Podcasts about Leipzig University

Hafizullah Saeedi is an independent researcher and a human rights defender. He holds a Master of Arts in Global Studies from Leipzig University, Germany. He obtained a double degree in International and Comparative Politics from American University of Central Asia and Bard College-NYC, for his undergraduate studies. Hafizullah has a background in human rights advocacy at the United Nations and European Union level. His area of research includes human rights, security and development studies, with a focus on minority issues, countering violent extremism, and humanitarian action. In the context of Afghanistan, he has written extensively on social movements, minorities and hate speech, as well as political participation of women and youth in national processes. He has previously worked with Minority Rights Group International, European Center for Minority Issues, and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development. In addition to his mother tongue Persian/Dari, he speaks English, Pashto, Russian and German languages.

This week, we discuss McSweeney's new quarterly issue: McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers, featuring writers of the Vietnamese diaspora. We are joined by contributors and guest editors of the issue, Thi Bui and Vu Tran, as well as McSweeney's Quarterly Editor Rita Bullwinkel. You can learn more about their work in the episode description below.During the episode, Thi, Vu, and Rita mention upcoming events in celebration of this issue. You can learn more about these special events at the links below. We hope to see you at one of these!Asian Art Museum | San Francisco | May 1 | 3:45 pm Natasha Reichle, Associate Curator of Southeast Asian Art, leads a special curator's choice discussion with McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers co-guest editor Vu Tran and contributing author Doan Bui.Tenderloin Museum | San Francisco | May 1 | 6:00 pm A block party in the heart of Little Saigon. Readings by Vu Tran and Doan Bui, plus a DJ set by Topazu.University of Chicago | Chicago | May 15 | 5:00 pm Co-editors Vu Tran and Thi Bui will be joined by fellow contributor Isabelle Pelaud for a reading and celebration of the issue's publication.This conversation originally took place April 7, 2025 and was recorded via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer.AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOMEMore about The Make Believers:In McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers (guest edited by Thi Bui and Vu Tran), ten writers of the Vietnamese diaspora write from the eclectic hodgepodge that is their shared imagination of what it means to be "Vietnamese." Packaged in a beautiful foil-stamped cigar box (with art by Bui on each and every surface), and including two booklets, one menu, and a glossary of broken Vietnamese, the work in this issue spans from highbrow to lowbrow, proper to naughty, logical to absurd, and painful to funny. Published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, its contributors work across perspectives and multiple languages. In this completely singular, nothing-else-of-its-kind anthology, these artists write (and illustrate!) from a place of collective loss and joy.Featuring work by: Doan Bui, Thi Bui, H'Rina DeTroy, Anna Moï, Hoài Huong Nguyen, Vaan Nguyen, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Bao Phi, Paul Tran, and Vu Tran. Order your copy of McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers here.About our guests:THI BUI is a writer and artist from Viet Nam, California, and New York, now planting roots in New Orleans. Best known for her graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do, she has also been a longtime educator in public high schools, a professor of comics, an organizer and artist-activist, an ambivalent sculptor and puppeteer, and a fledgling screenwriter. She received a Caldecott Honor as the illustrator of her first children's book, A Different Pond, by Bao Phi.VU TRAN is the author of Dragonfish and a forthcoming novel, Your Origins. His other writing has appeared in publications like The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007: The Best Stories of the Year, The Best American Mystery Stories, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam, and raised in Oklahoma, Vu received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and his PhD from the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas, and he is an associate professor of practice in the arts at the University of Chicago, where he directs undergraduate studies in creative writing.RITA BULLWINKEL is the author of Headshot and Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. She is a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, the creator of Oral Florist, and a Picador Guest Professor of Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, where she teaches courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building.

A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots New York Times bestselling and National Magazine Award-winning author Morgan Jerkins will be at the Main Library this October to discuss Wandering in Strange Lands, the powerful story of her journey to understand her northern and southern roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America. She will be the first featured Lit Chat author in the Library's new African American History series of community programs. The project, in part, seeks to expand the Library's African American History Collection and the associated Digital Community Archive and to make customers aware of all the FREE family research and local history resources available to them in the Special Collections Department at the Main Library, including the newly-expanded Memory Lab. For more information about how you can contribute materials to Special Collections or use these publicly-available resources to trace your family roots, research the history of your home or neighborhood and more, please click on this link. Morgan Jerkins's most recent book is the novel Caul Baby, an Amazon Best Book of 2021. Her other books are Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots, one of Time's must-read books of 2020, and This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America, a New York Times Bestseller. As a journalist, she's written about the internet, intersecting social issues and popular media through celebrity profiles and interviews, reportage, commentary, and personal essays. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair, among others. She's won two National Magazine Awards and was a Forbes 30 Under 30 Leader in Media. Jerkins is also a filmmaker. Her debut short film, Black Madonna, which she wrote and co-directed, was selected at the Big Apple Film Festival, Pan African Film & Arts Festival, and NewFilmmakers Los Angeles. She teaches Creative Writing at Princeton University, where she also holds a Bachelor's in Comparative Literature. She has an MFA from Bennington College, and has taught at Columbia University, Pacific University, The New School, and Leipzig University, where she was the Guest Picador Professor. Based in New York City, she was born and raised in New Jersey. Interviewer Prof. Tammy Cherry has taught at Florida State College at Jacksonville as an English professor for 22 years. Along with composition classes, Tammy teaches African American literature and honors classes. She is a lifelong Jacksonville resident and recently served as co-host for the WJCT podcast Bygone Jax. Praise for Morgan Jerkins's Books “In Morgan Jerkins's remarkable debut essay collection, This Will Be My Undoing, she is a deft cartographer of black girlhood and womanhood. From one essay to the next, Jerkins weaves the personal with the public and political in compelling, challenging ways... With this collection, she shows us that she is unforgettably here, a writer to be reckoned with.” — Roxanne Gay “[A] forthright and informative account. . . . Jerkins's careful research and revelatory conversations with historians, activists, and genealogists result in a disturbing yet ultimately empowering chronicle of the African-American experience. Readers will be moved by this brave and inquisitive book.” — Publishers Weekly on Wandering in Strange Lands “Morgan Jerkins' fantastic, expansive novel of mothers and daughters and Harlem, Caul Baby, is a meditation on the limits of inheritance and legacy. It's also a love letter to a rapidly changing neighborhood.”— Kaitlyn Greenidge Check out Morgan's works from the library! Continue Reading MORGAN RECOMMENDS Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado FEM by Magda Carneci THE LIBRARY RECOMMENDS Dear Ijeawele, or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper  Life, I Swear: Intimate Stories From Black Women on Identity, Healing, and Self-Trust by Chloe Dulce Louvouezo  A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining by Rachel E Cargle  Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine  The Love Song of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers  These Ghost are Family by Maisy Card  Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver  The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton  --- Never miss an event! Sign up for email newsletters at https://bit.ly/JaxLibraryUpdates  Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions@coj.net 

How have ideas about food, health and the body evolved throughout history? What impact do these concepts have on inclusion and exclusion, and on society in general? These are the questions at the heart of Nina Mackert's research fields. Nina Mackert is a historian working in the interdisciplinary LeipzigLab "Global Health" at Leipzig University. In this episode, she shares her perspectives on how food and health have influenced society through the years and explores the complex relationship between body image and societal norms. As she is finalising her second book, which delves into the history of calories, she provides a thought-provoking discussion on how our understanding of food and health continues to impact modern life. With her extensive research and knowledge, Nina Mackert offers valuable insights that reshape how we think about food, health and the body.

