Best free courses & lectures

Updated Oct. 28, 2009

This list of the best academic podcasts and webcasts is a work-in-progress. As I discover new courses and lectures, I add to the list.  Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.  Also, please let me know if you find a broken link.

Newcomers can get up to speed by reading Getting started.

For a description of my criteria for choosing  a course or lecture for this list, click here.

UCSD Courses / Fall 2009

University of California, San Diego University of California San Diego is offering a record 63 courses available for free download on its podcast website this quarter. Since most of these riches will only stay on the website until the end of the quarter (roughly mid-December), I include this special section for UCSD courses.

Formations of Modern Art (feed)
Art historian William Norman Bryson is back with his lively and entertaining introduction to the French Impressionists and other moderns. Although the podcasts are audio-only, you can follow along with Bryson’s lecture slides at this website. (See earlier post A different take on the Impressionists.)

Change in Modern South Africa (feed)
Sociologist Ivan Evans tells the amazing story of South Africa’s transformation into an apartheid state, and its (mostly peaceful) transformation into a multi-racial democracy. Evans is an eloquent and affecting speaker although some may be put off by his strong opinions. The syllabus for last year’s course is here. (See earlier post Two great sociology classes from UCSD.)

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (feed)
David Peterzell talks about how the brain makes sense of the world around us. It’s a fascinating story, and includes many surprises. (See earlier post Introduction to cognitive psychology.)

MMW 4 New Ideas/Clash of Cultures (feed)
MMW (Making of the Modern World) is a 6-part course that covers world history, from the earliest hominids to the present day. Matthew Herbst, a masterful teacher, leads this tour through world history from 1200 to 1750.   The class website and syllabus are here.  (See earlier post Making of the Modern World at UCSD.)

East Asian Thought (feed)
Victor Magagna teaches this overview of East Asian political thought, which can help westerners better understand why Asians might make different political and business choices. (See earlier post East Asian Thought from UCSD.)

MMW1 Prehistory and the Birth of Civilization (feed), Tara Carter, UC San Diego
UCSD is presenting three different versions of this course, but Carter’s is my hands-down favorite. She relates the story of hominid evolution and the birth of social organization with infectious enthusiasm. So far the course has brought us up to the upper Paleolithic, and you can get an idea of the future content from the the syllabus which is here.

Ancient History/Archaeology

Classical archaeology –website –iTunes–Jennifer Lockett, Texas Christian University
Indiana Jen, AKA Jennifer Lockett, a gives a rousing introduction to Roman archaeology in this series of lectures. If you have a video iPod, you can also see the slides that go along with these enhanced MP3 lectures.

The Early Christian Church (website), David Miano, UCSD
This course gives the historical background to the rise of Christianity, and historical sources on the life of Jesus. I especially recommend lectures 6 and 7, which analyze the synoptic Gospels, and shows how they provide evidence for the differing beliefs of different early Christian communities.  As an extra bonus, you can download the course powerpoint slides.

Great Sites of the Ancient World (iTunes), multiple speakers, University of Pennsylvania
This series of three lectures looks at the history and archaeology of ancient Ur, Troy and Abydos.  See: Abraham’s hometown and other archaeological tales.

Myths and Realities about the Roman Gladiator (iTunes), Garrett Fagan, Pennsylvania State University
With his Irish brogue and mordant sense of humor, Fagan separates the historical facts from the fanciful fictions that surround the gladiator.  See:  The truth about the Roman gladiator.

The Roman Empire – website -Isabelle Pafford , UC Berkeley
This class looks at the history of Rome from the late Republic to the rule of Constantine. It gives a fascinating overview of Roman culture and institutions as well as the history.  She also teaches History of the Roman Republic (iTunes).

Anthropology

Introduction to Biological Anthropology (website, feed), Terrence Deacon, UC Berkeley
Deacon’s class is a fascinating mix of biology, genetics, animal ethology and anthropology, as he works his way from single-celled organisms up to human physiology and the evolution of culture. He emphasizes how humans are related to all of the other lifeforms on our planet, and how Darwin’s theories help explain our place in the world.

Models of Cultural Evolution (feed), Robert Boyd, UCLA
This course is an energetic argument against biological or social reductionism. It’s the old nature-nurture controversy, with Boyd arguing for the importance of both and how they interact with each other. In particular Boyd takes aim at economists and psychologists who dismiss the important role of culture in shaping our emotional life and economic decisions. A 2007 syllabus of the course is here.

