Shows
W5H Book ClubSPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: W5H is back!Hey everyone, we are back with a special announcement.!We are bringing the W5H Book Club approach to the world of Medical Humanities! Through medhum.org. Dave has started a new podcast called Apollo On Call, a monthly discussion about medical humanities. The goal of medhum is to explore the human condition as expressed through medicine, literature, and the arts. To that end, Luki will be joining him there for regular discussion about books and podcasts. Check us out at the link here:https://creators.spotify.com/pod/apollooncallThanks for...2025-04-1402 minW5H Book ClubLouisa Lim - The People's Republic of AmnesiaW5H discusses Louisa Lim's 2014 book on the events of Tiananmen Square 1989.2025-04-0744 minW5H Book ClubThe Struggle for Taiwan: A History by Sulmaan Wasif KhanThis month, Luki and Dave convene to talk about China through the lens of understanding the conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. 2024-10-1647 minW5H Book ClubWild Swans by Jung ChangThis month, we sit down to discuss Wild Swans by Jung Chang, an epic look at three generations of women in a Chinese family that spans the history of modern China from the turn of the century through the 1990s.2024-09-2452 minW5H Book ClubThe Party by. Richard McGregorThis month, Luki and Dave break down Richard McGregor's The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. We try to understand if the book really manages to lift the veil off one of the most secretive and powerful organizations in the world. 2024-09-1146 minW5H Book ClubFactory Girls by Leslie T. ChangFor our second book on China, the W5H team convenes to discuss Leslie T. Chang's book on the migrant worker phenomenon in China, circa early 2000s, when millions of young people, mostly women, left the countryside to seek out a new life in the booming country's factories and cities.2024-06-2546 minW5H Book ClubChina Witness by XinranWhat's the deal with China? Luki and Dave reconvene for a new season of W5H as they attempt to understand China and its place in the modern world.
China Witness is an oral history of modern China. From lantern makers to army generals, the writer Xinran gives us the stories of regular people in China, told in their own voices.2024-05-2844 minW5H Book ClubTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeW5H wraps up their season on classic literature by reading a classic, and now mostly banned, novel about justice in the 1930s American deep south.2024-02-0639 minW5H Book ClubThe Death of Ivan Illych by Leo TolstoyIn the season's penultimate episode, W5H breaks down one of Leo Tolstoy's shorter works, The Death of Ivan Illych and ponders the meaning of death, as well as life.2024-01-0942 minW5H Book ClubPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenW5H reads their first novel by a woman, the original rom-com novel. Is it possible for two 21st century Asian guys to appreciate Jane Austen? Well, at least we tried...2024-01-0246 minW5H Book ClubOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia MarquezGabriel Garcia Marquez's famous novel is considered by many to be the defining work of Latin American literature. Beautiful, magical, and just plain weird, join us as we take a look at this 20th century magic carpet ride of a novel.2023-12-2742 minW5H Book ClubA Passage to India by E.M. ForsterW5H takes a look at the British colonial experience in India through the lens of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India. The novel looks at pre-partition India and the tinder box of different ethnicities and cultures that threatened to light at any moment. Race, identity politics, and who should be telling the story of the oppressed?2023-12-1843 minW5H Book ClubThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest HemingwayThe W5H team dives back into the 21st century as they discuss Ernest Hemingway's post WW1 classic, the Sun Also Rises. 2023-12-1040 minW5H Book ClubWalden by Henry David ThoreauLuki and Dave convene to discuss the classic, original anti-establishment, minimalist, naturalist, environmentalist manifesto. Henry David Thoreau spent a few years living out in the wilderness at Walden Pond, and penned one of the most highly thought of American works of naturalism. But is it truly a great read, or just the ramblings of a crank? 