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Reviews of talks, webcasts and online television
I spend a considerable proportion of my days watching webcasts of talks, discussions, interviews and other programmes with an academic twist. I have compiled a list of such programmes or specific talks that I found interesting in this section. You can also find links to documentaries, major sources for great talks (e.g. University Channel) and other resources to keep you occupied forever! Enjoy.
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Touching talk by Desmond Tutu: Nobel Laureate from South Africa
Posted on April 17, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop from South Africa is one of the towering figures of the world today. His role in removing Apartheid from South Africa is well acknowledged. He also received a Nobel peace prize for his role in 1984. Bishop Tutu is a very powerful speaker, story teller, and a jovial person. But between his stories and jokes he gets serious and makes touching appeals. His sense of hope... -
“Consequentialist perspective” of economists and Human Rights
Posted on April 15, 2007 |Is the language of rights useful in discussing poverty? Economists seem to claim these days that the rights approach may undermine the cause I encountered many economists writing tentatively about human rights these days. Perhaps there is an extensive literature about it already. The main premise of arguments seems to be while the ideals of human rights are good, the approach will only impair the reduction of poverty by advocating unsound policies. Amartya Sen responds to these issues in a debate with Jeffry Frankel at Harvard University. Webcast of debate is available. The programme runs for an hour and fifteen... -
Wonders and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking – Webcast of Kahneman’s talk
Posted on April 15, 2007 |Inspiring talk by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman on intuitive thinking Vs. reasoning and its application to choice theory The introductory lecture to the class of 2008 in Princeton was done by Prof. Daniel Kahneman on the wonders and flaws of intuitive thinking. The webcast of the lecture is available in the Pricneton media website. Kahneman distinguishes between two modes of thinking – Reasoning and intuition. While intuition is powerful and accounts for most of our thinking, it is suceptible to illusions. These illusions can result in wrong choices in a variety of situations. He discusses the topic and its relevance... -
Paradox of Choice – Why more is less by Barry Schwartz
Posted on April 15, 2007 |More choice is equated with greater welfare, is this tenable? Too much choice can paradoxically make us be better but feel worse argues the psychologist In many societies today welfare is associated with freedom, and freedom with choice. It is commonly argued that people are better off with more choice. Psycologist Barry Schwarts discusses various experiments by psychologists and behavioural economists that test this claim. The talk lasts about one hour, and is worth every minute of it. [googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200[/googlevideo] Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I... -
Best of Google Videos at Hub Pages
Posted on March 7, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here I bumped into a page called the best of google videos at hub pages dot com. The list of videos is interesting and varied, and it’s growing. You may wish to check it out at hub by clicking here. -
Webcast of conference on institutions and development
Posted on March 4, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here. This conference held at the Princeton has many interesting speakers including Amartya Sen and Douglass North. The session is called “From the Coffee House to the World Bank – Institutions and Development”. Like most conferences there are interesting moments and long dull moments as well. What I “enjoyed” most was listening to the questions in the conference. The webcast of the conference is available here. Other talks in Princeton are... -
Amartya Sen’s critique of Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of civilisations”
Posted on March 4, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here. The argument that Sen makes is complex and I will not attempt to recap them here. But as a pointer, I’ll just mention that this talk is based on his book “Identities and Violence”. Sen questions the notion of Clash of civilisation by Samuel Huntington from different dimensions. He questions if any group of people can be neatly identified as a “civilization”, if animosity has to be the basis of... -
Interesting interview on civil rights with African-American Judge – Justice Henderson
Posted on March 4, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here Justice Henderson started as a sports person and with some mentoring graduated in Law. As he was finishing school he had an interesting offer to work in the Kennedy administration on civil rights issues. The interview interlaces Justice Henderson’s biography with the tumultuous years of civil rights activism in USA. The path he took – African American sports person who finally went on to become a Judge in a US... -
The peace movement in historical perspective with Linus Pauling – Webcast
Posted on March 4, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here This is an interview by Harry Kreisler taken in 1983 with Linus Pauling who got two Nobel Prizes, once for chemistry and the second time for peace. The interview is a reflection of the context in which Linus Pauling got into peace activism in the United States. The opinions of Pauling were slightly uncommon to me, atleast from a peace activist. He for example would talk of the importance of... -
Webcast of interview with Amartya Sen: Reflections on theory in social sciences
Posted on March 4, 2007 |Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here Amartya Sen, in my opinion, is the economist who has probed the limits of economics as a discipline. In this interview he talks of nature of theorising, especially in economics, and makes many interesting observations. The interesting feature of Sen’s analysis is that he rarely dismisses the philosophical basis of the discipline. Instead he brings out the limitations involved and the need to bring in greater diversity to the informational...
