Monthly Archives: August 2019

Famine memorial, Dublin Source Wikimedia

In Our Time (BBC) I downloaded The Great Irish Famine months ago, and finally got round to listening to it today. My knowledge of the famine was largely shaped by Form Five British History back in 1972, and there have been advances in the historiography since then. Being BBC and all that, it was all very British (and not one word of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan scheme to Australia that Trevor McClaughlin  has researched so extensively in his blog) but I couldn’t help thinking about ‘the caravan’ that has Trump so exercised. A very interesting episode- well worth a listen.

Today in Focus is the Guardian’s podcast service. While cleaning up all the saved podcasts that clog up my phone, I found this episode ‘Heroin and Me‘ where the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer John Crace, talks about his heroin addiction when he was in his 20s. He’s the writer who coined the term ‘The Maybot’ to talk about Therese May (who doesn’t seem quite so bot-y now). This is John Crace, not the author Jim Crace, although as you’ll hear, confusion between John/Jim worked in his favour. It’s a very honest

Background Briefing (ABC) I seem to be listening to/reading quite a bit about public housing estates briefly. The Birdman of Surry Hills sounds quite a character, but he has certainly kept the NSW public housing authorities on their toes, taking them to the equivalent of VCAT over repairs to public housing.

Revolutionspodcast.com Mike Duncan is continuing with his backgrounding to the Russian Revolution by looking at Marxism and Bakunism (i.e anarchism). However, because there was an upcoming unavoidable break in his podcast schedule, he decided to add an additional episode before launching into the Russian Revolution on his return (not that this matters to me, as I’m always behind anyway). So, as a bit of an ‘extra’ in Episode 10.7 he returns to the Paris Commune of 1871, which he dealt with in Series 8 in May-June 2018.  Marx, Engels, Bakunin and the International were all around to see the short-lived Commune. In Episode 10.8 The Red and the Black, he discusses the difference between Marxism (Red) and Anarchism (Black). It’s a good summary, but you really need to have listened to the earlier episodes.

Spanish Obsessed. I’m feeling a bit as if I’m cheating on Spanishland School, which is my main online Spanish learning investment, but I’ve also found these podcasts too. They are all in Spanish, at about Intermediate level (which is me, I guess). This one Intermediate 27 The Earthquake is about Rob’s trip to Mexico, where he experienced an earthquake not once but twice in the same trip.

99% Invisible. The episode ‘Depave Paradise‘ looks at Mexico City, which is sinking as the artesian basin under the city is drained, and yet it floods as well. But there is one place that could replenish the underground lakes and control the flooding: El Pedregal, a large lava field formed by the volcanoes that surround the city. It is formed of porous rock, which made it unpopular to build on until Mexican Modernist architect Luis Barragán began designing houses on large blocks, surrounded by the lava flows and native gardens in the 1940s. But these blocks have since been subdivided, paved and filled with lawns and introduced gardens. (There’s pictures on the link, as well as the podcast).

BBC The Documentary. The Superlinguists continues. How To Learn A Language talks about second language acquisition methods and myths. Apparently, despite my grumbling that it’s too hard to learn a language as an adult, if adults spent as much time as a young baby does in learning to speak (i.e. 12 hours a day for about three years), we’d be better at it than young children are. Apparently children at school learn better with Direct Instruction, but adults are better off getting over their fear of talking and just doing it.  Monolingual Societies argues that dialects and variants are a challenge to even the most monolingual communities.

Easy Spanish. I have no idea how to find this podcast on the internet, but I subscribed to it through Stitcher at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/anchor-podcasts/01-cuento-de-pinocho?refid=asa  The podcasts have been appearing weekly since April and vary in length between about 10 minutes and 35 minutes. Some of them are retellings of fairy tales (I listened to Aladdin) while others are commentary. It says ‘easy’ Spanish but they’re not – you certainly need some Spanish, but as an intermediate student, I can follow them quite easily until my attention starts wandering.

Hoy Hablamos. This seems to be free too, and it has hundreds of podcasts. My Mexican Spanish teacher tells me that they are from Spain. They seem to produce one a day Monday to Friday. If you subscribe, you can get the transcript and exercises. It’s much cheaper than News in Slow Spanish (USD$95 per year). If I listen to it two or three times, I can generally follow it.

Earshot (ABC) You should feel uncomfortable: One family’s time in Outreach International.  I hadn’t heard of Outreach International, a religious cult led by a man called Tony Kostas, that meets all the usual criteria for a cult: domination, financial demands, separatism, guilt etc.  It’s from a podcast series called ‘Let’s Talk About Sects’.

Rear Vision (ABC) Recorded as Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, Being Boris- Boris Johnson does not reassure. What a mess.