Where can one get a comprehensive and engaging delivery of news these days that can be consumed when convenient?
I get the impression that delivery of news on TV is getting worse and worse. On the dedicated news networks, we generally have a series of talking heads battling each other, hashing and rehashing the same 2 or 3 three topics around the clock for days, and the news delivery on the major networks seems somehow shrunken. Last night watched the evening news on one of them. They had one main story (the Kavanaugh nomination), which ran for about 15 the 30 minutes. The remainder of the time seemed to be mainly taken up by long stretches of commercials interrupted by occasional bursts of human-interest stories (nothing against human-interest stories, but there is a lot going on the world every day).
While it is possible to get news from just about anywhere on the internet, it can be a chore to wade through all the junk and distractions. Where can one go if one just wants to get a good solid chunk of news and analysis delivered to you which can be consumed somewhat passively while cooking, driving or working out?
You know, the news….What’s going on in the world that’s important? What are trends shaping the political, economic and cultural climate around the whole globe.
Fortunately, there are still a few places where one can get this – without having to expend a tremendous amount of effort.
One such place is ‘Monocle Radio’, which is a free service provided over the internet by Monocle magazine. They have a series of shows featuring stories, studio discussions and interviews, run by witty and sharp newscasters that run five days a week (starting with the 60 min ‘Globalist’ in the morning UK time, the 30 min ‘Briefing’ and 30 min ‘Midori House’, in the afternoon and early evening, and concluding with the 60 min ‘Daily’ at night), which can be listened to ‘live’ or anytime on their app or website, or downloaded. There is some overlap in these shows, but altogether they cover a healthy amount of US stories, but also stories from all around the world. After a few days of listening to parts of some of these shows, one starts to get a feel for what’s going on in all the major regions of the world and many minor ones.
The shows can be accessed here: https://monocle.com/radio/shows/
If you go on to Amazon and lookup 'A Patriot's History of the United States'
(by Schweikart and Allen, which originally came out in 2004, and is now in its 10th edition),
about halfway down the webpage you'll notice that in the 'frequently bought together'
the book that shows up next to it is 'A People's History of the United States' (by Howard Zinn, first out in 1980).
If you perform the same series of clicks with the latter, upon reaching the 'frequently bought together'
section, you'll not find the former book, but rather Jill Lepore's new book 'These Truths: A History of the United States'.
By their very nature, most history books are at least somewhat biases and opinionated.
The first two, both long-time bestsellers, are particular examples of this, with one having
a quite rightward bent, and the other a leftward one (courses
sometimes use them to illustrate opposing viewpoints). Depending on your own views, you may find Lepore left- or right-leaning,
but she attempts a balanced view.
I heard Lepore for the first time on New Yorker radio hour podcast. It
was a quite short interview, but her sense of humor and engaging manner caught my attention,
so I searched for a longer interview online, which I found on the Sept 29 post of Jason Got's 'Think Again' podcast.
What strikes me about Lepore is how quickly on the spot she can casually summarize large chunks
of historical events (along with dates) in a manner which others use to discuss final four bracket, or a
barbeque recipe or the latest news out of Washington, and then can take the summary forward and use it frame the
current context. In this particular interview, her notion of political settlements and
how they are becoming much more difficult to achieve in our current age of social media
and hyperpolarization. She also discussed de-platforming (her views are not dissimilar to Sam's here)
and free speech.
To me Lepore is a leading public intellectual of our time (one that I hadn't previously known much about).
You can download and hear Lepore's conversation with Got's here: https://bigthink.com/podcast/jill-lepore.