Anne is a Man! - Podcast Reviews

The good life we have lost

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

When we try to think of a way our forefathers, the hunter gatherers lived, we look to anthropology. What anthropology has described about the lives of current hunter gatherer peoples, it is assumed, gives an indication as how our ancestors went through life. In the early human history course MMW1 at UCSD, by Tara Carter, the hunter gatherers that are taken as an example are the Bambuti, or Mbuti, or as the not so political correct term is, pygmies of the Congo.

We sort of naturally expect, or at least I do, that any earlier moment in our history, people lived a much tougher life. Without necessarily being Hegelian we are, or at least I am, almost automatically drawn into thinking of our history as progression. And so, especially when thinking of prehistoric man, the pictures in the mind are that of hardship. Primitive man must have lived a life, as Hobbes put in, that was nasty, brutish and short. Solitary and poor, Hobbes also says, although that tends to be less cited. Even if solitary doesn't seem applicable, poor certainly does.

Listen then to Carter's 11th lecture in the series and pay attention to the answer when she asks how nasty the lives of the foragers, in this case the Bambuti, are. They never go hungry. Their diet is extremely varied. They are generally healthy. They have relatively few children and they work 20 hours a week. They travel light in tightly knit bands. Does that sound poor, nasty and solitary? Is that brutish or short? That sounds like the good life. The Congo rain forest may not be Manhattan, but who in Manhattan is healthy, works 20 hours a week and is not lonely? Rousseau may have been on to something.

More MMW1:
Human Evolution and Prehistory.

Shut out

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:16:00 +0000

Here is a quick post to let you know I have been without internet connection for most of the day. I managed to put in about 6 hours of podcast listening, but not a second of writing. That will follow after Saturday.

1989 - Padraic Kenney on NBIH

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Like everybody else, New Books in History is also full of reminiscence of the fall of the Wall twenty years ago. Last week the DDR was subject, this week 1989 in a more broad aspect, but with emphasis on Poland in Marshal Poe's interview with Padraic Kenney.

Just like last week's guest Stevan Allen was in East-Germany, Padraic Kenney was in Poland when the Iron Curtain came tumbling down like a rusty wreckage. Of course the actual opening of the Berlin Wall was the apotheosis and the most tangible symptom of the communist demise, yet it was, according to Kenney, a mere incident in the chain of events. And in this chain, Germany was much less the place to witness the downfall of the Soviet System than Poland was, or Hungary or Czechoslovakia.

The most important element in the picture Kenney paints is the way in which the communists, before they effectively had lost their power, had lost their grip. Kenney describes it thus: people were no longer afraid of the authorities. Of course, people could still be arrested, but they began to feel nothing was really being done. They found they would be released anyway and it would be just having gone through the motions. And so the whole terror effect of the regime went absent. This was what made clear that barriers would open up rather sooner than later and that the communists would get out of power as well.

More NBIH:
The Ossie twilight,
The first day of LBJ,
Ayn Rand,
Atlantic History,
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany.

KRO's Voor 1 Nacht

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

KRO's voor 1 nacht, het interviewprogramma met Marc Stakenburg wordt gedragen door de gasten. Stakenburg beheerst de tachniek van het interviewen wel, maar Voor 1 Nacht als programma is kennelijk bedoeld om het gezellig te houden. De toon van de ondervraging neigt naar vrijblijvend. De gast krijgt de kans zichzelf te etalerenen de programmamakers proberen dat portret niet veel verder te sturen dan naar wat de meest gemiddelde luisteraar ongeveer had te weten willen komen.

Kortom, ik ga er nooit eens voor zitten om heel schokkende feiten te weten te komen, of om een spannend gesprek aan te horen. Dan selecteer ik de gasten van wie ik wat meer had willen weten en zo luisterde ik de afgelopen weken naar interviews met Frank Snoeks, Ilja Pfeiffer en Cox Habbema. En in die volgorde zou ik ze willen aanbevelen - van minst naar meest interessant.

Met Frank Snoeks is het gesprek het meest gezapig. Stakenburgs voor de hand liggende vragen krijgen obligate en politiek correcte antwoorden. Bij Pfeiffer spettert het al wat meer. Heeft de dichter iets laatdunkends over Amsterdam ten faveure van Leiden gesuggereerd? Stakenburg werpt zich dan even op als liefhebber van de hoofdstad, maar laat het duel al snel varen. Dan drijft het programma alleen nog op de onverwachte stipulaties van Pfeiffer. Alleen bij Habbema gebeurt nog iets meer. Ze laat haar irritatie over de open deur vragen van Marc Stakenburg en doet haar uiterste best om iets meer te zeggen dan het obligate. Bij haar zit je aan de uitzending gekluisterd en wil je alles over haar ervaringen in de DDR horen, omdat het nergens voor de hand ligt wat ze gaat zeggen.

Meer KRO's voor 1 nacht:
Ab Osterhaus,
Freek de Jonge,
Bennie Jolink,
Henk Spaan,
Maarten Ducrot.

Religion as culture - Camille Paglia

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Camille Paglia starts her lecture identifying as an atheist intending to defend religion. The lecture appeared on Canadian TV (TVO) and was podcast in the series Big Ideas. Paglia's central point is that understanding of religion is essential to fully understanding human civilization, or as she says is more succinctly: religion must be studied as culture.

