earideas ... the weblog

The Story of Two Tone
The history of the 1980s ska revival in the UK.
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Lessig on Corruption
Lawrence Lessig, Standford Law Prof and Creative Commons Founder, asks: Is There a Solution to Corruption in the Political Process?
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Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought
Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, on thought and language, on All in th Mind.
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Seymour Hersh On Covert Operations In Iran
New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh always seems to get things right, a few years in advance. Here’s his latest on covert operations in Iran, in an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross.
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Brain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousness
ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind, on out of body experiences and more.
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The I, Libertine Hoax
WFMU brings us a radio tape from 1968 of one of the great literary hoaxes of the 20th Century, the invention of the steamy “best-seller” I, Libertine.
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This week, one of the great British flicks about dugs, alcohol and Shakespeare, remembered by the the actors; documentary-maker Errol Morris; and Mitch Kapor argues that Open Source will move beyond software.

Reunion: Withnail and I
Withnail & I is one of those great flicks I can watch over and over, about a couple of out of work, over boozed young London actors, and their adventures in the idyllic (!) countryside. BBC’s Reunion interviews Richard E Grant (Withnail), Paul McGann (Marwood), Ralph Brown (Danny), Bruce Robinson (writer & director), and Richard Griffiths (Monty).
> Listen here.

Open Source: Errol Morris’ “Feel-Bad” Masterpiece
Fabulous American documentary-maker Errol Morris’ new film, Standard Operating Procedure examines the abuses of Abu Ghraib, and implications for American foreign policy. Here’s he’s interviewed by Chris Lydon, on Open Source.
>Listen here.

IT Conversations: Mitchell Kapor - Open Source: The End is Not in Sight!
Mitch Kapor argues that the virtues of Open Source software development are compelling modes for other aspects of society, and that the truly exciting developments from the movement are yet to come.
>Listen here.

WNYC’s Radio Lab: (So-Called) Life

Another great show from RadioLab, this one about life, chimera, mythical creatures, and the new forms of life we are starting to build.
>Listen here.

C-SPAN - After Words: Myers interviewed by Perino

I get a sort of guilty pleasure watching White House Press conferences. It’s so amazing watching the Press Secretary twist through lie after lie, and their different approaches. Dana Perino, Pres. Bush’s current press secretary has a leg up on the silk tongued and the awkward who came before her: she just never seems to know anything. I don’t remember Dee Dee Myers, but she was the first woman to serve as Press Secretary to the President (Clinton), and here the two women discuss her new book: “Why Women Should Rule The World.”
>Listen here.

Knowledge@Wharton: Saatchi & Saatchi’s Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts, CEO of the famed advertising house Saatchi & Saatchi talks about brands and “love marks” and what’s going on in advertising and business these days, in a (surprisingly, if you don’t care much for advertising) enlightening interview.
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This week: SciFi loses a great one, with the death of Arthur C. Clarke; a beautiful and tragic story of death in the Mossdale caves; and the mystery of Bobby Dunbar.

Late Night Live: Sir Arthur C. Clarke
This week we lost one of the great speculative minds of the 20th Century, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, no-so-famous as one of the developers of radar, and best known as the writer of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and countless other scifi classics. He also hosted the wacky 70’s show, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, where I first learned about fish rain. In any case, Sir Arthur died this week, and here is a wonderful interview with him from 2001, with Phillip Adams of Late Night Live.
>Listen here.

Speechification/In Living Memory: Mossdale Caverns
The good people over at Speechification do some fabulous audio spelunking, and dig up all sorts of nuggets of rich audio shiny stuff. This week they bring us a bit of eerie adventure, tragedy and mystery, in a tale about the six young cavers who died in England’s infamous Mossdale Caverns, in 1967. From BBC Radio 4’s In Living Memory.
>Listen here.

This American Life: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar

I usually try to catch This American Life, but it’s been a while since I heard an episode. But this latest is audio story-telling of the best kind: about a young boy who disappears in 1912 in Louisiana, only to be found again eight months later. Almost a century after that, one descendant starts digging and finds her family’s version isn’t the only one, and her grandfather Bobby might not be who she thought he was.
>Listen here.

This week: US Admiral Fallon retires over Iran & Iraq; Sound Opinions with Butch Vig, producer of Sonic Youth and Nirvana, among others; and Architecture prof Robert Jan van Pelt, on Auschwitz, architecture and education.

Big Ideas: Robert Jan van Pelt

OK, this one might be a bit heavy (perhaps even a bit dry), but it’s well worth listening if you have any interest in building things - whether that’s houses, cars, trains, skyscrapers, web sites, or mobile phone applications. Robert Jan van Pelt is a prof at Waterloo School of Architecture, and this lecture is called “Architecture After Auschwitz,” about struggling with building in the face of the events of the 20th century, about why it’s worth teaching architects about Greek Myths and great literature, and how building buildings is about much more than just building buildings. He covers Buckminster Fuller, Moishe Safdie, and modernism and the Faerie Queene, among many others. From TVO’s Big Ideas.

>Listen here.

Sound Opinions: Butch Vig

Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions bills itself as the only Rock n Roll talk show. I’m not sure if they’re right, but it’s good radio. This week they talk about presidential campaign theme songs, and how the wrong choice will cause untold dammage. They also offer their services to all the candidates. But the real meat of this episode is an interview with Butch Vig, formerly of Spooner, and producer of such bands as Sonic Youth, Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins.

