Scientists for the People | AEON Magazine

“‘There are two types of popularisers,’ he wrote for a broad scientific audience in 1929. The first ‘feigns sympathy with the less educated’, but takes a condescending tone and ‘grows cranky’ without the ‘crutch’ of ‘jargon and ‘mathematical formulas’. The second takes ‘pleasure and pride’ in letting go of those crutches and succeeds in raising ‘the reader and himself into a more general sphere that lies above that of technical expertise’. If the first type of populariser was arrogant and paternalistic, the second displayed humility and respect for the non-scientist.”

Read the Article | AEON Magazine | Deborah R Coen

I was enchanted by the photo used as a banner: A young family listening to a radio broadcast in Spandau, Germany in 1927. The writer and theorist Walter Benjamin hoped that the radio would be as much a medium for the production of knowledge among listeners as for its dissemination. Photo by AKG

and to be honest I didn’t know who Walter Benjamin was. The unpleasant feeling of one’s ignorance is easily alleviated now-days ( a bit of sarcasm here) with a path well known: Wikipedia as a starting point ( yes, I know that it is not perfect but it is a starting point ) and then one can go as deep as time allows. I found an article published in 2015 in Los Angeles Review of Books : Radio and Child: Walter Benjamin as Broadcaster by Brían Hanrahan which I would like to recommend to read in its entirety while reproducing a short excerpt here:

“The bulk of his radio work comprised 20- to 30-minute talks written for an audience of young listeners. Along with travel pieces and a series on Berlin arcana, they include talks on a dizzying range of topics. Dipping into demotic history, Benjamin turns his attention to, among other things, swindlers and con men, robber bands and witch trials, gypsies and bootleggers, the Lisbon earthquake and the fall of the Bastille.”

Have you children ( I’m thinking about 10-12 years old) ever listened to the radio? Podcasts, maybe ?