Recommended Podcasts

I like public broadcasting for the content since for me the content is the message. I have selected the following podcasts for their content pertaining to diversity and the expansion of human understanding.

Happiness

CBC Radio, Tapestry, February 11, 2007: Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis.
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2007/021107.html
Mary Hynes' guide is Jonathan Haidt, the author of a book called The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Not that all the wisdom is so ancient. After all, it was scarcely a century ago that Edith Wharton nailed it: “If only we’d stop trying to be happy,” she said, “we’d have a pretty good time.”The world’s spiritual traditions have all weighed in on this too. Some of them say being happy really isn’t the point — that living a meaningful life is what it’s all about. Others will tell you the two can’t really be separated.

CBC Radio, Quirks and Quarks, May 27, 2006: Dr. Daniel Gilbert, author of, Stumbling on Happiness
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/05-06/may27.html
Research into happiness hasn't been a traditional subject for psychology, but it's become something of a hot topic. We speak to several scientists on the cutting edge of happiness research. Dr. Daniel Nettle, a reader in Psychology at the University of Newcastle, is the author of, Happiness, the Science Behind your Smile. Dr. Daniel Gilbert is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and author of, Stumbling on Happiness.

CBC Radio, Tapestry, October 1, 2006: Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2006/100106.html
The psychologist Daniel Gilbert says Sartre had it wrong — hell is not other people, heaven is other people. In fact, says Gilbert, most of the ideas we have about how to be happy are dead wrong. Take Doris Day warbling Que Sera Sera. According to Daniel Gilbert, that's just about the worst advice on how to live life that you could ever give someone. Hear more as Mary Hynes talks with the author of Stumbling on Happiness.

CBC Radio, Tapestry, January 7, 2007: Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2007/010707.html
Picture this — a smart, hip young woman called Elizabeth Gilbert who thought she had it all. She was married, lived in New York, made her living as a successful writer. One night found herself crumpled sobbing in a heap on the floor of the bathroom. And for the first time, she found herself praying to God. That was the start of Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey — both physically and spiritually. The result is her new book called Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

CBC Radio, Tapestry, October 8, 2006: Harold Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2006/100806.html
The psychologist Daniel Levinson writes that much of the unhappiness of people halfway through life is due to the "tyranny of their dreams." We all start out with dreams for our lives, but what happens when those dreams are deferred, or go astray? Rabbi Harold Kushner, the best selling author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, shows how we can weather the disillusionment we all face in life in his new book Overcoming Life's Disappointments. The book is distributed in Canada by Random House.

Meditation

CBC Radio, Tapestry, May 15, 2005: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindful Meditation
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2005/051505.html
A feature interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn. The man who brought mindfulness meditation to hospitals … the man who wrote the books Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go … There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn is known for introducing people to a profoundly spiritual view of life. Just don’t tell him that! Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts. His latest book is called Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. It’s published by Hyperion.

Sexual Orientation

CBC Radio, Quirks and Quarks, November 26, 2005: Searching for a "Gay Gene"
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/05-06/nov26.html
Is sexuality a choice? It's a question that's plagued science and society since the American Psychological Association stopped referring to homosexuality as a disease in the early 1970s. There are those who believe that parental and other societal influences can lead to a child growing up gay. Others contend that sexuality is based in biology -- that there are genes responsible for a person's sexual preference. One of the first lines of evidence to support the idea that male sexuality comes from our genes was from Dr. Simon LeVay, a former researcher from The Salk Institute. He found regions of men's brains that were different sizes in gay and straight men.

CBC Radio, Writers and Company, 4 March 2007: Colm Toibin, Mothers and Sons
http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/schedule/march.html
Eleanor Wachtel speaks with the Irish writer, Colm Toibin. The award-winning author of The Master has a new book of stories, called Mothers and Sons.

CBC Radio, Writers and Company: 8 October 2006, Sarah Waters
http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/schedule/october.html
A conversation with English novelist, Sarah Waters. From her award-winning 'lesbo-Victorian romps' to her latest book, The Night Watch, set in the grey days of Britain just after, and during, the Second World War, Waters is described as "one of the best story tellers alive today."

