My name is Isaac Meyer, and I’m a former PhD student at the University of Washington, specializing in modern Japan (with sub-specializations in modern China, modern Europe, and international relations). Today, I work as a teacher at an independent school in the Seattle area.
I also have a tendency to go off on random historical tangents. One day, I decided to combine these two traits in podcast form, and thus was born the History of Japan Podcast!
In 2018, I decided start the Criminal Records Podcast with my wife, Demetria Spinrad. This podcast gives me the chance to talk about world history–and the weird, wonderful world of historical crime and punishment.
This was an amazing lecture. Like a comment for Sam’s previous cast, I was challenged by his speaking pace and I’m a native speaker. Once I slowed the cast down to 0.9, though, and listened when I had zero distractions, I was fine…and I’m glad I did. It was one of the most informative 40 minutes I’ve spent on my Asian Studies journey. It was interesting to draw parallels between Japan and the US.
I’m curious if Sam would possibly be able to speak on homosexuality and transsexuality in Japan, both in antiquity and modern times, in culture and society. As a well-educated and professional woman who just happens to also be lesbian and transsexed, I am always curious to learn more about how those like me came along in non-western cultures. Isaac has alluded to homosexuality at times, but I’d love to see it examined in greater detail. This especially given the very current (circa Spring 2015) issue of recognition of marriage equality in Japan where prefectures are “going rogue” on the subject.
Insightful, thanks a lot!
It would be great if you could make the illustrations mentioned in the show available?
Cheers,
I found this subject extremely interesting, however being not native speaker for me is a bit hard to fully catch up with text and wording, Is it possible to get text version of this lecture?
I’m afraid not. Sam Timinsky may have published some things in the meanwhile that you can find on this subject.