Bono, Richard Dawkins and Al Gore Speaking at TED

in Uncategorized | March 9th, 2007

Every year, a thou­sand “thought-lead­ers, movers and shak­ers” get togeth­er at a four-day con­fer­ence

called TED (which is short for Tech­nol­o­gy, Enter­tain­ment and Design). In past years, the list of speak­ers has ranged from Sergey Brin and Lar­ry Page to Bill Gates, to Her­bie Han­cock and Peter Gabriel, to Frank Gehry and Bil­ly Gra­ham. This year Bill Clin­ton, Paul Simon, and Lar­ry Lessig are set to speak. It almost goes with­out say­ing that not just any­one can attend such an event. You’ll need an invi­ta­tion for starters, plus $4400 to cov­er admis­sion fees. If you can look past the coun­try club­bish­ness of the event, then you may find it worth spend­ing time with the audio (iTunes — Feed) and video (iTunes — Feed) pod­casts of talks from recent con­fer­ences. Some “vod­casts” you’ll want to check out include: Bono, Peter Gabriel, Richard Dawkins, Mal­colm Glad­well, and Al Gore. (We’re not sure what to say about Tony Rob­bins.)

The Stanford Prison Experiment

in Psychology, Video - Science | March 8th, 2007

Back in 1971, Philip Zim­bar­do, a Stan­ford psy­chol­o­gy pro­fes­sor, set up an exper­i­ment that quick­ly and now famous­ly went awry. Here, Zim­bar­do had under­grad­u­ates play the role of pris­on­ers and prison guards in a mock prison envi­ron­ment. Meant to last two weeks, the exper­i­ment was cut short after only six days when the guards, as The Stan­ford Prison Exper­i­ment web site puts it, “became sadis­tic and [the] pris­on­ers became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.” For Zim­bar­do, the way things played out says a lot about what hap­pens when good peo­ple are put in bad sit­u­a­tions. And it speaks to how tor­ture sce­nar­ios, like those at Abu Ghraib, become pos­si­ble. (For more on the par­al­lels between the prison exper­i­ment and the tor­ture in Iraq, you may want to check out Zim­bar­do’s talk at a recent con­fer­ence called “Think­ing Human­i­ty After Abu Ghraib.”

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Free Podcasts of Classic American and British Thrillers

in Books, Literature | March 6th, 2007

This American Life Goes Hollywood (or Something Like That)

in Media | March 5th, 2007

See Open Cul­ture’s Pod­cast Col­lec­tions:

Arts & Cul­ture — Audio Books — For­eign Lan­guage Lessons — News & Infor­ma­tion — Sci­ence — Tech­nol­o­gy — Uni­ver­si­ty (Gen­er­al) — Uni­ver­si­ty (B‑School)

The Podcast Library

in Uncategorized | February 28th, 2007

100s of cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al pod­casts. Email a friend about Open
Cul­ture.

• Arts & Cul­ture Pod­casts
• Audio Book Pod­casts
• For­eign Lan­guage Les­son Pod­casts
• News/Information Pod­casts
• Sci­ence Pod­casts
• Tech­nol­o­gy Pod­casts
• Uni­ver­si­ty Pod­casts — All
• Uni­ver­si­ty Pod­casts — Busi­ness School

Einstein’s E = mc2 Explained

in Science, Video - Science | February 28th, 2007

E = mc2. It’s hands-down the most well known equa­tion out there. But how many have the faintest idea what the equa­tion real­ly means? Not too long ago, PBS’ NOVA put togeth­er a “docu­d­ra­ma,” called Ein­stein’s Big Idea, which took a close look at how Ein­stein arrived at the equa­tion and what it means. Along with the pro­gram, NOVA pro­duced some relat­ed media resources, among which you’ll find a series of pod­casts (iTunes — Feed — mp3) fea­tur­ing 10 top physi­cists (includ­ing two Nobel Prize win­ners) who briefly explain the mean­ing and impor­tance of E = mc2. In addi­tion, and per­haps even bet­ter, they’ve post­ed an audio clip of Ein­stein him­self explain­ing what the equa­tion is all about. You’ll find many good resources here, so have a good look around.