Teens and Youth

BBC Radio, Documentary Archive, Generation Next
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6207590.stm
The BBC's Robin Lustig explores what "youth" means in different societies and cultures worldwide in the key five-part documentary series.
Part One - Child vs Adult, Adulthood: separating the children from the grown ups
Part Two – Sex: How do young people choose their partners
Part Three - Work and responsibility: the boundaries between work and education
Part Four – Criminality: Is teen rebellion a Western export
Part Five – Citizenship: Playing an active role in political debate

Skin Colour

CBC Radio, The Current, part 3, Oct. 25, 2006: Nina Jablonski, Skin: A Natural History
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2006/200610/20061025.html
Imagine being defined by the colour of your heart or lungs--if indeed these organs came in shades other than red. If indeed we could see them. It's not such a rhetorical question if you consider that skin, one of the body's largest organs, is the primary way by which we're defined. We are considered black or white or any hue in between, meaning skin---our body's protective barrier--can also be a personal, social and political barrier as well. In this half hour, we talked about skin...its evolutionary history, and the contemporary connection between skin, race and politics.

CBC Radio, The Current, part 3, May 3, 2007: Colour Bar – Jackie Robinson
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200705/20070503.html
In 1947 when Jackie Robinson took to the baseball field in the major leagues he broke the U.S. colour barrier. But six decades and countless innings later - the number of African Americans in the big leagues is down, leading some to question whether baseball is failing the hall of famer. It was a momentous anniversary not just for baseball and professional sports but for the entire civil rights movement in the United States. To tell us more about what Jackie Robinson meant to U.S. society, we were joined by Jonathan Eig, the author of Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season.

Native Issues

CBC Radio, Ideas, August 5, 2006: THOMAS KING, What Is It About Us You Don't Like?
http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa/wo/tOpI4gItyJJZQhpUyCSyz0/55.0.0.50.45.26.5.19.0.1
In an impassioned speech, Thomas King discusses the Native experience in North America. Entitled, What Is It About Us You Don't Like?

CBC Radio, Ideas, Massey Lectures 2003 : Thomas King, The Truth about Stories, A Native Narative
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/massey2003.html
In his 2003 Massey lecture, award-winning author and scholar Thomas King looks at the breadth and depth of Native experience and imagination. Beginning with Native oral stories, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, in an effort to make sense of North America’s relationship with its Aboriginal peoples.

Religion

CBC Radio, Tapestry, November 20, 2005, God's Green Earth: Religion and Ecology
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2005/112005.html
An exploration of the emerging field of religion and ecology, which has been largely inspired by Thomas Berry, the Catholic monk who has spent his life exploring the human relationship with the natural world and its implications for religion. Mary Hynes talks with two of the leading scholars in the field; Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker, founder of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Harvard University and professor of religion at Bucknell University; and Professor Heather Eaton, theologian at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa and co-founder of the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology.We also hear about the “Green Nuns” … Catholic sisters who are turning their convents into ecology centres – complete with organic gardens out back.

CBC Radio, Tapestry June 18, 2006: Rachael Turkienicz http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2006/061806.htm
When Rachael Turkienicz was in high school, she wanted desperately to study the Talmud, the rabbinic commentary on Jewish law. But she was a girl - and only boys could study the Talmud. So she made a deal. She could listen in on the class - as long as she sat behind a screen and kept silent. Since then, Rachael Turkienicz has become the first woman to receive a master’s and a doctorate degree in Talmudic and midrashic literature from Brandeis University. Her passion for the people whose lives are revealed in these ancient texts is so strong, she says they walk around in her heart.

Psychology

TVOntario, Big Ideas, January, 2007: Michael Persinger, Psychotropic Drugs
http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bigideas
Michael Persinger is a professor of Psychology at Laurentian University. The title of this lecture is: Psychotropic Drugs. This lecture is winner of the Big Ideas' Best Lecturer Competition.

ABC Radio, All in the Mind, 28 April 2007: You are not your brain scan! Critical reporting on the mind sciences.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2007/1905157.htm
The Brain. It's been called the final frontier of science. Colourful fMRI scans light up our TV screens and newspapers promising to reveal the secrets of the psyche. From the search for the brain's God Spot, to the rapid rise of neuroeconomics, neuromarketing and neuroethics - makes for sexy headlines - but have journalists become blinded by the lights and allure of the brain scan? Are we telling too simplistic a story about the human self? Join Natasha Mitchell at the World Conference of Science Journalists with award-winning science journalists Deborah Blum (USA) and Jonica Newby, and Professor Fred Mendelsohn, Director of the Howard Florey Institute.

ABC Radio, All in the Mind, 21 April 2007: Jerome Kagan, The Father of Temperament
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2007/1898339.htm
Why can two children born into the same household be like two different peas in a pod? Harvard's Jerome Kagan trailblazed the controversial science of temperament to investigate why. In a career that spans more than half a century, now he's going into battle for our minds, with a compelling retrospective, An Argument for Mind. To some an iconoclast - one of the biggest names in psychology of our time joins Natasha Mitchell, in this re-airing of a popular interview.

