#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/17/25

Author

Ben Waber
January 17, 2025

A selfie of me in front of a completely frozen, snow-covered bend in the Charles River on a clear, sunny day. Some dry swamp juts out into the smooth, white surface, which is painted by the long shadows of trees. On the far bank is a mostly bare forest. I'm a middle-aged white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing a black winter hat, black sunglasses, and a black running jacket over a blue running sweatshirt over a red shirt.

It was a cold but lovely day in Boston, and luckily I was able to get out for a shorter run and listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting symposium on the history of statistical process control at the Royal Statistical Society with Penny Reynolds, John Aldrich, Dr. Jonathan Smyth-Renshaw, and Roland Caulcutt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3hxmbMdeDo

Next was "Pogrom" by Steven Zipperstein, who starts this deeply researched book by reviewing the history of Jews in Eastern Europe in the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th - detailing how my ancestors migrated, lived, and worked in societies that sometimes tolerated them and was given to spurts of violence against them. Then he digs into the Kishinev pogrom and its aftermath, going into (probably too much) detail about the events themselves and the role that the telegraph played in quickly transmitting those atrocities to the world. The strong connection with the subsequent publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other movements across the world are also considered in fascinating detail. Highly recommend https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631495991

Last was "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli. This is a beautifully written book (and read by Benedict Cumberbatch if you opt for the audiobook!), and clearly explains how our concept of time breaks down at extremely large distances and at the edges of physical reality. Rovelli makes these mind-bending concepts accessible with analogies and careful explanations, but if you're like me you'll probably have to noodle a bit on things like how the perspective of atom-based entities will necessarily perceive entropy increasing only from our particular blurred perspective of the whole of reality. The book would be better off without the fairly unhelpful (and somewhat inaccurate) neuroscience-y chapter, but you can easily skip it. Overall, this is a great book that gives a clear, introductory idea of what time really is in its true essence. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551483/the-order-of-time-by-carlo-rovelli/