The Life of Birds

"Birds are one of the most successful creatures on earth. Over 9,000 species span the globe, winging their way from the arctic to the Antarctic, from deserts to jungles. The Life of Birds uncovers new research into the behaviour of these perfectly adapted conquerors of the air. In this series, the secrets of birds' great successes comes to light - their remarkable strategies of finding food, their complex social systems, and their ingenious and often bizarre ways of mating and breeding. From high-speed aerial hunters and long-distance migrants to brilliantly coloured nectar-grazers, the comical and the bizarre, this is the definitive series on birds."

The Life of Birds

The Days of Wine and Mouses - Freakonomics

"When you take a sip of Cabernet, what are you tasting? The grape? The tannins? The oak barrel? Or is it the price?
Believe it or not, the most dominant flavor may be the dollars. Thanks to the work of some intrepid and wine-obsessed researchers (yes, there is an American Association of Wine Economists), we have a new understanding of the relationship between wine, critics, and consumers.
One of these researchers is Robin Goldstein, whose paper detailing more than 6000 blind tastings reaches the conclusion that “individuals who are unaware of the price do not derive more enjoyment from more expensive wine.”
Why, then, do we pay so much attention to critics and connoisseurs who tell us otherwise? That’s the question we set out to answer. You’ll hear from Steve Levitt, who admits his palate is “underdeveloped,” about a wine stunt he pulled on his elders at Harvard’s Society of Fellows; and wine broker Brian DiMarco pulled a stunt of his own on his wine-savvy employees.

Also in this hour, I witness an incident in a restaurant that would doom any dining experience: a customer one table away was served a salad with a dead mouse in it. How does a business respond in the face of such a disaster?
Vincent Herbert, the CEO of the restaurant in question, Le Pain Quotidien, explains what happened and how he coped. Crisis-control expert Andrew Gowers gives us some insight from facing the public on behalf of Lehman Brothers, post-collapse, and BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

The days and Wine and Mouses

Baraka (directed by Ron Fricke, 1992)

"[A] cinematic guided meditation (Fricke’s own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature, and man’s own destructive powers into a web of moving images."

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/baraka/

Puccini - La Bohème (director: Richard Dornhelm, 2008)

The top 100 books of all time

"Take a look at a list of the top 100 books of all time, nominated by writers from around the world, from Things Fall Apart to Mrs Dalloway, and from Pride and Prejudice to Don Quixote".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews

The Ascent of Money

'Bringing context and understanding to the current economic crisis, historian Niall Ferguson tells the story of money and the rise - and spectacular falls - of global finance throughout the ages" (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-ascent-of-money)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY8g_IsI_gY

Pete Cogle's Podcast Factory

The European Podcast of 2010: Category Personality

http://petecogle.com/blog/