I spend a lot of time driving in my car for work (5 hours today, 6 hours yesterday). I am all alone and the radio sucks. So I listen to speeches, interviews and lectures on my iPod. I recently finished The Teaching Company’s History of Ancient Rome course, which was great. I am looking for other audio courses, but I thought I would try out what all the young kids are into now: podcasts. Looking on the iTunes store I found a few interesting podcasts including the Military History Podcast which serves up “the strangest anecdotes, innovative technology, and most significant events of Military History.” Though the broadcaster is a bit dry (show some emotion!), the content is of fairly high quality, especially for something directed at a K-12 audience.
I would like to try and track down some more interesting podcasts in the fields of history, IR, and military affairs as well as anything on technology and innovation (the brilliant TED Talks, for example). If you know of any I would love to hear your recommendations in the comments.
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COMMENTS / 12 COMMENTS
amida added these pithy words on 20 Feb 07 at 12:59 pmYou might already know about the BBC’s In Our Time—recent episodes have focused on Archimedes, Genghis Khan, and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Chirol added these pithy words on 20 Feb 07 at 4:08 pmI subscrbed to the Military HIstory Podcast too. The broadcaster is horrid. Shame because the content looked great.
May I recommend the CATO institute, AEI, Carnegie Endowment, Hudson Institute and Jamestown foundation. If you browse their sites (usually under events) you can pick up lots of movies and podcasts. I’ve got gigs and gigs from those sources.
ElamBend added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 12:57 amCheck out Twelve Byzantine Emperors
It is a great primer into the end of Rome, sorry, Byzantium. It’s a great reminder of the debt western Europe owes Byzantium and that Greek contibution to civilization, both Western and the Middle East, didn’t end with the ancients. It really covers a subject that is largely ignored in western Europe and North America.
James added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 2:57 amYH,
I would recommend the Open Culture weblog if you don’t already know about it. They basically just keep track of any interesting educational podcasts out there.
I would also second Chirol on both the Cato daily podcast and event feed (they recently had a great talk on Iran). There is also the University Channel Podcast, and the Council on Foreign Relations puts some of their lectures on podcast. Finally, lots of universities put their lectures on podcast (Open Culture has links to all those).
Oh, and I’m told that neweurasia might start doing casts at some point… but it sure won’t be me!
Daniel Nexon added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 6:22 amWant to hear an 1:15 lecture on the dynamics of empires? I might be able to backchannel you with information about how to download it… :-)
Younghusband added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 11:25 amYou bet! Emailing you now!
Thanks for all the great suggestions guys. Keep ‘em coming!
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 9:06 pmI second the 12 Byzantine Emperors series. It’s been getting more and more play, and I’m currently up to Basil. The entry on Justinian describes Constantinople’s Vietnam (Italy) quite well—while not using that term—and Heraclius is as triumphant as he is tragic.
Plus, Irene is bitch—every Hillary-hater’s nightmare parody.
samo added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 9:30 pmStratfor has a decent podcast, though it comes in 2 minute blurbs. And the University Channel is pretty good. The Council on Foriegn Relations has started posting some of their meetings. Plus Berkley has been posting a lot of their lectures online…
ElamBend added these pithy words on 21 Feb 07 at 10:19 pmActually, Stanford has a lot of stuff online also. Plus, I second Dan’s characterization of Irene.
Scott added these pithy words on 22 Feb 07 at 1:30 amThe Teaching Company puts out some really excellent work. Although I do wish they had some shorter versions at times. Or perhaps had one 30 minute lecture that gave a synopis of the course. On topics where I’m a complete beginner sometimes the 16-24 hour lecture series is too much detail. I think I tried the History of Byzantium lecture and had that problem. I was too ignorant to absorb the info, I needed a Byzantium for Dummies overview first.
As to podcasts:
Mil. Affairs——————The Pentagon Channel puts out weekly Pentagon and Badghad briefings. Quite good. They also put out occasional talks where a leading general or DoD official is giving a broader speech on policy or strategy and the like. I find the generals tend to be very upfront and factual, with a minimum of spin (although still some).
Arms Industry Insider. Decent, short and too the point. Arms industry outlook as … well, an industry.
StrategyTalk. Podcast put out by the guys at StrategyPage: Jim Dunnigan & Austin Bay. I love Jim Dunnigan. Feisty old guy, guru of war games, and hilarious. There are a couple of InstaPundit podcasts that featured the same pair. StrategyPage in general is pretty great.
Tech/Science———-
IT Conversations.
Futures in BiotechEntertainment Industry—————————————-
KCRW’s The Business. I knew nothing about the industry side of H’wood and found it fascinating. Very easy to listen to.
Mutantfrog added these pithy words on 23 Feb 07 at 4:51 amIn Our Time is one of the best podcasts I know of, those Genghis Khan and Heart of Darkness episodes were both great.
I’ve also been listening to downloads of “Off The Hook,” the radio show (it’s actually been on the radio in NYC since 1990 or so) of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly since long, long before podcasts existed. Many of the talks from the various conferences organized by 2600 are also worth listening to, and can all be downloaded as mp3s.
“This American Life” from NPR is sometimes fantastic, sometimes deadly dull-but unlike a live broadcast you can fast forward through the dull parts.
“On The Media,” from NY Public Radio is quite fun.
The “Meet The Press” podcast is good if they get the right guest, otherwise an hour of lame talking points.
I think I have some other good ones on my list, but these are the first ones I think of. I also have a collection of audio books, and a stash of audio dramas that are nice when you have a longer stretch of time to fill.