Bible

The Bible’s Buried Secrets (website), NOVA TV series
In the past 50 years archaeologists have done much to illuminate the world of the Bible and challenge traditional notions of how the Bible was written. This special two-hour edition of the award-winning science program NOVA  presents a summary of that research in dramatic form for a popular audience. The website includes extra material, including extended interviews and extra scenes that didn’t make it to the final show.  (See post: The Bible’s Buried Secrets on TV & YouTube.)

The Bible Through Literary Eyes (website, YouTube) Robert Alter, UC Berkeley
Does the Bible have literary genres? UC Berkeley literature professor Robert Alter argues that it does in this lecture. Alter is a soft-spoken, careful lecturer who conveys his ideas with great clarity and occasional humor. (It was a special treat for me to discover this lecture because back in the dark ages [circa 1971], Robert Alter was my senior thesis advisor in the UC Berkeley department of comparative literature.)

The Bible in Western Culture (feed), Ronald Hendel, UC Berkeley,
This course uses the Bible as a lens to view the development of Western culture.  It follows how people read and acted out their interpretations of the Bible from the ancient wolrd on through the middle ages and to modern times.  It’s a great sequel to Christine Hayes’ course below.

Can The Torah Make Its Peace With Modern Biblical Scholarship? (website), James Kugel, Bar Ilan University.
Kugel was formally a star lecturer at Harvard where his courses were routinely packed, and from his many jokes and clever asides, it is easy to understand why he was such a popular lecturer.  In this lecture he relates how the early rabbis and commentators, writing in the centuries when Judaism and Christianity were taking shape, radically reinterpreted the biblical texts so that they took on new meanings never intended by the original authors. See:  How the Biblical texts became Holy Scripture.

Introduction to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible – Website – Christine Hayes, Yale University
Professor Hayes teaches us how to look at the Bible through the lens of modern biblical scholarship, which includes the insights of literary analysis, comparison with other contemporary cultures, and comparative anthropology.

Literature and World of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, (iTunes), John Strong, Missouri State University
This made-for-TV distance learning course includes some fascinating video interviews recorded in Israel at the dig at Lachish (lectures 10, 11 and 15 ).  Like the Yale course (above), it discusses the major theories about the origin of the biblical text and the cultural context in the ancient Near East. Strong’s slow, laid-back lecture style sometimes made me impatient, but the interesting material kept me listening.

Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean (feed), Philip Harland, York University
In this podcast Harland presents contemporary Greco-Roman and Jewish sources to give the context of Christianity in its very earliest days. These talks appear to be edited version of classroom lectures as he makes reference to course readings and outside discussions.  Harland lectures in a very conversational and accessible style, and brings a scholar’s eye to the issues surrounding the early Jesus movement.

Sin: The Early History of an Idea – Website – iTunes- Paula Fredriksen, Princeton University
This series of three lecturers by renowned biblical scholar Paula Fredriksen describes how early Christian theologians took concepts from Greek philosophy and applied them to the Hebrew Bible and St. Paul’s early writings to create the Christian Church’s ideas about sin and redemption.

Computers

The Future of the Internet,- iTunes – Ramesh Johari, Stanford
So, do you feel at a loss when your geeky friends start discussing things like net neutrality, TCP/IP and throttling bandwidth? Do you wonder why your Internet speed sometimes slows to a crawl? Learn about all this and more from this Stanford University’s short course. Johari explains all the technical stuff along with a fascinating overview of Internet economics. You’ll even learn how to speed up your own Internet connection.

Culture

Western Movies: Myth, Ideology, and Genre (iTunes), Richard Slotkin, Wesleyan University
The myth of the American frontier and what it meant to Americans in the twentieth century is the subject of this course.  Slotkin, a well known author and culture critic, gave this course in early 2008 just before his retirement. Check it out — this is a master teacher at the top of his form, weaving themes from history, cultural theory and literature into the discussion of Western movies made during their heyday from 1939 to 1974. See post: Western Movies: Myth, Ideology, and Genre.