Hearing the lecture on podcast will be unproblematic (as I did). If you feel like it you can see the video and take along the Hollywood examples Paglia brought, but apart from a Cecil B. DeMille section, she just tells it without showing. What the Hollywood materials do there in the second part of the lecture, is serve as an example for the first part of the lecture as the last, most modern expressions in culture of religion. Apparently she would argue that we all go and see these great movies and that more of these should be made.

The real important part of the lecture is the first part though. This is where Camille Paglia makes clear how essential religion is to our culture and argues that religion needs to be known, needs to be studied and taught, lest we become alienated from our traditions. The implicit point being that you do not need to believe in God, in the stories and revere the symbolisms in order to need to know and esteem them. More strongly this means that in her definition religion is just the form in which our cultural baggage has come to us and we can freely take it, study it, learn it, know it and use it and be modern people at the same time. Modern people that are rationalist, informed by science and agnostic or possibly atheist and that reject the actual beliefs completely, yes even reject the morals. Still, even then, the religions of our ancestors are our cultural inheritance. Throw the stories and the symbols away and we turn into ignorants.

More Big Ideas:
Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments,
The empire,
Lawrence Freedman - Big Ideas,
New Learning - Don Tapscott on Big Ideas,
On Crime.

Ersatz

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

The incomparably elegant German vodcast Ersatz TV had a spring and summer season in which is appeared every two weeks. Then, after a long summer break it was back, yet, it has not arrived at the frequency where it used to be. The second issue after the break came out only now which is four weeks after the previous one.

Nevertheless, the new show is as good as ever. As usual a couple of subjects are covered, in this case swarm robotics, light art and the confusing sizes of mass produced men's suits.

More Ersatz TV:
Electronics, then and now,
The last before Summer break,
Ersatz TV from the Underground,
The way of the plants,
The experts love Ersatz TV.

Global capitalism - the Gray view

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

The triumphalism has thoroughly passed. In the past twenty years there has been some period when stark, global capitalism was cherished with unconditional belief. But the trust has cracked, especially since economic crisis set in. Since then, the likes of Keynes are back in vogue. And also, one who never shared the excitement, London School of Economics professor John Gray.

It is always a pleasure to hear Gray on podcast (though you have to get used to his careful, toned down and understated speaking style) and on Global Capitalism he was invited to speak at the LSE podcast just recently. Gray reports of many 'unfruitful' discussions he has had with Francis Fukuyama who resembled part of the capitalist triumphalism with his famous book The End of History (1992). Gray's point was and is in this podcast: history never ends. This means that there will always be crises. No system, no ideology, no empire ever vanquishes for ever. Gray was proven right when he argued that old dormant conflicts would awaken again after the old conflict of the Cold War had gone.

So, with this prophetic power appearing in hindsight, he is challenged to look ahead. And even though he quotes Woody Allen that predictions are generally hard to make, especially when they are about the future, he gives it a try. Climate Change figures dominantly in his predictions as well as a continuation of the current economic crisis. Not only does he forecast, he also explains how he arrives at his ideas about where we are going - and that is what makes this lecture tantalizing.

More LSE:
Israeli at the London School of Economics,
Michael Sandel,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung,
Natural Resource Management,
The Iran power struggle.

Changing medical profession - NYRB

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

The podcast of the New York Review of Books (feed) is actually a promotional podcast for the paper. In the case of the issue where Jerome Groopman was interview about the changing medical profession (mp3) it actually worked. I went to read Groopman's article Diagnosis: What Doctors Are Missing.

In the podcast Groopman gets under twenty minutes to make some of his points, but apart from the bottom-line you will not be able to take away too much of them. It really helped to go and read the article and get more reference.

It is not all bad with the medical profession. Groopman begins to point out that crazy hours and the absence of team work and support are things of the past. Yet he points at a couple of new problems that have arisen. Obviously the economizing aspects that reduce the time doctors are with their patients can be bad and we need not too many examples to understand what he means. However, when he wants to argue that the trend to rely on evidence-based medicine has bad side-effects, at least I was surprised. Surely Groopman doesn't want to open the doors for untested alternative medicine, so what IS his point? In a nut-shell, medicine is not as general and empiric as evidence-based wants to have it and it cannot be totally formalized. Doctor's need the room to make decision about treatment based on the individual case without fear of roaming into malpractice.

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

The Battle of Ramillies - Historyzine

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

First of all Historyzine is a history podcast that retells the War of Spanish Succession, a European war that took place 1701-1714. Host Jim Mowatt offers couple of additional rubrics that give a wonderful added value to the show and surely adds to the magazine feel of Historyzine. Over the last weeks, he has also produced episodes more frequently and that is what a magazine inevitably also needs.

The additional value for the latest show (#16) are for one a podcast review of Lars Brownworth's Norman Centuries; a review I can agree with (see my own about Norman Centuries). Another is once more a tidbit of language history. Mowatt reveals what he has found out about the origins of the expression nose to the grindstone. But of course, as usual, the main part of the show is the next story about the War of Spanish Succession.

A great improvement is that Mowatt starts his tale with a recap of what had happened so far an what this war was all about. It may have been a war about the throne of Spain, but most of the fighting went on in Belgium and Germany. There is some tale of what happens in Spain, but also in this show the main action is in Belgium: the battle around the village of Ramillies. In spite of advantages for the French and Bavarian forces, the Anglo-Dutch alliance raked in victory. Once again this is thanks to the great tactics of Mowatt's hero throughout the podcast: the Duke of Marlborough.

More Historyzine:
Winter diplomacy,
The lines of Brabant,
Historyzine at its best,
The battle of Blenheim,
Reliving the War of Spanish Succession.

