My Podcast List - 2. BBC World Service’s ’13 Minutes To The Moon’

‘It’s rocket science’ I said to myself on hearing about BBC World Service’s ’13 Minutes To The Moon’ podcast.

I needn’t have feared. The science in this 12-part podcast about the 1969’s moon landing is easy to digest. The series begins with President Kennedy’s ‘We choose to go to the moon’ speech. We hear about Apollo 1 tragedy, about how Apollo 8 went ‘where no one has gone before’ and about Apollo 11’s planning & execution (the computers that seem primitive by today’s standards ran software on the moon for the 1st time!). Episode 11 contains the actual exchange between mission control & the astronauts during the final 13 minutes of the landing.

There are many ‘Houston, we have a problem’ moments – alarms from on-board computers, the Eagle moving too fast, Armstrong taking control, choosing a clearer site to land & landing with a few seconds’ worth of fuel to spare. Besides the astronauts, we hear about & from, others in mission control (their average age - 26-27!).

I hadn’t seen the Earth Rise photo taken from Apollo 8. It’s hard not to fall in love with the blue marble rising across the moon. That’s Home! Jim Lovell said it best – God has given us a stage on which to perform, how the play turns out is up to us.

Do take a listen. Trust me - it’s not rocket science!

My Podcast List - 1. BBC’s Witness History

Since childhood I have loved history, and hated it. I loved to read about people & events but hated memorizing the dates. History slipped out of mind after getting into college, it wasn’t part of the curriculum.

Lately I became re- interested in history. Reading has always been a passion but it is hard to find time to read, and harder to find history related books in the library (not to mention finding a library!). Then I discovered Podcasts. My phone didn’t have memory for an additional app so I used to listen to downloaded episodes while commuting.

One such podcast was BBC’s Witness History (as it’s called now). Every week (Mon-Fri) a separate historic event (political, religious, cultural, medical etc.) is covered in each episode, which is about 10 minutes long – easy to consume when you have a few moments to spare. The narrative is crisp, to-the-point and yet, manages to be full of details. The cherry on the cake is that we get to hear original recordings & opinions of those who witnessed these events (hence the name!).

My new phone is big enough to store a herd of dinosaurs & more. Though I listen to a lot of podcasts on an app, Witness History remains the favorite.

I have fallen in love with History. All it took was one podcast. And the rest, as they say, is history :-)

https://www.loksatta.com/viva-news/recipe-puri-instagram-travelling-akp-94-1975452/

A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind - Shoukei Matsumoto

Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet - Kate Pankhurst

Earth Heroes - Bruce Malnor, Carol Malnor

The Tale of a Toothbrush: A Story of Plastic in Our Oceans - M. G. Leonard

A Planet Full of Plastic - Neal Layton

This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook - Extinction Rebellion

The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature  – Nick Haddad

Evie and the Animals Hardcover – Matt Haig

Where the River Runs Gold Paperback – Sita Brahmachari

Prison Days - Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Fire And Fury: Tranforming India's Strategic Identity - Anil Kakodkar & Suresh Gangotra

Ajanta, History and Development - Walter M. Spink

Crunch Mode by John Boddie

Jim McCarthy's Dynamics of Systems Development

Tarek Abdel-Hamid and Stuart Madnick, Software Project Dynamics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993).

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development (Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1995).

Rob Thomsett, "Double Dummy Spit and Other Estimating Games,"

W. Steven Brown. Thirteen Fatal Errors Managers Make and How You Can Avoid Them. Berkley Books, New York, 1985.

Esther Derby. “What Your Weekly Meetings Aren’t Telling You.” Better Software, volume 3(6):pages 40–41, March 2004.

Peter Drucker. Managing for Results. Pan Books, London, 1964.

Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Jr. Waterman. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. Warner Books, New York, 1982.

Johanna Rothman. “No More Meeting Mutinies.” Software Development, March 2002.

Lou Adler. Hire with Your Head: Using Power Hiring to Build Great Companies. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2002.

Michael Bolton. “Are You Ready?” STQE, pages 50–54, May 2003.

Tom DeMarco. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency. Broadway Books, New York, 2001.

Tom Janz, Lowell Hellerik, and David C. Gilmore. Behavior Description Interviewing. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986.

Johanna Rothman. “Project Portfolio Management 101.” Business-IT Alignment E-Mail Advisor, October 2001.

Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins. Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead. Barrertt-Koehler, San Francisco, 2002.

Esther Derby. “How to Talk About Work Performance: A Feedback Primer.” Crosstalk, pages 13–16, December 2003.

Ferdinand F. Fournies. Coaching for Improved Work Performance. McGraw Hill, New York, 2000.

Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith. The Wisdom of Team: Creating the High-Performance Organization. Harper-Collins Publishers, New York, 1999.

Patrick Lencioni. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Company, San Francisco, 2002.

Johanna Rothman. “Successful Software Management: Fourteen Lessons Learned.” Crosstalk, pages 17–20, December 2003.

Charles Seashore, Edith Seashore, and Gerald M. Weinberg. What Did You Say? The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback. Bingham House Books, Columbia, MD, 1997.

Brian R. Stanfield. The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action (Ica Series). New Society Publishing, Gabriola Island, BC, 2002.

Robert R. Blake and Jane Srygley Mouton. The Versatile Manager:
A Grid Profile. Dow Jones-Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1980.

Daniel Feldman. The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Workplace
Coaching. HRD Press, Amherst, MA, 2001.

Ferdinand F. Fournies. Coaching for Improved Work Performance.
McGraw Hill, New York, 2000.

Johanna Rothman. “Successful Software Management: Fourteen
Lessons Learned.” Crosstalk, pages 17–20, December
2003.

Gerald M. Weinberg. The Secrets of Consulting. Dorset House,
New York, 1985.

Gerald M. Weinberg. Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic
Problem-Solving Approach. Dorset House, New York, 1986.

Mary Albright and Clay Carr. 101 Biggest Mistakes Managers
Make. Prentice Hall, New York, 1997.

Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister. First among Equals:
How to Manage a Group of Professionals. The Free Press, New
York, 2002.

Johanna Rothman. Corrective Action for the Software Industry.
Paton Press, Chico, CA, 2004.

David L. Bradford and Allen R. Cohen. Managing for Excellence:
The Guide to Developing High Performance in Contemporary
Organizations.. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1984.

Clay Carr. The New Manager’s Survival Guide: All the Skills
You Need for Success, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New
York, 1995.

Stephen R. Covey. Principle-Centered Leadership. Summit
Books, New York, 1991.

Tom DeMarco. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and
the Myth of Total Efficiency. Broadway Books, New York, 2001.

Gerald W. Faust, Richard I. Lyles, and Will Phillips. Responsible
Managers Get Results: How the Best Find Solutions—
Not Excuses. American Management Association, New York,
1998.

Linda A. Hill. Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master
the Challenge of Leadership. Penguin Group, New York,
1992.

Naomi Karten. Communication Gaps and How to Close Them.
Dorset House, New York, 2002.

Joan Magretta and Nan Stone. What Management Is: How
It Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business. Free Press, New
York, NY, 2002.

Johanna Rothman. Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers,
Techies, and Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical
People. Dorset House, New York, 2004.

Joel Spolsky. Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally
Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software
Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who,
Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some
Capacity. Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2004.

Brian R. Stanfield. The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity
to Group Action (Ica Series). New Society Publishing,
Gabriola Island, BC, 2002

Frederick Herzberg, "One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

Rich Cohen and Warren Keuffel, "Pull Together," Software Magazine, August
1991.

Daniel J. Couger and Robert A. Zawacki, Motivating and Managing Computer Personnel
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1980). ISBN: 0-471084-85-9.

Richard J. Hackman (ed.), Groups That Work (and Those TJiat Don't): Creating
Conditions for Effective Teamwork (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1990). ISBN:
1-555421-87-3.

Watts Humphrey, Managing for Innovation: Leading Technical People (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987). ISBN: 0-135503-02-07.

Guy Kawasaki, The Macintosh Way: The Art of Guerrilla Management (Glenview,
IL: Scott Foresman and Company, 1989). ISBN 0-06-097338-2.

J. P. Klubnik, Rewarding and Recognizing Employees (Chicago, IL: Irwin Publishers,
1995).

Susan A. Mohrman, Susan G. Cohen, and Allan M. Mohrman, Jr., Designing
Team-Based Organizations (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1995).

Gerald M. Weinberg, Understanding the Professional Programmer (New York:
Dorset House, 19B8), ISBN: 0-932633-09-9.

Source: Loksatta

Source: Mint