I Like the Teaching Company

   

One of my favorite "discoveries" of this past year was the "Teaching Company." Over the years, I had seen their ads, but it had never dawned on me that I would become a consumer of their recorded products.

That changed when two things happened:

1) My son Alex gave me an iPod for Christmas in 2005, and I discovered I loved listening to podcasts; and

2) I was taking a class on the human brain in February, and one of the students said, "Hey everybody, Sapolsky's series is on sale." He was referring to the eminent Stanford neuro-biologist Robert Sapolsky and the 24 part Teaching Company program on the brain ("The Neurological Origins of Individuality").

I went to their site and found that I could download it in MP4 format for $35.95. I was immediately hooked. Sapolsky's great, the series was well-produced, and I learned a lot. My wife, daughter, and son also downloaded it at no extra cost — so in effect it cost us each $9 for 12 hours of learning.

But that was just the beginning. I listened to a 36 part "History of Science in the 20th Century" flying to and from Hong Kong. Next came a 36 part series on the basics of Economics.

Here's a really neat thing: since this is the Internet, you can download these programs anywhere (well, duh!). When I was in Japan, I finished up one series and wanted another for the flight home.  I simply got another program on Classical Mythology (only 5 minutes to download with a fast connection).

  This past summer, when I was in working in my shop making prototypes for the follow-on product to the Ball of Whacks, I listened to several more programs: one on Nietzsche, another on Cultural Patterns in Anthropology, and still another one on Great Books. My hands and eyes were busy, but these programs gave me additional mental stimulation.

I just finished a 32 part program on Bach by Robert Greenberg who is an extremely talented educator (and composer). I've had a life-long love affair with Bach, and Professor Greenberg deepened my affection for his music. I highly recommend him.

My wife and I are going to Egypt in early February, and so we're currently listening to a program on ancient Egyptian History and Culture.

If you've listened to programs from the Teaching Company, I'd like to know which ones you would recommend. Thanks!

Also, what other sources of educational material can you recommend?

Comments

[Will]

The Teaching Company's CD on Einstein and Relativity is one of the best one the subject.

[Roger von Oech]

Hi Will: Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out after my Egypt series.

[Drew McLellan]

Roger,

The CD set versions of these were among my favorite Christmas gifts to give this year.

What a great combination of entertainment and education!

Happy holidays,

Drew

[Roger von Oech]

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the comment. I'm sure your recipients were delighted. So far, I've only downloaded my programs in MP4 format. This is for several reasons: 1) they're a lot cheaper than the CDs and tapes; and, 2) it also allows multiple simultaneous listeners.

What programs did you give people?

[Cam Beck]

Holy cow! A 36-part series on Economics? You must have incredible patience! Thanks for the links... I'm going to have to bookmark their site. Right now I'm working on a gem of a book called "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell.

Judging by your list here, you may also be interested in a couple of books. 1) The Discoverers, and 2) Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems in Mathematics.

[Roger von Oech]

Cam: Thanks for the recommendations.

You bring up an interesting point about "a 36-part series on Economics." On this face of it, that sounds like a lot of dry listening. However, the teachers are quite conversational and the material seems to zip by. And, believe it or not, the economics one was interesting with a lot of real world examples — not dismal at all.

[Cam Beck]

In that case, it sounds like it would be right up my alley. I guess it would have to be as you say; they couldn't go into all the graphs that economists commonly use. Could they?

[Daniel Scocco]

Hey Roger,

I agree that podcast and audio resources are a great way to spend time efficiently while you are traveling or commuting.

I will definitely download some courses from that site, thanks for sharing.

[Kent Blumberg]

Roger,

You pushed me to get my first iPod. I downloaded a lecture series on Islam from The Teaching Company. Excellent.

Thanks for the tip.

Kent

[Gordon]

Happy New Year Roger!

I had heard about this company (they sometimes advertise in the "Economist") -- I think I will check them out more after your recommendation. I like "Soundview Executive Book Summaries" and I can also recommend Bryan Kest's Power Yoga DVD for some physical training -- it's a tough practice, but it's such great value for money (make sure you get the DVD with the three levels, 1, 2, 3).

[Roger von Oech]

Kent: Sounds like you're a happy customer.

Gordon: The Teaching Company provides DVDs, VHS tapes, and down-loadable MP4 files. The MP4 files are far and away the cheapest. They also have lots of sales, and I try to buy my downloads during the sales.

[Mike Bridge]

I've listened to about 10 courses from the Teaching Company, and although I'd recommend all of them, the ones I found the most worthwhile were on Plato's Republic and the History of Rome (I'm still working through the latter). I tried to the Republic on my own once and failed to get much out of it; the second time with the lectures was much better.

[Dario Broccolino]

The best lecturer I’ve heard from the Teaching Company is Thomas Noble. I have “Popes and the Papacy: A History,” and he was just outstanding. He also teaches “Western Civilization, I,” which I plan to purchase soon.

I do have Foundation of Western Civilization II, taught by Robert Bucholz who was a not too distant second to Noble.

Other outstanding course I own:
The United States and the Middle East – A History (should be required for everyone)

A History of European Art

Famous Romans

A History of Russia

Argumentation

One course I do NOT recommend is:
Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age – taught by Thomas Childers. I can only describe Childers’ lecture “style” as deadly. I was able to return this with no problem whatsoever.

[Samuel Horse]

My favorite is Daniel Robinson.
I highly recommend "Great ideas of Philosophy" and "Great ideas of psychology"!
I listen to these lectures over and over.

[Ann]

I love this company! I've been purchasing lectures from them for at least 10 yrs. I recommend the ones on Fine Art. Prof Greenberg does wonderful lectures on Opera and music. Richard Brettell is a captivating lecturer who teaches the Impressionism and The Louvre course. The HIstory of European Art is good too. The lectures I've purchased more recently seem to be in a consistent format. Each lecture in the course is about 30 mins. so it's easy to listen to over time. I too have listened or watched my courses over and over. I listen to philosophy and religion while I'm ironing.

[Leigh Ann]

Samuel (and others who have the art courses), would you say that the Impressionism and History of European Art are worth the price for the DVD rather than simply audio and are the works of art *shown*?

[Leigh Ann]

I'm sorry, my question was to Ann!

[Ann]

They were to me. There are hundreds of paintings they discuss. I can't imagine "attending" the lecture any other way. Also,the European Art course is very long,48 lectures, I think. I meant to add before, that each lecture is titled so that you can easily go back to view a particular artist or era and the DVD format makes it easy to do.

[allan]

My favorite is Biology, Science of Life. It is technical and challenging, but worth it.

I liked the World of Byzantium, Egypt, and most of the others I have heard. There are a few I didn't care for. I didn't make it through "tools of thinking" yet. It seemed overly simplistic. I thought the one on string theory could have been better.

[Skitch]

I have about 300 of these, and I downloaded them for free.