Aural Brain Candies

Arts & Sciences Arts & Entertainment
1

Thought a thread listing specific, interesting podcasts might be welcome.

How Good People Turn Evil: the psychology of social influence, by Philip Zimbardo, Director of the Stanford Centre on the Psychology of Terrorism and Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Stanford University (famous for the 1971 Stanford Prison experiment).

Focuses on similarities between the Stanford Prison experiment and Abu Gharib.

[quote=“Zimbardo”]Of course, whenever there’s a scandal like that, the system blames the grunts at the bottom: a few bad apples; a few rogue soldiers… That could be, but as a social psychologist and humanist, I never blame people before I understand what was the situation in which that behaviour occurred. So, my hypothesis was: maybe it’s a bad barrel, and not a bad apple…

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this with a lot of investigations.” Well, if you’re going to get to the bottom of this, it means you’ll never get to the top. I’m going to argue today that it’s the top. I’m going to argue for command complicity. These soldiers were good apples, put in a bad barrel. And it’s not enough to say that they were good apples put in a bad barrel–the situation corrupted them–the big question is “who created that situation” and that’s where the situation comes in.[/quote]
Zimbardo served was invited by a guard to serve as an expert witness, which he did, that’s where this lecture grew out of.

*A website mentioned in the podcast: The Lucifer Effect.

A couple of others:
William Perry: former US defense secretary on individuals within an organization taking ownership of their roles.

Shai Agassi great account of tenacity, risk taking, trust, and getting out in front of the next wave.

2

When I read the thread, my first thought was Zimbardo is still alive! What a surprise!
No offense, though. He has been famous since the 70s so he should be really old. I haven’t read any new articles from him even since I finished his bulky textbook long time ago so I had the assumption. The thread prove my assumption was wrong.

I listened to the podcast and reviewed the Stanford Prison experiment.

I think, firstly, the Stanford Prison experiment is really a classic experiment; it reveals fundamental principle of human behavior so it can refer to the events that happen nowadays. But his theory is one perspective to interpret the phenomena, and psychologists so far haven’t made progress to integrate different aspects.

Anyway, I learned that some events followed suite the experiment. Many experiment participants had irreversible psychological trauma so there was some experimentally ethical debate. Is that true?

3

Great argument against religion in public life here.

(I love writing up these unpopular threads. lol)

4

Something from Berkeley’s Science and Tech podcasts, and interesting in that respect (strong focus on engineering and innovation), but also addressing and taking issue with Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” argument and interesting in the economics and politics of innovation and immigration. Here.

*Q: What proportion of Berkeley’s students are 1st generation Americans?
A: 60%. Who’s striving to succeed? Who’s driving innovation and the economy?

5

A while ago Hobbes put me on to the Pritzker Military Library podcasts. This is a fine one --though light on politics – featuring an independent artist’s impressions of Iraq, with a number of images included: Pritzker: Steve Mumford

6

Jared Diamond on the Scientific American podcast. A bit, but not a lot, of new information if you’ve read Collapse (one of the best books in years… far better than Guns, Germs, and Steel); a good introduction if you haven’t.

7

This one’s actually a video podcast. Well worth watching 2 or 3 times.
Thomas Barnett’s TED talk on the structure of the US armed forces.

His blog: thomaspmbarnett.com/

8

The Society of Difference

This is the 2007 LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium lecture, by Adrienne Clarkson , on the challenges of living in a diverse community.

Well worth listening to, (or reading.)) particularly for those opposed to multiculturalism.

9

This podcast usually dry, dull, and overloaded with Chicago School economic theory, but nearly always has a few good ideas or insights. This particular one isn’t any more colorful, but the ideas on economies of/and violence are especially interesting.
Econtalk: Weingast on Violence, Power and a Theory of Nearly Everything

10

I’'m a convert to podding!

I regularly download this radio show. The host is a liberal leaning chappie that has commented on things somewhat high brow in Oz for years. He usually has a good round up of interesting folks on his show, and when not plays some classic interviews from yore. Heard a great one today with Gore Vidal.

Here is the home page for ABC (Australian, dude) Radio National’s Late Night Live with Philip Adams.

HG

11

Philip Adams again with a fantastic podcast interview with the founding editor of Salon, and author of a new book, Brothers, about Jack and Bobby Kennedy and more importantly, who killed them and why.

It sounds fantastic indeed, but worth a listen to hear how all the dots get connected, and for a very good looks at the working relationship of the Kennedy brothers.

Personally I don’t have much time for conspiracies, or the history of the Kennedys, but this interview has me thinking very much about getting the book.

