische krantenmaker Miguel Almereyda loopt het nog slechter af.
(review, feed)

The Economist
Looking at the ratings agencies
In the week after America's credit rating downgrade, our correspondents look at the agencies that make these decisions
(review, feed)

Berkeley's disappeared lectures

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:10:00 +0000

What do we do now? Berkeley has removed its fantastic treasure trove from our favorite lecture podcast site and has drastically reduced what they offer on iTunes U...

Many readers have turned to me asking how they can lay their hands on old lecture courses. Very highly in demand are -and for good reason- lecture series by Margaret Lavinia Anderson, such as History 5 (European history from the Renaissance until today) and History 167b (History of the Second Reich).

There are some rumors that Berkeley are to share the archive, but how and where and to what extent is not at all clear. We will keep you posted (that is, not just me, also Dara from DIY Scholar is on the lookout).

In the mean time, not all consumers are patiently waiting for the shop to open up again and have gone looking for alternative sites where the files might be shared. One such place would be the Internet Archive. Here you can already find a score of courses from 2006 and 2007.

Listening ideas for 13 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 06:43:00 +0000

New Books in Public Policy
Max Singer, “The History of the Future: The Shape of the World to Come Is Visible Today”
In his new book, History of the Future: The Shape of the World to Come Is Visible Today (Lexington Books, 2011), Max Singer, Senior Fellow and co-founder of the Hudson Institute, argues that the human race is undergoing an enormous transition, from an agrarian, violent past to a wealthy and peaceful future. Singer believes that all countries are on parallel paths to becoming modern states, albeit at different points in the process. As such, he tries to predict the future of the majority of countries that are still making this transitioning by examining the experiences of countries that have already completed the transition. In our interview, we talked about the rise of China, why Churchill thought that scuttling the British Navy would immediately end the British Empire, and how freedom is the key element to creating economic powerhouses. Read all about it, and more, in Singer’s wide-ranging new book
(review, feed)

New Books in South Asian Studies
Vinayak Chaturvedi, “Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India”
The odds are that if you don’t figure in an administration’s records, you won’t figure in the historical record. But what do you do to get into those records? Raising a ruckus is one way. But that works only if someone else hasn’t managed to raise more of a ruckus than you can ever hope to – and this, as Vinayak Chaturvedi tells us in Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India (University of California Press, 2007) was exactly the situation the peasants of Gujarat faced during the last century of British rule in India. The Dharala peasants lived and worked in the Kheda district, the stomping ground of the powerful Patidar community, who formed a support base for Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha campaigns. The Mahatma’s nationalism did not, however, attract the Dharalas, given that the Patidars had co-opted it for themselves. The Dharalas felt they stood nothing to gain by joining forces with groups that locally exercised economic power over them. But that is not to say they didn’t have their own ideas about the way they wished to live, as Chaturvedi shows. Peasant Pasts skillfully traces how the Dharalas, through many demonstrations employing traditional as well as more recent forms of protest, managed to form a distinct political identity of their own, one that is current and excites much debate in the region. And yes, they did manage to get themselves into the administrative records of the Indian state as well.
(review, feed)

BBC History magazine
BBC History Magazine - 12th August 2011
Susan Doran describes the reign of Elizabeth I, Dan Snow talks about his new TV series and Richard Noakes highlights the Victorian telegraph. To find out more, visit www.historyextra.com
(review, feed)

First World War Centenary - Imperial War Museum

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:13:00 +0000

In 1988 I visited the Imperial War Museum and bought a cassette (who remembers those?) with extracts from the Museum's oral history program. Until the little was worn out, I have been able to listen to about 45 minutes from the vast archive of interviews with eye-witnesses of the Great War. This material would be great source for a podcast, as is also shown by the Armistice Podcast (feed) and the Imperial War Museum has come to understand that as well.

Just now, they have begun producing the First World War Centenary podcast which will describe a large variety of aspects of the war with the help of their exceptional audio archive. I have heard the first installment and the series is off on a promising start. (feed)

Thanks to WWI podcaster Tom Tacken to point out this new podcast.