Jennifer Burns on Ayn Rand - two more podcasts

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Podcaster Chris Gondek did one interview with Professor Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand whose biography she has written under the title Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. This one interview he edited to fit each on of two of his podcasts, The Biography Podcast (feed) and The Invisible Hand (feed).

I would have loved to hear the unedited interview, or at least the extended version that contained all the material for both podcasts. As it went now, I heard one and was excited about Gondek's announcement by the end that there was yet another interview on the other. Then I listened to the other and heard so much twice that I can't tell in hindsight what is fundamentally different between the two. So, listen to either one and choose depending upon the touch you'd like to get.

The Biography Podcast is, obviously, about biographies and has Burns talk about Rand's life, career and development. The Invisible Hand is a podcast about 'business, economics and strategy' and therefore puts the emphasis on Rand's political thought. Both versions start however with a questions about Rand's childhood and both interviews close with the question of what Rand would have thought was her legacy today. Although these are two professional, polished and to the point productions, my personal preference goes to the more raw and less balanced interview Burns gave at New Books In History.

More Jennifer Burns:
Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand - NBIH,
History 7b - history podcast review,
American Civil Rights Movement,
Whittaker Chambers,
Scopes Trial.

Human Evolution and Prehistory

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

A significant majority of this blog is dedicated to history. A history student once told me history was a literary science, but the podcasts begin to teach me differently. Obviously, textual sources are extremely important for history, but more and more I see that it is interdisciplinary and it borrows from any other science it needs. Not only is this sociology and economics, but also natural sciences - as shown in the case of environmental history (podcast review). Most inevitable this is for prehistory.

Anything we know about humanity and the world before man produced texts we can read, must come from archeology, paleontology and more. If one follows courses about the earliest human history such as MMW 1 at UCSD (which offers this semester no less than 3 different ones), the road leads through all fields that touch on the emergence of man and culture. This is not only archeology and paleontology, this is also geology, biology, medicine and notably anthropology. Berkeley had a course in biological anthropology (review) that taught the human evolution as part of a biology course.

As said, at UCSD the course is part of history. It comes as the entry point in the Making of the Modern World cycle and among the three courses that are offered, I have chosen to follow the one by Tara Carter (feed). My choice was informed by the reviews delivered by the DIY Scholar: Two Great New Anthropology Classes and Why we stopped Foraging And Started Farming. She can be trusted as she claims that Carter's course is the best and she praises Carter for being contagiously excited about her subject. By now I can fully agree.

And so, on offer are two long university courses and you may have wanted to get some smaller bits. For that purpose I want to turn you to the podcast by the Scientific American Science Talk (feed). Recently Science Talk had two consecutive issues offering three short interviews with researchers. A double feature about Lucy and about the Neanderthals, which is about the early human development. After that appeared a talk about later human evolution, which teaches what is more extensively explained in the university courses, that evolution keeps on going.

Although some would expect evolution to stop as soon as the species covers all the planet and has been adapted to all environments. This is not the case and an example that is used to show this is Sickle Cell disease. This is a blood disease that would have evolved away had it not been advantageous in areas with Malaria. Another podcast that discussed this in a short episode was Moments in Medicine (review).

Social Engineering for hackers

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

When I studied Sociology and Law, the term social engineering was used to designate all such activity, mostly instigated by the state, that attempts to steer society to develop in particularly desired direction. Social engineering was a macro-subject and entailed among others the study of Karl Popper's plea for piecemeal engineering. Anything on a micro-level I would have called applied social psychology.

The latest edition of the excellent Hebrew podcast Making History with Ran Levi (עושים היסטוריה! עם רן לוי), however speaks of social engineering (הנדסה חברתית) in this applied micro-context. The object of the show (מה מסתתר בתוך הטלפון של פריס הילטון) is to show how hackers succeed in what they do, more thanks to the application of social psychology than their wizardry in computer programming or other outstanding technical ability. Several examples are delivered to show how this has played out and they all show the same pattern. Technical and procedural shields against security breaches are in place and functioning well, yet the hacker acquires a crucial entry into the system by manipulating the weakest link in the chain: people.

One of the most eloquent examples is that of a failed hacking attempt. The user was aware that he was subject of a hacking attempt and fenced it effectively off. Yet, the hacker made a follow-up attempt by impersonating a security officer and approached that same user to report on the attempted security breach. "Oh and by the way, what was the info the hacker was after," he asked, upon which he immediately received the answer.

Apart from being informative and entertaining as this podcast always is, in this particular subject it is also very useful. The episode provides for one of the best training sessions everyone could get in order to be better prepared for hacking attacks.

More Making History with Ran Levi:
Ran Levi, then, now and about the Long Now,
Of nightmares and sleepwalking,
Mass Extinctions,
Making History with Ran Levi - עושים היסטוריה! עם רן לוי,
From Pavlov to Milgram.

Industrial Revolutions - Modern History lectures

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

About ten days ago I wrote a post about the various university lecture series you can follow about Modern Western History. Even though each of these have their own perspectives, themes and pet-subjects, there are a number of items that can simply not be passed over. One of those and one fo the first you are to encounter is that of the Industrial Revolution.

The latest of these courses is Professor John Merriman's European Civilization, 1648-1945. In this series lecture 8 is dedicated to this subject and it is aptly called: Industrial Revolutions. Observe the plural; an elementary point Merriman makes is that there are several industrial revolutions. A revolution for each population center, a revolution for each industry and consecutive revolutions. This means not only one wave of industrialization after another, but also, a kick off by an agricultural revolution.