Rabbi Isaac LichtensteinOCTOBER 4, 2012 BY HENRY EINSPRUCH D.D.From Rabbis meet Jesus the Messiah – a collection of 24 biographies and testimonies of Rabbis encounters with Jesus the Messiah© Messianic Good News.He was not yet twenty when he became a Rabbi, and after officiating for several years in different communities in northern Hungary, Isaac Lichtenstein finally settled as District Rabbi in Tapio Szele, where he remained for nearly forty years, labouring ceaselessly and unselfishly for the good of his people.Early in his ministry a Jewish teacher in the communal school of his district casually showed him a German Bible. Turning the leaves, his eye fell on the name “Jesu Christi.” He became furiously angry and sharply reproved the teacher for having such a thing in his possession. Taking the book, he flung it across the room in a rage; it fell behind others on a shelf where, dusty and forgotten, it lay some thirty odd years.About that time a fierce wave of anti Semitism broke out in Hungary, culminating in the now historic “Tisza Eslar affair”. In that picturesque little Hungarian town, situated on the Theiss, 12 Jews and a Jewess were thrown into prison, accused of having killed a Christian girl in order to use her blood for ritual purposes the most tragic part of the case being that a little Jewish boy, who had been kept some time from his parents by the police commissary, was prevailed on by threats and cruelties to appear as the chief witness against his own father (the synagogue sexton) and recite a concocted circumstantial tale of the supposed murdered girl.As in every other case in which this diabolical charge was ever brought against the Jews, the blood accusation in Tisza Eslar was ultimately demonstrated to be false and baseless. It remains to the glory of true religion that a number of prominent Christian men, notably Dr. Franz Delitzsch, of the Leipzig University, rose to the occasion not only to defend the Jews, but also to tear the mask from all who by their acts scandalized Christ in the eyes of Jewry.The mental state of Rabbi Lichtenstein at this time is best revealed in his Judenspiegel (Jewish Mirror):“Often have they oppressed me from my youth, may Israel say” (Psalm 129:1). No long explanation is needed to show that in these few words the Psalmist sums up the bitter experiences and sorrows which we, at least of the older generation, have suffered from our youth up at the hands of the Christian populations surrounding us.“Mockery, scorn, blows, and all manner of humiliation, have been our portion even at the hands of Christian children. I remember still the stones which were thrown at us as we left the synagogue, and how, when bathing in the river, and powerless, we saw them cast our clothing, with laughter and insult, into the water.“Once with sorrow and weeping,, I saw my father felled to the ground without the least hesitation by a nobleman, so called, because he had not quickly enough made room for him on a narrow path. But these sad experiences are known well enough to need no dwelling on; and would to God that such persecution of the Jews by the Christians were altogether a thing of the forgotten past!“As impressions of early life take a deep hold, and as in my riper years I still had no cause to modify these impressions, it is no wonder that I came to think that Christ Himself was the plague and curse of the Jews the origin and promoter of our sorrows and persecutions.“In this conviction I grew to years of manhood, and still cherishing it I became old. I knew no difference between true and merely nominal Christianity; of the fountainhead of Christianity itself I knew nothing. Strangely enough it was the horrible Tisza Eslar blood accusation which first drew me to read the New Testament. This trial brought from their lurking places all our enemies, and once again, as in olden times, the cry re echoed, ‘Death to the Jew!' The frenzy was excessive, and among the ringleaders were many who used the name of Christ and His doctrine as a cloak to cover their abominable doings.“These wicked practices of men wearing the name of Christ only to further their evil designs aroused the indignation of some true Christians, who, with pen on fire and warning voices, denounced the lying rage of the anti Semites. In articles written by the latter in defense of the Jews, I often met with passages where Christ was spoken of as He Who brings joy to man, the Prince of peace, and the Redeemer; and His Gospel was extolled as a message of love and life to all people. I was surprised and scarcely trusted my eyes when I espied in a hidden corner the New Testament which some thirty years before I had in vexation taken from a Jewish teacher, and I began to turn over its leaves and read. How can I express the impression which I then received?“Not the half had been told me of the greatness, power and glory of this Book, formerly a sealed book to me. All seemed so new, and yet it did me good, like the sight of an old friend who has laid aside his dusty, travel worn garments, and appears in festive attire, like a bridegroom in wedding robes, or a bride adorned with her jewels.”For two or three years Rabbi Lichtenstein kept these convictions locked in his own breast. He began, however, in his synagogue to preach strange and new doctrines which both interested and astonished his hearers. At last he could contain himself no longer. Preaching one Saturday from Christ's parable of the whited sepulchre, he openly avowed that his subject was taken from the New Testament and spoke of Jesus as the true Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel. Ultimately he embodied his ideas in three Publications appearing in rapid succession which created a tremendous sensation among the Jews, not only in Hungary, but throughout the continent of Europe. And no wonder; for here was an old and respected Rabbi, still in office, calling upon his people in burning words to range themselves under the banner of the long despised Jesus of Nazareth, and to hail Him as their true Messiah and King.As was inevitable, no sooner did official Jewry realise the significance of Rabbi Lichtenstein's position and writings than a storm of persecution broke loose upon him. From the Jewish pulpit and in the Press anathemas were hurled at his head, and he who but a few weeks before was classed among the noblest leaders and teachers was now described as a disgrace and reproach to his nation, all because he dared pronounce the hated name of Jesus.The calumny was spread that he had sold himself to the missionaries. Some even asserted that he had never written the pamphlets himself, but had only been bribed to affix his name to them. He was cited to appear before the assembled rabbinate in Budapest. On entering the hall he was greeted with the cry, “Retract! Retract!”“Gentlemen,” said the Rabbi, “I shall most willingly retract if you convince me I am wrong.”Chief Rabbi Kohn proposed a compromise. Rabbi Lichtenstein might believe whatever he liked in his heart, if he would only refrain from preaching Christ. As to those dreadful pamphlets which he had already written, the mischief could be undone by a very simple process. The Synod of Rabbis would draw up a document to the effect that the Rabbi wrote what he did in a fit of temporary insanity and all that would be required of him would be to add his name to this statement. Rabbi Lichtenstein answered calmly but indignantly that this was a strange proposal to make to him seeing that he had only just come into his right mind. Then they demanded that he should resign his position and be formally baptized, but he replied that he had no intention of joining any church. He had found in the New Testament the true Judaism, and would remain as before with his congregation, and preach it in the synagogue.He did so, and this in spite of many persecutions and reproaches which were heaped upon him. From his official place as District Rabbi he continued to teach and to preach from the New Testament. This was a touching testimony to the strong attachment of his own community, which alone had the power to make request for his dismissal, Judaism being a State religion in Hungary. As a matter of fact much pressure was brought to bear upon them, and some members of the congregation and the relatives of his wife were completely ruined by loss of trade, but still they clung to him.By this time Rabbi Lichtenstein and his writings had become widely known, and different church and missionary organizations sought his services. The Papacy, too, soon learned of the existence and significance of the man, and a special emissary from the Pope visited Tapio Szele with tempting offers if he would but enter the service of Rome. To all he had but one reply: “I will remain among my own nation, I love Christ, I believe in the New Testament; but I am not drawn to join Christendom. Just as the prophet Jeremiah, after the destruction of Jerusalem, in spite of the generous offers of Nebuchadnezzar and the captain of his host, chose rather to remain and lament among the ruins of the holy city, and with the despised remnant of his brethren, so will I remain among my own brethren, as a watchman from within and to plead with them to behold in Jesus the true glory of Israel.” At last, however, after losing his all in the endeavour to save some of the members of his congregation from ruin, and with his health much impaired by the many trials and sorrows which fell to his lot in consequence of his bold stand for the truth, he voluntarily resigned his office as District Rabbi.He settled in Budapest, where he found ample scope for his talents, but the opposition to him was relentless. He was shadowed and even physically attacked on the street. His barber was bribed with 50 kronen to disfigure his beautiful beard. His landlord kept a close watch on everyone who visited him and reported to the rabbinical authorities. But as a stream stemmed in its course forces for itself new channels, so he was continually interviewed and drawn into discussion by Jews from every walk of life. “Wisdom cries without and causes her voice to be heard in the street,” he wrote to his friend, David Baron.