Listening ideas for 12 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:29:00 +0000

KQED's Forum
John Muir's Life and Legacy
We explore the life, legend and legacy of the man known as "The Father of the National Parks."
(review, feed)

Radio Open Source
Saad Haroon: Pakistan as a bad Bollywood comedy
What’s acceptable, then, as public humor as Saad Haroon reads the rule? Terrorists, believe it or not. Young women in burkas. President Zardari’s lust for “money, money, money.” And before him, General / President Musharraf’s lust for “power, power, power.” In the stage bits he shared with us, I liked Saad Haroon’s voice-over for a Bollywood love story, “Pipeline of Passion,” between Musharraf of Pakistan and President Sonia Gandhi of India — the man in uniform and the bereaved widow, on the phone late at night: “Mushy, you take Kashmir…” “No, Sonia, you take Kashmir…” I also love his version of a Pakistani street guy talking with a mouthful of pan leaves.
(review, feed)

TEDTalks
Finding planets around other stars - Lucianne Walkowicz
How do we find planets -- even habitable planets -- around other stars? By looking for tiny dimming as a planet passes in front of its sun, TED Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz and the Kepler mission have found some 1,200 potential new planetary systems. With new techniques, they may even find ones with the right conditions for life.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 11 August 2011 (3)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Witness
Napster
In 2001 the music sharing website Napster was closed down.
(review, feed)

Namaste Stories
Episode #49 "Strange Bedfellows"
Music is, first, "La Noche" by Lynne Arriale and second, "Making an Entrance" by Dave Painchaud, both available at music.podshow.com. Thank you Lynne, Dave, and anyone still listening for your patience.
(review, feed)

Witness
The building of the Berlin Wall.
On August 13, 1961 work began on the Berlin Wall.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 11 August 2011 (2)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Outriders
Jamillah goes long
This week Jamillah finds out finds out the best ways to listen to long bits of audio or watch long bits of video on the web.
(review, feed)

Documentary on One
Breaking Records
Can anything good come of riots? Maybe music. In the summer of the London riots, a new documentary from Delaney Hall on the New York riots of 1977 and their impact on hip-hop music. (Short radio documentary from inthedarkradio.org on RTE Radio Ireland)
(review, feed)

The Total Football Soccer Show
USA 1-1 Mexico Reaction
We discuss the USA's 1-1 draw with Mexico, with the focus on Juergen Klinsmann's debut as head coach. Also covered: potential moves for Freddy Au and Maurice Edu, and the big MLS/US Soccer television deal with NBC.
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 11 August 2011 (1)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Mahabharata Podcast
Episode 66 - Kurukshetra, Day 9
Episode 67 - On the previous day, Duryodhana was quickly losing faith with his uncle. He began to suspect that Bhisma was throwing the contest in favor of the Pandavas. Karna didn't help any when he offered to take charge in place of the old man. So Duryodhana asked the old man to either fulfill his oaths or get out of the game. Now today, on the 9th day, Bhisma sets out to finish off his Dharma so he could move on to the next phase in his life. On the battlefield, he kills hundreds of thousands, including the entire nation of the Saumakas. Bhisma takes out a large chunk of the Pandava army. If he keeps this up another day or two, there will be no one left to fight on the Pandavas' side. So that night, after the battle, they go unarmed to Bhisma's tent and ask him what they should do about this and how they should win the war. Of course, they've known what they needed to do all along, but it's nice to have Bhisma tell you himself and to even give his blessing! We'll see tomorrow if Arjun finally carries through with his duty...
(review, feed)

Radio Open Source
The Fisherfolk of Karachi: a Parable of Pakistan
The city of Karachi (pop. roughly 20-million) dumps 500-million gallons of waste into its harbors every day — “into the bowl of our livelihood,” as Mohammad Ali Shah puts it, and that’s just the beginning. “Land grabbers,” whom we’d call developers, are encroaching on their land, as fish factories at sea are gobbling their catch. Two of the allied activists fighting the “land mafia” that has targeted their mangrove forest were murdered this past May. Fishing families suffer the cold war between Pakistan and India acutely, in the periodic arrest (and long arbitrary sentences) of fishermen who stray across territorial borders. And on top of everything, says Mohammad Ali Shah, nobody seems to care — certainly nobody with much political power. Pakistani politics, he instructs us, is an inside brokers’ game that shuns “people power.”
(review, feed)

The Economist
Britain's riots
Our correspondents on riots that had more to do with unruly chaos than genuine grievances, and how the Conservatives could benefit
(review, feed)

Listening ideas for 10 August 2011 (2)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:51:00 +0000

Leonard Lopate Show
Building America’s Superhighways
Earl Swift discusses how the U.S. interstate system changed the face of our country. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways follows a winding route through 20th-century American life, from the citizen-led “Good Roads” movement, to the driven engineers who conceived of the interstates and how they would work, to the protests that erupted when highways reached the cities, displaced people and carved up neighborhoods.
(review, feed)

