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A secession of South Sudan seems almost certain and the two parts of the country are distinct: Most northerners are Arabic-speaking Muslims, while the south is made up of numerous different ethnic groups who are mostly Christian or follow traditional religions. The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll asked Sudanese musicians whether their art could help bridge national divide. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
“Tea. Early Grey. Hot.” That’s what Captain Picard would ask for, and (usually) that’s what the Star Trek replicator gave him. Well, the Thing-o-Matic’s not quite that sophisticated, but it can print 3D objects. On this episode of The World’s Technology Podcast, we’ll find out if the 3D printing revolution has truly come to our desktops. Download MP3 (22:01)
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In the Global Hit, we go in search of new musical talent in Paris. The Louvre Museum in the French capital has a concert space called the Louvre Auditorium. It’s a stage that can give young classical musicians the perfect stage to showcase their talents. Some have used the opportunity to launch solo careers. The BBC’s Christian Fraser attended a recent recital to see who’s looking for a break. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this week’s World in Words podcast, we hear about an initiative in Mali to preserve the Tamasheq language, spoken by a dwindling number of the nomadic Tuareg people. Also, a conversation about the literary merits of the King James Bible, which turns 400 in 2011. And, the R word: rationing. which among some Americans is R-rated when it comes to health care. But in Britain, rationing is part of the national psyche: it got the country through two world wars, and its collectivist values are at the core of Britain’s government-run health service. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this episode of our Technology Podcast, you’ll hear about some amazing new robotic technologies in Japan. Some are designed to help stroke victims walk again. Others are built to help the blind take walks. We’ll also tell you about mobile banking in Haiti, and Cuba’s own homegrown Wikipedia site. Download MP3 (29:54)
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One of the biggest rap groups in Venezuela have released their first album in the US. The group, Cuarto Poder, got their start over ten years ago playing in a historic square in Caracas. Reporter Will Grant met some band members there. Download MP3
Mannasseh Phiri is a part-time DJ in Zambia. His selections for us today is a recent CD by Zimbabwean musician Oliver Mtukudzi. The album is called ‘Dairai.’
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In this week’s World in Words podcast: With budgets tight at American schools and colleges, and with a growing interest in Chinese, what happens to a language like Italian? Also, Latin America is livid with the Royal Spanish Academy, which has decided to remove two letters from the Spanish alphabet. And the relaunched online version of the Oxford English Dictionary: now with detailed word histories and sources.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this episode of our weekly Technology Podcast, you’ll get an in-depth look at the past, present and future of the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks. We’ve assembled a group of respected netizens to help us better understand what the Wikileaks phenomenon, and the backlash against it, means. Download MP3 (32:26)
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Independent radio producer Daniel Estrin gives us the backstories to three features he reported from Germany earlier this year, all of them about history and memory in one way or another. The first is a visit to the newly-opened SS quarters at the Ravensbruck concentration camp memorial. The second is a tour of Germany’s “Central Hiding Place,” a national archive of cultural documents buried in a vault under the Black Forest. And the third is a look at the German practice of recycling cemetery plots. Download MP3
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David Rohde and Kristin Mulvihill speak at length about their new book A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides. Rohde is a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for seven months before he escaped. Mulvihill is his wife. She directed the efforts to secure his release throughout the ordeal. They talk about David’s ill-fated decision to set out to interview a Taliban leader, what it was like for Kristen to find out he’d been kidnapped, how they both endured, what he did to escape, what she did to try to find out where he was. Download MP3
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Australian Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks. These days, he also happens to be on Interpol’s most wanted list. Earlier this week, WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 US State Department cables. In this edition of our weekly Technology Podcast, you’ll hear about the supposedly secure Intra-net system, called SIPRnet, that held those files, and about the one man who allegedly accessed them, and then gave them to WikiLeaks. (Photo: Espen Moe) Download this episode (25:48)
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In this week’s World in Words podcast, Tibetans protest over the potential loss of their language in some schools. Also, Spain re-orders its family names (under the new rules General Franco might have been General Bahamonde). Plus, historical events that have shaped the development of the English language. And how do you know when you can speak a language?
