Categories
History

Daniel Cordier, French Resistance Hero (1920 – 2020)

Alan Cowell writing in The New York Times:

[Cordier] had been shocked to see German soldiers photographing one another at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. But as he headed toward a covert encounter with a fellow operative at a cafe on the Champs Élysées, he was even more stunned to see an old Jewish man and a child with yellow stars on their overcoats.

“The shock of this vision plunges me into an unbearable shame,” he wrote in the memoir, “Alias Caracalla.”

At first he wanted to rush up to the people he saw and embrace them to seek forgiveness, he wrote. At that moment, though, he recognized, walking toward him, the operative he was scheduled to meet. It was an epiphany: “His presence leads me back to reality: I am not in Paris to care for my conscience.”

Categories
Podcasts

Bill Gates Has a New Podcast – It’s Good

Bill Gates has a new podcast with actress Rashida Jones called “Ask Big Questions.” The first episode came out on November 17, 2020. The first guest is Dr. Anthony Fauci. They discuss what we can expect in the months ahead as we live with COVID-19.

Gates and Fauci are good friends and on the same page. I enjoyed the inaugural episode and look forward to future episodes.

The second episode focuses on inequality in the United States and asks if inequality is inevitable. The episode airs on November 23, 2020.

Categories
Audiobooks History

‘Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations’

United States Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Retired Admiral William H. McRaven was involved in high profile special operations missions, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, and the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. 

Admiral McRaven narrates his audiobook entitled Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations skillfully. I felt as though I was sitting in my living room hearing a brave, articulate person tell tales that made me feel proud to be an American. This is among the best audiobooks in my library.

You can get a sense of the author in this podcast.

Categories
History

George Will: Holocaust Museum Showcases Lessons for Today

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC © David H. Enzel 2005

George Will writing in The Washington Post on the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington:

Nothing — nothing — is unthinkable, and political institutions by themselves provide no permanent safety from barbarism, which permanently lurks beneath civilization’s thin, brittle crust.

This is why the Holocaust is the dark sun into which this democracy should peer.

Categories
Audiobooks Music

James Taylor Recounts his Early Years

James Taylor on Flickr

In ‘Break Shot: My First 21 Years‘ James Taylor recounts his first 21 years in very personal and moving terms while interspersing his wonderful music.

The audiobook is only 90-minutes long and worth every minute. Here are a couple of highlights that really resonated with me:

  • “Memory is tricky. We remember how it felt, not necessarily how it was. Songs grow out of memories.”
  • “We want to go back and fix something that has already vanished and can never be corrected. But we can correct it in a song . . . .”
Categories
History

‘Most Humans are Susceptible to Propaganda’

Erna Paris writing in The Globe and Mail:

The core learning future generations must acquire, in addition to the facts of Holocaust history, will be to recognize the impulse to genocide, how and why it starts, the propaganda tools it employs to persuade, and the known consequences of silence and indifference. I think this learning must also include the somewhat rueful acknowledgement that most humans are susceptible to propaganda in various degrees, which is why early-stage vigilance is so crucial.

Erna Paris was born in Toronto in 1938. She is the author of seven works of literary non-fiction and the winner of twelve national and international writing awards for her books, feature writing, and radio documentaries. Her book Long Shadows: Truth, Lies, and History was chosen as one of “The Hundred Most Important Books Ever Written in Canada” by the Literary Review of Canada.