June 2024 - The MrT Podcast Studio

TH2023 Ep 12 The Earth Transformed

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:01 — 36.6MB)

Season 2023 – Talk 12- The Earth Transformed

In ‘The Earth Transformed’ Alan Freeland reviews Peter Frankopan’s book which changes our view of history by looking at the effect of climate on events.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

The Silk Roads:

Alan tells us how the book ‘The Silk Roads‘ changes his retirement plans. This is a book by Peter Frankopan that he rates very highly. This book is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy and politics over many centuries.

It is a long read:

The Earth Transformed runs to 736 pages (the paperback) and Alan tells us that he has to re-read many of the pages to understand things. He also says that the text doesn’t flow well. This is no reflection on the material, rather one of style.

The book:

Peter Frankopan is one of the world’s leading historians. He tells us that the natural environment is a crucial, if not the defining, factor in global history. Volcanic eruptions, solar activities, atmospheric, oceanic and other shifts have a fundamental effect on history.

We learn about how the desire to centralise agricultural success results in the bureaucratic state. And how growing demands for harvests result in the shipment of enslaved people.

These lessons of profound importance as we face a precarious future of rapid global warming.

Listen to the podcast and hear the whole story from Alan.

Unfortunately I have not been able to remove all the external noises.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History: Ancient, Medieval and Modern Group.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher , Vurbl , You Tube and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

USRJ S3 Ep 28 Mineola to Marshall

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:31 — 17.9MB)

Mineola to Marshall – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 28

‘Mineola to Marshall’ continues our journey through the afternoon and in to the evening.

Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with this podcast:

Mineola:

As the episode opens we are travelling through the countryside as we approach Mineola. We stop short of the station, across a level crossing, waiting for permission to enter the station.

I have a good view of the main street and the bandstand which is proudly flying the Stars and Stripes, the national flag of the US. I wonder whether this is left over from the celebrations of ‘Independence Day’ yesterday.

Just after we pull out of Mineola there is the first call for dinner. There are only two sittings today.

Longview:

We pass through some lovely countryside on our journey from Mineola to Longview. There is dappled sunlight and a beautiful lake full of reflections.

The red brick station dates from 1940, replacing an 1874 building. Its in the Colonial Revival style, popular in the early 20th century. There are stylized quoins, brick cornice and grey stone trim highlighting the coping, keystones and lintels.

In its heyday there were several Missouri Pacific and Texas & Pacific trains a day.

Soon after leaving Longview we pass a car breakers yard.

Marshall:

Marshall is a crew change stop. The crew finishing their shift allow me off the train so that I have time to photograph a steam locomotive and a caboose which are part of the railway museum.

The station, known as the T&P Depot, is the only surviving structure of the Texas and Pacific Railway complex which originally consisted of fifty-seven buildings spanning 66 acres.

I re-board the train as we set off for our next stop at Texarkana which, apparently, is on the state line.

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as we continue our journey on the Texas Eagle across the state line from Texas to Arkansas.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Vurbl , You Tube and others.

TH2023 Ep 11.04 Going to the Pictures

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:15 — 14.9MB)

Season 2023 – Talk 11 04- Going to the Pictures

In ‘Going to the Pictures’ Tim Davies tells us about the history of the projected image in the ‘silent era’.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

The Magic Lantern:

The talk starts in the age of the Magic Lantern. These project pictures such as paintings, prints and photographs. The slides are usually transparent glass plates. First appearing in the 17th century they are often used for entertainment by travelling showmen, conjurers and storytellers.

In the 17th century the only artificial light is from candles and oil lamps giving very dim projected images. By the 1820s we start to see the much brighter Limelight and then in the 1860s the electric arc lamp, which removes the need for combustible gases and hazardous chemicals.

The magic lantern can project moving images with movement achieved in a number of ways such as two glass slides projected together. One has the stationary part of the picture and the other the moving part, maybe a train passing through a landscape.

What the Butler saw:

The Mutoscope is an early motion picture device appearing in 1895. It is a coin-in-the-slot peep-show which only one person at a time can view. It operates like a flip book with black-and-white prints attached to a circular core. A reel typically holds about 850 pictures, giving a viewing time of about one minute

The Birth of the Cinema in Britain:

Leeds claims the world’s first moving picture shot by Louis Le Prince in 1888. In 1889 and William Friese Greene makes the first celluloid film in Hyde Park.

Listen to the podcast and hear the whole story from Tim.

Unfortunately I have not been able to remove all the external noises.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History Group .

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher , Vurbl , You Tube and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.