[quote]The Kennedy Brothers

The early sixties were a turbulent time in American politics. It was the height of the Cold War; the CIA was madly plotting the assassination of Fidel Castro and the liberation of Cuba; the Soviet Union and the USA had nuclear missiles that could annihilate the world pointing at each other; and domestically in the U.S. there was an ongoing crusade against organised crime the likes of which the Mafia had never seen before.

The Kennedy’s, both John and Robert, had made themselves unpopular with all these elements, so it’s no wonder that the idea that a lone dissatisfied American would choose to murder the President didn’t sit well with many Americans, especially with Bobby Kennedy.

In this book, David Talbot looks at those years, not to rehash what’s already been written about that time, but from the perspective of Bobby Kennedy himself.

Guests
David Talbot
Journalist; founder of the online magazine “salon.com”; former Senior Editor at Mother Jones magazine.

Publications
Title: Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
Author: David Talbot
Publisher: The Free Press[/quote]

HG

12

Heard a speech by Mike Huckabee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Very impressive. He’s got a few nutty ideas, but good vision. I’d probably prefer seeing him elected over Hilary. (Or not, having heard more details. :loco: )

13

This is a bit weird.

It’s a story about “Chinese Gold Farmers” in World of Warcraft.
Story goes like this:
Chinese company sets up 50 computers and hires 100 people to play the game around the clock. They focus entirely on collecting online gold, which is then sold for real world dollars, and handed off to buyers’ characters: this is their job.

Gamers get p.o.'ed with this cheat. Learn to identify (they think) “Chinese Gold Farmers”, identify where they hang out, get together and go on an online rampage, slaughtering these all-work-and-no-play characters. (I don’t play, but assume this will screw up their jobs.)

I don’t know. It’s weird. Would make for a great study on norm enforcement and differential incentives.

CBC search engine: iTunes link

14

The Logic of Life is an interesting podcast on economics. Same kind of material that you would see in Levitt’s Freakonomics. Nice brain candy.

15

Even if you’re not interested in politics, the following are good conversations on strategic thinking and the give-and-take that should go into policy formation.

From one of the new lists of podcasts I posted, Colin Powell on the war in Iraq.

Here’s a sampler:

[quote=“Colin Powell at the Ideas in Aspen conference, speaking on the importance of diplomacy”]
I think we should be talking with Syria and Iran. I talked to Syria. I went to Damascus twice. […] I used to get criticized for going to Damascus, but nevertheless I went because I thought it was important.

On one occasion I was in Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Sharon said to me, “Colin, let’s talk.” We go into private room, he says to me, “I don’t want you to go to Damascus. I don’t think it serves the interests of peace, and we don’t like it here in Israel when you go to Damascus.”

And I said, “Ariel, thank you very much, but I’m going anyway. I’m Secretary of State for the United States of American and not the Foreign Minister of Israel, and I’m going to Damascus.”

And so he laughed, and he said, “Well… since you’re going… do me a favour. Rockets have started to come across the northern border from southern Lebanon. Tell Assad, tell President Assad that we have enough trouble done here… the situation’s very volatile… and to use his good offices to see if he can stop it.”

I went to Damascus, had a long conversation with President Assad. It’s always a difficult conversation with he and his ministers, but at the end of the conversation I pulled him aside and I passed the message, and he just nodded. He didn’t say anything. And the rockets stopped that night. And Mr. Sharon thanked me the next day.[/quote]

And Anthony Zinni speaking at Duke, also on Iraq.
A sample of his views on the neo-conservative daydreams responsible for sweeping aside 10 years of planning in favour of Rummy’s battle plan.

16

Thomas Barnett: The Pentagon’s New Map
This guy consistently gives fast-moving, in your face, entertaining presentations, and this is one of the better.

Here’s his blog.

17

This is eye candy, rather than aural. Amazing stuff.

TED Talks: Robert Lang; origami

18

Gwynne Dyer, a well-known journalist who covers military affairs, recently had a three-part piece on Climate Wars, which can be grabbed for a short-term here: iTunes link: CBC Ideas, the Best of.

Think of Jared Diamond, with a good mixture of military scenarios, for radio.

19

Btw,

Posts: 17 (now 18), all but three mine.
Views: 4,527

If not for the views, I’d curl up with my iPod and not bother posting, but surely someone
(in addition to HGC)
could recommend some brain candies. Please.

20

[quote=“Jaboney”]Gwynne Dyer, a well-known journalist who covers military affairs, recently had a three-part piece on Climate Wars, which can be grabbed for a short-term here: iTunes link: CBC Ideas, the Best of.

Think of Jared Diamond, with a good mixture of military scenarios, for radio.[/quote]

Any idea where I might find these really interesting podcasts in a non Itunes environment? I don’t really want to download Itunes and deal with their crap (bugging me to update to version 6.1.1.1.1.1.11.1.1 that they just released) to listen to them again.