New Learner Seeking Audio Lectures & Books to Expand Knowledge

[capt stevie]

I have spent most of my life in a cave as far as knowledge about the universe. My math skills are poor. My brain cells are old and weak, but I have become fascinated with learning about the world outside of the world we live on. TV documentaries would be the largest influence.

I have a job which is menial but pays well. I can use my Ipod and listen to whatever I choose while I work. Over the years I have become burnt out on sports and political talk shows. So I have downloaded a few days of lectures from the internet and a friend gave me some audio books. I have some Hawkins, Greene, Kaku, and other names I don't know.
What I would like to know is which audio CD's are the favorites? Who are the speakers who keep your interest and present the topics in a way that us educationally challenged can understand? I intend to buy them online. I don't mind paying a little extra to have the CD in my collection as a backup.

Subject matter would be everything from micro to macro. All of it is of interest. I have 8 hours a day to learn. Thank you in advance.

 

[marcus]

That's an interesting situation!

Personally I'm not a fan of the authors you mentioned: Hawking, Greene, Kaku.
But I see on Amazon that they have AUDIO versions of their books for sale.
And you want audio.

I will take a look at what is available in audio and get back if I see anything real interesting. But hopefully before I do some other people will have suggestions.

Is anyone familiar with the Scientific American podcasts? I think there are free science podcasts that you can download off the web. I haven't done that personally. Does anybody know about this, maybe some good ones?

Captain Stevie, have you ever used free science audio downloads? this is unexplored territory for me, it would be good to learn about.

There is a section of Physicsforums called learning materials that might have some information, I think.

 

[capt stevie]

I wasn't even aware there are free science downloads. But I will look.
My job is about as simple as "go to the shelf and get the box". Results of being downsized and offloaded for the last 20 years. But I am still happy they kept me around.

 

[marcus]

I went to Amazon and did a search "audio books physics"

There is a lot of stuff available but much of it way more pricey than it ought to be. Maybe it would be good to go to the local public library and see what they can get, for you to try. If they don't have stuff right there they can sometimes get it in a few days on "interlibrary loan" and where I live this is all free.

I saw a lot of audio books by, and about, Richard Feynman

audio of Feynman Lectures, and Six Easy Pieces
audio of "Quantum Man" book about Feynman by Lawrence Krauss

I saw an audiobook about Einstein by Walter Isaacson. Several people I know have read the print version and praised it.
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It sounds like you know how to transcribe an audio version to something portable like an i-pod. Could you copy a library audiotape or CD into "MP3"? Get it into some portable medium that you could walk around listening to, at work?

That sounds interesting. I'm retired and somewhat out-of-it technology-wise.

Maybe its a case where, if you continue this discussion, I will be the learner and you (and whoever else joins) will be the teacher.

 

[capt stevie]

I just did a quick search and found a couple sites googling (free science audio books). Will need to look some more.
I download audio CD's onto Itunes on my computer. Than just make a playlist and put it on my Ipod. Not sure about downloading from the net. I haven't tried it except downloading u-tube video's of lectures. My ipod is new but it is temperamental when playing the video's. I don't know how to download audio only from u-tube.

 

[marcus]

I googled Scientific American podcast and got this
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/science-talk/id122384595
about dim self-awarenss in robots.
(experiment at cornell where they put 2 brains in the robot, the first brain was just programmed to perform a task and the second brain was aware of the first one and could modify how the first brain approached the task. It had an idea of the situation

That was free. It had a boring 4 or 5 minutes at the beginning where the narrator chatted about his personal life, but then it got quite interesting when he interviewed this guy.

There was a list of SciAm podcasts which were all free!
They did not seem to be just brief samples to get you to go to iTunes and buy.
It seemed like the full "Science Talk" feature was free. I did not listen all the way to the end.

The narrator is Steve Mirsky.