Sunday, December 19, 2010

Heads-up for 19 December 2010

Exploring Environmental History
Reframing a vision of lost fens
Wetlands were once common over a large part of eastern England. Of these so-called fens only two percent survives today and most of it is now situated in nature reserves. One of these reserves is Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. Today Wicken Fen is the focus of a controversial proposal to radically expand the area of managed wetland around the reserve and to return arable land to its former wetland condition. On this podcast we interview Stuart Warrington, Nature Conservation Advisor for the National Trust at Wicken Fen, about these proposed changes and the role of history in recreating the wetlands. The second half of the podcast is devoted to a talk delivered by Ian Rotherham of Sheffield Hallam University. In his talk Ian analyses the attitudes towards the fens over the centuries and how these influenced the desire to drain thousands of square kilometres of wetland. He also considers the rich wild life in these wetlands and what a rich resources these provided for its inhabitants. Music credit: Mechanics in Love (Cue 3) flac Stems by boomaga, available from ccMixter.
(review, feed)

Norman Centuries
Episode 11 - The Great Count
Roger de Hauteville was a strange conqueror. The youngest of twelve sons he was the last to come to Italy and treated as the least capable of the siblings by a jealous Guiscard. His first raid in Sicily was a disaster that seemed to confirm the worst suspicions about him. But Roger persevered and over three decades he managed to carve out a kingdom that rivaled that of William the Conqueror's. Along the way he won one of the most spectacular battles in medieval history and managed to die with all of his vast conquests at peace. Join Lars Brownworth as he looks at the surprising life of the last Hauteville brother.
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History According to Bob
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
This show is about the construction and political fallout from the first Berlin Wall 1961 .
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Tapestry
Franciscan Priest
Mary Hynes talks to Richard Rohr. One of the world's best-known religious thinkers and activists, he is both adored and denounced. Many see him as a spiritual leader who lives the teachings of the 13th century friar, St. Francis. Rohr is an advocate for urban renewal, the eradication of poverty, male spirituality, as well as for gay and lesbian rights. He is a priest, a former prison chaplain, author, and a man who spends half the year living out of a suitcase, teaching around the world
(review, feed)

Dogear Nation
The Death of Delicious
We end the year with some bitter news, and we need your help to move into 2011. Delicious, our site of choice for getting your tags, is being shut down by Yahoo. How do you want us to get your input for the show? Please drop us an email at dogearnation@gmail.com or comment on the blog. Should we use an open Google Doc? Should we use Twitter Hashtags? Should we use the Facebook? Should we use Google Buzz? Or do you have an idea? We hope everyone has a great year end, and we will be back with a new episode Recorded January 7th, 2011.
(review, feed)

Chris Hedges - Radio Open Source

Here is a quick recommendation to listen to Radio Open Source, where Christopher Lydon interviews Chris Hedges about his bleak outlook on modern world in general and the US society in particular. Here he explains how he think our democracy is run down the drain - with Democrats and Republicans equally guilty. (feed)

About a year and a half ago, we also heard him on Media Matters with an equally grim depiction of where we live. Also here his concern is liberal democracy, but here he discusses how our culture is dumbing down and thus is undermining the proper political state. (feed)

More Radio Open Source:
Geography shifting big history,
Kai Bird,
Amartya Sen on India,
Mustafa Barghouti,
Jackson Lears.