I’ve always been a person who tried to continue learning about new things. Over the years, those, this ended up being a piecemeal effort. When I read books, it was mostly novels. When I read non-fiction, it was often news articles.
Recently, I’ve been taking advantage of a lot of Audible deals. (Editor’s Note: Kosmo admits to his e-content hoarding addiction, but it’s a good thing.) I’d get a couple months free, when a new deal to get a few months and half price, and then later, rinse, repeat. During this time, I realized that I could use audio books to easily consume some non fiction books. I set a goal of 50-75 hours of academic listening per year.
I could have used Ted Talks or even podcasts to achieve this, but I decided that I wanted a fairly deep dive into topics. While poking around on Audible, I found the Great Courses series. For the cost of one Audible credit ($14.95), I can get 12-25 hour lectures on a variety of topics.
Naturally, I started with the Big Bang, in the Big History course. It’s a 24+ hour course that covers time from the Big Bang until modern day. Obviously, this is at a very high level and is looking more at overarching trends than at the details.
With history out of the way, I turned to Genetics and spent 12 hours listening to discussions of things like short tandem repeats. I’ve always had an interest in genetics and read articles on the subject, but I was surprised at how many concepts I was unaware of.
Currently, I’m in the middle of Economic History of the World Since 1400. I’m just about at the point where the printing press has been invented. They voyage to the present day should be interesting.
I’m not the only one who is learning from these lectures. I have two kids, age nine and seven. My nine year old, in particular, tends to listen to the audio books I’m playing in the car. In the past several months, we’ve had discussions about the expansion of the universe, Gregor Mendel’s research on pea plants, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the attempt of Europeans to find sea routes to Asia. One of these days, I’m going to work with her on some Punnett squares.
Where will our next book take us? I don’t know. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, it’s about the journey, right?
Editor’s Note: This article is very positive about The Great Courses. Neither me nor Kosmo (to the best of my knowledge) have received any compensation from the company. I have a few of the Audible books from The Great Courses myself, but I haven’t listened to them yet.
I get them from the library and rip them. I have listened to 277 of the courses!
That’s a lot of study time!
All done while driving or in the shower so no time actually used :)
I haven’t checked out the Great Courses series yet but am totally addicted to BBCs In Our Time podcasts. Heady academic deep dives into topics in history, philosophy, culture, etc. Great stuff!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/downloads
The History of Rome is also one of my favorites. A total of 192 15-minute episodes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-rome/id261654474?mt=2
@ Alan – wow, that’s impressive. The multi-tasking aspect is a great benefit. It’s such a great way to kill time while mowing the lawn or shoveling now.
@ Vogel – I’ll have to check those out.
Since I wrote this, there was a deal on Amazon where you could get a year of Audible (with 12 credits) for $100. Basically half off. I immediately jumped at the chance and have cashed in 5 of the credits already. I was able to lower the cost even more during a recent 2-for-1 sale. The selection of 2 for 1 books is always very limited, but I found a novel that I wanted (Shadow Prey by John Sandford) as well as a Great Courses audio book (The Economics of Uncertainty). I’m currently listening to the history of the Civil War.
Check you local library to see if they offer a service called Hoopla. Offers a lot of audio content that you can stream or download for free.