PODULARITY

In this month’s podcast for Le Monde diplomatique, I speak to Noëlle Burgi about the heavy toll that austerity measures are exacting in her homeland, Greece.

Noëlle, who is a researcher at the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Sciences Politique (CESSP), Sorbonne University, Paris, describes Athens and Thessaloniki as “dying cities”, in which drug use, mental health problems, domestic violence and prostitution are all on the increase.

Not least of the Greeks’ problems is a feeling of powerlessness as their welfare state becomes hollowed out and their household incomes plummet.

To listen to the interview, click here. And to read Noëlle Burgi’s article, click here.

In September I met up with Carol Gilligan at Polity’s offices in Cambridge to record this two-part interview in which she talked about her childhood, writing her landmark study In a Different Voice (1982), her most recent book Joining the Resistance, and her thoughts on what has been achieved in the three decades since In a Different Voice appeared. She also talks about what remains to be done to achieve a post-patriarchal world in which individuals’ voices are both heard and respected.

“I am a woman who listens,” Carol writes in her new book. That is certainly true. She is also a woman who speaks eloquently and passionately about the ideas that animate her, often linking them in to her own life experiences.

To listen to part 1 of the interview, click here.

And for part 2, click here.

My daughters, Livi and Abby, interviewed Joanna Nadin (far right below, with fellow authors after the Queens of Teen event) before her talk at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival last month. Click here to listen to the interview. [9:56]

Tim Jeal on The Explorers of the Nile from FaberBooks on Vimeo.

In this month’s podcast for Le Monde diplomatique I talk to Eric Alterman about his piece on Barack Obama in the October edition of the paper, entitled “The compromiser-in-chief”.

Eric’s piece begins with a reminder of the Mario Cuomo quote: “campaign in poetry but govern in prose” and goes on to look at the ways in which Obama’s record is looking decidedly prosaic.

“Deal-maker not world-shaker” is Alterman’s verdict, and the terms of the deals being made in Washington are increasingly being set by the Republicans. I began by asking Eric about the disappointment felt by those who elected a president who promised “bold and swift” action.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Complete archive of LMD podcasts here.

Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, a columnist for The Nation, The Forward, and The Daily Beast, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, the Nation Institute and the World Policy Institute.

Roger Luckhurst of Birkbeck talks to me about the enduring appeal of Dracula and I ask him: “It’s all about sex, isn’t it?”

Earlier this year, just before Oxford University Press’s flagship medical title, the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, went online for the first time, I met all three editors of the book and interviewed them about it. The book attempts no less than a full digest of the current state of medical knowledge, and is therefore a huge - and hugely ambitious - undertaking.

I was keen to find out more about the values which underpinned the book and also the practical side - how is it possible to stay on top of such a vast and ever-changing field, what does the future hold for the book now that it has gone online, and what are the pleasures of working on such a long-term project?

Though the book is intended primarily for professionals, it also finds its way into other contexts; it’s often cited in courts of law, for example. So I hope that this interview will be of interest to medics and non-medics alike. After all, it’s far from unlikely that at some point in your life a medic will refer to this book with reference to your own health care…

Key to speakers’ initials:

DAW - David A. Warrell, Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford

TMC - Timothy M. Cox, Professor of Medicine, University of Cambridge; Honorary Consultant Physician, Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Cambridge

JDF - John D. Firth, Consultant Physician and Nephrologist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge

1. First I asked about the origins of the book and the principles on which it was founded (DAW). Click here to listen to David Warrell’s answer.

2. What is the audience for the book and how is that reflected in its content? (JDF, DAW) Click here

3. What sort of contributors have the editors recruited to the project? (JDF, TMC) Click here

4. What brief do the contributors get before they write their chapters? (JDF, DAW) Click here

5. What does the move online mean for the Oxford Textbook of Medicine and how will the book maintain its relevance? (JDF, DAW) Click here

6.  Do the editors need to be constantly aware of the need to balance the theory and practice of medicine in their presentation of it in the textbook? (JDF, DAW, TMC) Click here

7.  Medicine is practiced in very different economic, political and cultural contexts around the globe. How does the Textbook cope with that fact? (JDF, DAW) Click here

8. Does complementary medicine belong in a book on evidence-based medicine? (TMC) Click here

9. The chapter on psychiatry says explicitly that some readers may find it an unnecessary add-on. Clearly this is not a view shared by the book’s editors. (TMC, DAW) Click here

10. I remarked that successive editions of the book must have reflected the changing role of the physician over the past decades… (TMC) Click here

11. … and also of course changes in human behaviour. (TMC) Click here

12. I wondered whether in a sense the whole book was a reflection of the editors’ view of what the ideal physician would be like. (JDF, DAW) Click here

13. How will updates happen now that the book is available online? (JDF) Click here

14. Is there a danger that, with all the advances in contemporary medicine, the Textbook may cease to be able to keep up with progress? (JDF, DAW) Click here

15. Finally I asked all three editors for their personal impressions of being an editor of this flagship publication. (TMC, JDF, DAW) Click here

Last week I interviewed David Bellos about his new book on translation, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? (Penguin Books) and he drew my attention to this wonderfully creative and witty animation produced by Matt Young and Alan Trotter.

David explained that the film was unscripted; the filmmakers simply chose a section of their conversation with him and came up with typography and images to illustrate it. Or perhaps “simply” is the wrong word, since clearly a great deal of thought and artistry has gone into the film to make it bounce along with such a stylish sense of rhythm and pace.

My interview with David will be available on Blackwell Online shortly.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst’s biography of the first three decades of Dickens’ life is published by Harvard University Press next month. It’s a terrifically readable, refreshing look at his life story which rescues Dickens from a sense of inevitability, that the only fate reserved for him was to become the greatest novelist of his day. From the very first page of the book, Robert embraces the counter-factual to jolt us out of our complacency and shows how often Dickens’ life could have branched off in another direction entirely.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst on Becoming Dickens from George Miller on Vimeo.

Next month, renowned art historian Martin Kemp publishes Christ to Coke, a richly ilustrated exploration of how eleven images, from the face to Christ to the Coke bottle, have become icons. Along the way, he also investigates the stories of the cross, the Mona Lisa, the double helix and Che Guevara, inter al.

1. When I interviewed Martin about the book, I began by asking him to define what he meant by an icon. [Click here to listen to extract.]

2. Next I asked him to sketch out the process by which an image turned into an icon. [Click here]

3. How, I wondered, did he select the eleven images that he features in the book? [Click here]

4. Why was Christ the first image he selected? Did that mean the ancient world didn’t produce other icons with staying power? [Click here]

5. The image of Christ had to overcome obstacles in order to become an icon. Martin Kemp explains these here. [Click here]

6. In many instances, the icon draws some of its power from its backstory. How does this work? [Click here]

7. What part do chance and accidents play in an image becoming an icon? [Click here]

8. Martin Kemp reflects on the great emotional power invested in the Stars and Stripes as an icon. [Click here]

9. All the icons in the book share at least one common characteristic: their ability to retain power. [Click here]

10. In our image-saturated visual culture today, does Martin Kemp think it has become harder for an image to make the transition to icon? [Click here]

11. In terms of subject matter, this book marks something of a departure for Martin as a writer. He explains this here. [Click here]

12. From the world of modern science, Martin Kemp chose two icons:  the double helix and ‘e = mc2′. Does the great complexity of science mean that it is much harder for it to generate icons? [Click here]