Tales Of The World

In this episode Tales of the world takes an experimental route to make a point. Enjoy a multi-track and polyvocal creation taking a stab at the fact that we are so well informed on just about everything, and yet, somehow, we can’t or won’t go beyond that.

It is fitting to start the new season of Tales of the world podcasts with a news story arc that happened in Geneva this August. It was broken to the public by the very local newspaper Tribune de Genève, which, for three whole days, knew the glory of being quoted and mentioned by the global … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 70 – Of (UN) interns and men →

En littérature, on sait qu’on se trouve devant un classique quand chacun qui le lit, et même ceux qui ne l’ont pas lu, trouve quelque chose de fort à en dire, que ce soit positif ou bien critique. Quand les échos d’une œuvre dépassent et vont bien au-delà de son message, au prix de l’obscurcir … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 69 – La crise grecque un dialogue de sourds à l’européenne →

On actionable insight and the topics that the chronicle will be looking into in the near future. Thank you for listening after so long an absence on my part! Best, Ruxandra

Sense and meaning are the two pillars on which Western civilisation and discourse are built. No matter the depths of despair or heights of euphoria onto which history may push us, the first reflex we have is to make sense of them. Rationalisation is one of the pitfalls of this passion as is the fact … Continue reading Dostoyevsky and Putin, our contemporaries →

On a sunny day in January 2015, while taking a break from very serious interviews in Kathmandu, we went for a visit at the Swayambhunath temple (the monkey temple). Amidst many playful and warring monkeys we also found a singing bowls shop, owned by Saran Sahi, a real artist, who very gracefully shared some of … Continue reading The singing bowls of Kathmandu →

This week, December 5th, Tales of the World celebrates three years of existence. Three years of mostly incompetent international relations, dismal economics, some of the bloodiest and animalistic conflicts in recent memory and a general sense of dissolution and dissatisfaction with the world as we know it…  Music from Amparo Sanchez, Rio Turbio

Le titre choisi pour cette chronique, « 25 ans après », vous rappelle-t-il un autre ? Pour un féru des aventures des mousquetaires d’Alexandre Dumas, la réponse est évidente, mais, au cas où vous ne les connaissez pas, « 20 ans après » est un roman qui reprend la vie mouvementée du royaume de France et de 4 de ses … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 65 – 25 ans après →

Last week the Nobel Prize Committee announced that this year, the Nobel Prize for medicine went to three researchers for their groundbreaking work on discovering and confirming the existence of what the media calls the “inner GPS” of the brain, a system of “place” and “grid” cells, which, when activated, explain humans’ ability of orienting … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 64 – Of rats and men →

Dernièrement, j’appréhende les événements et l’analyse de l’actualité en lisant et écoutant des œuvres littéraires. Je trouve que, de près ou de loin, les histoires que je lis arrivent à exprimer très bien le désespoir ou l’enthousiasme de telle ou telle situation contemporaine, l’ingéniosité d’une invention ou l’extrémisme des attitudes. Je ne vous donnerai pas … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 63 – Si par une nuit d’automne… →

Many things are currently creeping into our existence, under our benevolent, but mostly disinterested and ignorant gaze. With our senses numbed or dizzied by the hardships of everyday life and the spectacle of cruelty and incompetence on the international scene, we might even see their advance, without feeling that we can do anything about it.  … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 62 – The rise of the robots →

Le trait définitoire d’un univers qui bascule, d’un monde qui change, d’un ordre qui se défait est l’avènement des mots, de situations, des pensées et des actes qui juste la veille étaient considérés comme impensables et inadmissibles. Non pas que leur existence de fait fût impossible, mais plutôt … inacceptable. Curieusement, ceci est aussi ce … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 61- De l’autre côté du miroir et ce que l’on y trouve →

Do you remember what you learnt about  WW1 and the epoch surrounding it when you studied it in school or at university? The story went like this: world war 1 was the conflict which was meant to end all conflicts, it signified the end of the long 19th century and ushered a new world order. … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 60 – When things fall apart →

L’Etat, est-il juste la somme de ses composantes ou leur sublimation ? Afin de répondre à cette question, j’ai pensé à une analogie culinaire se référant à mon enfance.  Après tout, il me semble que L’Etat, c’est comme la mayonnaise :  

What do the Tienanmen square 25 year commemoration, the X-men, Thomas Piketty – the author of the much debated Capital in the 21st century and Michael Lewis – the author of the best seller Flash boys – the money code, have in common?  

Quand les affaires du monde atteignent une certaine vitesse de croisière, à savoir, les différentes factions combattantes s’entretuent de manière régulière en Syrie, Ukrainiens et Russes continuent la ronde absurde de démagogie et violence, l’Europe s’enfonce lentement dans une indifférence meurtrière, la Thaïlande ré-invente le concept de coup d’état, l’Inde choisit un meurtrier en masse … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 57 – La rumeur du monde est un blanc →

Acronyms, abbreviations and hashtags. Credit cards, smart phone apps and bookmarks. Promises, repression and lies, our lives are full of shortcuts to knowledge, information, power, wealth and entertainment. Everyday, whether we need them or not, we take them, every day, whether we like it or not, someone else takes them, too. Growing up in Romania … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 56 – Shortcuts →

Cela fait quelque temps que je suis tentée d’écrire un podcast sur la série américaine qui nous a tous conquis avec ses sanguinaires intrigues et crimes amoraux, que nous connaissons en français sous le nom du Trône de fer et en anglais, de Game of Thrones… la question qui se pose le pus souvent, et … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 55 – Le Trône de fer ou la vie de tous les jours au 21ème siècle →

“We speak so much of memory, because there is so little of it left”, Pierre Nora, French historian and identity scholar tells us. Not only that, but it would also seem that, while we commemorate the tragic highlights of our civilisation’s inhumanity with a view to hopefully avoid their repetition, almost each time we show … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 54 – Of memory and history, WWI and the Rwandan genocide →

Buying furniture in an IKEA shop is perhaps one of the most uncontroversially universal experiences of modern life. We know that even Syrian refugees and Indian fakirs are not spared the trials and tribulations of the products of the IKEA imperium. Much as I wanted to avoid it, I was not spared, either. To make … Continue reading Tales of the world episode 52 – Life fragments, fragments of life →