Roundup: Audio/Video History

This page lists Internet media clips that cover breaking news and feature stories, reviews and interviews about historians and historical topics, and current events in need of an historical perspective -- especially those not found in the mainstream media -- but not available as podcasts or RSS feeds.

Click here to listen to HNN's own podcasts and to see our list of prominent podcasts about history and historians.


Monday, February 8, 2010

Harlem vs. Columbia University [video 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 39 seconds]

Source: C-Span (11-16-09)

Stefan Bradley, history and African American studies professor at Saint Louis University, recalls the efforts by African-American students and the residents of Harlem to stop Columbia University from building a private gymnasium and expanding the University's footprint in 1968-69. Mr. Bradley focuses on the residents of Harlem's protest and the radicalization of portions of Columbia's student body, including the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) led by Mark Rudd and the SAS (Students' Afro American Society). Stefan Bradley discusses his book at the Brecht Forum in New York City.

Posted on Monday, February 8, 2010 at 2:19 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Kwatsi Alibaruho, First Black NASA Flight Director [audio 5 minutes 5 seconds]

Source: NPR (11-16-06)

Ed Gordon talks with Kwatsi Alibaruho, the first African American to lead NASA's Mission Control as a flight director for the International Space Station.

Posted on Monday, February 8, 2010 at 2:03 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Martin Kramer on Radical Islam and Superfluous Young Men [video 6 minutes 3 seconds]

Source: Sandbox Blog (2-7-10)

You get six minutes at the Herzliya Conference to say something memorable (and there is a clock ticking away at your feet, facing the audience). So I made a memorable argument for the role of population growth in radicalization, a clip of which is embedded below. It's memorable—but not at all original. I first encountered the idea in the stimulating work of Gunnar Heinsohn (here is one example of many).

There is also one error in my popularized recycling of his thesis. Heinsohn's rule of thumb is that when 30 percent or more of the total male population is between 15-29 (fighting age), violence ensues. In my talk, I added that I would put it higher, at 40 percent. But that 40 percent should be of the total adult male population (15-64). I doubt that in any of the countries of the region, the 15-29 range accounts for 40 percent of total male population. Heinsohn is right....

Posted on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2:00 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Friday, February 5, 2010

Zheng He Ranks Among the World's Greatest Seafarers [video 22 minutes 22 seconds]

Source: BBC (2-5-10)

Nearly a century before European explorers started out, he was commanding great fleets of huge ships

The ships groaned with valuable cargo and travelled epic distances, from China to the coast of Africa.

China has been through periods of overlooking Zheng He. But since the 1980s, he has had a revival in the People's Republic.

Nick Baker finds out more about the man who was a eunuch, a Muslim, possibly a giant, and one of the world's most important historic naval figures.

Posted on Friday, February 5, 2010 at 12:06 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Monday, January 25, 2010

Archeologist Zahi Hawass Unlocks the Secrets of Egypt [video 28 minutes 43 seconds]

Source: FORA.tv (12-12-08)

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass discusses his work using "science to reconstruct history" in uncovering the mysteries of the pyramids, identifying mummies, and excavating the Valley of the Kings.

Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | Top

The Steam-Powered, Coal-Fired Vibrator [video 6 minutes 59 seconds]

Source: Big Think (1-4-10)

The “Technology of Orgasm” author recounts the outrageous history of female genital “manipulators,” from water-powered turbines to the contraption called the Chattanooga.

Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | Top

“Unaccommodated Man” in Vietnam [video 4 minutes 51 seconds]

Source: Big Think (12-29-09)

Robert Stone’s experience as a war correspondent is forever linked in his mind with a haunting passage from “King Lear.”

Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:16 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Oral Histories: Wisconsin Holocaust Survivors [24 Audio clips]

Source: Wisconsin Historical Society (1-1-10)

Each oral history presents a vivid eyewitness account of an odyssey through the Holocaust of World War II. Roll your cursor over a photo or name to see a brief biography. Click on a photo or name to access the full biography, transcript, audio recordings and pictures.

Posted on Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 9:05 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Sunday, December 20, 2009

A gold elixir of youth in the 16th century French court [video 12 minutes]

Source: BMJ (12-31-09)

Miracle beauty products may be a staple Christmas present today, but they're not a recent invention. Diane de Poitiers, a French noble woman and mistress of Henry II of France, tried to use gold to preserve her looks - in alchemical law, gold was immutable, and alchemists and apothecaries created various potions to pass this gift onto their customers.

For Christmas, the BMJ has made a video about a French research team's investigations of Diane's remains, and its discovery that the gold she used to preserve her youth was actually slowly poisoning her.

Posted on Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 7:50 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Friday, December 18, 2009

Holidays at War: Recollections from the Front (Canada) [audio 7 clips]

Source: The Memory Project (12-31-69)

Between 1939 and 1945, more than 1 million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served either on the home front or overseas, fighting for king and country. During that time, most would spend the holidays on the frontlines of war rather than at home with their families. Today seven veterans share their recollections of the holidays during the Second World War.

