[Swprograms] Podding Along - Issue 212

[John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Most radio listening takes place in the car or while doing other things that allow freedom for the ear, but not the eyes and hands.  Podcasts permit a shift of listening time from a set appointment to virtually any convenient occasion.  I do it while âpower walkingâ (most) every morning.  The act of putting one foot in front of the other can be pretty monotonous and by âpodding alongâ while plodding along the mind also gets something useful to do.  So it is with the time spent commuting to work day after day.

Some of the best radio comes from the public networks of the UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S.  Apart from the originating programâs web site, most programs are made available through any number of other amalgamation sources such as iTunes and TuneIn. 

Admittedly, these are thoroughly subjective recommendations, but my interests and tolerance for incompatible views are pretty wide-ranging. Hereâs another in a continuing series of small samplings, offered in a 90 minute scope (more of less):

ââ

âCuban Voicesâ
THE DOCUMENTARY - BBC World Service
Ordinary Cubans reveal what their lives have really been like under Castroâs socialism and, more recently, its transformation into a more capitalistic economy. For some, the Cuban Revolution was the last bastion of the communist dream; for others, a repressive, authoritarian regime. Largely missing from those debates were the voices of ordinary Cubans.  Almost 60 years on from the Revolution, professor Elizabeth Dore discovers how people from different walks of life and generations have experienced life, work, housing, racism, sexism and corruption on the island.  "Cuban Voices" is based on the first large oral history project permitted by their government in more than 30 years. Professor Dore and her team of researchers got unprecedented access to ordinary people for over 15 years, and she has now returned for the BBC, visiting small villages and rural enclaves as well as the bustling metropolis of Havana, to hear how those same people's ideas have changed about the achievements and failures of socialism in Cuba. What she discovers frequently defies the official narrative of the Revolution.  While many welcomed the Stateâs provision of basic food, health care and housing, now they increasingly bemoan the widening gap between rich and poor. You will hear the Communist party member whose State salary barely allows him to survive in the damp one-room flat he shares with his sister, while others make a fortune earning hard currency from hiring out rooms to tourists or, in the case of one petty entrepreneur, by running a small computer business using software smuggled in from the US. While once âegalitarianismâ was seen as central to socialist society, that has been replaced by âequal rights and opportunitiesâ, so has the Revolution, as some would say, abandoned its ideals?  (28â)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csy5b3

âFear and Stigma:  Solving Alzheimers"  
THE DOCUMENTARY - BBC World Service
Few of us will escape the impact of Alzheimerâs Disease. The grim pay-back from being healthy, wealthy or lucky enough to live into our late 80s and beyond is dementia. One in three - maybe even one in two of us - will then get dementia and forget almost everything we ever knew. And the lucky others? They will probably end up caring for someone with Alzheimerâs, the most common form of dementia.  But it is far more than just a personal family tragedy. It is a major economic challenge to governments and health-care providers around the world, and will force some fundamental rethinking on how we care for sufferers. The costs are already immense. Dementia is now a trillion-dollar disease, and with the numbers of patients doubling every 20 years, the burden will fall unevenly on developing countries where the growth rate is fastest.  In this first episode of the series, we explore how fear in some parts of the world is stigmatising those who have it, and denying help to those who need it. But also how to overcome the fear.  (29â)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csy58r

"The Future of Readingâ
FUTURE TENSE - ABC RN
How do you read? And how will you be reading in the future?  The way stories are delivered is changing fast, but printed books are holding their ground. For now.  Writers, journalists and publishers discuss the changing digital and literary world and how it could look in the years to come.  (29â)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/future-of-reading/10377538

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A monthly (well, mostly monthly) compendium of these newsletters, plus on occasion additional pertinent material, is now published in The CIDX Messenger, the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian International DX Club (CIDX).  For further information, go to www.cidx.ca

John Figliozzi
Editor, "The Worldwide Listening Guideâ
192 page 8th edition available from Universal Radio [universal-radio.com] and Amazon [amazon.com]
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