Haris Akbar, W14; Topic Selection

The podcast show I've selected to look into is The History of Philosophy (Without any Gaps). As to why I've selected this podcast show, it is due mainly to my interest in philosophy. The History of Philosophy is an ongoing podcast show that's delivering podcasts on, well, the history of philosophy, without any gaps. This means one'll eventually have the entire history of philosophy to hear about, when the project seems to be completed. As I said, it is still ongoing and incomplete; so far the major timelines the podcast show has covered is Classical, Later Antiquity, and the Islamic World, as outlined in the top headings. Within each major timeline there are sub-sections and individual podcast episodes on individual and significant parts of the history of philosophy, such as major figureheads like Socrates, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Augustine, al-Ghazali, to coverage of actual philosophies like Asceticism and Stoicism.

I would like to emulate, at the very least, the storytelling as well as the show's topics. The thing is, this podcast is the History of Philosophy (Without any Gaps) we're talking about, so for my possible podcast I can't just talk about a philosophy in history, as that's more of an imitation of a part of the project. What I would like to do is talk about Stoicism and how it's relevant to today. Seeing as I can't just talk about a philosophy in history, I'd like to talk about something that'd be out of the project's possible realm and *in the making* rather than in history, and talk about a philosophy with regards to its relevancy in contemporary times. Note that my topic to pursue is *what* is Stoicism, and how it's relevant, and the "what" is because I can't talk about the relevancy of something in history unless I introduce and familiarize it, first. Stoicism is a philosophy I've had major interest in, as I've seen it briefly in some social circles and have noted how important a philosophy that in layman's terms is keeping your cool despite the happenings beyond your control, is like.

Haris Akbar - W14 - Introductions

Hello there, as my post calls me, I'm Haris Akbar. I'm a 2nd year student pursuing a major in English & Professional Writing. A little bit about myself; I like to read (books, articles, and that sort, but you could even say non-text things as well), cook, observe, and ponder. My interests are not specific, as I'm actually quite interested in nearly everything I come across (even the most obvious things tend to have something interesting behind their shell of obviousness). With that said, pretty much all information interests me, whether it be in language, philosophy, grammar, science, etc. Though of course it goes without saying that I'm no expert at any of these; I'm simply someone who loves to learn as much as I can about things.

What I want to learn about research is a question I'd like to tackle in an indirect way here; it's a little obvious that in these times we're in an information age. There's information about many, many things, and tons of it. This is potentially one of the greatest resources for understanding, but the biggest obstacle in that way is learning how to utilize information, and that concerns gathering/finding information, thinking about what kind of information it is, how they affect themselves and other bits of information, seeing what conclusions could be made from all that, and all sorts of related procedures. So bluntly put, I'd like to seek understanding of things, and I need to do that correctly.

I'm afraid I haven't even heard of RefWorks until very recently; Zotero I've heard of quite recently. I have little experience with these. However, if it counts, I do have software like OneNote (I hear Evernote is quite a good alternative, though) which very easily allow for research-related work. I can keep the sources I use, plot information the way I want, and type what I want much like a word processor.

As for reflections on information I seek within my daily life, with what I've said in my second paragraph, it goes without saying that I've reflected on information and its utilization, as well as understanding in general, and this came to me as a response to making sense of the many (kinds of) things I tend to read.

I have very little experience with radios/podcasting in general. I occasionally listen to the radio and even more rarely than that, I've listened to podcasts. The idea that I will have to create a short podcast episode both intimidates me and excites me, and I feel this way with any obstacle in the way of a learning objective; when you see a large rock in the way that you have to climb, you know that it'll take effort but you also know that you have to get through it.

I have to admit, I delayed this post because I'm still expecting a response to a podcast suggestion I've sent. However, if that eventually doesn't work, it's rather hard to say which podcast show/topic I'll be checking out. Granted, they're all interesting to me, and I don't have any significant particular leaning towards any one of them. On the Media seems interesting, as not only does it concern something part of daily life like the news, but there's a bigger picture worth learning about; things like the idea of authentication, its importance and how to figure it out, as well as ethics, and that sort. My impending suggestion was, though, a podcast on the history of philosophy (without any gaps); I've discovered it recently and it seems like an invaluable gem.