“Doctors, professors and officials, as also educated ladies, come to my house. Many families of position also visit us who condemn the harsh conduct of the rabbinate here in relation to me. Many foreigners also visit me. I have often very grave, important discussions with Talmudists and Rabbis from a long distance, who wish to bring me to a compromise; and it is worthy to note that many who had formerly no knowledge of the New Testament and stared blankly and incredulously at me when I quoted its sublime doctrines, have afterwards begged to possess one.”For over twenty years it was given to Rabbi Lichtenstein to witness in many parts of the Continent to the truth as he saw it in Christ. At last the storms of controversy, of misunderstanding and antagonism, began to tell on him. His spirit, however, remained undaunted. About this time he wrote: “Dear Jewish brethren, I have been young, and now am old. I have attained the age of eighty years, which the Psalmist speaks of as the utmost period of human life on earth. When others of my age are reaping with joy the fruit of their labours, I am alone, almost forsaken, because I have lifted up my voice in warning, ‘O Israel, turn to the Lord thy God, for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. Take these words and turn thee to the Lord thy God.' ‘Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way.'”“I, an honoured Rabbi for the space of forty years, am now, in my old age, treated by my friends as one possessed by an evil spirit, and by my enemies as an outcast. I am become a butt of mockers who point the finger at me. But while I live I will stand on my watchtower, though I may stand there all alone. I will listen to the words of God, and look for the time when He will return to Zion in mercy, and Israel shall fill the world with his joyous cry, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'”Quite unexpectedly he was taken ill and lingered only a short while. As he realised that his end was approaching, in the presence of his wife and the nurse, he said:“Give my warmest thanks and greetings to my brethren and friends; goodnight, my children; goodnight, my enemies, you can injure me no more. We have one God and one Father of all who are called children in heaven and on earth, and one Christ who gave up His life on the cursed tree for the salvation of men. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”The day was dismal; it was eight o'clock in the morning of Friday, October 16, 1909, that the hoary Rabbi entered into the presence of his Lord.From:When Jews Face Christ. Copyright by Dr. Henry Einspruch.Reprinted by permission.Excerpts from letters by RABBI I. LICHTENSTEIN“By His divine providence I accidentally took in my hand a New Testament which for many long years I had left unnoticed in a corner. From every line, from every word, the Jewish spirit streamed forth: light, life, power, endurance, faith, hope, love, chastity; limitless, indestructible faith in God; kindness to prodigality; moderation to self denial; content to the exclusion of all sense of need; pity, gentleness, consideration for others, with extreme strictness as regards self; all these were to be found pervading the book. Every noble principle, every pure moral teaching, all patriarchal virtues with which Israel was adorned in its prime, and is still to some extent adorned as heir of the community of Jacob, I found in this Book of books refined and simplified, and that in it there is balsam for every pain of soul, comfort for every sorrow, healing for every moral hurt, renewal of faith, and resurrection to a new life well pleasing to God.”“I had thought the New Testament to be impure, a source of pride, of overweening selfishness, of hatred, of the worst kind of violence: but as I opened it, I felt myself peculiarly and wonderfully taken possession of. A sudden glory, a light, flashed through my soul. I looked for thorns, and I gathered roses; I discovered pearls instead of pebbles; instead of hatred, love; instead of vengeance, forgiveness; instead of bondage, freedom; instead of pride, humility; instead of enmity, conciliation; instead of death, life, salvation, resurrection, heavenly treasure.”The Jew has been sick for 2000 years; in vain has he sought healing and help of his physicians; in vain has he spent all his substance. By faith alone, and by contact with Jesus, by the power which goes forth from Jesus, can he find healing. l would point him to Jesus in His heavenly glory, in His divinity, exalted and great as eternity, as the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace.”“I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:7,8.) When the Council and the high priests at Jerusalem considered means to silence Peter and the Apostles, a Pharisee of the name of Gamaliel, greatly esteemed by all the people, stood up in the Council, and said: “Let these men alone, for if this council, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it.” (Acts 5:34-39.) The work was of God, for it has not perished in the course of time; the holy fire has neither been suppressed nor extinguished by the many storms which have raged against it, but it has kindled the more, and during eighteen centuries has shone even brighter and more clearly, filled with the most ennobling thoughts, and ever extending its dominion with the forward movements of the times.The Gospel has outrun Alexander, who stopped at the Indus; it has outrun Crassus, who stopped at the Euphrates; it has outrun Varus, who stopped at the Rhine; it has outrun every world conqueror, and will only come to a stop when it has reached Israel. The sun arises, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arises. The holy breath goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north, and returneth again to its circuit. (Eccles. 1:5,6.)Rabbi Lichtenstein went from being a well respected Rabbi to a despised and rejected figure among the Jewish community after God opened his eyes to see that Yeshua was indeed the promised Messiah, Redeemer and Holy One of Israel. Anathemas were hurled at him, and he who was but a few weeks before classed among the noblest leaders and teachers, was now described as a disgrace and reproach to his nation – all because he dared pronounce the hated name of Jesus. He left us with these encouraging words:“My troubles are great, but in Messiah I have no fear. ‘I am sitting under His shadow with great delight and I feel His fruit sweet unto my taste.' He is soothing every sorrow and filling the soul with ever increasing joy. The Jewish system is wholly external; its laws, rites and ceremonies do not touch the inner man, and do not reveal the heart of God. I never knew God until I knew Messiah. God to me was only a stern judge. Now in Messiah I know him as an unspeakably mercifully and infinitely loving Father. Through Messiah I throw off all care as a bird after a dip in the river shakes off the drops of water from its wings. My enemies have in mockery called me ‘a missionary,' and I have replied: ‘Yes, I am a missionary in the sense in which Abraham was a missionary; in the sense in which everyone is a missionary who seeks to lead men into and along the right way. If I strive to lead men into the Truth as it is in Yeshua, I am a missionary.' And so a Rabbi wrote to me lately: ‘You have shown us the ladder that leads up to heaven.' That is my mission. Surely we have ten thousand promises in the firmament of Scripture, bright as the stars on the brow of night, to kindle and sustain our hope that the Jews will soon come in great numbers to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the great and good Physician, and that they will touch the hem of his garment, and receive from Him all the healing, all the strength and all the joy that they need for their magnificent mission on earth and ministry in heaven.”“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awolinsky.substack.com

