Dukakis Center hosts two podcasts on modern Greek history
The Dukakis Center hosted two podcasts on key episodes in modern Greek history in the month of May 2021, with a view toward launching a new series of video and audio programs on Greek history in collaboration with the local web tv program Anixneusis.
The first podcast, which was recorded on May 17, featured Mary Beth Norton, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of History Emerita at Cornell University and former President of the American Historical Society, author most recently of “1774: The Long Year of Revolution.”
Professor Norton appeared with Aristides Hatzis, Professor of Philosophy of Law and Theory of Institutions at the University of Athens, author of a forthcoming book on the Greek Revolution and host of a lively series of podcasts on the significance of 1821 in Greek history.
The pair engaged in a discussion on the American and Greek revolutions in comparative context, and on the impact of 1776 on Greeks in the decade of the 1820s. The discussion included a reflection on the meaning of the bicentennial celebration of the Greek Revolution.
The produced recording of the session was later broadcast by veteran Thessaloniki journalist Pantelis Savvidis on the Anixneusis web tv program, and uploaded on the YouTube channel of the Dukakis Center.
The second podcast was recorded on May 14, and consisted of a presentation of the posthumously published book by the late Monteagle Stearns, US Ambassador to Greece in 1981-85, entitled “Gifted Greek: The Enigma of Andreas Papandreou.”
Presenting the book were Ambassador Stearns’ widow, Antonia (Toni), and translator and longtime friend and colleague of Ambassador Stearns Eleni Machaira-Odoni, formerly of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.
The discussion ranged from the Stearns’ decades long acquaintance with Andreas Papandreou, former Greek Prime Minister, to the unique character of Ambassador Stearns’ book, written partly in the form of a memoir.
The session was also in effect a tribute to Ambassador Stearns, who passed away in May 2016 after a long illness. Ambassador Stearns had appeared twice at the Dukakis Center, in person in 2004, and via telecast from Harvard University in 2011, in the presence of Ambassador Pavlos Apostolides.
The audio track of the second podcast was edited and uploaded also on the YouTube channel of the Dukakis Center. A formal presentation of the Greek translation, due out imminently with Estia, is planned for September.
