Baconian Science — In Our Time, Apr. 2, 2009
Among the most informative shows I can remember. What I found most interesting was that idea best summed up at the end by one of the guests that the Baconian ideology was much more important than the actual Baconian method. The method itself was somewhat challenging in [...]
The School of Athens — In Our Time, Mar. 26, 2009
This show touches on a number of different interesting points. It only briefly discusses the fresco itself as a fresco. The bulk of the show is focused on where and how pagan philosophy found itself inside the walls of the Vatican. It’s noted that while [...]
The Boxer Rebellion — In Our Time, Mar. 19, 2009
Very interesting show today (well, broadcast yesterday, but heard today). Listening to scholars of Chinese history discuss a topic, one becomes aware of how ill-served one is by the massive focus on the history of Western civilization during one’s education. The result being that major events [...]
The Library of Alexandria — In Our Time, Mar. 12, 2009
This wound up being a bit of a challenging show since it’s clear that the Library at Alexandria was an enormously influential institution for a very long time, but we don’t know a lot of the details that would make for interesting exploration. We know [...]
The Measurement Problem in Physics — In Our Time, Mar. 5, 2009
This was a fascinating and challenging program. I like to collect links here of topics that are mentioned in the show so I can go back later a poke around the things I don’t know much about. The challenge with this program was that [...]
The Waste Land — In Our Time, Feb. 26, 2009
The show starts a bit slow in that the introductory piece is generally about the First World War and its aftermath, and about the rise of modenism. After that, however, particularly after the section on the starting of the BBC, they get into the meat of [...]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Observatory at Jaipur — In Our Time, Feb. 19, 2009
Fun show about an astronomical observatory in India that I’d never heard of. This show demonstrates another of the reasons I enjoy it so much; in depth discussion of topics that are totally unknown to me, but done in such a way that it’s informative [...]
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Destruction of Carthage — In Our Time, Feb. 12, 2009
This show was a lot of fun. I had been excited all week about it since it’s the kind of topic I enjoy most; one that historians themselves enjoy talking about. Additionally, Melvyn keeps the focus on the destruction of the city. The benefit [...]
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Brothers Grimm — In Our Time, Feb. 5, 2009
Fascinating program on both the stories themselves, and the project to create a German nation by in part using these stories as a common heritage shared by all German-speaking peoples. I also enjoyed the part of the show covering the violence in the stories, and how [...]
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal is a work that I heard referenced many times, but I realize quickly into the program that I knew nothing of the actual text. The show’s conversation moved so smoothly that it felt over before its time. The full measure of the Swift’s satire didn’t hit home for me until [...]
A History of History — In Our Time :: This show moved at a brisk pace. It was clear from the outset that Bragg and his guests knew they had a lot of ground to cover, and yet they still could only barely get to Gibbon, and then only just barely. This show is the [...]
Thoreau — In Our Time :: Enjoyed this program quite a bit. I’m more of an Emerson fan than a Thoreau fan, but this show does a good job of situating Thoreau in his time and element. Growing up in Concord, I was particularly interested in Fender’s discussion of what Walden Pond actually is (a [...]
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, In Our Time did a 4-part series on his life and work. Taken as a whole, the series is fascinating, as are its constituent parts. Darwin has, to a certain extent, become reduced to the human stand-in for the Science vs. God debate in [...]
The Consolation of Philosophy — Interesting show, but I felt it didn’t spend enough time directly on Boethius and the work itself. Perhaps it’s that there isn’t a great deal to discuss there, or that to properly be understood one needs the context of later philosophers, but particularly in the section on Camus I found [...]
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Physics of Time — Good show, if a bit challenging intellectually at times. I found the most interesting part at the end when the guests were discussing time as an emergent property that comes from the interactions of individual particles. That is, any individual particle doesn’t have time as a property when analyzed, but [...]
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Great Fire of London — Very enjoyable episode this week. The discussion of how the Lord Mayor of London handled himself during the fire is particularly enjoyable. Also the bit at the end on the work done by Robert Hook is fascinating.
Guests:
Lisa Jardine
Vanessa Harding
Jonathan Sawday
References:
Great Fire of London
Samuel [...]
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Heat — This past week’s In Our Time was on heat. It took me several days to listen to the whole thing since I kept getting distracted and wasn’t in the right frame of mind to take it in. This morning offered the chance and it was (as it almost always is) well worth the [...]
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