ABC Radio, All in the Mind, 7 April 2007: Borderline Personality Disorder - Challenging the label http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2007/1889932.htm
Self harm and self-denigration. Radical mood swings, and diabolical, destructive behaviours. For those labelled as having Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - life is intolerable. Not the least because it's a diagnosis often stigmatised by the very profession responsible for giving it. This week, confronting stories about a confronting condition. Of the estimated 1-2% of the population said to have the disorder, most are women. But are these difficult women, or women with dreadfully difficult histories?

ABC Radio, All in the Mind, 14 April 2007: Julie's Story, Diary of a brain tumour
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2007/1893685.htm
Like many young Australians in their early 20s, writer Julie Deakin headed to Europe for her first 'Big Adventure'. But holidaying in Hungary with her sister she found herself diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and scheduled for immediate surgery, in a land whose language she didn't speak. It was the start of an eight-year saga before her death in 1998, confronting a tumour that wouldn't go away, and the finality of a passionate young life. This week, Julie's story.

Feeding the World

BBC Radio, Documentary Archive, February 2007, Rice Bowl Tales
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6404669.stm
In this special series we look into a food stuff that many of us take for granted and buy from a supermarket without much thought. We're talking about rice. Rice Bowl Tales is a series of four programmes exploring the importance of rice to Asian economies, and how the crop contributes to a sense of national identity.
Part One: China: A visit to the shopping malls of in the world’s newest futuristic metropolis Shanghai
Part Two: Thailand: The foremost exporter of rice world wide and has a growing market in Africa
Part Three: Bangladesh: The green revolution of the 60’s led to growth of rice production in Bangladesh
Part Four: Japan: In the Land of the Rising Sun rice is at the centre of the struggle about national identity.

BBC Radio, Documentary Archive, March 2007, Feeding the World
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6501077.stm
This BBC World Service series investigates the growing but often under-reported challenges facing the world's food supply. Global Warming, soil erosion and a world population that is set to grow by a further two and half billion in the next thirty years, are just some of the pressures that could undermine the current state of relative abundance
Part One: Growing Pains: The Asian and Latin American “Green Revolution” of the 1960s and 70s
Part Two: Taste of Excess: A look at the way we eat food and it effects on the global food supply
Part Three: The Future Test: The impact of green pressures and rising populations of the global food supply

CBC Radio, The Current, part 2, April 3, 2007: Climate Change – Food Security
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200704/20070403.html
Experts are predicting climate change will take a hefty bite out of our food supply. Already, billions of dollars are being lost every year from smaller yields of cereal crops. The Current takes a look at new predictions on how global food production will be affected.

AIDS

CBC Radio, The Best of The Current, 24/04/2007: Stories of AIDS in Africa – Stephanie Nolen http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/podcast.html
Estimates put the number of HIV-infected people in Africa at 28 million. For some there is a fear that that number is just that - an unfathomable number. In her new book, Canadian journalist Stephanie Nolen tells us the personal stories in the hopes of making us care about this staggering epidemic.

CBC Radio, Ideas:Massey Lectures 2005, Race against Time - Stephen Lewis http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/massey2005.html
With these wrenching words, diplomat and humanitarian Stephen Lewis opens his 2005 Massey Lectures. Lewis’s determination to bear witness to the desperate plight of so many in Africa and elsewhere is balanced by his unique, personal, and often searing insider’s perspective on our ongoing failure to help.

Slavery

BBC Radio, Documentary Archives: Free At Last
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6425135.stm
Between the 15th and the 19th Centuries up to 15 million people were forced to migrate from the African continent to the New World, where they were forcibly enslaved.
As part of the commemorations for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade, Free at Last investigates the unexplored history of black and African resistance to slavery.
Part One: Money & Violence: What made the transatlantic slave trade possible and how did it work?
Part Two: Emancipation: What factors shaped the demise of the Transatlantic slave trade?
Part Three: Cultural DNA: Exploring the Diaspora’s reconnection with Africa

ABC Radio, Philosopher’s Zone, 21 April 2007: What’s wrong with slavery?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/
We all agree that slavery is a bad thing but can we say why? Precisely what rights are being offended and why are they worth defending? So, 200 years since the British parliament voted to abolish the slave trade we ask what exactly is wrong with slavery.

