November 2020 - The MrT Podcast Studio

The Coast Starlight (2)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:59 — 19.2MB)

The Coast Starlight (2) – US Rail Journeys Series 2 Episode 22

South to San Jose:

The Coast Starlight (2) starts with the conductor announcing that we’ll shortly arrive in San Jose. We’ve just gone through Santa Clara.

As we approach San Jose we pass a Caltrain depot. Caltrain runs commuter services between San Francisco and San Jose. There is a $1.9 billion project to electrify 51 miles of track.

As we progress I see the concrete stubs in the ground which will have the cable masts bolted to them. A little further on they’re pouring concrete.

Visitor from the Netherlands:

I get the opportunity to speak to a visitor from the Netherlands. After a period in Portland, Oregon, he is now working his way south through California.

He tells me that he’ll be returning home after a few more weeks. We talk about the differences in the railways in the Netherlands and the US.

Into the countryside:

We pass through an area of fruit trees. Then past ploughed fields, the Santa Cruz mountain range and Mount Hamilton before we reach Gilroy. Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world!

We then travel through the Pajaro Gap and as we start to descend we pass a large quarry. There are many rail cars being filled with aggregate in the sidings at the quarry.

Agriculture:

As we carry on southward we see people working in the fields, large irrigation systems an early crops growing. We reach Salinas which is known as the artichoke capital of the world – two world capitals in a very short distance.

Our route takes us on to Paso Robles. On the journey we pass an area of Nodding Donkeys pumping oil.

The Cuesta Grade

This episode ends as we reach the crest of the Cuesta Grade and start the steep downhill journey to San Luis Obispo. Find out more here.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this podcast. If so, please join me in two weeks time when we travel down the Cuesta Grade, through the horseshoe bends and south towards Los Angeles on the stunning Coast Starlight route.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

You can also listen to this podcast on Amazon Music, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify and Stitcher.

Music:

AKM Music has licensed the theme, Steam Railway, for use in this podcast.

Storyblocks has licensed Easy Ride by William L Newman for use as incidental music in this episode.

The Alhambra

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:53 — 29.2MB)

Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 13 – The Alhambra

In The Alhambra Nigel Marriott tells us about the near 800 year rule by the Moors in Spain.

Invasion and conquest

Tariq Ibn Ziyad invaded in 711, leading 10,000 men. They swept Roderic, the Visigoth king, aside, taking eight years to bring most of the Iberian peninsula under Islamic rule.

The remaining Visigoths and Hispano Romans held out in the north because they offered stubborn and organised resistance.

Moorish Forces

Tariq Ibn Ziyad led an army with both Berber Cavalry and Moorish soldiers. These fighters were feared with good reason. They were very experienced and a key to the invasion of the peninsula.

Reconquest

When Ferdinand and Isabella captured Granada in 1492 Muslim rule came to an end. The war, pushing the Muslim forces south, lasted some centuries.

The Golden Century of Islam

The Caliphate of Cordoba lasted for the 100 years between the accession of Abd-Al-Rahman III in 912 until a civil war led to the sacking of the city in 1013. Cordoba overtook Constantinople as the most prosperous city in the world. The population grew to 500,000.

Cordoba was a pre-eminent centre of learning and study so scholars came from all over. There were many advances in astronomy, chemistry, surgery and other branches of medicine.

Christians and Jews had to pay the Jizya tax to pay for the war in the North in this period of great religious tolerance.

Culture

We learn about some of the amazing buildings built during this period. Stunning and ornate. The use of water and irrigation. Beautiful garden paradises. The Muslim influence has had a great effect on Spanish history and is responsible for many of the amazing sights in Spain.

Hear the whole story by listening to this podcast.

Please note: Some of the views expressed and expressions used in this talk may reflect views common during this period of history and do not reflect those of the speaker, Farnham U3A World History Group or The MrT Podcast Studio.

To view the photographs accompanying this talk:

I have had to omit many of the photographs used in the original talk because of copyright restrictions. I have tried to find substitutes where there are licences allowing their use however in some cases it is not possible to find substitutes.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

About this podcast:

The Farnham U3A site is found here.

This podcast is also available through the Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify and Stitcher ‘apps’.

AKM Music has licensed Media Magazine for use as the title music.

The Coast Starlight (1)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:28 — 17.8MB)

The Coast Starlight (1) – US Rail Journeys Series 2 Episode 21

Emeryville:

The Coast Starlight (1) starts with my arrival at Emeryville Station, bright and early, on Monday morning. I spent the weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn on the waterfront by the Bay Bridge. I can see the station from my room in the hotel.

