The World According to the Simpsons

The World According to the Simpsons

It's about time I introduced one of my favorite radio programs of all time: Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders. It's hosted by Jean Feraca and in this show, her guests discuss the impact of the Simpsons around the world.

She always has intelligent people (professors, authors, and other non-yellow characters) on the show whose IQ must be double or even triple that of Homer S.!

The topics are often quite interesting, like this one about Bart and Marge and the rest of the gang, especially the cultural programs.

You can find Jean's blog here, where she discusses the latest shows.

The forum gives people a chance to add their two cents.

For this show the questions were:

* Are the Simpons really the typical American family?
* How do you feel about Homer and Bart as American ambassadors?


Then there are the related links which will keep you up way past your bedtime

* Official site of The Simpsons
* Wikipedia: The Simpsons
* The Simpsons entry in The Museum of Television Encyclopedia
* Matt McAllister
* Steven Keslowitz and his book
* Aeon Skoble
* The Simpsons Archive

I will end by quoting one Listener's Comments:

* John 7/19/06: "I think the Simpsons Cartoon demonstrates to the world that Americans have an insight into what's dysfunctional in our own culture by allowing the world to laugh with us at our beer guts and lazy intellect."

I think that says it all. Americans are not as stupid as they seem to the unsophisticated European.

Austria in English

Who is this famous Austrian?
If you're not sure, you can explore these websites, in English of course! and find out. Austrian web face to the English-speaking world.

I have also found out that you can get podcasts from Reality Check and Radio Austria International's Report from Austria, both of which will give you excellent listening practice since you sould be familiar with most of the stories.
Enjoy!!

First, read some stories about Austria or get the latest facts!

http://www.austriantimes.at/

http://www.austriantimes.at/?p=archive&s=search

http://www.bundeskanzleramt.at/Default.aspx?alias=english&init

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=wzo

http://www.austria.org/component/option,com_joomap/Itemid,29/

http://www.austria.org/

http://www.austria.org/content/view/113/141/

http://www.austria.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

http://www.help.gv.at/Content.Node/HELP-FC.html

and of course the nicest city in the whole wide world....Graz!
http://www.graz.at/EN


LISTEN!

Report from Austria,
the Week in Review
and Insight Central Europe
Report from Austria, a 15 minute news and current affairs program on the air Monday to Friday, keeps you up to date on what's happening in Austria with news bulletins as well as interviews and features from the world of domestic and international politics, business, culture and sports. Across the weekend, the Week in Review, provides a round up of the main stories of the week and Insight Central Europe presents Reports from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and from Austria.

http://oe1.orf.at/service/international_en


Podcast
http://oe1.orf.at/podcast/


Ö1 Report from Austria
A 15 minute news and current affairs programme that keeps you up to date on what's happening in Austria. Across the weekend, the Week in Review, provides a round up of the main stories of the week.

Um diesen Podcast-Feed kostenlos zu abonnieren, kopieren Sie bitte diesen Link in Ihren Podcatcher:

http://static.orf.at/podcast/oe1/oe1_report.xml

FM4
http://fm4.orf.at/connected/202133/main

http://fm4.orf.at/stream

FM4 Reality Check Podcast
Behind the Headlines
Reality Check is Radio FM4s news program with interviews and analysis of stories from around the world. We go behind the headlines with in-depth coverage examining how stories develop and why they are relevant. From Tokyo to Washington, Cape Town to London, issues such as human-rights, new discoveries, orange-revolutions, every imagineable topic making the news today can appear on Reality Check. Hosted by Riem Higazi, Hal Rock and Steve Crilley.

http://static.orf.at/podcast/fm4/fm4_reality_check_podcast.xml

Um diesen Podcast-Feed kostenlos zu abonnieren, kopieren Sie bitte den oben angezeigten Link in Ihren Podcatcher.
Die Podcatcher-Software sucht dann das jeweils neueste Update und lädt es automatisch in Ihr iTunes oder Ihren Windows Media Player in einer separaten Playlist.
Wenn Sie noch keinen Podcatcher haben, finden Sie auf wiki.podcast.de eine aktuelle Übersicht über verschiedene Versionen.

How sick is Healthcare in America?

Very sick. Very sick indeed.

Read/Listen to this transcribed podcast where several Americans discuss their personal situations regarding health care after watching Michael Moore's latest film, Sicko.

You really can only come to one conclusion: The system every European and Canadian takes for granted, namely Universal Health Care, is not as universal as many Americans wish it were.