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.
I have enjoyed the previous books I read by Ben Macintyre. I picked this one up not knowing anything about Ursula Kuczynski. She grew up to be a very successful spy for the Soviet Union and received the code name Agent Sonya. I looked forward to reading this. Shortly after I began reading I was hoping I would read about when she would be caught.
Ursula lived a remarkable life. Born in Germany and coming of age in the 1920’s she was exposed to a world of turmoil. She became a committed communist early in life and would not be deterred from her ideology.
She traveled the world first leaving Germany for the United States partially to avoid marriage. She became a member of the Communist Party of the United States. After a stint in the USA she returned to Germany and married the man she had left behind. His career took them to China where her career as a spy began. From there she traveled to the Soviet Union for additional training and continued to work as a spy throughout Europe.
I found it ...
“The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.”
George F. Kennan