We sift through all the big announcements from Samsung's Unpacked Event. Plus Amazon agrees to invest in Diamond Sports, allowing them to provide access to Diamond's content via Prime Video. Research from Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence show a general reduction in the effectiveness of search engines.Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Huyen Tue Dao, Roger Chang, Joe.Link to the Show Notes. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/dtns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We sift through all the big announcements from Samsung's Unpacked Event. Plus Amazon agrees to invest in Diamond Sports, allowing them to provide access to Diamond's content via Prime Video. Research from Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence show a general reduction in the effectiveness of search engines. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Huyen Tue Dao, Roger Chang, Joe. To read the show notes in a separate page click here! Support the show on Patreon by becoming a supporter!

Last 27th October, Arqus participated in the Leipzig Science Festival Globe 2023 with a special live podcast episode of the “Arqus Knowledge Pills”: Bologna 2.0.? How European Higher Education Alliances are Changing Research and Studies? The Leipzig Science Festival Globe23 was aimed at finding answers to relevant questions, creating orientation and designing new questions. To this end, it created creative spaces for unusual encounters between research, art, civil society and politics. With young and old, the festival celebrated critical curiosity and scientific knowledge as well as cross-border dialogues on and about “Life in Transition”, the theme of this year's festival, at the Paulinum building of the Leipzig University and other venues in the city. In the framework of this festival, Arqus participated in the Globe Forum about transformation processes in the European Higher Education landscape with this special 1-hour podcast. The participants of this podcast are: Claudia Wendt, PhD student in the Research Training Group “Science Management and Science Communication (WiMaKo)” at the Institute for Higher Education Research. She is writing her doctoral thesis on the conditions for success in international university cooperation, using the example of the European University Alliances. Dr. Harvey Charles, Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Minnesota. In this role, he leads the Global Programs and Strategy Alliance and advances the University as a global leader in international teaching, research and outreach. Fernando Galán, Arqus Consortium Manager with more than 10 years of experience working on European Higher Education policies.

Data scientist, international policy advisor on economic growth, and social entrepreneur Belén Sánchez Hidalgo talks about her passion to bring diversity to AI. While working as a consultant at The World Bank, Belén became anxious about the potential risks of Artificial Intelligence and decided to do something about it. She left her career in public policy to become a data scientist at DataRobot. Here, she became inspired to educate women on AI development and created WaiCAMP, an initiative that closes the AI gender gap in Latin America through pragmatic education.  Originally from Ecuador, where she graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador with various financial degrees, Belén went on to study Enterprise Development at Leipzig University and obtain a Master in Public Administration from The Harvard Kennedy School.

Microscopic particles from degraded plastics like water bottles and bags can infiltrate any organism's bloodstream, disrupting metabolic functions and potentially compromising health In a pioneering study published in Nature Journal, researchers from Leipzig University, and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, unveiled the harmful effects of polyethylene terephthalate nanoplastics, on an organism's metabolism and development.  The study, conducted on zebrafish embryos, showed the presence of PET NPs in their internal organs, and illustrated how exposure to such particles, impacts their physiology.  The adverse outcomes of NPs on humans, remain uncertain but are under active scientific investigation.  https://todaysfocusofattention.com/new-study-exposes-the-impact-nanoplastics-have-on-metabolism/

Philosophy is one of the oldest academic disciplines, its origins dating back more than two thousand years. In the 15th episode of the series Arqus Knowledge Pills “Is philosophy relevant nowadays?”, Sebastian Rödl, Professor for Practical Philosophy at Leipzig University, talks about the relevance it still has today and why we should not look for its “usefulness”. Sebastian shares his experience working in this field, describing it as a rollercoaster ride between moments of pure joy as well as deep frustration. And he explains what it takes to study philosophy – the most important prerequisite being an unquenchable thirst for complete understanding.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments across the world to rethink (free) movement of peoples and things, and to revise mobility regimes in the face of new constraints. This is not a new phenomenon, argues Steffi Marung (University of Leipzig)  in this episode of the Transformative Podcast.  To a certain extent, each moment of major socio-economic or political transformation in the 20th century has been also characterised by a change in our understanding of, and attitudes towards, mobility. In conversation with Anna Calori (RECET), Dr. Marung reflects on how we can better understand historical transformations and caesuras by looking at mobilities.   Dr. Steffi Marung is director of the Global and European Studies Institute of Leipzig University. Currently, her research addresses socialist mobilities of activists and experts from Eastern Europe and the Global South during the 20th century, while she works on a book project investigating Soviet African Studies during the Cold War. Together with James Mark and Artemy Kalinovsky, she has co-authored and co-edited the volume Alternative Globalizations: Encounters between the Eastern Bloc and the Postcolonial World (Indiana University Press, 2020).

In this discussion, we start with his pioneering work on developing susceptibility contrast for imaging perfusion while at MGH, and then his pioneering work on developing Near Infrared Spectroscopy, and using this approach to help validate fMRI contrast and shed some light on it. After this we discuss a wide range of topics that his group has been working on - falling into the categories of either methods development or mind-body interactions. He has played a major role in many insightful studies that include those using simultaneous EEG and fMRI, and looking at neuromodulation, brain plasticity, subliminal stimulation and processing, and resting state fMRI. He has been perfectly positioned and extremely active over the years to not only add to cutting edge methods and understanding of the brain, but to carry these over into eventual clinical practice. Guest: Arno Villringer, M.D. is the Director of the Department of Neurology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. He is also the Director of the Department of Cognitive Neurology at Leipzig University Hospital, and Professor of Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig University. In addition he's Director of the MindBrainInstitute Berlin School of Mind and Brain. Arno received his MD in 1984 from Albert Ludwig University Freiburg in Germany and did a short but highly impactful fellowship at the MGH NMR Center in Boston. From 1986 to 1993, he was in Munich at the Ludwig Maximilian University department of Neurology. From 1993 to 2007 he was at Charité University Medicine in Berlin in the Department of Neurology, working up to Vice Chairman. Finally in 2007 he took on his primary role as Director of the Department of Neurology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig.