Berkeley's History 5 by Professor Margaret Anderson also mentions the agricultural revolution and dedicates special attention to it. Without this phenomenon food supplies could not have grown to the level that allowed for larger urban centers and the freeing up of a sizable proportion of the population for industry rather than agriculture.

A cultural implication of the industrial revolution has been mentioned also by others (History 5 by Carla Hesse and UCLA's history 1c by Lynn Hunt), but most elegantly displayed by Merriman as yet another industrial revolution: factory work. As opposed to traditional work of farmers and artisans which is independent and flexible, the large scale enterprises after industrialization had to operate like clockwork. Industrialization revolutionizes therefore time and the worker's disposition of his own time.

Merriman's take
compare with Hesse, Anderson and Hunt

Israeli at the London School of Economics

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

I do not usually write about podcasts I found a waste of time listening to. The Israeli deputy minister of foreign Affairs Dani Ayalon was invited to the London School of Economics to present Israel's view on the Israeli-Arab conflict and most of this resulted in a tedious repetition of the atmosphere and rhetoric that inevitably hangs around this issue. Not only did Ayalon's speech hold much that had not been said many times before, also the restless audience did not bring much news to make life really difficult for this spokesperson.

It seems, the more the atmosphere is heated, the fewer discourse there is. Especially on this podcast, one is presented with a lot of shouting - it takes the event about 15 minutes to actually manage to begin. The prickly retorts Ayalon has for the disruptive elements in the audience boil down to: when your argument is weak, you voice will go up. However, also his own talk was, in my ears, not particularly strong. I would rather have real powerful speakers really engage with each other in argument, not in a shouting match.

The reason I write is in the end that as a sample from the LSE lecture series, this was a very exceptional case. Contrary to the usual quiet academic hearings, this one was full of action and from that point of view, it was fascinating to witness how the action developed. Fascinating not only how Ayalon, but also how the mediator, the majority of the audience and the protesters dealt with the raucous affair.

More LSE
Michael Sandel,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung,
Natural Resource Management,
The Iran power struggle,
Justice.

Dacher Keltner on happiness and health

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

In modern psychology more than in traditional psychology there is attention for happiness. This new psychology is called positive psychology and it holds as tenant that what allows people to function well in their lives are their strong qualities and that what helps people who need psychological help more than anything is emphasis on their strong points. It makes for a psychology that is less busy with neuroses and deficiencies, but rather with emotional strengths, social intelligence, compassion, well-being and therefore, eventually happiness.

Consequently, on psychology podcasts, both lecture series (see more below) and specialized interview podcasts such as Shrink Rap Radio there is a lot of attention for the proponents, subjects and findings in positive psychology. In that respect an especially noteworthy issue was the interview with Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner (Shink Rap Radio #217). Keltner is a specialist in happiness and shared a great wealth of insight with the listeners. One of those are his arguments that positive emotions such as compassion are actually a product of evolution and hence, paraphrasing Darwin, evolution is not survival of the fittest, but rather of the kindest. He even argues Darwin himself believed this. (Shrink Rap radio feed)

Shrink Rap Radio's interview with Keltner is a fine way to get 45 minutes of his thought, but if you want more, you are advised to continue through to UC Berkeley and pick up his lecture course on happiness and health: Letters and Science C160V, 001, Psychology C162, 001 - Human Happiness (feed) Here you can find out much more about positive emotions, about the parts of the brain responsible for this, about touch, compassion, forgiveness and much much more.

My colleague podcast reviewer DIY Scholar has written two very relevant reviews of Keltner's course to which I happily refer you: Human Happiness and Are we a touch Starved Culture?

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Resurrection after rape,
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack.

Learn German through podcast

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

One of the most helpful tools in language learning is to hear the target language being used. Hence, podcasting is a medium especially fit for teaching a language and the supply of free language learning podcasts is amazingly large. You can pick almost any (living) language and find at least a handful of podcasts offering you to teach it to you. Last time I wrote about one podcast teaching Dutch, today I want to relate my adventure into German teaching podcasts. And I can promise a post about Hebrew learning podcasts very soon.

As was to be expected, the amount of German learning podcasts is staggering. I have made a quick survey of five of them, each with different starting assumptions, levels and method. I am not going to recommend any one in particular. I think language learning eventually is both very personal and also in need of a multi-method approach. In general I'd say one should not rely on podcasts alone and neither on one podcast alone. Try them all and soon you will find what combination works for you.

My Daily Phrase German (feed)
This is a podcast by Radio Lingua Network which seems to have podfaded and been followed up by One Minute German and A flavour of German. This course starts with the basics and concentrates on phrases. A general remark about phrase podcasts should be: phrases alone will not help you very much. Without grammar and vocabulary, you will not know what you are actually saying and you will hardly succeed in understanding, let alone, dealing with replies. Nevertheless, phrases are part of language learning, they are a good addition and a nice starting point.

Learn German (Germanpod101) (feed)
Also a podcast with basics. Apart from phrases there is also basic grammar. These first two podcasts I mentioned are a nice place to start.

German GrammarPod (feed)
German grammar is not particularly easy, not even if you come from familiar languages such as English and Dutch. In spite of it being a rather intimidating subject, I advise anyone who wants to learn German to pay ample attention to grammar. The German Grammarpod systematically goes through German grammar and you will find it a good supplement to your German learning. For more advanced learners, this podcast is also a good refreshment and testing tool.

