Podcasts permit a shift of listening time from a set appointment to virtually any convenient occasion. I do it while taking my daily (more or less) 3 mile walk, while I’m “plodding along”.
While there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of great podcasts from other sources, the ones sponsored via public radio have been vetted through the worthy objectives of the medium. Here’s what I’ve been listening to recently. I hope you might find these suggestions — in roughly 90 minute bites -- helpful in enhancing your own enjoyment of radio, our favorite medium. __ __ “Is America Becoming an Autocracy?” ON THE MEDIA - NPR and WNYC New York Public Media President Donald Trump’s countless executive orders and mounting deportations are testing America’s democratic institutions. On this week’s On the Media, what we can learn from Hungary’s recent backslide into autocracy. Plus, why resistance movements throughout history have succeeded with 3.5 percent of the population, or less, behind them.[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Andrew Marantz, a staff writer at The New Yorker, about his recent piece, “Is the U.S. Becoming an Autocracy?” and what we can learn from Hungary’s recent backsliding into authoritarianism. Micah speaks with Márton Gulyás, founder of Partizán, Hungary’s leading independent news show, about what lessons journalists in the US might take away from his experience. Micah sits down with Maria J. Stephan, political scientist and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, to dissect the 3.5% rule, a statistic that’s been making its rounds on social media, which is a measurement of the power of collective action. Stephan and her co-researcher Erica Chenoweth first coined the term in 2010. (51”) https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media (Scroll to August 29, 2025.) “The Voral Outrage over Peanut the Squirrel” ON THE MEDIA - NPR and WNYC New York Public Media A beloved squirrel named Peanut was seized in a raid by New York environmental officers last year. A maelstrom of online outrage ensued, upending New York wildlife enforcement in the process. In conversation with NYC Now's Janae Pierre, our colleague, reporter Jon Campbell, unravels the saga -- revealing a story about mistaken identities and the power of online fury. (31”) https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media (Scroll to September 3, 2025.) — — A compendium of these suggestions, plus on occasion additional pertinent material, is published every other month in the CIDX Messenger, the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian International DX Club (CIDX). For further information and membership information, go to www.cidxclub.ca John Figliozzi Editor, "The Worldwide Listening Guide” 11th EDITION, with comprehensive listings of radio programs on AM, FM, shortwave, satellite radio, internet-wifi radio and podcasts, available from universal-radio.com, amazon.com. amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.com.au _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
