[Swprograms] Podding Along - Issue 247

[John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Finally… I’m back!  Dawn to dusk preparation of a new edition of my biennial book (see the bottom of this message) plus the happy and blessed arrival of three new grandchildren (!) put this project on hold for the last three months.  But the weather has cleared and its back to… Podding Along!

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 “power walking” (most) every morning in what sometimes seems like a vain attempt to diminish the results of sitting behind a desk for 35 years.  The act of putting one foot in front of the other can be pretty monotonous and by “podding along” 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 program’s 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. Here’s another in a continuing series of small samplings, offered in a 90 minute scope (more of less):

——

“The Great Irish Famine" 
IN OUR TIME - BBC Radio 4
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why the potato crop failures in the 1840s had such a catastrophic impact in Ireland. It is estimated that one million people died from disease or starvation after the blight and another two million left the country within the decade. There had been famines before, but not on this scale. What was it about the laws, attitudes and responses that made this one so devastating?  The image above is from The Illustrated London News, Dec. 29, 1849, showing a scalp or shelter, "a hole, surrounded by pools, and three sides of the scalp were dripping with water, which ran in small streams over the floor and out by the entrance. The poor inhabitants said they would be thankful if the landlord would leave them there, and the Almighty would spare their lives. Its principal tenant is Margaret Vaughan."  (58”)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003rj1

“The Anti-Vaccination Movement" 
REAR VISION - BBC Radio 4
In the first three months of this year, more than one hundred thousand measles cases were reported worldwide – up nearly three hundred per cent from the same period last year.  Despite a safe and effective vaccine, measles remains a significant cause of death among children. While many of an estimated twenty million children miss out on the measles vaccine due to poor health services, as we can see from recent measles outbreaks in places like Britain and the US, some parents choose not to have their children vaccinated.  (30”)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003jp7

__ __


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 Guide”
NEW! 184 page 9th EDITION available now from Universal Radio [universal-radio.com] and Amazon [amazon.com]

_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.