Britt's Blog

Holy bejeebers, is it cold out. It doesn’t make me all that eager to start classes again when Nature is all like, “Stay inside! Stay inside and drink cocoa!”

But, what the hell, if our hominid ancestors listened to the Howling Voice of Winter we’d all be hangin’ out in Africa…. where the snot doesn’t freeze in your nose.

Hmmmm….

Anyway, here’s your next installment of podcasts, which you should pay attention to, because apparently I am now a famous podcast reviewer.

Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
PRX is a clearinghouse for radio pieces, offering tons of original use for use by public radio stations, with peer review. Kind of like Flickr for radio expression. The podcast offers the occasional select short piece. The wide variety makes it hit or miss, according to your taste, but I’ve heard some real gems. Indeed, PRX is where I was introduced to Pferdzwackur’s Tin Man, a series which I still maintain is the single most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard.

Are We Alone?
The podcast of the SETI Institute rocks because the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence encompasses all the most exciting aspects of science: astronomy, space exploration, evolution, the paranormal and skepticism, artificial intelligence, environmental science, transhumanism, and much much more. Seth Shostak (astronomer and punster) and Molly Bentley (radio-savvy mad scientist’s daughter) deliver it all with a quirky, enthusiastic amateurism and lots of help from experts.

This American Life
TAL is such a public radio bastion that I hope I don’t have to explain it, but if not, each week, of course, they pick a theme, and bring your a variety of stories about that theme. The TAL slots on our local public radio stations just doesn’t seem to conform to our radio-listening schedule, so I’m gettin’ my Ira Glass fix online.

It must be time for more podcasts!

Point of Inquiry
The Podcast of the Center for Inquiry, whose mission (from their website) is “to contribute to the public understanding and appreciation of science and reason, and their applications to human conduct.” The podcast deals with science, medicine, religion, and ethics from an atheist/rationalist/skeptical viewpoint, and in a somewhat heavy-handed manner, sometimes. Thankfully they’ve eliminated some of the commentary (which was often sophomoric and over-the-top) and stuck to what they do well, interviews by D.J. Grothe with intellectuals, mostly on their own side, but sometimes not. Plenty of food for thought.

Selected Shorts
This PRI program of short stories read by respected actors is hit or miss for me. Sometimes I’m really interested in the story, and sometimes it’s just not my taste. It’s always of very good quality, though.

Studio 360
Kurt Anderson brings us the public radio spin on art, TV, music, et cetera. Another quality PRI podcast, making it easy to get you public radio fix over the internets. Because it’s so varied, I always find something fascinating in each show.

More podcasts, in easy-to-digest tripartite format. In other news, I’m still passin’. I made the questionable fashion choice to wear blue jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and a pony tail to the office today. On my way over to the mail center, a custodian fixed me with the most dazzling smile, and said, “It’s so great to see students back on campus!”

Carrying on…

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
Exactly how much NPR news do you listen to? There was a time when I could answer a truly embarrassing percentage of Wait Wait questions correctly. Wait Wait… is a transcendently excellent news quiz show, hosted by Peter Sagal, with Carl Kasell (you know, the guy who reads the news on the hour on NPR), and, on some sort of arcane rotating schedule, the inimitable Paula Poundstone, the unspeakably brilliant but oddly named Mo Rocca, the disarmingly folksy and subversively sharp Tom Bodett, and several other bright and clever panelists. One of my favorite features is “Not My Job,” where they bring on a famous person and then ask them a bunch of questions that they would have no real reason to know the answers to. This segment is somehow always a raging success, whether the guest is a prospective Republican First Lady, George Bush’s press secretary, an infamous left-wing movie director, or a basketball star. In what is sure to loom as one of the greatest mistakes of my life, I missed a taping of the show at Beloit College because I went to a stupid meeting of the stupid Division for Planetary Sciences of the stupid American Astronomical Society.

Ockham’s Razor
From the Austrialian public radio network, ABC, an interesting show hosted by Robyn-with-a-y Williams, who invites an Australian intellectual from some random field to have their say for about 15 minutes on a subject they think is interesting. Sometimes the topic is current events, sometimes it’s historical, and sometimes it’s scientific, often with a skeptical bent. I love the variety, and I especially like getting a non-US perspective on historical events or current scientific concerns.

On the Media
We’re so saturated with media for so many of the hours of the day, and I think it’s good to take a step back and think about it all on some kind of a meta level. I like how Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield balance earnestness with irreverence, sometimes playing the role of ruthless gadflies, sometimes confused media consumers, and sometimes admirers of the artistic.

On Tuesday I made one last visit the Temple of Zeus to have an emotionally bittersweet, yet so, so, currylicious bowl of Potage St. Cloud.

As I bid farewell to Choklay and explained that I was going to Wisconsin, the woman ahead of me in line, who had, for inexplicable reasonons, lingered by the kitchen window, asked me about my new job. Feeling gregarious, I said I would be teaching at Beloit College. She asked what subject, and I told her physics and astronomy.

She reeled visibly. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. Then, she declared, “You are a genius.”

Um, okay. I’ll take my compliments where I can get them, I guess.

“Are you an Aquarius?” she quickly asked. I hesistated. Did she actually just ask an astronomer for their sign? She added helpfully, “Were you born in February?”

“No, actually, I’m a Cancer,” I responded, not, I admit, without a bit of smugness. What astronomer doesn’t enjoy yet another demonstration that astrology is STUPID AND WRONG?

“Oh, Cancer, that’s close to Leo, which is another scientific sign,” she said with satisfaction.

At this point I toyed with telling her that I’m actually on the cusp of Gemini… but engaging her would probably just lead down a long, meandering path to me banging my head against a brick wall, and currylicious Potage St. Cloud is better when it’s hot.

So, remember, astrology enthusiasts, if a natal sunsign doesn’t seem quite right, just shift the birthdate 31 days, because that’s close enough.