BAGHDAD—Greetings all. I'm going to be trying something new here on B2I: Podcasts. About once a week, I'm going to put one of these little things out. Today's is pretty basic, as a first attempt might be, and it's really more of a proof of concept than anything else. Please forgive the rough edges and the stream-of-conciousness tone of the thing.
In the future, I'd like to bring in Iraqis to talk, do more audio stories and even try to do a call-in for readers with iChat or Skype. If there's interest in such “chat-in” shows, I'll see if I can find an Iraqi co-host and we'll answer your questions and probably argue with you a bit. I'm thinking this would be very popular.
So, feedback is welcome. I'm trying to get the size down and this first podcast is about 10 minutes long. Enjoy.
Download the “Six Weeks” podcast by clicking here or on the "podcast" icons above and below. For those of you with iTunes 4.9, on both Macs and Windows, you can subscribe to the B2I podcasts by choosing "Subscribe to Podcast..." under the "Advanced" menu and input either this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/back-to-iraq/Kjzv. or http://www.back-to-iraq.com/index.xml Other podcasting clients, such as iPodderX will work in a similar fashion. If you'd like to subscribe to the B2I RSS feed, they're all available down to the right.
[UPDATE: OK. I'm completely bumfuzzled as to why my feed won't pick up the .mp3 enclosure. If any computer whizzes out there want to help, I'd be most grateful. The MT-Enclosures plugin I'm using seems to be picking every other URL up in this post except the .mp3 tag. What gives?]
Problem solved.
The link doesn’t seem to work
Really enjoyed listening to that…many thanks.
That was fabulous Christopher - so good to hear your voice from Iraq and interesting too.
Count me in for the iChat/Skype! And wonderful to hear you via the podcast. SUPER ideas, Chris! :)
Wow!
More of this please.
Susan
This one sounds pretty good, but I hope you’ll continue to write. I find it easier to understand a written article about a complex political situation than to listen to a monologue covering the same subject.
It would be cool to hear more Iraqi voices.
LOVED the Podcast, thanks!
The music was wonderful, so evocative. It got me to thinking, perhaps in future podcasts you could talk about what draws you to Iraqi culture, talk about points of beauty in the culture, architecture, history?
What was the culural shift like your first time in Iraq, and as you’ve spent more time how does your perspective change? How can aspects of Iraqi culture help inform American perspectives?
Awesome, stay safe, thanks.
LOVED the Podcast, thanks!
The music was wonderful, so evocative. It got me to thinking, perhaps in future podcasts you could talk about what draws you to Iraqi culture, talk about points of beauty in the culture, architecture, history?
What was the culural shift like your first time in Iraq, and as you’ve spent more time how does your perspective change? How can aspects of Iraqi culture help inform American perspectives?
Awesome, stay safe, thanks.
I really liked the Podcast, it’s a lot easier to follow than written words on a page, especially when you’ve been reading and/or writing all day - the last thing you want sometimes is even more words! Plus my neighbour can now follow what’s going on much more easily - he’s African and dyslexic, and while he’s fluent in spoken English, he can’t read it very easily, so this is a lot more practical for him.
Also, hearing the voice of someone who is actually out there, you get more of a ‘feel’ for it than you can from just the written word - inflections, hints, ‘traces’, it all makes it more real, and sometimes it can all seem a little unreal.
Some more commentary on the culture - and some more music - would be very welcome.
Many thanks for the work you’re doing for us all.
Test post.
Chris, I really enjoyed the pod cast. It is the first one I have experienced so I just have to ask “I wasn’t supposed to see anything , right?”
Chris,
I vote a very. very big “YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to your ideas for podcasting. Definitely would provide a perspective we hear way too little of in the U.S.
Chris, if Basra has turned into “little tehran”, why would autonomy be any better for secular shias? Wouldn’t the SCIRI/Badr types just win the local elections, and continue to rule the province?
Also who are the Shia leaders who are more lenient on the question of letting ex-baathists into government, and who are the hardliners, and where do you see that going?
good luck, stay safe, thanks for the great reporting.
Glad you all liked the podcast. One note about the music: it’s not Iraqi. It’s my own “composition” built from loops in Apple’s GarageBand. But I’m glad you guys all thought it captured the mood well!
I will continue to write. This will be, at most, a once-a-week thing, and I’m trying to work out the technical details for the “call-in” thing. It might not be doable with the limited bandwidth I have here.
Roublen— good questions!
Chris,
Cool idea on the podcasts, man. I have a flight date into Baghdad: Sept. 7. The VA is taking forever reviewing my claims from my last Baghdad trip. Gotta love bureaucracy. Take care and I’ll see you then.
Bill.
Wow. I get such a clear sense of the situation in Iraq, both day to day and politically, like I get nowhere else.
Thanks very much.
Wow. I get such a clear sense of the situation in Iraq, both day to day and politically, like I get nowhere else.
Thanks very much.
Wow. I get such a clear sense of the situation in Iraq, both day to day and politically, like I get nowhere else.
Thanks very much.
Wow. I get such a clear sense of the situation in Iraq, both day to day and politically, like I get nowhere else.
Thanks very much.
Your podcast was so successful in my household that even my Republican, conservative husband ,who thinks I’m a “liberal” nut fixated on Iraq news, listened in ( as he watched baseball on t.v.). His comment to me, “was that all?” Even he wants to hear more!!! Great to hear your voice after reading you for months . I practically felt I was in Iraq with you. Keep up the good work.
This was really good Chris. Keep it up.
Mark
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/55779
No podcasts from iraqi torture chambers yet.
Still you really get a sense of whats going on, day to day..
Can you describe the current fare on Iraqi TV and have you watched the program that parades captured insurgents who confess their deeds? Any truth being told and shown? I wonder why no cable in the U.S. doesn’t pick up and stream some of these Iraqi programs, so that we here can at see what brand of democracy is birthing in Iraq.
“Yes” to the podcast. It seems to loosen up your reporting. In your blogs you seem to condense everything down to the basics. This allowed you to paint a much more complete picture.
Thank you.
Just another big YES! vote to the Podcasts. Keep them coming and stay safe over there!
Damn good stuff, Chris. Wish mine would sound as good. Only one critique….keep away from including voice-overs or externally recorded interviews. The quality isn’t there once you step a recording down to 64kbps. Other than that, well done!
Brilliant!! Just got this on Itunes!! Keep it up. Sean, Ireland.
(ps: The Sein fein of Ireland…thought that was hilarious!!)
AMAZING!
Just read about this site in Justin Raimondo’s latest at antiwar.com..have since recommended to everyone I know and to TPM Cafe, Dean Anne Slaughter who posts regularly in the Foreign Policy section and who seems to need a few facts to fit her policy
I think this is an awesome idea, and have added your podcast in iTunes.
Do you think you could provide transcripts for your podcasts? I’m hard of hearing and wear hearing aids, so I can “hear,” but if you will be having Iraqis and others “calling in,” I get really frustrated with accents. I’m sure there are other uses for transcripts other than to provide “closed captioning” so this could probably be beneficial to everyone.