Scientific American Podcast
The City That Became Safe: What New York Teaches About Urban Crime And Its Control
UC Berkeley School of Law professor Franklin Zimring talks about his article How New York Beat Crime in the August issue of Scientific American
(review, feed)

Radio Lab
Damn It, Basal Ganglia
The basal ganglia is a core part of the brain, deep inside your skull, that helps control movement. Unless something upsets the chain of command. In this short, Jad and Robert meet a young researcher who was studying what happens when the basal ganglia gets short-circuited in mice...until one fateful day, when things got really, really weird.
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Listening ideas for 10 August 2011 (1)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Social Innovation Conversations
B.J. Fogg - 2011 Stanford Healthcare Summit
How do we get individuals to practice healthier habits and influence positive behavior change? The "Behavior Wizard" offers technology-based solutions in this audio lecture from the 2011 Stanford Graduate School of Business Healthcare Summit. B.J. Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, bring his insights from the tech world. In decades studying how computers and mobile apps can be used to bring about behavior change, Fogg found new applications for the health sector in promoting positive habits.
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Het Marathon Interview (VPRO)
Ian Buruma, kosmopoliet
Zijn boek over de moord op Theo van Gogh: Dood van een gezonde roker, baarde opzien in 2006. Vanuit zijn woonplaats New York, plaatste hij pittige kanttekeningen bij het lage land aan de Noordzee. In 2004 al werd hij als commentator 3 uren aan het woord gelaten door Djoeke Veeninga.
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New Books in Sports
Evander Lomke and Martin Rowe, “Right Off the Bat: Cricket, Baseball, Literature & Life”
Martin Rowe and Evander Lomke have long recognized the commonalities between cricket and baseball. Their book Right Off the Bat: Cricket, Baseball, Literature & Life (Paul Dry Books, 2011) points out those analogies in an erudite yet readable style. The book is a primer to both sports. They give a brief and comprehensible explanation of what happens on the field. But more important to them are the lessons of the sports’ histories, the patterns of their cultures, and the deeper attractions they have for their fans. In the book, and our interview, Martin and Evander talk about the slow meander of time at a game, the expanse of green spaces under summer skies, the guarantee of the familiar and the thrill of the unexpected. If you are new to cricket or baseball, you will find their book a gratifying guide. And if you are already a fan of one of the sports, you will gain a new appreciation and new insights when seeing it alongside its cousin in the bat-and-ball family.
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Listening ideas for 9 August 2011 (2)

noreply@blogger.com (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Russian Rulers History Podcast
Reforms? There Will Be No Reforms!
Alexander III takes control of Russia and undoes many of the reforms of his late, murdered father.
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Stone Pages Archaeo News
Archaeo News Podcast 195
The first Mesolithic open-air cemetery found in England
Major Bronze Age city-state unearthed in Jordan
Ancient child burial site found in Siberia
Populations intermixed well after migration out of Africa
Stone Age relics may be hidden in Scotland's seas
Prehistoric Indian relics discovered during oil spill clean-up
Ethiopian lake sediments reveal history of African droughts
Dig starts at Bronze Age roundhouse on Dartmoor
5,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in Northern Italy
Tracing back the history of human evolution at Mungo
25,000-year-old bones discovered in Colorado
Ancient human remains found at broch site
British schoolboy discovers 4,000-year-old arrowhead
Dancing shaman carved on ancient Japanese pottery
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The Economist
Money talks: August 8th 2011
The European Central Bank announces it will buy large portions of Italian and Spanish debt, and the US loses its perfect credit rating
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Radio Open Source
Dr. Geet: Yankee doc, speaking Sindhi, in the flood zone
Geet Chainani grew up on Staten Island with a grandmother who told her “we were Sindhis first.” Meaning: master the Sindhi language early; think of yourself as a child of the world’s first big-city culture, at Mohenjo-daro, from 2600 B.C. Her grandparents were part of the vast Hindu migration out of Sindh to India in 1947, at the partition that created Pakistan. But Sindh was where Geet came looking for her roots a year ago — for the tombs of the Sufi saints and the world’s oldest plumbing. The first big shock was Pakistan’s devastation by immersion. The second, when she pitched herself into the emergency, was discovering, with mothers in distress, that knowing their language was as valuable as her medical training.
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Fresh Air Podcast
08-08-2011 Fresh Air
Stories: 1) In '1493,' Columbus Shaped A World To Be 2) A Delightful Portrait Of The Screwball 'Family Fang' Also recommended by Varnam.
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