Listen in for the third episode of the Beijing Blender Podcast. Kor-E, AliKlay, ChrisCook, Juliluu the Beijing Love Guru and Margovera as the Beijing Blender Allstars play a little pun fun with the new president-elect Barack Obama. Juliluu, the Beijing Love Guru pairs up two beautiful Beijingers seeking to fall hopelessly in love while Aliklay, the Queen of the Quasi-employed opens eyes to opportunities at making bank. Chriscook sheds light on some travel deals planned for playing possum with the pandas, MargoVera gives Nonameatall a little bit of advice on dating in the Chinese capital city, and Kor-E concludes this release of the Beijing Blender with recommendations for the weekend's hottest parties.

Listen in for the second episode of The Beijing Blender Podcast. With Juliluu the Beijing Love Guru away on business at the Lovemaster2008 Conference, Kor-E, AliKlay, ChrisCook, and Margo hold down the kitchen mixing up some post-Halloween goodies. Starting the show off, the Beijing Blender Allstars give a review on Kanye West's performance at Beijing's Worker's Gymnasium. AliKlay covers some good and humorous job offers, ChrisCook covers some incredible getaway deals in China and a practical tip of the week, while Margo explains why, although its a man's duty to please that booty, there's still an additional price to pay.

The Beijing Blender is produced by a talented team of people working outside our office, the Blender offers you a rich mix of the best events, classifieds and other great stuff taking place on our site. Below we let the Beijing Blender team introduce themselves:

We're proud to present the latest addition to the thebeiinger.com stable - The Beijing Blender Podcast. Produced by a talented team of people working outside our office, the Blender offers you a rich mix of the best events, classifieds and other great stuff taking place on our site. Below we let the Beijing Blender team introduce themselves:

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• 9:21 minutes (6.42 MB)
• download the Beijing Blender podcast

True to its name, the Beijing Blender Podcast takes the various goings on in China’s capital city and gives it to you in a nice, convenient carry-away package, downloadable to your mp3 player. The crew of the Beijing Blender has dedicated themselves to creating a platform for fun and creativity that rests on the pulse of the Beijing scene.

In many ways the BBC's Reith Lectures are a classic example of the British public broadcaster's penchant for busying itself with the moral improvement and edification of their listeners. Inviting serious intellectuals and public figures to talk about the "big issues" of the day, the lectures often take on a didactic tone. However, this year's series of five lectures, presented by eminent China scholar Jonathan Spence, manages to do a better job of upholding the institution's stated mission of informing, educating and entertaining (though a few people on our forum disagree). The first two lectures in the China Vista series have already been broadcast and are available on the BBC's website here. We especially recommend the second episode, English Lessons, and also the Q and A sessions that follow both of the talks.

Professor Spence is one of the most well-known Sinologists in the English speaking world. He has published many influential works, including The Search of Modern China (you can read the full text selected excerpts here), which, even today, still serves as a popular choice of textbook for undergraduate courses on modern China. His latest work, Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man, is similar to many of his earlier works in that it draws on the writings of a historical figure to offer broader insights into a particular phase of Chinese history. In this case Spence focuses on the writings of essayist and historian Zhang Dai (1597–1689) and uses them to reveal details about the tumultuous period of Chinese history during which the Qing replaced the Ming Dynasty.

The Pizza buffettes are back with another episode of Pizza Buffet. This week they're joined by special guest Austin Ramzy. Adriane Quinlan (the World-Weary Sleuth) offers the following by way of introduction to this week's episode:

The Pizza Buffet girls went partying last weekend and they took their microphone with them. Adriane Quinlan (the World-Weary Sleuth) offers the following by way of introduction to this week's episode of Pizza Buffet:

We've run into some technical difficulties getting the Beijinger Podcast online today, and while we work on fixing the problems, we're happy to recommend that latest episode of Pizza Buffet to tbjblog readers.

In the future, we'll be linking to new episodes of Pizza Buffet as they become available. Adriane Quinlan (the World-Weary Sleuth) offers the following by way of introduction to the podcast: