Jared Diamond (notes from a BBC interview)
/In this post, there is a list of the advanced words and phrases from the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Jared Diamond. He is an American academic with an interest in several fields and also, an author. Aggie and I are currently creating a podcast (in which we will explain some of the words) and it will be launched on 11th October!
You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006dlz
INTRO [LL]
0:51 By day he is the Professor of Geography at UCal
0:55 To describe him as versatile would be an understatement
0:58 He is a true polymath
1:04 Interests go beyond geography and history to encompass a dazzling array of ‘ology’s’
1:17 Renowned for his engaging, lucid prose ( → bestseller)
Why do cultures develop as they do?
Why do societies collapse
→ Big questions!
12 languages
Has been visiting New Guinea for over 50 years
1:49 The more things you are interested in and the more you learn the richer the framework within which you can fit any new things. So synthesis, if you do it at all gets professionally better with time
2:45 Can’t encode the songs as well (discussing bird song - he is currently studying them) [JD]
You must be very good at structuring your time
I read the paper in the morning and my wife listens to the radio in the afternoon - so she’s depressed in the evening and I’m depressed in the morning (!)
3:27 I have the fortune to live in a dead-end Canyon
3:59 I learned viola when I was 22
FIRST SONG (BACH)
Used as a wedding procession
It’s a masterpiece of setting music to text
4:30 They sound imperialistic (the words)
4:35 When we were married by a Rabbi … he asked if we could play it backwards so we don’t have to hear those words
1997 GUNS GERMS AND STEEL (PULITZER WINNING)
6:19 Dominance of Europeans in the modern world
6:34 Why did Europeans expand over the world?
6:49 Higher IQ, They have the judeo-christian work ethic
7:03 People are always going to fall back on racist explanations
More valuable species available therefore metal tools etc etc from the fertile crescent
7:55 Geographical determinism in this idea (What his critics said) [LL]
8:07 Your arguments is a retort to the racist idea that… [LL]
8:12 Deemphasises the agency of colonisers and somehow absolves them of responsibility for their actions [LL]
In a one word response - Nonsense! [JD to what he would say to these critics]
Geography has big effects on some things and culture has effects on other things
Academics feel discomfort that the human spirit cannot be accountable for everything
SECOND DISC (SCHUMAN)
9:22 The most joyous piece in a minor key that I’ve ever heard
9:43 Schuman at his manic best
PROFESSOR AT UCal since 2002, CHILDHOOD 1937 Pearl Harbour
→ Began his interest looking at his childhood wall
Had 2 maps on his wall - Pacific theatre and the European theatre
11:19 Everyday Dad would shift the pins to show the shift of the battle lines
→ Grew up with geography in my face
PARENTS
11:42 Debuted as a professional pianist (his mother)
Mother helped him learn German, helped him pass Latin
→ Loves languages thanks to her
Just finished his 14th language (Italian)
12:14 Dad was a physician - scientists ( → hence love of science)
Both immigrants
12:33 Were you hungry to learn? (A bright child)
First book he read was called Kings and things
12:58 I kept notebooks (to list things) Quite funny for a boy/teenager to do!
13:12 That predisposed me to become a birdwatcher (his tendency and love of listing things)
THIRD TRACK (SCHUBERT)
Beginning of my lifelong love of German songs
EARLY POTENTIAL
15:19 What do you think Doc Elliot saw in you?
Asked for extra lessons! Can’t have come round often ! [LL]
16:02 At the time it sounded hubristic, JD - “some day you will unify the humanities and the sciences”
GRADUATED HARVARD CAME TO CAMBRIDGE
→ research based
16:49 Was it the gall bladder alone that brought you to Europe
17:03 Close to my beloved parents
Ready for something else
17:17 I took advanced Russian classes
17:19 I supplemented my meagre income of £250 per year by translating Russian scientific journals
17:31 Spent a huge amount of time playing chamber music
6 or 7 hours a day playing the organ !!