Posted on Friday, December 18, 2009 at 8:20 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Saturday, December 12, 2009

You Know You're Sick [audio 6 minutes 30 seconds]

Source: The Memory Palace (11-9-09)

The placebo effect can be effective even with crazy remedies like surgery to place goat testicles in male subjects to cure impotence. This is not a medieval remedy, but one from the history of the United States of America in the 20th Century. John Romulus Brinkley not only specialized in this operation, but reached every day Americans with his radio station giving medical "advice".

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Against the Grain: Frida Kahlo [audio 48 minutes 19 seconds combined]

Source: Talking History (12-3-09)

From Against the Grain we bring you a discussion of the life and work of Frida Kahlo -- one that focuses on "what has become of the Mexican artist's radical politics? Art historian Margaret A. Lindauer argues that Kahlo's artistic legacy has been done a disservice by those who would read the painter's works off her personal life, instead of looking at the complex intellectual and political processes that created them." Margaret A. Lindauer is the author of Devouring Frida: The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo (Wesleyan U. Press, 1999). For more information on Kahlo (and links to other sites as well) see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo.

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | Top

In Germany, 'National Guilt' Stirs Against Afghan War [video 7 minutes 48 seconds]

Source: PBS - NewsHour (12-11-09)

Germany has the third largest contingent of forces in Afghanistan, yet among a population still haunted by World War II a deep-rooted anti-war sentiment persists. Margaret Warner reports.

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | Top

A 19th-Century Mathematician Finally Proves Himself [audio 5 minutes 59 seconds]

Source: NPR - Morning Edition (12-10-09)

Charles Babbage, the man whom many consider to be the father of modern computing, never got to complete any of his life's work. The Victorian gentleman was a brilliant mathematician, but he wasn't very good at politics and fundraising, so he never got the financial backing to finish any of his elaborate machine designs. For decades, even his fans weren't certain whether his computing machines would have worked.

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Celebrating 350 Years Of Notable Scientific Papers [audio 5 minutes 33 seconds]

Source: NPR - All Things Considered (12-6-09)

To celebrate its 350th birthday, the Royal Society of London selected 60 of the most notable scientific papers it's published over the past four centuries. And it's posting them online — with images of the original manuscripts. These are many of the biggest names in scientific history — Isaac Newton to Ben Franklin to Stephen Hawking. Host Guy Raz reviews a few of them with Michael Thompson, the man in charge of choosing from the society's 60,000-paper collection.

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | Top

From Dickens Himself, Notes On 'A Christmas Carol' [audio 3 minutes 19 seconds]

Source: NPR - All Things Considered (12-4-09)

Tis the season — every year at this time — for the various renderings of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This year, the current animated version in the cinema — starring a computer-generated Jim Carrey in multiple roles — has won some plaudits for sticking with the spirit of the Dickens original.

So it might come as some surprise to learn that when Dickens himself performed A Christmas Carol, he didn't do it as it's written. And during this holiday season, you can see the proof.

Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Naughty & Nice: A History of The Holiday Season [podcast 54 minutes 56 seconds]

Source: BackStory with the American History Guys (12-6-09)

Christmas may be the big kahuna of American holy days, but it wasn’t always so. It used to be a time of drunken rowdiness, when the poor would demand food and money from the rich. The Puritans banned Christmas altogether. It wasn’t until the 1820s that the holiday was re-invented as the peaceful, family-oriented, and consumeristic ritual we celebrate today.

In this episode, the History Guys examine the history of the “holiday season” in America. Has Christmas grown more or less religious? How has the holiday evolved and changed here? To what extent was Hanukkah a reaction to Christmas, and how have American Jews shaped and reshaped their own wintertime rituals?

Posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Pearl Harbor Attack Remembered (”The Back Door to War Theory”) [video 8 minutes, 45 seconds]

Source: Britannica Blog (12-7-09)

Today is Pearl Harbor Day in the United States, when the country remembers the surprise Japanese attack on this day in 1941 that temporarily crippled the U.S. Fleet and resulted in the United States’ entry into World War II. The video below describes the events of that momentous day.

But was there a “back door to war,” as revisionist historians have long claimed?

According to this view, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, inhibited by the American public’s opposition to direct U.S. involvement in the fighting and determined to save Great Britain from a Nazi victory in Europe, manipulated events in the Pacific in order to provoke a Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, thereby forcing the United States to enter the war on the side of Britain. Click here for details.

Posted on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 1:01 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Niall Ferguson moderated conversation with Kissinger [video 50 minutes, 21 seconds]

Source: C-Span (10-8-09)

The International Republican Institute honors former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with its 2009 Freedom Award at an awards dinner for his contribution to the security and progress of the United States. IRI Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) presented the award to Sec. Kissinger, followed by a conversation with Kissinger moderated by Niall Ferguson.

Posted on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 2:08 PM | Comments (0) | Top

Henry Kissinger On The President's Afghanistan Speech [video]

Source: The New Nixon (12-2-09)

Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser and Secretary of State evaluates President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy.

Posted on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 1:58 PM | Comments (0) | Top


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