Videos : Experts try to calm the angry AI, w Elon Musk  Neil Oliver: ‘Don't be fooled into thinking this disaster movie is coming to an end' (11:25) The TRUTH about IVERMECTIN (13:00) Liz Question  Greater niacin intake linked with lower mortality risk among cancer patients during 15-year period First People's Hospital in China, November 21 2022.  A study reported  in BMC Cancer found that men and women with cancer who consumed a higher amount of niacin (vitamin B3) from food or supplements had a lower risk of dying from the disease during a 15-year follow-up period than patients with lower consumption.  Researchers analyzed data from 3,504 cancer patients who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) between 1999 and 2014.  Among participants whose niacin intake from food was among the top 25%, the adjusted risk of mortality from all causes was 27% lower, and the risk of dying from cancer was 49% lower during follow-up compared with participants whose intake was among the lowest 25%. Each 10 mg per day increase in dietary niacin was associated with an adjusted 11% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 19% reduction in the risk of cancer mortality.  Total daily niacin intake was 76.4 mg per day among participants who reported using niacin supplements compared to 21.4 mg per day among those who did not supplement. Cancer mortality was 52% lower among those who supplemented with niacin versus unsupplemented participants.  “Our study found that higher intake of dietary niacin was associated with lower risk of mortality from all-causes and cancer mortality,” Hongyan Ying Taizhou of First People's Hospital in China and colleagues concluded. “The consumption of niacin had a dose-effect relationship for all-cause mortality, but not for cancer mortality. This conclusion was verified by the data of supplemental niacin consumption.” Study: Antioxidant flavonols linked to slower memory decline Rush University Medical Center, November 22, 2022 People who eat or drink more foods with antioxidant flavonols, which are found in several fruits and vegetables as well as tea and wine, may have a slower rate of memory decline, according to a study published in Neurology. “It's exciting that our study shows making specific diet choices may lead to a slower rate of cognitive decline,” said study author Thomas M. Holland, MD, MS of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Something as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more tea is an easy way for people to take an active role in maintaining their brain health.” The study involved 961 people with an average age of 81 without dementia. They filled out a questionnaire each year on how often they ate certain foods. They also completed annual cognitive and memory tests including recalling lists of words, remembering numbers and putting them in the correct order. They were also asked about other factors, such as their level of education, how much time they spent doing physical activities and how much time they spent doing mentally engaging activities such as reading and playing games. They were followed for an average of seven years. The people were divided into five equal groups based on the amount of flavonols they had in their diet. While the average amount of flavonol intake in US adults is about 16 to 20 milligrams (mg) per day, the study population had an average dietary intake of total flavonols of approximately 10 mg per day. The lowest group had an intake of about 5 mg per day and the highest group consumed an average of 15 mg per day; which is equivalent to about one cup of dark leafy greens. After adjusting for other factors researchers found that the cognitive score of people who had the highest intake of flavonols declined at a rate of 0.4 units per decade more slowly than people whose had the lowest intake. Holland noted this is probably due to the inherent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of flavonols. The study also broke the flavonol class down into the four constituents: kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin and isorhamnetin. The top food contributors for each category were: kale, beans, tea, spinach and broccoli for kaempferol; tomatoes, kale, apples and tea for quercetin; tea, wine, kale, oranges and tomatoes for myricetin; and pears, olive oil, wine and tomato sauce for isorhamnetin. People who had the highest intake of kaempferol had a 0.4 units per decade slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those in the lowest group. Those with the highest intake of quercetin had a 0.2 units per decade slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those in the lowest group. And people with the highest intake of myricetin had a 0.3 units per decade slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those in the lowest group. Dietary isorhamnetin was not tied to global cognition. Examining how poor diet damages blood vessels Leipzig University & Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (Germany), November 21, 2022 A research team led by Bilal Sheikh from the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) and Leipzig University's Faculty of Medicine investigated how obesity impacts blood vessels' structure at a molecular level. The team's research, now published in Nature Metabolism, illustrates that metabolic disease affects blood vessels in different organs of our body in a unique way. For instance, blood vessels in the liver and fat tissue struggle to process the excess lipids, kidney vessels develop metabolic dysfunction, lung vessels become highly inflammatory, and transport across the brain vessels is defective.  “As vascular dysfunction drives all major pathologies, from heart failure to atherosclerosis and neurodegeneration, our research shows how bad eating habits molecularly promote the development of diverse diseases,” explains Dr. Olga Bondareva, the first author of the study. “We want to elucidate molecular mechanisms of obesity in order to be able to offer patients tailor-made therapies in the future,” adds HI-MAG director Professor Matthias Blüher. Blüher has been conducting research on morbid obesity at Leipzig University for years. The present study also involves scientists from Leipzig who work in the fields of cardiology and laboratory medicine. The researchers then asked whether a healthy diet could reduce the disease-causing molecular signatures induced by a bad diet. Their results show that a healthy diet can indeed improve the molecular health of blood vessels, albeit only partially. For instance, the blood vessels in the liver recovered nearly completely, but blood vessels in the kidneys retained the disease signature, despite a healthy diet and significant weight loss. This means that some of our blood vessels can develop a “memory” of metabolic disease, which is difficult to reverse. Lab mice fed processed food found to fare worse against flu than those eating grains University of Sydney & Shenzhen University School of Medicine (China), November 21, 2022 A team of researchers at the University of Sydney working with a colleague from Shenzhen University School of Medicine has found that lab mice are more likely to survive a flu infection if they are fed grain-based foods rather than processed food. The paper is published in Cell Reports. In recent years, medical researchers have reported evidence that diet plays a larger role in illness recovery than was thought. Some studies have shown, for example, that caloric density and the concentration of nutrients consumed while recovering from an infection can have a major impact on the severity of the infection. In this new effort, the researchers found evidence suggesting that other characteristics of food can also play a role in illness recovery, at least in mice. In this new effort, the researchers were studying how mammals such as mice fight off influenza infections. As part of that effort, they inadvertently fed two groups of lab mice slightly different meals that were thought to be equivalent in nutritional value and hence unlikely to have an impact on disease recovery. More specifically, they fed one group of mice a diet consisting mostly of grains. The other mice were fed a highly processed diet.  Both groups were subsequently infected with the influenza virus and were kept on the same diets they had prior to being infected. The researchers note that prior studies had shown that mice fed either diet when not battling an infection displayed little difference in health or behavior. But when infected with influenza, the researchers found that all of those fed the highly processed diet died. They also found that those fed the highly processed diet failed to regain weight lost due to the illness. In sharp contrast, all of the mice on the grain-based diet began regaining weight within 10 days of initial infection, and all of them recovered. The researchers note that the difference in survival was not due to differences in an immune response, but was instead due to recovery issues. They note that the mice on the highly processed food diet ate less than those given grains and wound up getting less nutrients.  Study: Olive Leaf Extract as Effective as Typical Diabetes Drugs University of Auckland  (New Zealand), November 17, 2022 Researchers from the University of Auckland have discovered that olive leaf extract has the ability to decrease insulin resistance and increase the production of insulin by the pancreas. This is one of the main problems that most diabetes patients suffer from – the lack of proper insulin balance in the body. To test olive leaf extract's effects on diabetes, the researchers conducted a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled clinical study dividing 46 overweight men into two groups. One of the groups received olive leaf extract, while the other group was given a placebo. The olive leaf extract was standardized to contain its active ingredients – oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol. After six weeks to allow the men's bodies to return to their ‘normal levels,' the groups were switched. The original placebo group then received the olive leaf extract, and vice versa.  None of the men knew which group they were in at which time. The researchers found that the olive leaf extract lowered insulin resistance by an average of 15% and increased the productivity of the pancreas' beta cells – which produce insulin – by 28%. The researchers concluded: “Supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols for 12 weeks significantly improved insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell secretory capacity in overweight middle-aged men at risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.” This research also showed that olive leaf could possibly effectively treat both Diabetes 1 and Diabetes type 2. In addition, the olive leaf extract would likely help individuals with type 2 Diabetes the most. Researchers also found that olive leaf extract may be just as effective as conventional drugs. They stated: “Hence, compared to these drugs that only improve insulin secretion, olive leaf extract improves both insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell secretory capacity. Remarkably, the observed effects of olive leaf extract supplementation in our study population is comparable to common diabetic therapeutics (particularly metformin)…” Common Painkillers Like Ibuprofen And Naproxen Can Make Arthritis Inflammation Even Worse University of California-San Francisco, November 20, 2022 Common painkillers can make the misery of osteoarthritis even worse, a new study warns. Ibuprofen, naproxen, and diclofenac are among the many drugs for relieving aching joints. However, researchers say they may aggravate inflammation of the knee over time. They belong to a class of medications known as NSAIDS, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The study, based on a review of over 1,000 patients, is one of the first to investigate their long-term effects. “NSAIDs are frequently used to treat pain, but it is still an open discussion of how NSAID use influences outcomes for osteoarthritis patients. In particular, the impact of NSAIDs on synovitis, or the inflammation of the membrane lining the joint, has never been analyzed using MRI-based structural biomarkers.” The team found no benefit in 277 patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis who also engaged in sustained NSAID use. In fact, joint inflammation and cartilage quality got worse over the next four years compared to a group of 793 controls who did not take the drugs. Dr. Luitjens and her colleagues looked at the link between NSAIDs and synovitis and assessed how the therapy impacted joint structure over time. “Synovitis mediates development and progression of osteoarthritis and may be a therapeutic target,” Dr. Luitjens continues. “Therefore, the goal of our study was to analyze whether NSAID treatment influences the development or progression of synovitis and to investigate whether cartilage imaging biomarkers, which reflect changes in osteoarthritis, are impacted by NSAID treatment.” “In this large group of participants, we were able to show that there were no protective mechanisms from NSAIDs in reducing inflammation or slowing down progression of osteoarthritis of the knee joint,” the study author reports. “The use of NSAIDs for their anti-inflammatory function has been frequently propagated in patients with osteoarthritis in recent years and should be revisited, since a positive impact on joint inflammation could not be demonstrated.”