If physics intrigues you, you should also check out a new Stan­ford course that’s being dis­trib­uted for free via video pod­cast. The course, Mod­ern The­o­ret­i­cal Physics: Quan­tum Entan­gle­ment, is pre­sent­ed by Leonard Susskind, whom many con­sid­er the father of string the­o­ry, a con­tro­ver­sial inno­va­tion in physics that squares quan­tum the­o­ry with rel­a­tiv­i­ty and explains the nature of all mat­ter and forces. Now, when Susskind dis­cuss­es quan­tum entan­gle­ment, he is sure­ly get­ting into some heady, cut­ting-edge stuff. But the good thing is that the very pop­u­lar course was pre­sent­ed through Stan­ford’s Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies Pro­gram (where I work, just to put my cards on the table), and was geared toward the gen­er­al pub­lic. The course is expect­ed to last a full year, and it should result in 30 free two-hour lec­tures, which will all be grad­u­al­ly post­ed online. You can find a more detailed course descrip­tion here.

Science Podcast Collection

in Science | February 24th, 2007

• All in the Mind iTunes Feed Web Site
  • An Aus­tralian pod­cast that explores the men­tal uni­verse — neu­ro­science real­ly — and takes a clear look at every­thing from addic­tion to arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence
• Astron­o­my Cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Take a week­ly facts-based jour­ney through the cos­mos with Astron­o­my Cast.
• Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Sci­ence Fes­ti­val (Video) iTunes Web Site
  
• CBC Quirks & Quarks Feed Web Site
  • Cov­ers every aspect of sci­ence, from the quirks of the expand­ing uni­verse to the quarks with­in a sin­gle atom…and every­thing in between.
• Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel Space Pod­cast iTunes Web Site
  • Video pod­casts that take you inside the world of NASA and deep space.
• Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel Video Pod­casts iTunes Web Site
  • A trove of video pod­casts from Dis­cov­ery.
• Earth & Sky Clear Voic­es Feed Web Site
  • Earth & Sky reporters inter­view sci­en­tists from around the world. Inter­views are gen­er­al­ly 7 to 15 min­utes in length.
• Ein­stein and the Mind of God
  • Part 1: Ein­stein’s God Feed MP3 Web Site
  • Part 2: Ein­stein’s Ethics Feed MP3 Web Site
• Explor­ing Envi­ron­men­tal His­to­ry Feed Web Site
  • A pod­cast about human soci­eties and the envi­ron­ment in the past. The peri­od­ic pro­grammes fea­ture inter­views with peo­ple work­ing in the field, reports on con­fer­ences and dis­cus­sions about the use and meth­ods of envi­ron­men­tal his­to­ry.
• Groks Sci­ence Radio Show and Pod­cast - iTunes — Feed — Web Site
  • Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Frank Ling take an in-depth look at recent events in the world of sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy, and exam­ine the effects of recent dis­cov­er­ies on our dai­ly lives.

• Guardian Unlim­it­ed - Sci­ence iTunes Feed

• Hmmm.… Krul­wich on Sci­ence iTunes Feed Web Site
  • NPR Sci­ence Cor­re­spon­dent Robert Krul­wich demys­ti­fies what’s dense and dif­fi­cult — even if you feel lost when it comes to sci­ence. Cov­er­age that can be delight­ful, mov­ing, fun­ny, per­haps even upset­ting.