2023-11-2944 minW5H Book ClubThe Iliad by HomerW5H reviews one of the landmark works of western literature, the original gangster of all epic action movies, the Iliad by Homer. Was it a dud, or is it really deserving of the title of one of the greatest literary works of all time? 2023-11-2339 minW5H Book ClubKing Lear - by William ShakespeareThis week, Luki and Dave dig into the recesses of their high school curriculum and plow through a classic they've never read before. Should they have just left well enough alone? Stay tuned.2023-09-2933 minW5H Book ClubAnimal Farm by George OrwellSeason 2 of W5H kicks off and we are venturing into literary fiction for the first time with a reading of the classic allegory Animal Farm.2023-09-0547 minW5H Book ClubThe End of Education by Zack SlaybackThe End of Education marks the end of season 1 of W5H and the end of our discussion about "What is wrong with Education." We take a look at Zack Slayback's book, and then round out our season with an overall breakdown of what we have learned through these 11 books.2023-05-0846 minW5H Book ClubEducated by Tara WestoverIf you've made it this far into our podcast season reading list, then you are in for a real treat. Tara Westover's memoir about her own journey in education is eye opening and fascinating. If ever a book about home schooling could be called thrilling and exhilarating, this is it. If you only read one of the books we read this year in our discussion about what is wrong with education, make this the one.2023-03-2751 minW5H Book ClubSavage Inequalities by Jonathan KozolThe W5H team breaks down Jonathan Kozol's classic book Savage Inequalities. Published in 1991, the book is considered a landmark work in its brutal depiction of the failure of the education system and the issues of poverty that lie at the heart of America's education crisis.2023-01-0645 minW5H Book ClubNothing Less than Great: Reforming Canada’s Universities by. Harvey P. WeingartenThis week, the W5H team breaks down Harvey P. Weingarten's treatise on the state of the Canadian University education system. How do Canadian universities stack up agains the world's best? Is there a more compelling argument in favour of a university education than the fact that university graduates earn more money? What about Co-op? And problem based learning?2022-11-2158 minW5H Book ClubSingapore's Education System, Myth and Reality by Rodney KingThis month, Luki and Dave break down the much ballyhooed Singapore education system. Is it the world renowned educational beast that it purports to be? Or is it something more sinister?2022-10-1052 minW5H Book ClubA Critical Look at Education in Canada - Paul Bennett's The State of the SystemThis month, W5H reconvenes to discuss The State of the System: A Reality Check on Canada's Schools, by Paul W. Bennett. The book is a critical look at the state of public education in Canada, with discussions on topics as wide ranging as French Immersion and busing. What does the W5H think about education in their home country? Are we just a country of complainers when it comes to government programs? Have a listen and find out.2022-09-2451 min
W5H Book ClubWorld Class Education the Finnish WayThis month, W5H breaks down In Teachers We Trust: The Finnish Way to Worldclass Schools by Pasi Sahlberg and Timothy Walker. Did you know that Finland has one of the world's pre-eminent education systems? What is it that makes it so strong and why does it work? Luki and Dave endeavour to find out and see if that success replicable in North America.2022-06-1047 minW5H Book ClubWho's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon - Yong Zhao on Education in ChinaThis week, the W5H Book Club looks at Yong Zhao's Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World. While the western world looks on in awe at China's performance on international standardized tests, Yong Zhao shows us why the Chinese themselves are actively trying to reform their own system and why it would be a mistake for the west to try to copy it.
Music: Play it Again by Christopher Norton, performed by Victoria Hsu2022-04-191h 01W5H Book ClubSlaying Goliath - Diane Ravitch on the Dark Side of Charter SchoolsW5H dives into Slaying Goliath by Diane Ravitch, a close examination of the failures of the charter school system in the United States, and exposes the realities behind the education reforms of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Music: Play it Again by Christopher Norton, performed by Victoria Hsu2022-03-0445 minW5H Book ClubLimitless Mind by Jo Boaler - Changing How We Learn MathThis week, W5H takes a look at Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler, a mathematics educator and professor at Stanford University who wants people to overhaul the way mathematics is taught and learned, by pushing people towards a growth mindset and overturning many traditionally held beliefs about math and education.
Music: Play it Again by Christopher Norton, performed by Victoria Hsu2022-03-041h 03
W5H Book ClubWeapons of Mass Instruction - John Taylor Gatto Wants Us to Blow Up the School SystemLuki and Dave discuss John Taylor Gatto's angry polemic "Weapons of Mass Instruction" and his theory that schools exist to help propagate an elite class that profits off the students that it trains to become consumption-happy conformists. In the process, he argues that many impressive people did not require formal education, challenges the orthodoxy of sending our kids to school, and invites us to consider "unschooling" or letting our children explore the world on foot. Do we agree with his theories? What should we do with these ideas as parents and educators?
This is the 1st in a...2022-01-2859 min