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.
__ __ “Cuba's Power Failures” FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT - BBC World Service Pascale Harter introduces correspondents' and writers' stories from Cuba, Lebanon, China, Iran and the Iranian diaspora. More than ten million people were left in the dark this week in Cuba, as the third major electricity blackout in a month hit the island. As the US trade embargo and limits on fuel imports bite harder, daily life is becoming more and more difficult to navigate. In Havana, Will Grant heard Cubans newly willing to criticise their own government in public. Following the US-Israel bombardment of Iran, and Hezbollah's attacks on Israel in response, Lebanon was quickly drawn into yet another war. For many Lebanese, much of their lives has been spent amid conflict or its aftermath of war. Carine Torbey reports from Beirut. Although it's often co-operated with Iran, China has so far kept its distance from the war - a strategy perhaps designed to leverage longer-term advantages over the United States on the world stage. But global uncertainty still brings its own challenges for Beijing, says Laura Bicker. The spring equinox recently marked the Persian New Year festival of Nowruz - though this time it wasn't much of celebration for many people, with Iran at war. Leila Molana Allen reflects on how Iranians inside the country - and abroad, as part of the huge Iranian global diaspora - have been trying to draw strength from their most ancient traditions. (23”) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6tt0 “Eighty Years of the BBC Russian Service” THE FIFTH FLOOR - BBC World Service The BBC's Russian service marks its 80th anniversary this week. In eight decades, it has grown from a short wave radio service to a multimedia operation reaching upwards of 6 million people per week, despite ongoing blocking in Russia. As a 14-year-old boy Oleg Boldyrev discovered BBC Russian on shortwave radio whilst camping with his parents in the woods. He eventually ended up working for the service as a journalist both in London and Moscow. He talks to The Fifth Floor about some of the service's most memorable moments and how the current authorities continue to try to stop their citizens getting access to BBC news. Indonesia's Makassar Strait is one of the world's busiest shipping routes, with 36,000 ships passing between the islands of Sulawesi and Kalimantan annually. Beneath the surface, the area was once home to thriving corals. But by the early 2000s, the ecosystem was under threat of dying out completely as a result of coral damage caused by ship collisions, anchors and fishing practices. BBC Indonesian's Lesthia Kertopati explains how a group of young, predominantly female divers is setting out to restore the coral. (26”) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0n94bjk "John Lithgow on Roald Dahl’s Antisemitism. Plus, a Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice" THE NEW YORKER RADIO HOUR - NPR and WNYC New York Public Media • The new play “Giant,” on Broadway, dramatizes the scandal around Roald Dahl, the beloved children’s-book author who, in the nineteen-eighties, began making antisemitic statements and invoking stereotypes about Jewish influence. John Lithgow portrays Dahl as he faces off against his American publisher, who presses him to retract his statements. The events that the show focusses on took place more than forty years ago, but they couldn’t be more relevant today, as antisemitism surges during a war in the Middle East. Lithgow joins David Remnick to discuss the question of whether to separate the art from the artist—and about his own hesitation regarding his role as the wizard Dumbledore in HBO’s new “Harry Potter” series, because of J. K. Rowling’s history of anti-trans statements. • Thousands of federal prosecutors have been fired or have resigned from their roles since Pam Bondi took over as Attorney General. She has made no secret of weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue Donald Trump’s vendettas. One of those prosecutors is Troy Edwards, who quit a senior national-security position in the Eastern District of Virginia. As an assistant U.S. attorney in DC, Edwardshad won convictions against members of the Oath Keepers for January 6th-related offenses. Edwards is also the son-in-law of the former F.B.I. director James Comey, and, when the Justice Department indicted Comey on grounds widely seen as flimsy, Edwards knew he had reached his red line. (The charges were quickly dismissed, though without prejudice.) The New Yorker’s legal correspondent Ruth Marcus talks with Edwards about his decision to leave, how he broke it to his family, and why he thinks other prosecutors should not follow his lead. (28”) https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/articles/john-lithgow-on-roald-dahls-antisemitism-plus-a-former-federal-prosecutor-on-why-he-quit-donald-trumps-department-of-justice — — 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 Member, North America Shortwave Association Executive Council Co-Coordinator, NASWA Annual SWL Fest Editor, The NASWA Journal “Shortwave Center” column Author, "The Worldwide Listening Guide” _______________________________________________ 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.
