Podcasts
Been thinking about joining a book club but worried it is too much of a commitment? Looking for something to add to your environment while out walking the dog or just walking for exercise? How about the SIR Podcast activity?
This is a Zoom activity. It is kind of like a book club for people with a short attention span. Podcasts are primarily something to listen to, and from there they can be anything (like books). We select spoken podcasts that are about 30 to 50 minutes long about a variety of subjects – history, popular science, business, and sometimes a little mystery or humor. Activity assigns podcasts to listen to between meetings and then discusses the podcasts at the meetings. Members rotate responsibility for selecting podcasts, if willing to do so. If this sounds interesting to you join us. Let the Activity Chair know of your interest and he will send you the Zoom link. Also, if you are completely new to podcasts and need some training in how to find podcasts the Activity Chair will be happy to assist.
We meet twice a month at 4 pm on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month via Zoom.
* An activity member is assigned to decide what podcast(s) we will listen to and discuss at each meeting, and that person will be the leader for that session.
Chairman: Rich Knowles
grichthek@gmail.com
(925) 370-6239
Scroll down to see a schedule of upcoming Podcasts and click on the link below to see the history of podcasts listened to for this activity:
April 2025
At its first meeting in April the podcast activity discussed three podcasts from TED. One was a discussion of the relationships between most popular TV programs and current affairs – basically attempting to show that TV programs reflected what was going on in the US at the time. Another was a look at AI from the perspective of an advocate – a person that is creating as life-like of a copy of a person with personality using AI. He is a strong AI advocate, and we pretty much found the future he sees as scary. And the third podcast was basically advocating people look at themselves and changes themselves for the better – the podcaster believes we can all do that.
At our second meeting we will be discussing three podcasts – two short ones about personal actions and one about where the podcaster sees our society going as linked to our kids and what they are growing up in.
First two are from the ZOE podcast site
- Cardio exercise: how much do you really need from Sep 28 2023
- Why eating nuts makes you healthier 20th April 2023
Third one is from a site we have listened to before (but I wasn’t able to download this one and listened to it straight from the internet).
- Ezra Klein show ‘Our kids are the least flourishing generation we know of’ April 1st 2025
If you want to join us contact the activity chair(you need the zoom meeting info):
Rich Knowles
(925) 681-9191
March 2025
At its first meeting in March the podcast activity discussed a podcast about the Ritchie boys – these were Americans, many recent immigrants from Europe, who learned how to integrate prisoners of war and get useful intelligence. Once the Allies landed in Europe the Ritchie boys were the primary source of tactical intelligence. We hear from a few that were still alive (most of who were about 100 and have died since the podcast was recorded). Was very informative.
At our second meeting we will be discussing a couple of American Presidents – McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt. And for a little variety we are listening to a couple of nutrition podcasts – one about pesticides in fruit and vegetables we eat and a second one about the benefits or issues with drinking coffee. Both of these short ones were interesting and instructive.
February 2025
The podcast activity discussed three podcasts on the Pirate History podcast site during our first meeting of the month on February 10. We learned about the King of Madagascar and what happened to a number of pirates after their pirate days were over (many became upstanding citizens).
On the 25th we will be discussing a couple of podcasts from Dan Snow’s History Hit site. One about “How the Mongols Changed the World” and one about “Who Owns Greenland?” Both podcasts are informative and surprising (at least to me).
Click here to see the additional Recent Podcasts
updated 04/21/2025 MLF
