Big Ideas: Television for Passionate Thinkers

August 2, 2009 9:39 AM

Umberto Eco: An Illustrated Presentation on the History of Beauty and Ugliness (running time: 52:42); Salman Akhtar: The Trauma of Geophysical Dislocation (51:55); Ronald Wright: America's Ideals and the Realities (34:52); Norman Doidge: Altered States of Mind (55:21); Lewis Lapham: The American Education System and the Gradual Disappearance of Historical Consciousness (44:09); Leo Panitch: Still a Marxist After All: Lessons and Insights for our Time (43:24); Hazel Carby: Belonging to Britain—the Historic Relationship between England and Jamaica (46:35); Gabor Mate: Close Encounters with Addiction (54:17); and Jordan Peterson: The nature of Evil and its Distinction from Tragedy (42:35) are some of the video lectures available from the Big Ideas TV show that is broadcast on TVOntario. Here's the full list of videos, and many more, but not all, episodes are available as audio downloads.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear (16 comments total)

Come on, boffins!
posted by Sys Rq at 9:48 AM on August 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I love Umberto Eco so I'm quite looking forward to an evening of scotch and watching Eco poke fun of art from the renaissance all the way up to modern art.
posted by zpousman at 9:55 AM on August 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

YOu/ve given me something I didn't know I needed' Thank you, I now have to set aside a few hours to kill educate myself.
posted by The Whelk at 10:01 AM on August 2, 2009

Yay -- Umberto Eco's two most recent books and I don't have to read. Cheers!
posted by wittgenstein at 10:17 AM on August 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Fantastic, thank you.
posted by johnny novak at 10:27 AM on August 2, 2009

I love Umberto Eco (and all of the rest of this). Thanks for this awesome post!
posted by The World Famous at 11:03 AM on August 2, 2009

Excellent. Any idea where I can find the Dead Dog Cafe?
posted by collywobbles at 11:04 AM on August 2, 2009

The audio downloads are great on the iPod, lemme tell ya.
posted by Zinger at 6:34 PM on August 2, 2009

Dead Dog Cafe is the shit. Alas, it is not owned by CBC, and so it is not available publicly. I swear up and down, probably like you do, that CBC must have been fundamental in paying for the Cafe's production. Public money should mean public profit: we should get to web-access it. IMO, DDCMMV.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:54 PM on August 2, 2009

"Umberto Eco: An Illustrated Presentation on the History of Beauty and Ugliness (running time: 52:42);"

Beauty in the year 2009 = Permille alcohol in you blood X distance of the woman
posted by yoyo_nyc at 8:18 PM on August 2, 2009

*nerdgasm, collapses*
posted by benzenedream at 12:10 AM on August 3, 2009

Absolutely brilliant.
posted by csjc at 12:32 AM on August 3, 2009

I really enjoyed Professor of Psychology Jordan Peterson's talk on evil and tragedy. That's one passionate speaker.

Thanks.
posted by Glee at 4:42 AM on August 3, 2009

Thanks for this list, which is getting the coveted 'motherlode' tag on my delicious page.

Off to watch some lectures...
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 7:46 AM on August 3, 2009

Oliver Sacks has a love-hate relationship with Wagner. As do Parkinson's patients.

Thank you thank you thank you, Jasper Friendly Bear. I am now armed for a year's worth of road trips.
posted by philotes at 9:44 AM on August 3, 2009

Thanks for this, Jasper Friendly Bear. I loved watching Eco, and now I'm listening to Janna Levin's talk on Goedel, Turing, and theories of everything. Thanks, thanks, thanks.
posted by cobra libre at 2:28 PM on August 3, 2009