On 24 February 2022 Russia turned its military actions against Ukraine which were going on in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine since 2014 into a full-blown, total war. The language of the international media to describe the conflict is unstable: first, a Russian invasion; then, “Russian-Ukrainian war”, then “Russia's war in Ukraine”, “Russia's war against Ukraine”, “Ukraine's war against Russia-backed forces” or a “fratricidal war”. In Russia itself, calling the war anything other than a mere “special operation” carries with it the risk of punishment with 10 years of prison colony. If there is a war, Russian officials say, it is with NATO and the US. How is Ukrainian identity represented on the streets of Europe, and what are the political functions of this representation? How do Ukrainians think about their past in the light of the present? In what sense have European states, especially Germany, reassessed their past alignments in Europe? And how have historians approached the subject of Ukrainian identity? In this episode we have two conversations on Russia's war against Ukraine. First we speak to the photographer and writer Evgeniya Belorusets. She is the co-founder of “Prostory”, a journal for literature, art and politics. Her works move at the intersection of art, literature, journalism and social activism, between document and fiction. In the current war, she has become, in her own words, the “hostage of her own war diary” as she remained in Kyiv throughout the Russian attack. Now she is just back from the Venice Biennale where she has worked with the Ukrainian pavilion. Our second conversation is with Stefan Troebst, a historian and a Slavicist until recently Professor of East European Cultural History at Leipzig University. He has published widely on the modern cultural, political and legal history of Eastern Europe - editor of a book series Visual Historical Cultures. He also worked as a German member for missions of long duration for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the former Yugoslavia and former USSR. We are grateful to Lviv-based band Okean Elzy for allowing us to use their single Obiymi (2003), remixed by Dima Zago from Kramatorsk. Hosts: Dina Gusejnova, Georgios Giannakopoulos Editorial and production assistants: Thomas Walsh, Clara Castello, Louis Wong, Zaid Salam

In the final installment of our four-episode bonus series, we head to Germany to get a glimpse of America's demographic future. Germany is now one of a small number of “super-aged” societies in which more than 20% of the population is 65 and older, but many other countries, including the US, are expected to join the ranks of the super-aged by the end of this decade. Many years ago, Germany recognized the coming “demographic time bomb” and its implications for its labor force. Over the last quarter century, both the national government and many companies, such as BMW, have retooled to better support a more age diverse workforce. To find out more about Germany's efforts to support older workers, we spoke with Ulrich Walwei, vice director of Germany's Institute for Employment Research, and with Hannes Zacher, chair for work and organizational psychology at Leipzig University. Together, they lay out a road map for how the United States might better address its increasing problems with losing older, experienced workers from the workforce.

Today, we are talking about doing your Postdoc and everything around it with Dr. Torsten John who is interviewed by our German delegate and Science Team Leader Sebastian Balser. Dr. Torsten John, has finished his PhD in 2020 with summa cum laude at Leipzig University in Germany and is currently doing a Postdoc at MIT as a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow sponsored by the Humboldt Foundation. Besides his research achievements, Dr. John has also been a board member of the German, European, and now International Younger Chemists Network. In this interview, he shares his insights into the planning, application, and financing of a Postdoc position in academia.

