Podcasts of the Week Ending March 20

It’s been hard to keep up with my podcast listening with my normal routine disrupted and working at home with kids I can’t tune out the way I do my co-workers.  Podcasts have actually been a good source of news on the pandemic, imo, because they’re discrete, thoughtful packages of news on current events as opposed to the deadly trickle of fear and unknowing on tv.

Anyhow, here are some other things worth listening to this week:

Fresh Air :: The Case For Abolishing The Electoral College

A historical look at how the US elects the President, why states have chosen a winner-takes-all model, and why it’s logical to reform the election to represent the popular vote.

Science Talk :: David Quammen: How Animal Infections Spill Over to Humans

An interview from 2012 about how infectious disease jumps from other animal species to humans and how that makes it difficult to eliminate those diseases.  Lots of fascinating facts including the first transmission of HIV from chimpanzee to human in Cameroon way back in 1908!

Smithsonian Sidedoor :: The Last Man to Know It All

Prussian scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt had a huge influence on how Americans relate to their natural environment and inspired the origin of National Parks.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Appearances in 2020

• Anthropocene Reviewed – 2
• Afropop Worldwide – 1
• BackStory – 2
• Best of the Left – 2
• Decoder Ring – 1
• Fresh Air – 3
• Futility Closet – 2
• Have You Heard – 1
• Hidden Brain – 2
• Hit Parade – 1
• Hub History – 1
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Memory Palace – 1
• More Than Enough – 4
• 99% Invisible – 1
• 60-Second Science – 1
• Radio Boston – 1
• Risk! – 1
• Science Talk – 2
• Smithsonian Sidedoor – 1
• This American Life – 1
• Throughline – 4
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 2
• Wedway Radio – 1
• What Next – 2

Classic Movie Review: Ikiru (1952)

Title: Ikiru
Release Date: October 9, 1952
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Production Company: Toho
Summary/Review:

Ikiru (Japanese for “To Live”) is the story of career civil servant Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) who works 30 years without missing a day.  He’s shaken by the diagnosis that he has stomach cancer and less than a year to live.  As a widower who is alienated from his son (Nobuo Kaneko) and daughter-in-law (Kyoko Seki), he finds himself with no one to talk about his impending death.

First, he decides on a night of hedonism with a young novelist (Yūnosuke Itō) he meets at a bar. Finding that life is not for him, he is next drawn to a young former employee, Toyo (Miki Odagiri), hoping to learn the secret of her joie de vivre. Finally, Watanabe decides he must do something significant as his legacy. Through the movie, parents from a poor neighborhood have been shuffled through the bureaucracy as they hope to have a cesspool filled and build a playground upon it. Watanabe makes it his goal in life to guide them through the bureaucracy and see the playground to its completion.

The second part of the film is five months later at Watanabe’s funeral.  City officials and Watanabe’s co-workers reflect on his life while arrogantly denying him any agency in building the playground.  Later when it’s just his co-workers and family, more stories and flashbacks reveal the truth. The men commit themselves to living more meaningful lives in honor of Watanabe, but in the final scene are shown being unable to live up to that promise.

This movie is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking with outstanding acting and cinematography. The other Akira Kurosawa films I’ve watched are period pieces, but Ikiru demonstrates he was just as good, even better, at telling a contemporary story.  It’s definitely a movie I’d highly recommend that anyone should watch.

Rating: *****