• Jet Stream­ing iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Every week Jet Stream­ing brings an insid­er’s look at the weath­er and cli­ma­tol­ogy. It’s every­thing you want­ed to know about the weath­er, but were afraid to ask.
• Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Mag­a­zine (The Best of) iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Nation­al Geo­graph­ic needs no par­tic­u­lar intro­duc­tion.
• Nation­al Geo­graph­ic’s Wild Chron­i­cles iTunes Feed Web Site
  • “See the nat­ur­al world like nev­er before through the eyes of Nation­al Geo­graph­ic adven­tur­ers, sci­en­tists, researchers, and the extra­or­di­nary Crit­ter­cam.”
• NASAcast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A series of videos from NASA.
• Nature Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Nature, a high­ly respect­ed peer-reviewed sci­ence jour­nal, offers well pro­duced pod­casts that fea­ture sci­en­tists talk­ing about their cut­ting-edge research.
• New Sci­en­tist Pod­cast Feed Web Site
  • New Sci­en­tist’s week­ly pod­cast on all the lat­est sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy news and fea­tures, includ­ing guests from the world of sci­ence.
• NOVA iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A series of short videos (“vod­casts”) from the world of sci­ence.
• NOVA Sci­ence Now iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Irrev­er­ent sto­ries and intrigu­ing per­son­al­i­ties from the world of sci­ence.

• NOVA e = mc2 iTunes Web Site
  • Hear how 10 top physi­cists describe Ein­stein’s equa­tion in a few min­utes or less.

• Radi­o­Lab Site, iTunes, Web­site
  • An hour-long sci­ence show from WNYC — each episode tack­les a par­tic­u­lar issue through sev­er­al sto­ries.
• Sci­ence and Soci­ety iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A host of dis­tin­guished thinkers speak about inno­va­tions in sci­ence — nan­otech­nol­o­gy, space explo­rations, life sci­ences and more.
• Sci­ence Fri­day Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From the well known NPR pro­gram host­ed by Ira Fla­tow.
• Sci­ence Fri­day Video iTunes Web Site
  • From the well known NPR pro­gram host­ed by Ira Fla­tow.
• Sci­ence Mag­a­zine Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Audio­casts from Sci­ence Mag­a­zine.
• Sci­ence Talk: The Pod­cast of Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can iTunes Feed Web Site
  • The host, Steve Mirsky, explores the lat­est devel­op­ments in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy through inter­views with lead­ing sci­en­tists and jour­nal­ists.
• Sci­ence Times iTunes — RSS
  • Want to know more about black holes? Or progress in the cure for can­cer? Learn about the lat­est news and trends in sci­ence, med­i­cine and the envi­ron­ment from the reporters and edi­tors of the pop­u­lar Sci­ence Times sec­tion of The New York Times. David Cor­co­ran is your host.
• Slack­er Astron­o­my:iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Lots of slack­ing and astron­o­my.
• The Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity: iTunes Feed Web Site
  • The sto­ry of tech­no­log­i­cal progress is one of dra­ma and intrigue, sud­den insight and plain hard work. Explore tech­nol­o­gy’s spec­tac­u­lar fail­ures and many mag­nif­i­cent suc­cess sto­ries.
• The Miss­ing Link Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A pod­cast on the His­to­ry of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy, and Med­i­cine put out by Prof. Eliz­a­beth Green Mus­sel­man.
• The Naked Sci­en­tists iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Dr. Chris Smith, of Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty, takes an inter­ac­tive look at dif­fer­ent aspects of sci­ence, medecine and tech­nol­o­gy.
• The Sci­ence Show iTunes Feed Web Site
  • One of the longest run­ning and well-regard­ed sci­ence shows on Aus­tralian radio.
• The Skep­tics’ Guide to the Uni­verse iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A week­ly pod­cast that explores the world of the para­nor­mal and fringe sci­ence. It’s host­ed by Dr. Steven Novel­la is an aca­d­e­m­ic neu­rol­o­gist on full-time fac­ul­ty at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine.
• This Week in Sci­ence Feed Web Site
  • Self describes as: “A week­ly sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy radio show pre­sent­ing a humor­ous and irrev­er­ent look at the week in sci­ence and tech. Each week TWIS dis­cuss­es the lat­est in cut­ting edge sci­ence news on top­ics such as genet­ic engi­neer­ing, cyber­net­ics, space explo­ration, neu­ro sci­ence, and a show favorite Count­down to World Robot Dom­i­na­tion.”
• This Week in Virol­o­gy iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A week­ly pod­cast host­ed by two Pro­fes­sors from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. “We talk about virus­es — the kind that make you sick. The pod­cast cov­ers how virus­es work, how they make you sick, and the lat­est in news about virus­es.” You can find it at
• USGS Core­Cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From the US Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, Core­Cast brings you straight sci­ence insight on nat­ur­al haz­ards; cli­mate change; satel­lite imagery and mon­i­tor­ing; water qual­i­ty; human health and wildlife dis­ease; and much more. Tune into Core­Cast. It’s nat­ur­al sci­ence from the inside out.
• 60 Sec­ond Sci­ence iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can, lead­ing sci­ence jour­nal­ists offer a brief com­men­tary on the lat­est devel­op­ments in the world of sci­ence. Pre­sent­ed by Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can.
• 60 Sec­ond Psych iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Lead­ing sci­ence jour­nal­ists pro­vide a week­ly one-minute com­men­tary on the lat­est devel­op­ments in the sci­ence of brain and behav­ior. Pre­sent­ed by Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can.