Deutsch - warum nicht? (Deutsche Welle) (feed)
This course in German leans heavily on letting you get the flavor of German. I totally agree that you will have to listen to naturally used language in order to effectively picking it up, but it cannot replace systematic learning. Try Deutsche Welle and see if it matches you. If you have a starting basis in German, it may be fun.

Slow German (feed)
At any stage of advancement in German learning, I would recommend Annik Rubens's podcast Slow German. Annik reads a complete text in a slightly slower and meticulously pronounced German as to make it easier to follow for non-native speakers. Even from a very low level starting point it makes sense to listen in. Even if you do not understand all, you will be able to tell the words apart and get a good feel of the pronunciation and free use of the language. Slow German will expose you to German and a regular listen will prove to be a tremendous support to all other efforts you put in German learning.

Many of these podcasts have additional learning materials, frequently at a premium. I would say you should use anything you can lay your hands on for free. After some time you will have figured out with which podcast you connect particularly well and then should consider spending some money to make the investment complete.

Of course, if Slow German or any of the other podcasts begin to get too slow for you, try some regular podcasts in German. There are a considerable number I have reviewed on my blog:
Skythen-Podcast (history)
Leben und Überleben mit 45+ (life after cancer)
Junggesellenblog (personal audioblog)
Meiky's Podcast Show (audioblog and audio plays)
Geschichtspodcast (history)
Volkis Stimme (satire)
Schlaflos in Muenchen (audioblog)
Ersatz TV (science)
Deutsche Klassiker (literature)
Omega Tau (science and technology)
Dichter und Denker (Culture and thought)
Wanhoff's Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft (science)
Fraunhofer (science and technology)
Ganz einfach leben (ecology and economics)
Der Sontagssoziologe (sociology)
Brieftour (audioblog)

The Ossie twilight - New Books in History

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

On New Books in History Marshall Poe interviewed journalist Stevan Allen about the demise of the DDR, the German Democratic Republic or East-Germany as it is has mostly been referred to.

The DDR was never really an independent state. Between its establishment in 1949 and its merging into the Bundesrepublik, the Federal Republic of Germany, it had mostly been a satellite of the Soviet Union. However, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there was a short period of a couple of months over which the DDR at least acted as an independent state. In a way it was suddenly dependent on West-Germany, but not all the way. It was almost certain it would rather soon than late merge into larger Germany. But for the time being, the DDR continued to live, if scrambling, in twilight. And this is where Allen took part.

It may be a generational thing. Marshall Poe, Stevan Allen and, yes, me too, observed these developments in awe, disbelief and fascinated dumbfoundedness. The citizens themselves, the Ossies, had a lot more to be confused and excited about themselves. Allen describes this in his book and on the show and I recognize it all. It makes for absolutely fascinating listening and I cannot imagine it to be otherwise for anybody else. However, if you haven't felt the Cold War from nearby, if you have known none other than one Germany, maybe it is less so. Or?

More NBIH:
The first day of LBJ,
Ayn Rand,
Atlantic History,
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough.

Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Do you know what are the Ten Commandments? I remember them vaguely from religious education and one day decided to actually look them up in the Torah. I found more than one version and they weren't clearly ordered from one to ten. I also remember reading the Torah as a Law student and was shuddering as I thought of what I was taught was proper law and proper wording of law.

This experience is also expressed by Christohper Hitchens as he speaks on the Ten Commandments on TVO's podcast Big Ideas. Needless to say, with Hitchens as a speaker, this alienating experience about the Ten Commandments culminates in a tearing down of it. Hitchens deconstructs the text to man-made, inspired by conflicting politics, but mostly driven by an underlying world view that allows for genocide, child molesting and what other immoral acts he can find sanctioned in the Bible.

Unless you completely agree in advance with Hitchens, you may find this a bit of a cheap trick. One can take any text out of its historic reference and find fault with it by modern standards. Even if this is a foundational text that is still considered valid today, it can hardly be taken without the huge tradition of explanation around it. In so far this is just a reply to simpleminded believers who take the Ten Commandments as ruling law in itself. A deeper quality of the lecture lies however in Hitchens' observation that god is a creation of man and what entails that creation. To that end, the debunking of the Ten Commandments is merely an entry point, a didactic method, rather than anything else.

More Big Ideas
The empire,
Lawrence Freedman - Big Ideas,
New Learning - Don Tapscott on Big Ideas,
On Crime,
Why isn't the whole world developed?.

Stem Cell confusion - Speaking of Faith

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

This weekend, out of curiosity, I listened to Speaking of Faith in a different way. Since the uncut interview was placed in SOF's podcast feed, I decided to listen to this raw material first and then go to the official radio broadcast (and podcast) Stem Cells, Untold Stories - interview with Doris Taylor.

To make a long critique short: the program is better. The raw material really is elevated to greater expression, greater meaning. The issues come out more distinct and more focussed. And this issue is Stem Cell therapy. Doris Taylor is a scientist who works with stem cells and gets all the room Speaking of Faith can give to show how Stem Cell therapy and research can be and should be done morally. She defuses the ideas that the use stem cells involve aborting embryos for the sake of science and medicine and lead to limitless quest for naturalistic knowledge. The way she sees it, the cells that are used are either not coming at the expense of life, or are cells from fertilized eggs that are otherwise thrown away and there, at least technically, do not go at the expense of life. And in turn, stem cell research and therapy, radicalize medicine and creates hope for life for people with heart conditions or with cystic fibrosis, to name but a few examples.

