A big day

How Wars End

Public Radio International - The World recently aired a series called How Wars End that I think is must-listen radio. The trailer reads:

The war in Iraq has now lasted more than five years. "Tell me how this ends," General David Petraeus said famously early on in the conflict. In her five-part series The World's Jeb Sharp is looking at how wars end. They don't end quite the way we imagine they do. And sometimes they don't end at all. She looks to the past for some clues.

The five-part series looks at the American Civil War, World War I, the first Gulf War, and the Bosnian conflict, drawing parallels and lessons for our current situation. You can download the audio or look at the transcript with pictures.

In the Loop - The Week

I like this show on MPR. Today was especially good. (From the link you can download a podcast or listen online.)

You all will enjoy the poem about the Olympics about half way through and must listen to the song about the Georgia-Russia conflict right at the end of the show (so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, just scroll to the end).

Nerdy internet sample platter

For all the language arts nerds out there, check out Freerice.com, a site that donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme for every correct answer to a vocabulary quiz. Thanks to KT for this great find--timely given the problem with rising rice prices. In response to a skeptical friend of Kate's, I verified there is a link to the site from the UN World Food Programme, so looks legit despite sounding pretty weird. I donated 220 grains on my first try (lost on hoosegow, which means "jail") and my highest vocab level so far is 44. I will certainly devote some quality time tonight to beating those records.

For all the economics-, news junkie-, or general-purpose nerds, I think you'll enjoy this Marketplace segment on the coming economic stimulus payments. What's really incredible is that they got former labor secretary Robert Reich to comment for the story.

It's coming

I heard this commentary on All Things Considered tonight, and thought it was funny and well done. It's only about 4 minutes.

I sucked at geometry

Please bear with me. I'm going to draw a parallel where there really is none.

While driving home from work listening to pre-NH poll closing babble on how Iowa was a referendum on change vs. experience, it occurred to me that Hillary Rodham Clinton must feel like she just can't win. Dreamy Bill asked her to fix health care within months of his election, which she tried pretty valiantly to do, but then she got yanked for not having enough Washington experience to do it right. So she went out and got a bunch of Washington experience, and then got yanked in Iowa for it.

While trying not to hit the big scary post in the garage listening to a Writers Guild guy walk the line between calling Jon Stewart a scab and sticking it to Big Media, it occurred to me that the very thing writers are striking about--the proliferation of TV content on DVD and the internet (for which they apparently don't get paid directly)--is what is preventing a popular backlash against the media corporations. So TV stations aren't airing new shows? Well, I'll just pop in the Gilmore Girls first season and fire up My So-Called Life reruns on ABC.com. Problem solved, strike be damned.

That was the parallel. Careful, if you blink you miss it.

The story

Tonight while noodling my way through St. Paul to avoid the now ever-present traffic on 280, I heard a really interesting show on MPR. It's called The Story, and features lengthy interviews with regular folks.

Yup, that's it. Regular folks...telling their stories. According to its website, the show tries to get at major topics of the day--like Iraq, health care, and politics--by letting individual soldiers, doctors, and voters talk about their lives. They intentionally do not interview think tank people, market analysts, or politicians.

While listening to a woman named Nancy talk about growing up in the family business, I realized how truly disenchanted I am with mainstream news. Perhaps finally disenchanted enough to seek out alternatives. I just feel like there is a gaping hole--so much beneath the surface of every issue that doesn't come out in most news coverage. I finally understand why my dad has turned to current event blogs and cannot fathom why I still rely mostly on newspapers. But I find those blogs are often full of even less-informed punditry than the mainstream media stories. A recent FutureTense story got me thinking that citizen journalism may meet my needs more. The brief story highlighted how actively citizen journalists are covering the bridge collapse, and it rang very true. I had already turned to citizen journalists to fill in the gaps in news coverage--by searching youtube videos and reading personal blogs.

Seeking out more individual stories/citizen journalism could help with one of my main beefs about mainstream media. Most news outlets are under such pressure to get stories out quickly, those stories end up developing on air or in print. So the facts seem to change from moment to moment, making the final version much less credible. Citizen journalism and individual stories seem like better ways to fill the need for immediate information. Since they're obviously and intentionally subjective, they don't need revision like factual news stories. People's own experiences and initial interpretations will still be valid regardless of the facts uncovered later.

So (long-winded, wandering) story short: I obviously need newspapers for the basic facts, but I think I'll try out this world of citizen journalism and individual stories to see if it fills the gaping hole left by mainstream media--particularly while waiting for regular news outlets to get their stories straight after major events.

Nerd moment: MPR

I am a public radio junkie. This is not news to people who know me. A prime example: the only time I have ever felt a yearning for an iPod was while listening to Marketplace this past Thursday. It’s a great show, but inconveniently aired at 6:30pm weeknights, which is one of the few times of day I do not listen to MPR. Luckily, technology and nerdiness have joined forces to bring me Marketplace podcasts, available anytime for my listening pleasure. Oh, if only I had one of those shiny white pioneers of portable media consumption so I could tune in to host Kai Ryssdal’s unique brand of pithy reporting about business and consumer news whenever my heart desires!

On a somewhat related note, people frequently criticize MPR for its corporate-america-style ability to make money and its somewhat shady connections to a variety of spin-off ventures. One night while availing myself of the all the free news and information on its website, I stumbled across a section detailing the MPR organizational structure. It describes the various arms of the Minnesota Public Radio-American Public Media empire, including a diagram showing lines of income and control. It’s interesting reading, and gives you a better appreciation for the power of Bill Kling’s invisible hand, guiding the strange and wonderful market that is ridiculously successful (quasi-)public radio.