About Dr. Simone Prömel Simone Prömel is currently a professor of cell biology at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Being a biochemist by training, she completed her Ph.D. at the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, UK. During this time, she discovered her love for Adhesion GPCRs and started delineating the molecular mechanisms of the Adhesion GPCR Latrophilin-1. These extraordinary receptors, about which there was not much known other than that they are huge and somehow play important roles in health and disease, fascinated her so much that she continued working on them when she started her own lab at Leipzig University. There she focused on the different modes of action of Adhesion GPCRs and found that they do not only mediate classical G protein signals into cells but can also communicate solely via their N termini. Today, she and her team are working on the questions of how Adhesion GPCRs integrate the different signals on a molecular level and how these are translated into physiological functions in various model organisms. Together with Ines Liebscher, Simone is leading an EU-funded COST Network on Adhesion GPCRs: CA18240 Adher´n Rise. About Dr. Ines Liebscher Dr. Liebscher is a Professor at the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty of the Leipzig University. During her medical studies in Leipzig, she had her first encounter with an orphan GPCR as the subject of her MD thesis. Being faced with the vast unknown biochemical and pharmacological territory that would be helpful to study orphan receptors she enrolled in the MD/Ph.D. program of Leipzig University. Her postdoctoral work leads her to investigate a whole family of orphan receptors: adhesion GPCRs. With the little knowledge on these receptors available, there were multiple questions to tackle. Starting with proving and characterizing G-protein coupling, Ines spends several years studying the activation mechanism of adhesion GPCRs. In collaboration with great fellow adhesion GPCR scientists around the globe she established a tethered agonist -extracellular matrix- mechano-activation- activation scenario that forms the basis for her current projects that focus on the structural and physiological implications of these findings. Together with Simone Prömel, Ines is leading a COST Network on adhesion GPCRs: CA18240 Adher'nRise. ------------------------------------------- Imagine a world in which the vast majority of us are healthy. The #DrGPCR Ecosystem is all about dynamic interactions between us who are working towards exploiting the druggability of #GPCR's. We aspire to provide opportunities to connect, share, form trusting partnerships, grow, and thrive together. To build our #GPCR Ecosystem, we created various enabling outlets. For more details, visit our website http://www.DrGPCR.com/Ecosystem/. Are you a #GPCR professional? - Register to become a Virtual Cafe speaker http://www.drgpcr.com/virtual-cafe/ - Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter http://www.drgpcr.com/newsletter/ - Listen and subscribe to #DrGPCR Podcasts http://www.drgpcr.com/podcast/ - Support #DrGPCR Ecosystem with your Donation. http://www.drgpcr.com/sponsors/ - Reserve your spots for the next #DrGPCR Virtual Cafe http://www.drgpcr.com/virtual-cafe/ - Watch recorded #DRGPCR Virtual Cafe presentations: https://www.yo

In Episode 12, Mike talks to Vanessa Shannon, Director of Mental Performance for the University of Louisville Athletic Department and Norton Sports Health since October 2015.Prior to moving to Louisville, Dr. Shannon spent two years at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. While at IMG, Dr. Shannon served as the Mental Conditioning Coach for the Girls' Soccer and Basketball programs, coordinated Psychological Test Preparation for IMG's NFL Combine Training Program, and served as a Vision Training Coach for the Academy's Major League Baseball Off-Season Training Program. While at IMG, Dr. Shannon also served as the Mental Conditioning Coach for the University of Louisville Women's Lacrosse and Women's Soccer Programs.Dr. Shannon has been invited to speak at camps, clinics, classrooms, and conferences both nationally and internationally. In the Spring and Summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, Dr. Shannon traveled to Lund and Halmstad Universities in Sweden, Leipzig University in Germany, and Aarhus University in Denmark, where she taught lectures and short courses on the psychology of injury, team dynamics, and careers transitions in sport as part of the European Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology Erasmus Mundus Programme International Scholar Initiative. Dr. Shannon holds a PhD in Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies with a specialization in Sport Psychology and concentration in Counseling from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a MS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Psychology from Kansas State University and BAs in Health and Human Performance and Psychology from Rice University. While at Rice University, Dr. Shannon was a member of the Women's Volleyball team.In this episode, Vanessa discusses her experiences as a mental performance coach at one of the most successful Division I athletic programs in the United States. Perhaps most interesting is the shift Vanessa has seen in student-athletes' willingness to ask for help with respect to mental health and training.Schedule a free 30-minute strategy session to learn more about how The Freshman Foundation can help your family nail the transition from HS to college athletics: https://calendly.com/michaelvhuber/the-freshman-foundation-exploratory-discussionThank you again for listening!

Episode 129: Apologies for some technical glitches; they go away after awhile. In this episode, David talks with Ajay and Sebastian about Rethinking Markets in Modern India (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108762533), a book they co-edited with two other academics. In this conversation, David learned that the most important element for rethinking is the role of social norms, relations and embeddedness in markets that are rarely 100% transaction oriented. Ajay Gandhi is an anthropologist and assistant professor in the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University. From 2011 to 2017, he was a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen. He has conducted research primarily in urban India, and has published articles and book chapters on migration, materiality, space, the state, and transactional forms. Sebastian Schwecke (https://mwsibo.hypotheses.org/people-new/dr-sebastian-schwecke) received his Ph.D. from Leipzig University in 2010 in political science with a study on the political economy of Hindu nationalist and Islamist movements. Before joining Max Weber Foundation (where he's now the head of the India branch office), he was an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. His main interests relate to the study of markets and exchange, credit/debt and speculation, extra-legality, uncertainty, trust, hope, calculability, and reputation as well as labour and skill. Moneylending article https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/business/india-lending-apps.html David's review or Era of Darkness https://one-handed-economist.com/?p=516

This episode of SPS is a new members edition, featuring new members of the Platypus Affiliated Society in the United States, Germany and Denmark. In the first segment, Sophia and Pamela ring up Carson Wright, a new member at the Oregon State University chapter. We chat about Planet of the Humans, a new documentary produced by Michael Moore, which takes a harsh look at green technology and the pitfalls of the environmental left. We reflect on the technocratic impulses of the climate left today and discuss Carson’s recent interview with the environmental activist Derrick Jensen, published in the April issue of the Platypus Review. In the second segment, Sophia and Pamela chat with new members in Platypus chapters around the globe to ask them about their encounters with the Left before Platypus, their experience as new members and their thoughts on hosting the conversation on the left. This segment features Lisa Müller at Leipzig University in Germany; Rana Ürek at Columbia University in New York; Osiris Crutchfield at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Francisco Sánchez Acosta at Aarhus University in Denmark. If you want to learn more about Platypus, and get involved, read the Platypus review or join the American Revolution lectures online, visit us on Facebook under the Platypus Affiliated Society or visit www.platypus1917.org. If you like the podcast, share it, rate it, and write us a review! (1) Platypus meme https://twitter.com/suavememestash/status/1262561790392664064/photo/1 (2) “The Left has never been against civilization”: An interview with Derrick Jensen, by Carson Wright and Andony Melathopoulos, for the Platypus Review #125 (April 2020) https://platypus1917.org/2020/04/02/the-left-has-never-been-against-civilization-an-interview-with-derrick-jensen/ (3)"What is Capitalism and Why Should We be Against It?" a panel hosted by the Aarhus chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society on May 9th, 2020. Recording: https://youtu.be/UsQ1DqmyoqQ Hosted by Pamela C., Sophia F., with editing assistance by Michael W.

Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist specializing in writing about China’s long-term social issues, such as the country’s search for faith and values, as well as its political and religious challenges. In this episode, Mr. Johnson explains the complexity of Chinese religion and how it is often misunderstood by Westerners, the nuanced relationship between religion and the Chinese government, the ills of the current state of journalism and its implication on the coverage of China, his take on the refugee crisis in Europe, as well as his prescription for creating a more-unified society with meaningful values in the future . Mr. Johnson is a regular contributor of articles and commentary to The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and speaks in the media or to public audiences about China. He also teaches undergraduate courses on Chinese society and is pursuing a doctorate in Sinology at Leipzig University. His two books The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao and Islam in Europe are major focal topics in this episode. Johnson has also spent a significant amount of time working in Germany. He attended graduate school in West Berlin from 1988 to 1992 and worked as a free-lance writer at the same time, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification for Baltimore's The Sun, The St. Petersburg Times, and The Toronto Star. He worked as The Wall Street Journal’s Germany bureau chief and senior writer from 2001 to 2009, leading coverage on European macro-economics and societal issues. He is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on China, Stanford University's Shorenstein prize for his body of work on Asia, a grant from the Open Society Foundation, and a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University. In the past year, he was also the recipient of the American Academy of Religion's "best in-depth news writing on religion" award for writing on religion.

Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn't been a comprehensive survey of earthworm diversity or population size. This week in Science, Helen Philips, a postdoctoral fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, and colleagues published the results of their worldwide earthworm study, composed of data sets from many worm researchers around the globe. Host Sarah Crespi gets the lowdown from Philips on earthworm myths, collaborating with worm researchers, and links between worm populations and climate. Read a related commentary here.  Sarah also talks with Ziad Obermeyer, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, about dissecting out bias in an algorithm used by health care systems in the United States to recommend patients for additional health services. With unusual access to a proprietary algorithm, inputs, and outputs, Obermeyer and his colleagues found that the low amount of health care dollars spent on black patients in the past caused the algorithm to underestimate their risk for poor health in the future. Obermeyer and Sarah discuss how this happened and remedies that are already in progress. Read a related commentary here.  Finally, in the monthly books segment, books host Kiki Sanford interviews author Alice Gorman about her book Dr. Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future. Listen to more book segments on the Science books blog: Books, et al. This week's episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week's show: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quanmen; MEL Science Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Public domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of earthworm diversity or population size. This week in Science, Helen Philips, a postdoctoral fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, and colleagues published the results of their worldwide earthworm study, composed of data sets from many worm researchers around the globe. Host Sarah Crespi gets the lowdown from Philips on earthworm myths, collaborating with worm researchers, and links between worm populations and climate. Read a related commentary here.  Sarah also talks with Ziad Obermeyer, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, about dissecting out bias in an algorithm used by health care systems in the United States to recommend patients for additional health services. With unusual access to a proprietary algorithm, inputs, and outputs, Obermeyer and his colleagues found that the low amount of health care dollars spent on black patients in the past caused the algorithm to underestimate their risk for poor health in the future. Obermeyer and Sarah discuss how this happened and remedies that are already in progress. Read a related commentary here.  Finally, in the monthly books segment, books host Kiki Sanford interviews author Alice Gorman about her book Dr. Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future. Listen to more book segments on the Science books blog: Books, et al. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quanmen; MEL Science Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Public domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

President delivers keynote address at Leipzig University by Áras an Uachtaráin

When Descartes famously concluded “I think, therefore I am”, he took for granted his ability to use the first person pronoun to refer to himself. But how do we come to have this capacity for self-conscious thought? We aren't born with it, and while we may not be the only creatures that can think thoughts about ourselves, this ability does not seem to be very widespread. For starters, to be able to think of oneself, it seems one must first possess a concept of the self of what the “I” refers to. In Thinking About Oneself: From Nonconceptual Content to the Concept of a Self (MIT Press, 2015), Kristina Musholt provides a naturalistic account of how self-conscious thought develops: how we move from possessing implicitly self-referential information to having explicit self-representation. Musholt, who is professor of cognitive anthropology at Leipzig University, argues that this is a multistage process driven by social interaction and the recognition of other beings' perspectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

When Descartes famously concluded “I think, therefore I am”, he took for granted his ability to use the first person pronoun to refer to himself. But how do we come to have this capacity for self-conscious thought? We aren’t born with it, and while we may not be the only creatures that can think thoughts about ourselves, this ability does not seem to be very widespread. For starters, to be able to think of oneself, it seems one must first possess a concept of the self of what the “I” refers to. In Thinking About Oneself: From Nonconceptual Content to the Concept of a Self (MIT Press, 2015), Kristina Musholt provides a naturalistic account of how self-conscious thought develops: how we move from possessing implicitly self-referential information to having explicit self-representation. Musholt, who is professor of cognitive anthropology at Leipzig University, argues that this is a multistage process driven by social interaction and the recognition of other beings’ perspectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Descartes famously concluded “I think, therefore I am”, he took for granted his ability to use the first person pronoun to refer to himself. But how do we come to have this capacity for self-conscious thought? We aren’t born with it, and while we may not be the only creatures that can think thoughts about ourselves, this ability does not seem to be very widespread. For starters, to be able to think of oneself, it seems one must first possess a concept of the self of what the “I” refers to. In Thinking About Oneself: From Nonconceptual Content to the Concept of a Self (MIT Press, 2015), Kristina Musholt provides a naturalistic account of how self-conscious thought develops: how we move from possessing implicitly self-referential information to having explicit self-representation. Musholt, who is professor of cognitive anthropology at Leipzig University, argues that this is a multistage process driven by social interaction and the recognition of other beings’ perspectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Descartes famously concluded “I think, therefore I am”, he took for granted his ability to use the first person pronoun to refer to himself. But how do we come to have this capacity for self-conscious thought? We aren’t born with it, and while we may not be the only creatures that can think thoughts about ourselves, this ability does not seem to be very widespread. For starters, to be able to think of oneself, it seems one must first possess a concept of the self of what the “I” refers to. In Thinking About Oneself: From Nonconceptual Content to the Concept of a Self (MIT Press, 2015), Kristina Musholt provides a naturalistic account of how self-conscious thought develops: how we move from possessing implicitly self-referential information to having explicit self-representation. Musholt, who is professor of cognitive anthropology at Leipzig University, argues that this is a multistage process driven by social interaction and the recognition of other beings’ perspectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Structuralism: (1st school of thought is psychology) an approach that emphasized breaking down consciousness and mental activity into structural components and analyzing them individually. Psychology was founded in 1879, when the first laboratory was established by WILHELM WUNDT at Leipzig University, in Leipzig Germany; some early psychologist who followed, including WILLIAM JAMES (the founder of modern psychology), were chiefly interested in studying human functioning via introspection.