[Swprograms] Podding Along - Issue 338

[John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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.  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 can be with the time spent gardening, washing dishes, preparing meals and many other day to day activities.

Podcasting has grown to the point that it can justly be considered a medium all its own.  Therefore, the attempt here has to be to highlight only a small portion of it, just one corner where excellence reigns.

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. 

This continuing series of small samplings in more or less 90 minute helpings are curated by me.  I attest to the fact that I have listened to every podcast listed here.  So admittedly these are thoroughly subjective recommendations.  But my interests and tolerance for incompatible topics and views are pretty wide-ranging, even if I do say so myself. 

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“July 26, 2020 Edition”
THE SUNDAY EDITION - CBC Radio One
-  How Anne Applebaum's former friends became her populist adversaries: Atlantic magazine columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum reflects on how many of her former friends shifted further and further to the right as populism surged across the Western world. Her new book Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism explores the people behind the politicians, as Applebaum knew them, before and during the rise of the far right in Eastern Europe, the UK and the United States.
-  Why Kingston, Ont., is a rare pandemic success story: Mounting deaths in long-term-care homes, galloping cases of COVID-19 in prisons, young people partying with abandon — the public health nightmares of the pandemic were not realized in Kingston, Ontario. They have had few cases of COVID and no deaths, even though it is a city with long-term-care facilities, a large university campus and nine prisons in the region. Kieran Moore, the local medical officer of public health and the key architect of Kingston's pandemic plan, tells us how they pulled it off.
-  The long, lovely view of Thelma Pepper (reprise): She didn't pick up a camera till she was 60, but since then, she's taken thousands of striking portraits. At 100, she's still passionate about photography, creativity and the beauty and strength of ordinary people - on Saskatchewan's backroads and in nursing homes. David Gutnick's documentary profile of Thelma Pepper is called, "These Women Live On.”  (66”)
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-july-26-2020-1.5657255

“Tapestry@25: geneticist Francis Collins”
TAPESTRY - CBC Radio One
Dr. Francis Collins is one of American's leading scientists. A physician and geneticist, he led the Human Genome project to identify and map human DNA. He has been the director of the National Institutes of Health since 2009, making him the longest serving director in the institute's history. Collins and his team are currently hard at work trying to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.  Just as a single gene can determine the course of a human life, Collins' life took a profound turn one day when an elderly patient asked him a simple question. "I've told you about my beliefs and you never say anything. Doctor, what do you believe?”  As an atheist, Collins found himself intensely uncomfortable and quickly answered "I'm not sure," before leaving.  His fumbled reaction surprised him. Collins thought he should have easily been able to articulate his atheism. He then realized he had simply accepted atheism without considering if there was any evidence for something else.  "For a scientist to have arrived at a conclusion about perhaps the most important question we humans ever ask - is there a God? - and to have done so without having considered the evidence," Collins explained, "that seemed pretty shocking and unfortunate and I better do something about it!”  Collins looked for reasons to substantiate atheism, assuming that was where the facts would lead him.  But after reading the first three pages of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, all of his arguments were dispelled.  "Lewis went through the argument about how it is that one of the most unique aspects of humanity, perhaps its most defining characteristic, is our knowledge of right and wrong: the so-called 'moral law'. The sense that we have that there are things that are good and things that are evil, and that we should strive to do the ones that are good," Collins explained. "I found that to be a very compelling and thought-provoking idea because that not only suggests that there's something outside of ourselves that has somehow instilled this desire for good behaviour… but it does say that whatever that is — let's call it God — cares about human beings."  Collins is now an evangelical Christian who sees no conflict between science and religion. He believes science is the way God works in the world. "That was profound for me… The plausibility of a supernatural force that stood for what is good and holy, and that had an interest in me. Goodness!”  Dr. Francis Collins is the 2020 Templeton prize winner. Former winners include Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.  Collins is the author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. (54”)
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/tapestry-25-geneticist-francis-collins-1.5650263

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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 Guide”
NEW! 184 page 9th EDITION available NOW from Universal Radio [universal-radio.com], Amazon [amazon.com], Ham Radio Outlet [hamradio.com]
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