This podcast is 100 percent Persian. Consider it a primer for the Obama Administration as it sizes up Iran’s leaders. First, a report on the BBC’s new Persian language TV service. Then Persian-language radio from the Voice of Israel. After that, a profile of Iranian-American spy novelist Salar Abdoh. We round things off with writers [...]
Entries from January 2009
January 20, 2009
podcast #38: Obama’s inaugural rhetoric, the end of the “war on terror” and a French-Arabic mashup
We kick off with blogger and linguist Mark Liberman’s take on President Obama’s inaugural address. Then, a report on whether the disappearance of the term “war on terror” in post-Bush Washington will result in policy changes. Then a little something on language learning: incoming Presidents often try – and fail – to get Americans to [...]
January 15, 2009
podcast #37: Bollywood Bushisms, George W’s Greeneland connection, and anthems from Ghana
As George W. Bush becomes a private citizen again, we consider his legacy by means of a name he once cited: Alden Pyle, a fictional CIA officer dreamed up by Graham Greene in The Quiet American. Also, a new Indian mockumentary focuses on Bush’s blunders, verbal and otherwise. Finally, the national anthems of Ghana — [...]
January 7, 2009
podcast #36: Braille, the Hebrew word for realignment, France’s new language test and a Franglais band
Two hundred years after Louis Braille was born, the writing system he invented for the blind is still going strong. Also, the Israeli government has trouble translating a Hebrew word meant to convey withdrawal without any defeatist connotations. Plus, two French items: a new language test that would-be French citizens must take, and Brooklyn’s very [...]