Though this certainly doesn't take the sting out of the critique of stem cell technology, she may have a point that the public debate has been contaminated. It has unnecessarily been drawn into this seeming discussion about whether 'life' could be 'used'. This she attributes to the terminology as it became established. Embryonic stem cells, are in the parlance and apart from making the term emotionally laden, it is technically wrong as the cells are not embryonic (not even those from fertilized eggs). The quality of this show was that it took the technical angle, without becoming too technical and could begin to enter the social and moral implications.

More SOF:
Preserving Ojibwe,
The story and God,
Fragility and Humanity,
The Sunni-Shia divide and the future of Islam,
Wangari Maathai.

More on stem cells:
The bioethics concern,
Regenerative Medicine - Stanford,
Straight Talk about Stem Cell Research,
The Ethics of Stem Cell Research,
Human rights and the body,
Life and bio-engineering - podcast review,
Bioethics without Christ, please,
A useful map into Bio-Ethics,
Stem Cell Research: Science, Ethics, and Prospects,
Stem Cell,
Stem Cells - Biology and Politics.

326 Podcasts - Anne is a Man's list for November 2009

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Every first of the month I publish a full list of podcasts I have reviewed. You can find the list below. If however you want to have them presented to you in a more orderly fashion, look up my list of directories. The disclaimer must be that the directories are not as up to date as the full list is.

12 Byzantine Rulers
7th Son
Africa (Stanford Travel)
Africa Past and Present
All Things Medieval
American Environmental and Cultural History (Berkeley ESPM 160AC)
American History before 1870
American Studies 101 AC (Berkeley)
Analysis (BBC)
Ancient and Medieval Podcast
Ancient History - Alternative Theories
Ancient Philosophy (Berkeley)
Antisemitism (USHMM)

