Freudianism may no longer be in vogue. But, even so, Sigmund Freud remains one of the most envelope-pushing thinkers of the past century, someone still worth getting to know. In this lecture, Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom offers a primer on Freud and Freudian thought. The lecture is part of a larger free course (20 lectures in total) called “Introduction to Psychology.” You can access the course via the Yale Open Course web site, YouTube and iTunesU.
This podcast (get it here) presents the thoughts of Scott Sigler–media maven, NY Times Bestselling Author of INFECTED and CONTAGIOUS (both available free as podcasts), podiobook dynamo, and social networking mastermind–on none other than “how will people read books in the near future?”
In this repodcast of his keynote speech at this year’s Balticon conference, Scott talks about how he built a HUGE online fan base for his fiction, landed a major publishing deal with Crown Books, reached NY Times bestseller status, and why he insists that giving his fiction away for free is the best marketing around.
He presents his thoughts on Big Publishing, small publishing, smart-phones vs. the Kindle, and perhaps most importantly, lays out the methods by which he pre-sold 1,500 copies of his new, self-published novel THE ROOKIE this April via his own website, scottsigler.com. That’s right: Forget print-on-demand and its higher cost-per-book. Scott breaks down how he pre-sold enough books to pay for an entire print run before THE ROOKIE ever went to press! It’s a model so far ahead of everyone else that we’ve got to take notes!
To download this file and listen to it on your own time, on your iPod or similar device, simple right click this link: DOWNLOAD and choose “Save Link as…” on a Mac, or “Save File” on a PC.
Or listen to it right here:
Seth Harwood, the author of JACK WAKES UP, will be teaching an online course (The Gripping Read) with Stanford Continuing Studies. And he’ll also be teaching an Author Bootcamp with Scott Sigler on Stanford’s campus on November 7 and 14. Each course only has a few slots still open.
Even though we sometimes give Amazon’s Kindle a hard time, the device is undoubtedly handy for reading e‑books. The Kindle lets you seamlessly download books straight from Amazon in a matter of seconds. And, even better, you can load the Kindle with thousands of free e‑books from sources such as Project Gutenberg. (Few people know this.) This guide will show you how to download a free book from Project Gutenberg, and then read it on your Kindle. You can also find many free ebooks for the Kindle in our Free eBook collection.
Once you’ve found a book that you want to download, download it in MOBI format if possible. If no MOBI format exists, then using plain text works as well.
Step 3:
After your download is complete, plug in your Kindle to your computer’s USB port. The Kindle will show up as a USB Drive.
Step 4:
Go to the Documents directory on your Kindle.
Step 5:
Copy the e‑book file to the Documents folder. You can optionally rename the file to something more meaningful if you’d like.
Step 6:
The silver cursor on your Kindle will begin to spin. When it stops, the Kindle is finished syncing. Now you can eject and unplug your Kindle and enjoy your free ebook!
Fred Hsu designed the handy Open Culture app. Give it a spin. It’s free and it’s good for you.
How can the web advance the progress of science? It’s a big question, obviously. And some smart folks have something to say about it. Here we have Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly Media, one of the leading tech publishers), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia Founder), Stephen Friend (founder of Rosetta Inpharmatics and former EVP at Merck Research Laboratories) and John Willbanks (VP and head of the Science Commons project at Creative Commons) offering their thoughts. The conversation was held on July 28th at the The Commonwealth Club of California.
One month you’re the governor of Illinois; the next you’re indicted and kicked out of office for trying to sell President Obama’s Senate seat; and several months later, you wind up imitating Elvis at block parties. Oh how the mighty have fallen. The money moment comes 50 seconds in. Have a good weekend. Back to serious stuff next week.
J.M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. This coming December, Viking will release his latest novel, Summertime. The New York Review of Books recently published two excerpts from the book (here and here). And you can now listen to Coetzee read the first of the two excerpts. It’s called “Undated Fragments.” It’s available in the following formats: MP3 — iTunes — RSS Feed. In the meantime, we’ve added the New York Review of Books podcast to our collection of Ideas & Culture Podcasts, which can also be accessed through our Free iPhone App.
We're hoping to rely on loyal readers, rather than erratic ads. Please click the Donate button and support Open Culture. You can use Paypal, Venmo, Patreon, even Crypto! We thank you!
Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media. We find the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.