Newly found IT Conversations

Given that my daily commute takes under ten minutes, I mostly only listen to podcasts while taking walks.

In the winter this can be a problem, not so much because of the temperature, as because of the lack of daylight. Now that it no longer gets dark at 5pm, I've been able to enjoy Umstead Park more often and listen to more podcasts as a side effect.

Here are some of the excellent talks that I had missed out on this winter, each only has a cursory relation to computers and technology, so non-techies should find them interesting as well:

• Thomas Barnett - Emerging Worldviews: Thomas talks about a number of interesting things regarding the post-9/11 world. One of the things I found particularly interesting was his discussion of the young fundamentalist muslim male's militant opposition to the westernized view of women (rights and all that).
• Ben Saunders - The New Explorers: At 26, Ben has made multiple solo trips to the arctic while dragging hundreds of pounds of food and supplies behind him (proverbial badass). On his last trip, he live blogged the experience.
• Frans de Waal - Human Nature: Frans has a very entertaining talk on the similarities between human and chimpanzee dominance hierarchies, with noteworthy comparisons in the realm of politics.

© Josh Staiger, joshstaiger@gmail.com