Are we alone?
Argos (VPRO)
Armistice Podcast
Backstory
BBC History Magazine
Behind the Black Mask
Behind the News with Doug Henwood
Beyond Good and Evil (Librivox)
Big Ideas (TVO)
Bike Radar
BILD 18 - Human Impact on the Environment (UCSD)
Binge Thinking History
Bioethics podcast
Biography Podcast (Learn Out Loud)
the Biography Show (TPN)
Biota Podcast
Birth of the Modern (Arizona State University)
the Bitterest Pill
BMS World Mission
Bommel Hoorspel (NPS)
Brieftour-pod
British History 101
Cambridge Alumni Podcast
Car Talk
CAT 2 Culture Art and Technology (UCSD)
Cat Crave
CATS 2 Culture and Technology Studies (UCSD)
Celtic Myth Podshow
CFR Podcast
Chronicles Radio Dispatches
Church History
Conceptual Foundations of International Politics (Columbia)
Dan Carlin's Common Sense
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Das Rätsel der verschollenen Schatulle
David Kalivas' World History
De Geschiedenis Podcast
Der Sonntagssoziologe
Deutsche Klassiker (Deutsche Welle)
Dichter und Denker (University of Freiburg)
Distillations
Dogear Nation
Drinking matters (Warwick)
Early American Social History (Warwick)
East Asian Languages and Cultures (Berkeley)
East Asian Thought (UCSD)
Economics 100B (Berkeley)
the Economist
EconTalk
Elucidations
Engines of our Ingenuity
English 117S (Berkeley)
Entitled opinions
Environmental Economics and Policy (Berkeley)
Environmental History Videocast
Ersatz TV
The Ethicist (NYT)
Ethics Bites (Open University)
European Civilization 1648 to 1945 (Yale)
Everything Lincoln
Existentialism in Literature and Film (Phil 7 - Berkeley)
Exploring Environmental History
F1Cast
Fact or Fiction
Family History - Genealogy made easy
Feed Me Bubbe
Flavius (Joodse Omroep)
Forgotten Classics
Foundations of American Cyber-Culture (Berkeley)
Frankenstein, or modern Prometheus (Librivox)
Fraunhofer Podcast
Freedomain Radio
Fresh Air (NPR)
From Israelite to Jew
From our own Correspondent (BBC)
Game Theory (Yale)
Ganz einfach leben
Genealogy Gems Podcast
Geography 110C (Berkeley) Economic Geography of the Industrial World
Geography 130 (Berkeley)
Geography of Europe (Arizona State University)
Geography of World Cultures (Stanford)
Georgian Britain (Warwick)
German Cultural History
Geschichtspodcast (Chronico)
Geschiedewistjedatjes
Gilder Lehrmann history podcast
Global Geopolitics (Stanford)
Grammar Girl
Guns and Rubles (Warwick)
Hank's History Hour
Hannibal (Stanford)
Haring Podcast
Harvard Business IdeaCast
Historical Jesus (Stanford)
Historicast
History 106B (Berkeley)
History 131 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
History 132 (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
History 162A (Berkeley)
History 167B (Berkeley)
History 181B (Berkeley)
History 1c (UCLA)
History 2311 (Temple College)
History 2312 (Temple College)
History 4A (Berkeley)
History 5 (Anderson - Berkeley)
History 5 (Hesse- Berkeley)
History 5 (Laqueur - Berkeley)
History 7B (Berkeley)
History according to Bob
History Compass Blog
the History Faculty
History Network
History of Holland (Librivox)
History of India (UCLA)
History of Medicine (Oxford Brooke University)
History of Rome
History of the International System (Stanford)
History on the Run
History Podcast
Historypod
Historyzine
Hoor! Geschiedenis
Hoorspelen
HUM 4 - Enlightenment, Romanticism, Revolution (UCSD)
HUM 4104 (Virginia Tech)
Husserl
ICT Update
In My Living Room!
In Our Time (BBC)
In the Media (WNYC)
Inspired Minds (Deutsche Welle)
Interview Vrijdag (VPRO)
Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Yale)
an Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Berkeley)
Introduction to German Politics (Oxford)
Introduction to Language (Arizona State University)
Introduction to Psychology (Yale)
Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (Yale)
Introductory Topics in Religious Studies (Berkeley)
Iran Podcast
Irving Poetry podcast
Isaiah Berlin Centenary (Oxford)
Islamic Medicine (Warwick)
It was 20 years ago today
ITV
Jung Podcast
Junggesellenblog
KMTT
KQED Forum
Kritisch Denken
La Resistance
Language (UCSD)
Laura Speaks Dutch
Leben und Überleben mit 45+
Letters and Science (Berkeley)
The Long Now podcast
LSE Podcast
Lyrics Undercover
Making History with Ran Levi - עושים היסטוריה
Marathon Arie Kleywegt
Marathon Herman Bianchi
Marathon Interview (VPRO)
Het Marathon Interview (VPRO) vernieuwde feed
Masters of None
Matt's Today In History
Media Matters (NPR)
medicalhistory
Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Fall 2008 (Virginia Tech)
Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events - Spring 2008 (Virginia Tech)
Medieval Podcast
Meetings Podcast
Meiky's Podcast Show
The Memory Palace
Midwest Writer
Mighty Movie Podcast
Military History Podcast
Missing Link
MMW 2 , the great classical traditions (Chamberlain - UCSD)
MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Chamberlain - UCSD)
MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Herbst - UCSD)
MMW 4, new ideas and clash of cultures (UCSD)
MMW6 (UCSD)
Muscular Judaism
My Three Shrinks
Namaste Stories
Napoleon 1O1 (TPN)
National Archives Podcast
Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Podcast
New Books In History
New Humanist
New World Orders
New York Coffee Cup
The New York Review of Books podcast
Night's Knights
Nilpod
Nonviolence (Berkeley PACS 164A)
Nonviolence today (Berkeley PACS 164B)
Norman Centuries
NRC FM
Omega Tau Podcast
Only in America
Oorsmeer (VPRO)
Open Source
Out of the past
OVT (VPRO)
Oxford Biographies
Oy Mendele!
Parnell's History Podcast
Peopletalk's Podcast
Physics for future Presidents (Berkeley)
Philosopher's Zone (ABC)
Philosophy 103
Philosophy 135 (Berkeley)
Philosophy 138 (Berkeley)
Philosophy 7 (Berkeley)
Philosophy Bites
the Philosophy Podcast
Philosopy 6 (Berkeley) Man, God, and Society in Western Literature
Podcast history of cooking
Podcasts on Medieval Texts (Virginia Tech)
Pods and Blogs
Podwatch
POLI 120A - Political Development of Western Europe
Political, Economic and Social Thought (University of Wisconsin)
Political Science 10 (UCLA)
Political Science 179 (Berkeley)
Politics 114B (UCLA)
Politics and Warfare (UCSD)
Pope Podcast
Practice of Art (Berkeley) Foundations of American Cyber-Culture
Prosperity show
PSYC 105 - Introduction cognitive psychology (UCSD)
Psyconoclasm
Radiolab (WNYC)
Rav Dovid's
Real Talk
Rear Vision (ABC)
Red Panda
Redborne History
Reith Lectures 2009 (BBC)
Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155A)
Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155B)
Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
Replaceable You (Stanford)
Rhetoric 10 (Berkeley)
Rpgmp3
RSA Current Audio
Schlaflos in München
Science & the City
Science Fiction and Politics
Science Friday (NPR)
Science Talk (Scientific American)
Science Times (NYT)
Sex History Podcast
A Short History of Ireland (BBC)
Shrink Rap Radio
Šimek 's Nachts (RVU)
Šimek 's Nachts (Elsevier)
the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
Skythen-Podcast
SOCD 188J - Change in Modern South Africa (UCSD)
Social Innovation Conversations
SOCL 1B - the study of society (UCSD)
Sonic Society
Sparkletack
Speaking of Faith (APM)
Stanford U History
Stem Cells: Policy and Ethics (Stanford)
Sterke Geschiedenis
Straight talk about stem cells (Stanford)
Stuff you missed in history class
The Structure of English Words (Stanford)
Sunday Sundown
Talking Robots
TdF London
Teaching American History
Teaching Company
TED Talks
That Podcast Show (aka Edgy Reviews)
Theories of Law and Society (Berkeley)
the Things We Forgot To Remember
Thinking Allowed (BBC)
Time Out for Truth
Times Talks
the Tolkien Professor
Tudorcast
UChannel Podcast (aka University Channel Podcast)
UCLA Israel Studies
US History since 1877 (Temple College)
Veertien Achttien
VIS 22 - Formations of Modern Art (UCSD)
Volkis Stimme
Volkskrant Podcasts
Voor 1 nacht (KRO)
Wanhoffs Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft
We the People Stories
Welcome to Mars
What is Judaism?
Wise Counsel
the Word Nerds
World View (NYT)
the Writing Show
Wynyfryd's meditation room
the Your History Podcast
Your Purpose Centered Life
zencast
zoem
האוניברסיטה המשודרת
מה שהיה היה
פודקאסט זה לחלשים
קטעים בהיסטוריה

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New podcasts in October 2009 - Anne is a Man

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

First of all, in October we have had Blog Action Day 2009 during which 31000 blog posts about Climate Change were published all on October 15th. My own contribution can be reread under the #BAD09 tag.