College Bans Wikipedia

in Uncategorized | February 24th, 2007

A His­to­ry Depart­ment Bans Cit­ing Wikipedia as a Research Source

“…the Mid­dle­bury his­to­ry depart­ment noti­fied its stu­dents this month that Wikipedia could not be cit­ed in papers or exams, and that stu­dents could not “point to Wikipedia or any sim­i­lar source that may appear in the future to escape the con­se­quences of errors.

With the move, Mid­dle­bury, in Ver­mont, jumped into a grow­ing debate with­in jour­nal­ism, the law and acad­e­mia over what respect, if any, to give Wikipedia arti­cles, writ­ten by hun­dreds of vol­un­teers and sub­ject to mis­takes and some­times delib­er­ate false­hoods.“

See full arti­cle from The New York Times

See Open Cul­ture’s pod­cast col­lec­tions:

Arts & Cul­ture — Audio Books — For­eign Lan­guage Lessons — News & Infor­ma­tion — Tech­nol­o­gy — Uni­ver­si­ty (Gen­er­al) — Uni­ver­si­ty (B‑School)

Is America Broken?: A Talk with The Economist’s New Editor-in-Chief

in Media | February 16th, 2007

Even if you don’t agree with its Euro con­ser­v­a­tive pos­ture, The
Econ­o­mist always comes off as

emi­nent­ly ratio­nal and sen­si­ble when
grap­pling with polit­i­cal issues, and cer­tain­ly unwill­ing to put spin
ahead of good report­ing, which sep­a­rates it from many of its Amer­i­can
coun­ter­parts. This judi­cious­ness comes across in a talk giv­en last week
by John Mick­leth­wait, the mag­a­zine’s new­ly appoint­ed Edi­tor-in-Chief. (Access audio ver­sions here.) Inter­viewed by Orville Schell, Dean of the Grad­u­ate School of Jour­nal­ism at
UC-Berke­ley,
Mick­leth­wait cov­ers a lot of ground, but spends a good deal of time
con­tem­plat­ing Amer­i­ca’s role in the world, and par­tic­u­lar­ly whether
Amer­i­ca’s inter­na­tion­al lead­er­ship is now irre­triev­ably bro­ken. His com­mon sense answers pro­vide no red
meat for any­one on the left or right. But they’re thought­ful, and worth your time. (Just as an fyi, his talk does­n’t get start­ed until about 10 min­utes in, and he does­n’t get to inter­na­tion­al affairs until about the 29th minute.) Final­ly, on a relat­ed note, you may want to explore The Econ­o­mist’s rel­a­tive­ly new series of pod­casts: iTunes  Feed

For more pod­casts like it, see Open Cul­ture’s col­lec­tion of News & Infor­ma­tion Pod­casts and our Uni­ver­si­ty Pod­cast Col­lec­tion.

Welcome to the Islamic Reformation (and How to Make Sense of bin Laden)

in Religion | February 13th, 2007