The Vine: December 21, 2012
Since we’re all still here, let’s track down some books, eh what?
*****
I’ve searched for this book on Google and came up with nothing. I read this book in middle school (late ’90s). It’s about a huge family with a matriarch that has named each child after a successive letter in the alphabet. They moved to a new house, and all the kids want to have a pet but the mother refuses. Each chapter is about a specific kid. I remember in one chapter, one of the kids finds a little hidden room that they think might have sheltered slaves on the Underground Railroad, and there was a diary in there from an escaping slave (I think).
At the end, the kids find a kitten they name Zaza or Zzzz (it definitely starts with a Z), and their mother allows them to keep it.
Hopefully TNation will help find this book!!
Thanks,
Cloe
*****
I love learning. A lot. I love science shows, and history shows, and history channels that actually show history, and topics that no one gives a crap about. Back when iTunes first appeared, they had a handful of podcasts from universities and people that were fairly interesting, but the pickings were few. Now they’ve exploded a thousand-fold, and I am having a hard time finding quality educational podcasts and would love some suggestions.
Requirements:
A. General topic can be literally anything. Literature, Science, Grammar, History, Art, Math, Paranormal…anything. I am partial to all sciences (physics and astronomy in particular, but nothing is out of bounds). I love any and all kinds of history; nothing is too small (seriously…I have added history of salt to my Amazon Wishlist from an earlier Ask the Readers post). Ancient history, Early Exploration (1300-1700 AD), and Victorian/Edwardian (esp. turn of the century) history are my favorites. Topics about religion would be great, but not Christianity, only because I already know a whopping lot about it.
Also, the podcasts don’t have to be classroom or universities; I’ll take anything, as long as it’s educational.
B. Good audio quality. So many of the classroom podcasts are hard to hear, especially the students. If I can hear the teacher well, then not hearing student questions doesn’t bother me as much, though I prefer it if the teacher repeats the question. But I can usually get it from context. But I have to at least be able to hear the teacher, preferably over the sound of an elliptical.
C. It doesn’t have to be iTunes…it can be any podcast that I can stream/download to my PC (Windows 7) or Android phone.
D. No Egypt or Rome. I’m burned out on those.
Thanks, and hope you have a great weekend!
Anlyn
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
I’m pretty sure the first one is “Ten Kids, No Pets” by Ann M. Martin of Baby-Sitters Club fame.
Cloe, your book is Ten Kids, No Pets, by Ann M. Martin (of The Babysitters Club series).
Khan academy! https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/banking-and-money/id391036951
The link is to the finance topics, the only ones I know, but there are math and science as well.
Ten Kids, No Pets by Ann M. Martin, and its sequel Eleven Kids, One Summer
Anlyn – have you heard any Radiolab? I think they’re out of the NPR station in NYC, but you can download their podcasts for free through both iTunes and their actual website. Really well done! They come in both hour episodes and 30-min “shorts” on a huuuuuge range of topics. I’ve listened to stuff on tumor registries, perception of color, Prosopagnosia, anatomy, on and on. Ahhh they’re great! And entertaining as well, not very dry.
For once, I know one!
Cloe: It’s Ten Kids, No Pets by Ann M Martin. It also has a sequel, Eleven Kids, One Summer… which, now that I think of it, has a spoiler in the title, doesn’t it?
Anlyn: You may already have this one, but Freakonomics has a great podcast.
The book sounds like Ten Kids, No Pets by Ann M. Martin of Baby-Sitters Club fame.
For podcasts you can’t do better than the BBC’s In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. Covers a huge range of subjects (history, religion, science, philosophy, literature). In addition to the weekly shows iTunes has an archive of past programs going back 10 years or so.
You say you have a PC, so I don’t know if this will help, but there’s a native Ipad app called “itunes u” that is quite literally exactly what you’re looking for. There are hundreds of classes from Oxford, Stanford, Yale, Open University, etc. It’s pretty fab, to be honest.
Some are video lectures, some audio only, and some are interactive.
Ooh, a chance to flog Robert Sapolsky’s lectures about stress and physiology! They’re available through Stanford’s channel on iTunes U. He’s the kind of speaker who can get students to switch their majors on the strength of a single lecture, and his “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” and “Stress and Coping: What Baboons Can Teach Us” are exemplars of how to make a lay audience care about specialized technical material.
I also enjoyed “Shakespeare’s Sonnets Read by Some Guy in New York”, which were produced by a dude who got an alternative sentencing deal. Each podcast involves him reading a sonnet, doing a line-by-line explication, and then rereading the whole. Some Guy, as he calls himself, is upfront about not knowing much about poetry, but he throws himself into the project; you can hear him getting more comfortable with the language as he goes along, and he seems to enjoy the chance to discuss what different analysts have said about controversial passages. Combine that with a slight case of dem/dese and a willingness to giggle at the dirty jokes, and it’s a great antidote to more formal presentations.
For educational podcasts, I really like both Science . . . Sort Of, and the History Chicks. They’re both done by amateurs, but they’re super thoughtful and well-researched, and they’re both free on iTunes.
