My semi-regular perusal of CIS’ iTunes pocast page, where you can find Hearsay Culture, has lead me to discover that iTunes is “featuring” the page under its “Podcasts: Education: Higher Education” section. As always, you should check the iTunes page (or its counterpart at the CIS’ homepage for non-iTunes users) for all of CIS’ wonderful podcasts, including Hearsay Culture and the Monday Speakers Series.
Enjoy these two options, and, for those of you looking for joy merely from a policy choice, enjoy some policy satisfaction by noting the freedom of having options! Now that’s satisfying!
Become a fan of the 
Dave, just a comment on some of your older shows.
Regarding the Elissa Hecker show, billed by you as some kind of “debate”. I think your strengths as a host are not in debating, but as a questioner. Your utterly uncritical acceptance of everything Ms. Hecker offered demonstrates this.
One example. You are talking about fair use. You allow Ms. Hecker to not only not respond to the issue in general but you don’t question her example of Sony taking a part of a song and using in their PlayStation without a license. Frankly, I cannot imagine who would put forth that was fair use but nonetheless, there it was. I think the much more common and therefore interesting example is, why am I not allowed to copy DVD movies I purchase to my own hard drive that is not connected to any network, in other words, for my own private and personal use? Why is it that the RIAA has repeatedly stated no copies of any media can be considered fair use, however, in the interest of their consumer they overlook some copying. In other words, 99% of the issue was dodged in Ms. Hecker’s response.
I worked for twenty years in the music business, copyright is an enormous issue in that industry and only showing one and half sides of the issue isn’t really as instructive as showing multiple points of view.
Dave, I enjoy your show immensely though I have to admit, I wish you were more of an advocate sometimes. However, I think you do a great service for us. I love the podcasts. And, aside from the sound quality of the some the shows, have quickly become a devoted listener.
Thanks.
Russell:
Thanks for listening and for your comments.
Indeed, you are right that I could have pushed back more and perhaps “debate” was too strong a word to use. You are not the first person to mention that very point to me with regard to this particular show. You do get the prize for being the first person to comment on the blog about it!
Your critical ear is helpful because what you are hearing is, in large measure, a steep on-air and unedited learning curve for me as an interviewer and talk radio host, as well as an evolution of the show itself. One of the real challenges of doing my show is finding the right balance between being an advocate — which I certainly am off-air on many of the issues discussed on the show — and being a fair and impartial host — which, in the end, is my ultimate goal. Indeed, my main purpose for doing the show is to educate, especially to benefit those for whom these issues are relatively new and unexplored. And I do think it very important to book guests with whom I have significant disagreements.
Elissa was the first guest that I had on the show where I had significant disagreements with the guest’s position. Live and learn — in the future, I will be more careful in labeling a show as a debate, and push back more when/if I again use the debate label.
Finally, a note on sound quality: there again, you may not be aware that in addition to preparing for and doing the interview, picking the music, and handling logistics, I am also the engineer (which, like everything else with the show, I actually enjoy)! So, there again, you are hearing another evolution, this of engineering skills. To that end, I hope that you have found the sound quality to be improving over time — I think that, after 30 shows, I have it down.
Thanks again for listening and taking the time to offer your comments. Only by hearing from listeners can I improve the show, and yours will help me refine and improve the overall quality of each show. For that, I am grateful.
Dave,
I’m not sure I can blame all the sound quality problems on you. I’ve found this especially true on the “higher education” stuff on ITunes but the quality is extremely variable. Sometimes the problem is obvious, a professor who doesn’t really care where the mic is. Sometimes, as with your show, it’s dropouts or fairly mediocre phone connections.
And please, let me reinforce the good things. I think you’re excellent at bringing information out of guest and encouraging them to be comfortable. That has as value just as being an advocate does. One of the advantages of your podcast (and I assume, by extension, your radio show) is that you have an hour with one guest. I think you might spend some more time teasing more detail or nuance on some subjects but overall, you’re very good at what you do in my estimation. I enjoy the show quite a bit and have almost finished the entire the back catalog of shows.
So why not finish a random suggestion?
If, and this is a big if, if it doesn’t show your hand too much, would you be willing to add a little detail to your upcoming guests list? And the detail might be, what their book is about or what topic they intend to speak on. Perhaps you could touch on some topics you want to cover. Why? Well, in doing this you would create a situation whereby readers of your blog might contribute interview ideas, topics or questions.
Sure, sure, I could do the heavy lifting and go out and buy their book or take their class but that won’t happen. However, in the name chasing what some think is the only reason for the internet, the sacred “interactivity”, a little more information might enable some of us intellectual lightweights to chime in from time to time.
Oh, and thank you, from the bottom of my heart for not taking phone calls.
Example; Michael Krasney’s once excellent KQED show, “Forum” is almost always ruined by bizarre, off topic or just shallow and argumentative phone calls. I’d much rather two well-spoken and informed people discuss something to my academic benefit than hear what “the man on the street” thinks.
Sorry about slipping in the pet peeve.
I’m a lifetime fan of radio and think podcasting is the best thing for theater of the mind since the ribbon mic.
Thanks again for your efforts and your kind response.