The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 2 Comments
Somewhere during your day, you spot a great video, an enriching audio lecture, or an excellent free ebook. And you think, that’s perfect for Open Culture. So you shoot us a quick note, and the next thing you know, your personal discovery is live on the site, being shared with thousands of like-minded readers from [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 10 Comments
Yesterday, Jon Gordon (the host of Future Tense, a technology show aired by American Public Media) discussed the major tech innovations of the decade. At the end of the show (around the 49th minute), a caller asked: “What’s the neatest site, in terms of wow factor, that makes you say holy cow this is so [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Want to see every post that we have written since 2006? Then look back through our Archive. We just created it and added it to the site, partly in response to a reader request. You can permanently find the Archive in the second column, between “Essentials” and “Categories.” Enjoy.
≡ Category: Philosophy, Random | ≅ 1 Comment
What happens when Socrates tries to land a job at a university? It doesn’t go so well. Below, we have the comments returned by the interview committee, as imagined by THE (Times Higher Education). In this piece, you’ll also find Tolstoy, Kafka, Jane Austen and other geniuses coming up short with the search committees. Now to [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
A little something special for our readers courtesy of The Teaching Company…
If you’re not familiar with them, The Teaching Company provides a very nice service. The company travels across the US, and they record great professors lecturing on great topics. Their academic courses will appeal to almost any lifelong learner (see their rich catalogue of 200+ [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Voila, the 1899 precursor to this amazing 2009 bike stunt video originally found on the @courosa Twitter stream. And who can doubt that we’re making progress?
via Andrew Sullivan
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
When you’re reading The New York Times and stumble upon a word you don’t know, you can highlight it and the Times will give you the definition. Naturally, the Times keeps track of the definitions it provides. So what are the most commonly looked up words? You can find the top ten below. (Get a [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
A nice creative use of Legos. For $55, you can build The Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater, two Frank Lloyd Wright creations, with Legos. That’s right up there with Classic Photographs Remade Lego Style.
via BoingBoing
≡ Category: Media, Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
After 17 years of climbing the ladder, Dan Baum finally landed his dream job at The New Yorker. But things didn’t work out quite as he planned. On Twitter this week, Baum tells the story of his rise and fall. You can read a consolidated Twitter-style transcript here. A pretty intriguing look at what happens [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
At the TED Conference, actress Sarah Jones takes a funny look at “the invention of self,” which is a fancy way of saying she does some good impersonations. Coming up, Jones impersonates an elderly Jewish women, a young fast-talking Dominican college student, people from various nationalities (China, India, France, Germany, Jordan, etc.). And it’s all mixed with [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Just a quick fyi, we created a little Facebook page where you can access our daily content. So head over and become a “Fan.” And tell a friend.
Also, please note, you can find us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed. And remember that we’re now located at www.openculture.com
Have a good weekend.
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 4 Comments
Give this a minute. It gets quite good once it gets going. Thanks Philip for sending this along. (Readers always feel free to send intelligent audio & video our way.)
≡ Category: Most Popular, Online Courses, Random | ≅ 30 Comments
I was asked by a newspaper reporter today how people, like you, are using open university courses (such as those found in our collection of Free Courses). And the truth is, I’m not always sure. So I figured, why not put the question out there and ask you. Here it goes: How are you using these [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
Here’s a quick announcement, and please take note. Starting today, you can find Open Culture at www.openculture.com. Our old domain (oculture.com) will still work, as will old links. But they’ll forward (hopefully) seamlessly to the new domain. Why the change? Because it seemed time to have the url actually match the site’s name.
If you encounter [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
If you’re visiting Open Culture thanks to The New York Times article, and if you’re looking for audio downloads for your next road trip, then please explore our Audio & Podcast Collection, which includes (among other things) free audio books, free foreign language lessons, free university courses, and much more. You can download these audio files [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
File this clip (now added to our YouTube Favorites) under Random. See you next week.
via Alfred A. Knopf Twitter Feed (ours here)
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
Here’s what it looks like if you plant a camera in the same location for one year and snap photos throughout the changing seasons. Video is striking but random. So we’re filing it under “Random.”
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
What’s Thanksgiving without Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant?”
The video is below. The lyrics to the song, originally released in 1967, are here. An interview with Guthrie is here (use Real Player to listen).
Have a good holiday. We’ll be back on Monday (maybe sooner).
Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant
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