Tag: culture

Listened to S1 E5: A Level Playing Field? (Contested, Part 5 of 6) by John Biewen from Scene on Radio

Two families, both making big investments of time and money to involve their kids in sports. But the investments they’re able to make are very different. In Part 5 of “Contested,” our series on sports, society and culture: Sports and the American Dream.

Composite Photo: Thomas Schmidt, left, video still by Ian McClerin, and Jalani (“JT”) Taylor, video still by Hannah Colton.

This is an awesome and eye-opening episode. The misconceptions about sports as a “way out” are apparently even worse than I thought they were. The statistics about becoming an elite physician being better than being a pro athlete are just stunning. The availability heuristic we’re given with relation to sports constantly on television and in the media is apparently heavily hampering a lot of people specifically and society at large.

Very few people really make any money through sports. Less than 5,000 men and women all-in make a living by doing it.

There are more black cardiologists in the US than there are black men in the NBA. The odds of getting an elite job by going to medical school are infinitely better than trying to get into professional sports.

Listened to S1 E4: An Athlete Inside and Out (Contested, Part 4 of 6) by John Biewen from Scene on Radio

Tal Ben-Artzi didn’t worry about being an out bisexual athlete at Penn State. Maybe she would have if she’d known the school’s history. How much have times changed? In Part 4 of “Contested,” our series on sports, society and culture: stories of LGBTQ women athletes, past and present.

Photo: Tal Ben-Artzi practicing the shot put at Penn State University, March 2015. Photo by John Biewen.

Listened to The three C's of historical economic growth by Candace Manriquez Wrenn and David Brancaccio from Marketplace

The economic boom of the 19th century cannot be attributed to capitalism alone, according to Professor Homa Zarghamee.

This interview is part of our “Econ Extra Credit” project, where we read an introductory economics textbook provided by the nonprofit Core Econ together with our listeners.

For most of human history, the standard of living remained flat, not changing much from year to year, even century to century. Until the Industrial Revolution, that is, when the world population and standards of living skyrocketed.

Listened to The (High School) Mascot Wars (Contested, Part 3 of 6) by John Biewen from Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

Two small towns, one in Idaho, the other in Upstate New York, try to decide whether to change the nickname of their high school sports teams: The Redskins. Photo: Emblem in the main foyer at Teton High school in Driggs, Idaho. Photo by John Biewen.

Listened to Friends and Basketball (Contested, Part 2 of 6) by John Biewen from Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

More from suburban St. Louis, post-Ferguson, on the popular notion that sports unites communities. Can the camaraderie of a team sport make race and class status “disappear” for the kids involved or their parents? Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen hangs with a girls’ high school basketball team to test the idea. Photo: Pattonville High School basketball players

Listened to Sports, the Great Uniter? (Contested, Part 1 of 6) by John Biewen from Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

Can a winning baseball team bring St. Louis together post-Ferguson? John Biewen investigates in the inaugural episode of Scene On Radio, a new podcast of audio stories from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Not the sports series I sort of expected this to be after the Men series and the Seeing White series. But now that I’ve started it, it’s exactly the sort of story I should have expected from John Biewen.
Read 'American Dirt' was supposed to be a publishing triumph. What went wrong? by Daniel Hernandez (Los Angeles Times)
Celebrities endorsed 'American Dirt' — then the reactions on Twitter turned negative. Cries of appropriation — and barb-wire dinner pieces — spark scorn for book
Certainly an interesting controversy to watch. This is also uncovering a lot of fluff promotional material by people who are endorsing books without having read or even vaguely vetted them. The upshot seems to be never to trust blurbs or reviews by famous people.
Read Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas Sunday morning ... TMZ Sports has confirmed. (TMZ)
Kobe was traveling with at least 3 other people in his private helicopter when it went down. A fire broke out. Emergency personnel responded, but nobody on board survived. 5 people are confirmed dead. We're told Vanessa Bryant was not among those on board.
Read Grand Guignol (Wikipedia)
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (French pronunciation: ​[ɡʁɑ̃ ɡiɲɔl]: "The Theatre of the Great Puppet") – known as the Grand Guignol – was a theatre in the Pigalle district of Paris (at 20 bis, rue Chaptal [fr]). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialised in naturalistic horror shows. Its name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment, a genre popular from Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre (for instance Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil), to today's splatter films.

Audiences had strong reactions to the new disturbing themes the horror plays presented. One of the most prevalent themes staged at the Grand-Guignol was the demoralization and corruption of science. The “evil doctor” was a reoccurring trope in the horror shows performed. ❧

Development idea: Bring back the Grand Guignol, but have evil politicians instead.
Annotated on January 20, 2020 at 04:06PM

Watched "Cheer" Hit Zero from Netflix
The pressure's palpable when a serious injury forces Monica to make substitutions. Lexi and Gabi struggle to balance school, cheer and social media.
An interesting documentary look at a portion of the real ‘Merica. Some fascinating people and problems told in an intriguing setting.