Length: 60 minutes
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monumental/id1709713467?i=1000646871775
Ashley C Ford is the host of this podcast. The name caught my attention when looking through podcasts to listen to. In the recent past there has been a lot of discussion about monuments and several monuments have been removed, so I wanted to see how this podcast addressed the issue.
The episode I listened to was Bringing Monuments Home. It focused mainly on the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery Alabama. I felt like the episode was too long and would have been better served as three separate podcasts.
The beginning focused more on how designers create monuments and how abstract art seems to be in fashion currently as Ford notes “Whatever you bring to the space becomes what the space is about.”
Next was the meat of the podcast documenting Fords trip to Montgomery. There are several clips of interviews with people associated with the monument.
Finally there is the third segment that addresses technology and monuments. It discusses Apps like Kinfolk that will allow you to visit a spot and see an AR (augmented Reality) image of a monument that has never been built.
If each segment had been its own 30 podcast I probably would have been interested in listening more but as a 1 hour podcast it didn’t capture my attention and make me want to listen again. I will not be adding this podcast to my library.
Great literature should do more than entertain us. It should provide a roadmap to improving our lives.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens introduced readers to Sydney Carton, one of literature's most compelling and deeply flawed characters. Dickens also gives him an unusual title: the Jackal.
His struggles raise questions that remain relevant today.
Are we defined by our past mistakes? Can we overcome our weaknesses? What separates the people we are from the people we could become?
Lessons From the Jackal is a 25-day character study exploring these questions through Sydney Carton’s life, decisions, relationships, and personal development.
This is not a traditional course on A Tale of Two Cities. Our reading assignments will focus specifically on Carton, with sufficient background provided to understand his story. No previous knowledge of the novel is necessary.
Each day will feature selected readings, historical comparisons, reflection questions, discussions, and practical challenges ...
Five days ago, we began with a simple question: How do you measure potential?
Over the course of this week, Sydney Carton has challenged us to reconsider what potential really means.
We met a man whose careless appearance concealed remarkable intelligence. We watched him make observations that others overlooked, only to receive little recognition for his contributions.
We discovered a man who recognized in Charles Darnay a reflection of what he might have become, yet seemed unwilling or unable to pursue that possibility.
We examined his relationship with Mr. Stryver and considered what it means to become a jackal: someone who possesses the ability to contribute to another person’s success while neglecting the pursuit of his own.
Finally, we learned that Carton’s habits began long before his professional career. Even as a schoolboy, he devoted his abilities to completing the work of others while neglecting his own.
Carton attributes some of his disappointments to bad luck. Perhaps circumstances have indeed worked ...
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Poet, Critic, Philosopher
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the most gifted literary minds of his generation. A poet, critic, and philosopher, he possessed extraordinary intellectual abilities. Yet his life was marked by unfinished projects, difficulties with discipline, and an increasingly destructive dependence on opium.
Coleridge produced some of the most memorable poetry in English literature, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. But he also struggled to translate his ambitious intellectual plans into completed works. His friends recognized his extraordinary abilities, even as they witnessed the difficulties that prevented him from consistently applying them.
Unlike Sydney Carton, Coleridge achieved lasting recognition. Nevertheless, both men illustrate the distance that can exist between ability and accomplishment.
Consider the comparison. Was Coleridge's potential diminished by his inability to complete everything he envisioned?
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