Podcast: Hypercritical – John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin. It’s actually wrapping up its run this month – will end after episode 100, but there’s a ton of great stuff. Bit geeky, but you’ll always learn something. And the audio quality is superb. http://5by5.tv/hypercritical
I wrote about it on my site a little bit when they announced it was going to end: http://uncorked.org/medley/2012/11/i-will-miss-hypercritical/
Cloe:
Incidentally, “Ten Kids, No Pets” was the subject of another Vine letter, written by yours truly! Do you remember that the littlest sister ate disgusting PB and mayo sandwiches? https://tomatonation.com/vine/the-vine-anniversary-edition-april-26-2010/
Anlyn: we love StarTalk, which is Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s podcast. He gets a bit salty, but he approaches science in a great way. He has one with Wil Wheaton that was a blast.
Podcasts:
Discovery on BBC
Science Friday on NPR
Quirks and Quarks on CBC
David Blight’s Yale lectures on the Civil War/Reconstruction are extraordinary. I also recommend The History Guys, a podcast by three extremely well known historians (most from UVa) on a variety of topics. (You can find it on some public radio stations too.)
For Anlyn,
Podcast: try the monthly, very short podcast, “The Memory Palace.” It’s kind of a storytelling podcast on historical themes: about equally funny and poignant.
Another iTunes U recommendation, if those work for you: the “Justice” series by Harvard philosophy professor Michael Sandel. He takes modern contentious topics–like marriage equality or gun control–and facilitates a productive conversation among students of disparate opinions, and ultimately ties them back to the theories of philosophers. I saw him speak, and was blown away by how he helped me to understand the moral underpinnings of opinions that I do not share. It makes me want him to facilitate every session of Congress.
Stuff You Missed in History Class from the How Stuff Works website (available on iTunes) has interesting history tidbits. And I’ll second the recommendation for Radiolab!
This was a great question because I’m seeing some interesting ones being recommended!
Second/third/thousandth rec for RadioLab. Everything from dreams to coincidences to perfect pitch to sperm to the afterlife.
Stuff You Missed in History Class. Refresh the stuff you know (real history of Salem witch trials, updates on Amelia Earhart theories) and learn about stuff you didn’t (the fall of Angkor Wat, the story of noted 17th century travel writer Evliya Celebi). Plenty of sad royal childhoods, exhumation of bodies, and Victoriana.
The Moth has awesome stories. Educational only insofar as they open your eyes, but wow.
A few people touched on Stuff You podcasts, but didn’t specifically mention “Stuff You Should Know” – it’s probably a little bit lighter than some of the others, but it’s still educational-ish and entertaining.
Another vote for RadioLab! I also love The Moth and This American Life…less “educational” but very smart and interesting!
BBC Radio 3 Documentaries. Alas, my HTML skills are not working today so here’s the ugly link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnwp/episodes/guide
I especially enjoyed The Social History of the Piano.
I see the smart, speedy Vine readers have beaten me to the Ann M. Martin answer. I just wanted to thank Cloe for asking about that book and prompting me to realize that, though it’s been well more than a decade since I last read Ten Kids, No Pets and its sequel, I still know the names of all eleven kids. Surely that information is taking up room in my brain that could store something more important, no? (Abigail, Bainbridge, Calandra, Dagwoood, Eberhard, Faustine, Gardenia, Hannah, Ira, Jan and Keegan)
Everyone, thanks for the info about Ten Kids, No Pets! I think it’s a little strange that after all the Google searches I did with that info it didn’t come up! I mean, it’s by Ann M. Martin-there’s an entire website devoted to the sartorial missteps of Claudia Kishi from the Babysitter’s Club (www.whatclaudiawore.com)!!!
David Blight’s Civil War and Reconstruction lecture series (from Yale, available on iTunes U) was mandatory listening in the final year of my history degree. It is also excellent, fairly accessible and dryly funny.
It’s not pop-knowledge by a long stretch (if you’re interested in the topic, pick up some Eric Foner books alongside) but the best example of these kind of academic podcasts: genuinely world class academia open to the public.
Well, I for one am going to be very well educated in the new year!
Stuff You Should Know has a bunch of great podcasts about all different subjects. Most of them are amazing.
In addition to Radio Lab and the Stuff podcasts: NPR’s Planet Money (economic trends in digestible episodes), Slate’s Lexicon Valley (explores words/phrases/language trends), How to do Everything (light, enjoyable)
I highly recommend the BBC podcast series “A History of the World in 100 Objects.” Each podcast focuses on an object in the British Museum and how it relates to world history.
Two podcasts I’ve really enjoyed that might fit the bill:
1) Shakespeare’s Restless World – a BBC series similar to the History of the World in 100 Objects
2) History of the English Language Podcast – looks at the history of English from its Indo-European roots
Three professors from University of Virginia and University of Richmond do a history podcast that I enjoy: http://www.backstoryradio.org
Not sure if this is precisely what you’re thinking of, education-wise, but there’s a lot of great stuff on the TED talks site. http://www.ted.com/talks
By the way, thanks Anlyn, for sending this one in. This list of educational stuff should make my treadmill time way more interesting. Yeay, Nation!
My husband has been listening to the History of English podcasts and telling me all about them, and it sounds pretty amazing. It reaches waaaaay back in history (for example, it examines the Hittites and archaeological evidence about how they lived, IIRC).
I second the thanks for this question, since I had no idea there was so much out there.
Way, way late on this, sorry…Thank you all for the suggestions! I’ll be bookmarking this page.