In addition, there were ten podcasts that I reviewed for the first time:

History Podcasts:
Short History of Ireland (BBC) (review, site, feed)
Very charming daily podcast taking the listener through the history of Ulster and Eire in 5 minute issues.

Norman Centuries (review, site, feed)
The comeback of history podcast veteran Lars Brownworth. This series will tell us the history of the Normans.

European Civilization 1648 to 1945 (Yale) (review, site, feed)
General modern western history lecture series by Professor John Merriman.

History of India (UCLA) (review, site, feed)
Lecture series by Professor Vinay Lal taking us through Indian History from Indus Valley civilization to the modern day.

Other podcasts:
Husserl (review, site, feed)
Lecture series by John Drabinsky about Edmund Husserl, put in feed by Anne is a Man.

Political Economic and Social Thought (University of Wisconsin) (review, site, feed)
Political Science introduction from 25 years ago by Professor Charles W. Anderson

Laura Speaks Dutch (review, site, feed)
Straightforward language learning podcast, teaching you Dutch phrases and basic grammar.

Oorsmeer (VPRO) (review, site, feed)
(in Dutch) Satirisch nieuwsprogramma.

Kritisch Denken (review, site, feed)
(in Dutch) Sceptische podcast van de Vlaming Jozef van Giel.

Deutsche Klassiker (Deutsche Welle) (review, site, feed)
(in German) German Classics read to you by excellent readers.

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The binding of Isaac reconstructed

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Today, I have decided, I will skip writing a podcast review. This doesn't mean I will take a break - there is actually a long playlist awaiting me and a lot of listening time is planned. The schedule leaves very little room from writing. Frequently I have posts pre-written, but the ones I have now, are not fit for today, but rather later on.

I do not wish to leave you without posts, however and so I want to entertain you with a video from YouTube that was forwarded to me. I hope it will please you as much as it pleased me.

Michael Sandel - LSE / UChannel

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Have you also enjoyed Michael Sandel on the BBC Reith Lectures 2009? It made me crave being in class when Sandel teaches and it turns out that that is now possible for a brief moment. Albeit after the fact, but still.

Sandel was invited to speak at the London School of Economics on his subject that also was central in the Reith Lectures: The Moral Limits of Markets. This can be heard on the LSE Podcast and has been republished also at the UChannel Podcast. Usually these podcasts are one way lectures, at best with a question and answer session at the end, but Sandel's appearance takes on the character of a class. From the beginning he interacts with the audience and on the spot pushes them to explore moral issues with markets. This is exactly what I had imagined how it would be to study with him.

Just as in the Reith Lectures, Sandel shows how the current market thinking allows for turning anything into a commodity and if we feel something is wrong there, it is hard to get a grip on that intuition. Is it wrong to turn to commodity health services? Prisons? Warfare? Carbon Dioxide emissions? Refugee quota? Could you take options on certain occurrences, such as a celebrity's death or terrorist attacks? Sandel's contribution to the discussion is the analysis of the intuition. He shows that aside from market freedom, also principles of justice and morality play a role.

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

The weekly treat: In Our Time

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I do not expect that readers of this blog really need a reminder of the excellent weekly podcast of the BBC In Our Time. Each week Melvyn Bragg is joined in the studio by three specialist to talk about various subjects in the history of ideas. Since my last review we have heard about the Dreyfus affair, the death of Elizabeth I and the geological formation of Britain. Tomorrow there will be a new podcast. This time about Schopenauer.

In Our Time has been bringing 45 minutes of sheer intellectual pleasure over the past years. And so, what more is to be said? The BBC and Melvyn Bragg understand the asset they have with IOT and have published the In Our Time book. Although the BBC website presents this as a guide to IOT, is merely a set of transcripts of selected chapters.

As is usual with books these day, teasers can be had over the web and so, you can read a transcript of the episode about calendars. Also in print IOT displays here the wonderful quality it offers in podcast.

More In Our Time:
New season of In Our Time,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Logical Positivism,
The Sunni - Shia split,
Revenge Tragedy.

Het heelal in een kwartier - Kritisch Denken

annefriddevries@yahoo.co.uk (The Man called Anne) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Een bijzonder geslaagde aflevering van de sceptische podcast Kritisch Denken vertelde de geschiedenis van het heelal binnen vijftien minuten. Kritisch Denken is een nederlandstalige podcast die merkbaar geinspireerd is op Engelse podcasts zoals onder meer The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (SGU). (feed)

De maker van Kritisch Denken, de Vlaming Jozef van Giel werkt volgens een vastgelegd script dat op de website is terug te lezen (Het helaal in een notedop). Dat werkt in dit specifieke voorbeeld erg goed en levert de beste inleiding in de astronomie die ik me maar wensen kan. In andere gevallen versnippert het de podcast een weinig en brengt het Van Giel aan het hakkelen.

De podcast is begonnen in Februari 2009 en wie de afleveringen van het begin vergelijkt met die van het eind, kan een zeer positieve ontwikkeling waarnemen. Niet alleen heeft Van Giel het podcasten technisch onder de knie gekregen, maar heeft hij ook het drammerige van sommige andere sceptici weten te vermijden en een sfeer gecreeerd waarin we samen met hem soms ook op zoek zijn naar de kritische balans. Zoals bijvoorbeeld in de podcast over IJsland, waarin onverwachte wendingen worden gegeven aan de vraag wat ecologisch verantwoord leven is.