FOURTH TRACK (BACH)
17:51 I heard it in Clare College Chapel
17:54 Love at first sight (this piece)
17:56 This piece is what induced me to play the organ
1962 PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY
19:16 Back in the US pursuing a career in physiological research @ Harvard UCLA
19:21 How did specialising suit you?
19:28 It dawned on me with increasing horror that having done my PHD thesis on gall bladder..
19:37 That felt confining (to have to do this particular research for his whole life)
Went to Peru, published some papers on birds, New Guinea because worlds’ most beautiful birds
20:13 NG has changed my outlook on life
20:29 My model for bringing up children was following NG – allow them lots of freedom
Didn’t let his kids play with knives in the way NG kids do
Got his son a pet snake at age 3 – built up to 147 pet snakes, lizards, frogs in his house !!!
FIFTH DISC (BRAHMS)
21:21 Piece with which I proposed to my wife
Stayed home from work
This is the piece that won me a wife
BOAT ACCIDENT
22:59 You made headlines home in the US in1981 in rediscovery of the long lost golden fronted bower bird
Recorded its mating ritual
23:06 The recording never made it home with you because of a boat accident
Dropped by helicopter in an uninhabited mountain range
1st bird he saw was this golden fronted
23:46 Must have been an absolutely terrifying experience [LL]
24:01 It overturned due to a foolish crew
24:13 There was a surreal hour and a half, lives at risk
24:39 Picked up by two tiny fishing canoes
collected
Closest I’ve come to getting killed
25:04 A big life lesson for me
25:08 – to adopt an attitude of paranoia
25:19 You call that ‘constructive paranoia’ [LL]
25:25 It drives my friends crazy
25:29 My kids tease me about it (they know I like to get to the airport early)
SIXTH DISC ‘finlandia’
25:57 it was an intense summer
26:08 Instantly captures the feeling of the country (the weather reflected in the key)
EARLY EIGHTIES
27:31 You were dividing your time between physiology in the lab and ornithology in NG
27:39 How did you come to change lanes and write your book ‘The Third Chimpanzee’
27:42 The precipitant to the book was the birth of my twin sons (1987)
All this talk about world 2050
27:54 Global warming by so and so many degrees, end of tropical rainforests
27:56 They’ll be 63, they’ll be at the peak of their lives
28:03 Somewhat with a jolt I realised that future Max and Joshua will not rely on gall bladders…
28:12 That was the impetus of my writing books on long term patterns
20:02 Closed down department of physiology
MCCARTHUR GENIUS GRANT
29:02 You would think that I would be overjoyed
29:12 I’m an upbeat person
But had the only depression of his adult life
29:21 The award conveyed to me that big things are expected of me but spent time on gall bladders
29:34 What are you going to justify this award you’ve just got?
SEVENTH DISC (MAHLER)
Our first date piece
30:06 Long intense conversation, by the end of which we were emotionally exhausted
30:22 For intensity, there’s nothing to match it
COLLAPSE (ANOTHER BOOK)
31:53 They starved because of deforestation
31:55 You don’t have to be a polymath to wonder about the parallels with our own society
32:01 Are we doing enough to tackle environmental issues?
32:08 The world is still on an unsustainable course
32:26 Sources which regenerate themselves
32:34 We will run out of essential world resources w/in the next several decades
32:41 Therefore its up for grabs
32:46 We’ve lost our chance and we’re over the cliff
I am very careful with falling, uneveness on sidewalk, holds bannister
World suffers serious problems, inequality, unsustainability
Face big problems but bad problems are all ones of our own making
34:03 Its completely within our power
34:08 It depends upon the political will rather than any magic
Young people concerned about everything, make good choices
What I tell people is to vote and tell your friends
EIGHTH TRACK (DVORAK)
34:49 The piano writing is clumsy
Remind yourself that this artist is suffering
FARING ON THE ISLAND
36:30 I deal with the discomfort and the ticks and leeches
· Sherlock Holmes
· Some alcohol
37:31 Earthy taste, like miniature champagne
· Takes his wedding procession