Economics

American Economic History -Spring08 Website-Fall08 Website- Fall08 Feed–Brad DeLong, UC Berkeley
Who were the real economic winners from slavery? (It’s not what you think.) What caused the Great Depression? What might cause another one? The answers, plus much more to ponder, are in this course. For how to download the audio portions of the Spring08 version of this course, see this link.

Bloomberg on the Economy — iTunes — website — Tom Keene
Although this is not a lecture series, I include this podcast qualifies because economic theory is often the topic. Host Tom Keene interviews prominent economists and authors about the economic news of the day.  Is speculation causing the world spike in commodity prices?  Will the euro replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency?  Has the housing market reached bottom?  Keene’s guests air their opinions, and if you’re a regular listener, you get to track their agreements and disagreements.

Chicago GSB podcast series – iTunes- Multiple speakers. University of Chicago
The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business brings business leaders and academics to lecture on this sometimes podcast.  Some months will have many postings and some months not at all.

The Economic History of the Twentieth Century (website, audio files),  Brad DeLong, UC Berkeley
DeLong surveys the “long 20th century,” beginning about 1870, and talks about the revolutions (in productivity and otherwise) that made our world.  For more, and how to download the audio files, see: When the modern world began.

EconTalk — iTunes – Website — Russ Roberts, George Mason University
Every week Professor Roberts delves into a topic in economics with a guest.  The conversations are often lively and fun and always informative, touching on some topic in economics and how economic theory can help explain the real world.

Financial Markets -website- Robert Shiller, Yale University
Shiller is a calm, conversational lecturer — rather like a patient uncle who wants to make sure you understand the complex concepts he is presenting. Even if you find the math daunting (math-phobes should just skip lecture 2), there’s plenty of great food for thought in this course. Topics include risk management, behavioral finance, and lots more.

Introduction to Game Theory –website – iTunes– John Fountain,  University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand
Fountain, who peppers his lecture with humor and lots of examples, makes game theory accessible, even for those of us who’ve forgotten most of our high school math.  And since the course files are in video, you can follow along with the visual aids and diagrams, a huge advantage.

Political Economy 101 -Website- Brad DeLong, UC Berkeley
This interdisciplinary course gives an overview of the ideas of influential modern economics thinkers such as Schumpeter, Keynes and Friedman. Professor Brad Delong is acerbic, funny and informative. For how to download the audio portions of this course, see this link.

Understanding the Financial Crisis (iTunes, YouTube), multiple speakers, University of California, Davis.
This may be the best academic webcast yet on the current world-wide financial mess. Three  professors talk about the background and possible future of the financial crisis.  (See post: The best financial crisis lectures yet)

Health

Stress and Coping: What Baboons Can Teach Us – iTunes – Robert Sapolsky, Stanford
Stanford stress researcher, Robert Sapolsky takes us along to the Serengeti of East Africa where he studies our close relatives, the baboons. Like us, the baboons of the Serengeti have a pretty easy time of it meeting their basic needs. It takes them only about four hours a day to forage for their daily calories. That gives them between eight and 12 hours a day to “devote to making each other miserable.” Sapolsky goes on to explain the baboon social structure, and what it can teach us about avoiding stress in our own lives. You can also catch Sapolsky on Google video, giving a lecture entitled Stress, Neurodegeneration and Individual Differences.  Also, don’t miss his two great lectures on the neurobiology of sex  here and here.

History

BackStory (website, iTunes), Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf and Brian Balogh, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
This public radio show and podcast about US history that keeps getting better and better. Three history profs tackle an issue from the headlines and explore its background in the American past.

The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 (website) David Blight, Yale University
Blight is an eloquent speaker who uses the poetry, speeches and letters of the Civil War era to dramatize his talks. If you’ve ever wondered why so many people find the US Civil War so endlessly fascinating, this course is the answer.

Colonial and Revolutionary America (iTunes) Jack Rakove, Stanford University
Rakove is a genial, conversational speaker who sprinkles jokes and asides about his favorite baseball team (the Chicago Cubs) into the lecture. You feel like you’re listening to a conversation, and not someone droning through a prepared text.  He gives a good overview of the social history (how ordinary people lived) as well as the more familiar political history.