We soon learn that our train is delayed. I could have had another hour in bed. The station is busy, there are people waiting to board the Coast Starlight, the Capital Corridor, the California Zephyr and the San Joaquins services. Commuters are also arriving to start the week’s work.

The station has a ‘greeter’. She’s a lovely lady and tells people who are going to Sacramento to visit the California State Railroad Museum. She describes it as the ‘second best railway museum in the world’. She tells me that the best is the National Railway Museum in York!

Our train arrives, we board for the journey south and I make my way to the Sightseer Lounge.

Oakland, Jack London Square:

The 5 mile journey from Emeryville to Oakland, Jack London Square, is scheduled to take 15 minutes. We pass Oakland’s large port area and the train travels down 1st Street before arriving in the station. The square is named after the author, journalist and social activist Jack London.

We see that the delays are due to ‘congestion’.

The station opened in 1995 to replace the 16th Street Station which had been badly damaged in the 1989 earthquake. The station is named after C L Dellums who was a long time Oakland resident. He was a co-founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

South through the Oakland suburbs:

Our journey south is through an area that shows the divide in the US between the rich and poor. Many people have a view of a wealthy, scenic California but take the train and you see a different side.

We pass piles of rubbish, probably the result of fly tipping, near the the Oakland Coliseum Stadium and also in the streets to the south of it. The train has frequent stops, no doubt because of the congestion. One stop shows the divide, a squatter living between the track and the fence with decent housing behind it.

The scenery improves:

Once we get free of the Oakland suburbs the countryside improves. We pass marshland at the side of San Francisco Bay and also the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Our next stop is San Jose.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this podcast. If so, please join me in two weeks time when I continue on the journey south to Los Angeles on the stunning Coast Starlight route.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

You can also listen to this podcast on Amazon Music, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify and Stitcher.

Music:

AKM Music has licensed the theme, Steam Railway, for use in this podcast.

Storyblocks has licensed Easy Ride by William L Newman for use as incidental music in this episode.

The Great Depression

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:36 — 71.1MB)

Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 12 – The Great Depression

In The Great Depression Andrew Cole tells us about the period between 1929 and 1939. Whilst much of his talk is about the US he also tells us about the global context.

Please note: this talk is from early March 2020 and is therefore from before the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic fully hit economies.

What was The Great Depression?

We learn that a great deal has been written about this period. There are over 500 non-fiction books, 100+ television documentaries and at least 5,000 papers. Add to that 11,000+ YouTube videos and 24.4 million hits on Google!

It is described as ‘the longest and most severe economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world’. The result – widespread long-term unemployment, hardship and unrest.

It covers the period from the Wall Street Crash (24th October 1929 – ‘Black Thursday’) to the start of World War Two (1st September 1939).

Causes:

The European economies were fragile. The First World War had been very expensive. The losers, the Central Powers (Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary and Turkey), had the added burden of reparations.

In the US people believed that the stock market would continue rising. In the US many shares were bought using loans. Some of the financial institutions used sharp practices.

When the market crashed loans were called in resulting in bankruptcies and there were also bank failures. This then affected industry and resulted in lower wages and unemployment.

This reverberated around the world and there was a global recession.

Remedies:

Three US Presidents were in power during the period leading up to and through the depression:

Calvin Coolidge. President from August 1923 to March 1929. Presided over much of the ‘roaring Twenties’.
Herbert Hoover. President from March 1929 to March 1933. The Peak to Trough era.
Franklin D Roosevelt. President from March 1933 to April 1945. The ‘New Deal’ era and World War II.

The US Governments tried a number of stimulus packages. Many of Hoover’s were unsuccessful whereas Roosevelt’s New Deal were more successful. The Roosevelt era also saw the 1933 Homeowner’s Refinancing Act and the 1935 Social Security Act.

The New Deal also had measures to help farmers who had been hit by both Bank failures and the dust storms cause by over cropping.

The Consequences:

Many consequences of The Great Depression have been suggested, amongst them are:

The rise of Hitler and World War II
A change in public attitudes to risk taking.
A greater understanding for the need for regulation although many might question its effectiveness.
The role of Governments and Central Banks.

Hear the whole story by listening to this podcast.

Please note: Some of the views expressed and expressions used in this talk reflect views common during this period of history and do not reflect those of the speaker, Farnham U3A World History Group or The MrT Podcast Studio.

To view the photographs accompanying this talk:

These graphics are from the talk. For copyright reasons some of the photographs, recordings, newspaper headlines and cartoons used in the original talk have had to be omitted.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery: