Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Heads-up for 14 September 2010

Stuff You Missed in History Class
The Death of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in December of 1791, bringing his profound career to an untimely end. But how exactly did he die? Join Katie and Sarah as they examine the life of Mozart -- and the questions surrounding his death -- in this podcast.
(review, feed)

Big Ideas (TVO)
Ruth Wisse on Getting Serious about Jewish Humor - 2004
Ruth Wisse delivers her lecture entitled Getting Serious about Jewish Humor recorded at Beth Tzedec Synagogue in Toronto, in November, 2004.
(review, feed)

Inspired Minds
One to One with theatre director Stephen Jameson
In Germany the London director is well remembered for his acclaimed productions at the Shakespeare Festival at the Globe, Neuss, which have included "Hamlet," "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Titus Andronicus." Director, actor, author and teacher Stephen Jameson has directed numerous productions for renowned institutions including the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art – the Guildhall, The English Shakespeare Company and Music Dance Theater Hildesheim in the Netherlands - to name but a few. He is the founder and director of the Sturdy Beggars Theatre Company where has directed and produced numerous productions, and has also written works for stage and radio. In this week’s Inspired Minds, Stephen Jameson speaks to Breandáin O’Shea about his new company "Alma Mater," his latest production of "Much Ado About Nothing " – which he set in Chicago in the 1950s, and his admiration for Germany’s care of the arts.
(review, feed)

Outriders formerly known as Pods and Blogs (BBC)
Learning from the recent past
This week Jamillah discusses decentralisation, the history of the internet and a possible digital future with author Johnny Ryan.
(review, feed)

La Resistance
Jean Moulin: Maximizing the Resistance
It’s the long awaited Jean Moulin ep on La Resistance! Tune in to learn more about the man historian Thane Peterson was speaking of when he said ‘If there’s a greater hero of WWII of any nationality, I haven’t read about him.’
(review, feed)

Office Hours - Sociology Podcast

Early in the past Summer a sociology podcast, Office Hours, was recommended to me by one of his makers - see Reported Podcasts Summer 2010. Consequently I have tried two episodes from the backlog and keeping it in my feed readers for the coming updates. Among the social sciences in podcast we mostly see economics and psychology and relatively few sociology so it is good to have this one around. (feed)

When I studied Sociology in the good old days, we had a running joke about sociological research: it somehow tended to narrow down on too specific a subject. We would call it 'Alcoholism in Drenthe' (Drenthe is a small region in The Netherlands) and if that would not put the message through we would add 'Alcoholism among school teachers in Drenthe'. The point being, how much can you learn about alcoholism, about Drenthe or about school teachers if this is the study. And so, with some trepidation I watched the subject list and listened to issue Elizabeth Wissinger on Modeling.

A much more general issue was found when they discussed Studs Terkel and I was surprised and extremely delighted to hear Harvey Pekar on the show. If I recall correctly Studs Terkel was also discussed one day at the BBC program about sociology Thinking Allowed.