European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present (Website) Thomas Laqueur , UC Berkeley
Professor Thomas Laqueur gives an enthusiastic and insightful tour of modern European history in this fall 2006 course. The Berkeley course website offers several editions of Laqueur’s course. I recommend this particular one because in addition to being able to listen to the downloadable audio files, you can watch the lectures in streaming video. I liked listening to a lecture on my iPod, and then fast forwarding through the video version on my computer so that I could see the slides (works of art, architecture and maps) that go along with the lectures.

European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present – Website - Margaret Anderson, UC Berkeley
Professor Anderson gives another great version of this course with different readings and different emphasis.  If you’re a history buff, you’ll want to listen to both.  The syllabus is here.

France Since 1871 -website- John Merriman, Yale
In this course Merriman explains how France became the fascinating and perplexing place it is today: a country that famously celebrates liberty and revolution yet regulates details of daily life such as what name you can legally choose for your child.

History of Information – iTunes – Website – Paul Duguid and Geoffrey Nunburg, UC Berkeley
Professors Geoffrey Nunburg and Paul Duguid team up to offer this survey of information technologies from the invention of writing to Wikipedia and text messaging. Along the way you’ll learn about Gutenberg, and what really happened when he invented movable type, and how radio evolved from its earliest beginnings as a ship to shore communications tool.

Nationalism in Eastern Europe (iTunes), T. Mills Kelly, George Mason University
Kelly has an engaging teaching style and his interaction with students adds verve and energy to the podcasts of 7 lectures from this 2007 course.  Kelly covers the history of Eastern Europe in the 20th century, from World War II to the fall of Communism in 1989. (See Nationalism in Eastern Europe.)

The Rise and Fall of the Second Reich – Website - Margaret Anderson, UC Berkeley
This fascinating course gives the background for understanding German culture, romanticism, the origins of the first world war and the tragic rise of National Socialism.

Western Civilization, 1715-Present (website, audio feed ), Lynn Hunt, UCLA
Hunt brings new insights to this subject and helps me think about history in new ways. She usually begins each lecture with a musical selection, and describes how the arts are bound up with the political and social histories of each era.  See post: A great Western Civ course from UCLA.

Humanities

European Cultural History, 1660-1870 – website – George Mosse, University of Wisconsin
This is an overview of European cultural history from the enlightenment to the avant-garde. Mosse, who died in 1999, was an energetic and entertaining lecturer who clearly loved his subject.  He stresses that in order to understand the way people perceive reality, one has to look at myths and symbols.

International Relations

Conceptual Foundations of International Politics (feed) multiple speakers, Columbia University
This course from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs is a great overview of the political theory and practical issues facing foreign policy makers.  Don’t miss the lecture entitled American Foreign Policy in Historical Perspective by Professor Stephen Sestanovich, who argues that American foreign policy ignored the opinions of allies long before George W. Bush came on the scene.

History of the International System – iTunes –James Sheehan, Stanford University
These lectures are an overview of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the development of the international system — how nations define their self interest and their relations with other nations. Sheehan gives historical shape and texture to many of the theoretical issues in international relations such as sovereignty, strategy and real politique.   Lecture 23, in which Sheehan discusses the background to the attacks of September 11, 2001, is particularly illuminating.

Issues in Foreign Policy after 9/11 – Website - iTunes – multiple speakers, UC Berkeley
For anyone interested in a behind-the-headlines understanding of US foreign policy, the 2007 UC Berkeley lecture series Issues in Foreign Policy after 9/11 is a great place to start. A series of guest lecturers give a variety of perspectives on the current foeign policy landscape. My two favorites were, Iraq: Status Report and Options with Stephen Biddle (website only) and Strategic Options for U.S. Foreign Policy with Edward Luttwak.

International Politics – feed – Daniel Deudney, Johns Hopkins
Deudney introduces us to the modern thinkers who have written about international relations and profoundly influenced foreign policy makers. You’ll learn about the realists, the neo-realists, the neo-conservatives. the balance of power theorists the liberal theorists and more. Still, be prepared for a fair amount of frustration. The podcasts appear to start about halfway through the semester, and then jump around with some podcasts seeming to be out of order. Nonetheless, they are well worth listening to, especially the final podcast which gives sobering food for thought about the challenges of fighting small terrorist groups, and keeping that fight from turning our country into a garrison state.

Politics and Warfare (website)Victor Magagna, UCSD
What features of an international system make war likely?  Why do individual citizens agree to risk their lives for the state?  These and other questions are explored in this fascinating course.  For more see post Politics and Warfare.