Geographical Regions

BBC Radio, Documentary Archive, India Rising
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6319981.stm
This landmark series explores the what globalisation and a decade of economic reforms have done to India and the way that it sees itself.
Part One: New Wealth: How are Indians spending their new acquired wealth?
Part Two: Indias’s Heart of Darkness: Bihar remains as it has done for generations
Part Three: TV Nation: What impact is TV having on the status quo in India?
Part Four: Can It all Hang Together? Could a disregard for the needs of the poor lead to social unrest?
Part Five: India Rising Debate: A discussion involving all four guests from this landmark documentary

BBC Radio, Documentary Archive, April 2007, France versus the World
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6553255.stm
The French maintain that they - their culture, their social model and their foreign policy - are exceptional. But for how much longer?
Part One: On the World Stage: Can Frances offer something different?
Part Two: Citizenship: Is the French model of citizenship working?
Part Three: Agriculture: Are changes afoot in rural France?
Part Four: Facing the Future: Why so many French are fearful of globalization?

BBC Radio, Documentary, July 2006, The New Arab World
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/5149940.stm
In recent years, a number of Gulf countries have been making progress towards economic, social and even limited political reforms.
These advances are so rapid that many believe the Gulf - once seen as a relatively backward region - could one day eclipse the Arab world's more established centres of influence, such as Egypt and Lebanon.
Part One: Dubai: What do Dubai’s Arab neighbours think of its adoption of Western values?
Part Two: Oman: A country determined to profit from the global economy, and on it own terms
Part Three: Qatar: A tiny desert state hoping to move towards a more enlightend future
Part Four: Eqypt: Should Eqypt look to copy the achievements of place like Dubai and Qatar?

Podcasting

Today is my first post to my new blog so I decided to write about something that interests me: podcasts. Podcasts are something I listen to everyday and is part of the new media. Old media includes television, radio and newspapers. New media is Internet based: audio podcasts, video podcasts, video blogs and Internet news. Podcasting is the new radio, or in many respects, is old radio available after it has aired. Some of the content available in podcasts is new content created specifically for podcasting and has not been aired anywhere else.

Old or new content, podcasting is a method of publishing audio files on the Internet. I listen to podcasts on my iPod but you can listen to it on any device that plays an .mp3 file, such as a computer or any .mp3 player. I like using iTunes to manage my podcasts. You can subscribe to podcasts in iTunes under Advanced, Subscribe to Podcast. It's that easy. ITunes is available at http://www.itunes.com/.

Marshall McLuhan wrote in 1967 that with television "the medium is the message". I have found that with audio podcasts the content is the message.

My favourite English language podcasts have been from public broadcasting, specifically CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), TVO (TVOntario) and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Public broadcasters offer their programing after it has aired for download from their respective websites or through free subscription in iTunes. Now there are so many podcasts available on the Internet that you can search podcast directories for content.

You can also find video podcasts available on BBC's website. Video on the Internet is the new television, but it is actually old television programs available for download. However, I am only covering audio podcasts below.

Below is a list of sites from which I have found podcast directories and content. These podcasts are replays of radio programming. The Buddhist meditation podcasts are great for not thinking.

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) site: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/waystolisten/podcasts/

TVOntario, Big Ideas: http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bigideas

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) site: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/default.htm

Podcast directory available at: http://www.podcast.net/

Another Podcast directory is at: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/

I like content in the podcasts from these programs:

TVOntario, Big Ideas, showcase outstanding lecturers among university and college teachers:
http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bigideas

CBC Radio, Tapestry, exploration of spirituality, religion and the search for meaning:
www.cbc.ca/tapestry

A Quiet Mind, Buddhist meditation:
http://www.aquietmind.com/

ABC, All in the Mind, things mental - a new program about the mind, brain and behaviour: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/default.htm

CBC, Radio Ideas, a program about contemporary thought:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/

BBC, Documentary Archive, a program of internationally focused radio documentary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/

CBC Radio, Writers and Company, explore in depth the lives, thoughts and works of remarkable writers from around the world:
http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/

CBC Radio, The Current, meeting place of perspectives, ideas and voices, with a fresh take on issues that affect Canadians today:
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

CBC Radio, Quirks and Quarks, science, technology, medicine and the environment:
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/

ABC Radio, The Science Show:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/default.htm

ABC Radio, Philosopher's Zone, about asking simple, even silly, questions: the sort of questions you probably asked when you were a kid:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/

ABC Radio, The Spirit of Things, an adventure into religion and spirituality. It explores contemporary values and beliefs as expressed through ritual, art, music, and sacred texts:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/default.htm

CBC Radio, DNTO (Definitely Not the Opera), guide to the fast-changing world of popular culture. It's your tip sheet to what's hot, what to watch, who to listen to and what's going on:
http://www.cbc.ca/dnto/

Brazilian Portuguese Podcast, stands for helping you learn Portuguese properly:
http://brportuguesepod.podbean.com/