>Listen here.

The Current: Retirement of Admiral Fallon

US Admiral William J. Fallon, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) until March 11, resigned, leaving many questions about why. He was against sword rattling against Iran, and favoured draw-down of troops in Iraq, neither of which endeared him to the Bush Administration. This reignites questions of just how keen the Bush Administration might be to go to war with Iran. This report comes from CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti, on their flagship news magazine show, the Current, following on the Esquire magazine article by Thomas Barnett.

>Listen here.

Free Library: Anne Lamott

The Free Library of Philadelphia has a wonderful author/speakers series, and they put all the talks online. Here, San Francisco writer Anne Lamott reads from some of her funny and sharp essays from her book: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. I’ve been fascinated over the past few years about the growing clash between science and religion. I find the rise of right-wing evangelism as a political force (especially in the US) frightening. Their successful dismissal of science is baffling to me, and incomprehensible. At the same time, I’ve always thought the atheists (like posterboys Dawkins and Hitchens) are over the top in their certainty that all religion - and the impulse behind it - is bunk. I love works that negotiate the middle ground where many of us sit, uncertain, skeptical, and vaguely reaching for something more, whatever form that might take, as Lamott does in this wonderful digressive reading.
>Listen here.

Late Night Live: Spitzer, Obama & Philosophy for MBAs

Have I mentioned how great Australian National Radio is, if you are an “intellectual” audio geek? So many good shows to hear. One of the best is Late Night Live, hosted by iconoclast Phillip Adams, which ranges all over the map from politics, to science, to art to writing, to whatever is happening of interest. In this episode, Adams talks with Dr John Armstrong, newly-minted Philosopher-in-Residence at Melbourne Business School; and with Bruce Shapiro, about Eliot Spitzer’s naughty fall from grace, and Obama, Clinton’s first choice for Vice Presidential running mate.
>Listen here.

Jon Udell Interviews with Innovators: Mike Lenczner

For my money, Jon Udell does some of the best writing about technology on the web, because he’s less concerned with technology itself as with the good things people can and are and ought to be doing with it. He has a weekly podcast on IT Conversations with interviews with people doing interesting things on the web. Here he talks with Michael Lenczner, one of the co-founders of Ile Sans Fil, Montreal’s free wifi community builders, and the guy who introduced me to the world of the web back in 2004. It’s a great talk not just about technology, but about questioning how much good is really coming from all these technology projects many of us have been pushing.
>Listen here.

This week is a thinky week at earideas, with Robert Silvers, editor of New York Review of Books, on the Book Show; Chris Lydon, of Radio Open Source talks to historian Eric Hobsbawm about Iraq and declining empires; and to wash down all those ideas, appropriately, Mark Gillespie brings us the WhiskyCast, a show all about whisky.

The Book Show: Robert Silvers and more

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation makes the some of the best audio out there, it’s smart and playful, and always well-done. Ramona Koval presides over their flagship literary show, The Book Show, and here she has a spirited discussion with Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books, much of it about Nicholson Baker’s fantastic essay, The Charms of Wikipedia, ostensibly a review of Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, by John Broughton.

>Listen here.

Radio Open Source: The Post-Imperial Historian: Eric Hobsbawm

Chris Lydon’s Radio Open Source is the proto-podcast, a must-listen, with subjects over the years ranging from boxing to Bach to Obama. Lydon is a generous host, and this is thought-provoking audio at it’s wide-ranging best. Here, he talks with venerable historian Eric Hobsbawm about Iraq, history, Western Civilization, and the future of humankind.

>Listen here.

WhiskyCast: From Confused to Connoisseur

What better way to accompany all that smart-talking, than with a wee dram of single malt? But which? Mark Gillespie’s WhiskyCast is a great place to get your weekly dose of all things whisky. This week, along with whisky headlines, a conversation with Dominic Roskrow, former editor of Whisky Magazine, and author of the new book, From Confused to Connoisseur (the audio on the interview is a little shaky).

>Listen here.

This week, British humourist Stephen Fry talks about his broken arm; Nature’s podcast; Samantha Power talks about genocide.

Stephen Fry’s Podgram: Episode #1

Stephen Fry has been Jeeves, Melchett on Blackadder, himself in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and more recently has written novels, directed and acted in movies, read audio books, and is generally one of the wittiest men with a British accent. He’s a blogger, and open source advocate, and most recently a podcaster. This is a pretty personal audioblog kind of podcast: Fry telling you what he’s up to, and how he’s faring since his broken arm, and if you like his work, you’ll likely enjoy spending some time with him talking to you.
>Listen here.

Nature Podcast: Rubber, Martian Delta, Darwin

There are a host of great science podcasts from traditional print publications: Scientific American, NY Times Science, and the Guardian UK, among others. Nature, one of the world’s leading science journals has one of the best. This week, they examine: self-healing rubber, the Martian delta, solar and other alternative energies, and Darwin, the letter writer.
>Listen here.

Meet the Writers: Samantha Power

This week, on Barnes & Noble’s Meet the Writers, Samantha Power. Power is Pulizter Prize winner for her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama. Here she talks about the problem of genocide and international intervention.
>Listen here.

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