LISTEN TO THIS | Listener Remix
I’m a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a recap of my favorite tidbits, soundbites and short bursts of brilliance that I have to share with everyone who will listen. After digesting hours and hours of podcasts, here’s the best 9 minutes from this week.
WE MUTUALLY PLEDGE
The Thomas Jefferson Hour - Fourth of July 2012 (Show 978)
I’ve only recently discovered the Thomas Jefferson Radio Hour (Hat tip: Patrick Ball), but it makes sense that they would do a special Fourth of July episode each year. I enjoyed listening to this year’s as Jefferson, played by Clay Jenkinson, talked about his perspective on the Declaration of Independence and the events surrounding it. The must-listen moment comes at 35:44 when Jefferson says, “Abigail Adams once asked why the British had invented liberty, but had lost their capacity to honor it.” He gives a surprising answer that would shock paleo enthusiasts, and right after that closes his interview with a dramatic reading of the last paragraph from the Declaration:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING CRACKERJACK?
Lexicon Valley #15: Then is Now, Now and Then
This witty (and nerdy) podcast about language usage is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It’s like the original Observation Papers that Dr. Herman Wilson had us write in Structural English Grammar. This week, they looked at the “historical present” tense - when someone describing the past switches from past tense to present tense. One of the examples they give is from Seinfeld, where Kramer recounts the story of taking control of the city bus to get his friend’s severed toe to the hospital (starts at 12:20 - I’ve listened to it 4–5 times and laughed more each time). The best point for writers comes at 26:54 when they quote Phillip Pullman critiquing the limited range of expressiveness with this technique.
WITH ALL THE EVENTS RESUFFLED IN TO A NEW ORDER
WNYC’S Radiolab: Radiolab Remix
Rabiolab did a clever contest by posting individual tracks of source material from previous shows and asking listeners to create remixed versions. They received 136 submissions, and in this show they play selections from winning edits and interview their creators. Judging by the listener comments, the grand prize winner is not for everyone. It’s different. Even the hosts couldn’t agree. Jad admired the work, but didn’t care for the broadway nature of the finished product, and Robert wanted his life to be composed in this manner. Love it or hate it, listening to this re-edit that took David Minnick over 60 hours to produce will give you a new perspective on the sound of language. If you’re short on time, skip the set up and jump to 3:05 to hear the winning remix.
Podcast Test Drives:
- Blank on Blank is a project working with “journalists, interviewers, authors, documentarians, and publications” to take a second look at interviews that ended up on the cutting room floor. On Twitter, I asked, “Is it a good idea to resurface content that was edited out?” Blank on Blank answered “Yes” rather quickly. And I think they’re right for two reasons: they edit them beautifully in short bite-sized presentations and we can handle more information today because technology allows us to sort and search for more specific interests.
I downloaded the new Apple Podcast app along with Stitcher, Downcast, and Pocket Cast. I’m going to test drive each over the next couple weeks. Which app do you prefer use for listening to podcasts?
Unsubscribing from:
None this week. I’m on vacation for the next week, so I’m hopeful to increase my podcast consumption, and with testing driving a few new apps, I have to subscribe to something different in each of them.
OTHER PODCAST POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
What about you? What podcasts did you enjoy this week and what do you recommend? Leave your favorites in the comments below.
JUNE QUOTOGRAPHS | So That's What They're Called
The momentum on my daily quote blog, Observation Paper, is starting to pick up. Of the 29 visuals this month, 24 had at least one note (either a like or reblog on Tumblr). Three had 12 notes:
“The internet tends to make smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.” ~ Ben Casnocha
“Read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.” ~ David McCullough, Jr.
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.” ~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Michael Schechter will tell you the best creation of the month is the Risk quote from Seth Godin, but my favorite is the internal debate comment from Yuvi Zalkow. It's not the most visually stunning, but I like the simple illustration of conflicted voices.
And the clear highlight of the month was coming up with the tag "Quotograph" for these visual quotes. After quick searches on Twitter and Google, I found that we're not the first ones to use that term, but I want to thank Michael Schechter and Erin Feldman for tweetstorming with me to come up with that name.
LISTEN TO THIS | Liar, Liar
I’m a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a recap of my favorite tidbits, soundbites and short bursts of brilliance that I have to share with everyone who will listen. After digesting hours and hours of podcasts, here’s the best 9 minutes from this week.
PEOPLE SAY I’M GAGA OVER MERLIN
MAC POWER USERS | Workflows with Merlin Mann III
This episode is the third annual workflows interview with Merlin. The workflow episodes provide helpful examples of top producers and how they achieve and accomplish so much. I find myself asking a lot of people about their workflows and sometimes have to explain what I mean. Merlin does of nice of job of simply defining this silly word:
“Workflow is understanding your job, understanding your tools, and then not thinking about it any more.”
I picked up several tips for better utilizing my tools (for example, using location as a context in OmniFocus), and I think the 2-hour interview is worth every minute, but if you only have time for a quick snippet, skip to 1:32:01 and catch his comments on leaving a little of bit of capacity in your box.
LIAR, LIAR FIRST TIME CALLER
DAN PINK OFFICE HOURS | Dan Ariely
Dan Pink’s Office Hours is a new podcast for me. It’s an interview style podcast with big time authors and speakers. He broadcasts the show live old-school style, in that, to listen live, you dial in to a conference call where you have the opportunity to ask questions radio-talk-show like. It’s monthly making it an easy add to my subscriptions, and I’m eager to go back and listen to a few older ones.
This week, Dan’s guest was Dan Ariely, author of The Honest Truth About Dishonestly. He’s conducted some fascinating research about when, how, and why we lie and cheat. The section to catch comes at 32:54 when Ariely explains three reasons for moral deterioration: increased distance from money, greater awareness of how much other people are cheating, and more instances of feeling cheated.
BONUS: Check out Dan Ariely’s Conscience+ app. It takes the angel/devil approach to helping you justify many decisions.
KIDS WILL TAKE A CHANCE
TED RADIO HOUR | How do Schools Suffocate Creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson is a delight to listen to speak. He’s witty, charming, and a fantastic storyteller. We homeschool our children, and I’ve recently been pushing my youngest two to focus on punctuation. I’ve been meeting a little resistance, and at 5:48, when Robinson talks about whether literacy or creativity should come first, it was the perfect reminder that I need to ease up and let them keep writing away punctuation-free for now. Listen all the way through to his story about the little girl drawing God. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from his presentation that I used as a quotograph on ObservationPaper.com.
Podcast Test Drives:
- When I was trying to subscribe to Dan Pink’s Office Hours, I downloaded Office Hours produced by The Society Pages instead. Back in the 80s, we hosted a conference with the theme of “Let the Dreamers Wake the Nation” which is a line from the Carly Simon song Let the River Run that was featured in the movie Working Girl. Our keynote speaker tried to prep for the conference and thought watching the movie might give him some insight. He accidentally grabbed a different movie with a similar title - Working Girls. This Office Hours is also an interview show and has me curious enough that I plan to keep it around for a few more weeks.
- I also test drove the app Downcast this week based on the recommendation from Tom Silk. You can increase the listening speed on Downcast to 3x (a little too fast for my taste). I’ve only listened to two shows on it so far, and I’ll continue to play with it this week. One big downside, no bookmarking feature which I use a lot for LISTEN TO THIS.
Unsubscribing from:
Science Friday. I enjoy the show, but I can’t give it two hours a week (even at double time). I’ll add the blog to my RSS feed and download any episodes that particularly catch my interest.
Other podcast posts you might enjoy:
What about you? What podcasts did you enjoy this week and what do you recommend? Leave your favorites in the comments below.