Stratfor Daily Podcast website–feed
Strategic Forecasting Inc. AKA Stratfor, analyzes world events for individual subscribers and clients like Fortune 500 companies.  You can get a free taste of Stratfor’s analysis in the Stratfor daily podcast.  It’s especially illuminating to tune in to Stratfor when some geopolitical crisis is playing out. 

Jewish Studies

Center for Jewish History — Website
Here you will find audio and video recordings of events at New York’s Center for Jewish History. Programs include Michael Walzer speaking on “The Anomalies of Jewish Identity,” a panel discussion on Jewish journalists in America and a symposium on the impact of Baruch Spinoza.

Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies – Website — University of Washington
(Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the Stroum lectures)
This is an annual lecture series at the University of Washington. Here are audio and video recordings of eight of these series. I especially recommend the May 2006 series in which Anita Norich of the University of Michigan speaking about Sholem Aleichem’s famous character, Tevye the milkman, and how film adaptations of the Tevye stories reflect Jewish culture in America.

The Shalom Hartman Institute -Website-iTunes- Youtube – Blip.tv – Mogulus.com
This world renowned educational institution provides continuing studies for rabbis and Jewish studies scholars from around the world. Its founder, philosopher and Rabbi David Hartman, is the author of numerous books and a prominent advocate for religious pluralism.  A number of the Institute’s lectures, including many by Rabbi Hartman, are available in audio and video at the institute’s website.  Check out this post for a preview of some of the offerings.

Lecture Series

Fora.tv -Website-
This site aggregates lots of great content from universities and think tanks into “channels.”  A special favorite of mine is the Chautauqua channel, which presents lectures from the Chautauqua Institution, which is a kind of summer camp for intellectuals.  Maybe I’ll get to go there some day.

Google Tech Talk -Website-
These are lectures given by prominent academics, inventors and writers who visit the Google campus. For starters, check out The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less (website), a talk by psychologist Barry Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore College, who argues that too much choice is bad for you.

Podcasts from The Teaching Company -iTunes-
This publisher of high quality university level courses usually charges for its product, which you can buy on CD, DVD or by download.  But they also give free samples on iTunes on a variety of subjects.

WGBH Forum Network -feed- -iTunes- -website-
This lecture series includes a range of academic, arts and business leaders. Recent selections have included Pulitzer prize-winning military reporter Thomas Ricks, speaking on Fiasco: American Military Adventure in Iraq, and Professor William Freehling speaking on Road to Disunion: Why the South Left.

University Channel -website- -iTunes-
This aggregator of lectures, known as UChannel for short, presents speakers and programs from universities around the world, each with some interesting or unique take on public affairs. Recent selections have included Robert Kagan, speaking on The United States — Dangerous Nation, at the London School of Economics, and Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon papers fame, speaking on Iraq & Iran: The Need for New Pentagon Papers.

Literature

The Bible Through Literary Eyes (website, YouTube) Robert Alter, UC Berkeley
Alter is a soft-spoken, careful lecturer who conveys his ideas with great clarity and occasional humor.  He discusses how an appreciation of narrative techniques such as repetition and use of type-scenes can enrich our reading of the Bible.

CELL podcast -Website- – iTunes- Multiple Speakers, Queen Mary, University of London
This series covers many topics in English literature. Best bets: lectures on Hamlet and Henry V.

Literature of Crisis — iTunes – Marsh McCall and Martin Evans, Stanford University
This course looks at defining crises in people’s lives and their reflection in literature, starting with Socrates in ancient Greece and ending with Voltaire’s Candide in the 18th century. The two professors who team teaches this class are full of enthusiasm for their subject and impart lots of interesting historical background.

Music

Music (website, iTunes), multiple speakers, McGill University
This video lecture series has great production values: beautiful camera-work and high fidelity sound. You can listen to members of McGill’s faculty and guest lecturers talk about music and then perform excerpts to illustrate their points.

Philosophy

American Political Thought since the Civil War – Website- Wilson Carey McWilliams, Haverford College
In the course of these lectures McWilliams looks at the main thinkers and writers on American politics including Henry Adams, W.E.B. DuBois, and John Dewey.  You can follow the readings using the syllabus, also available at the website.

Citizenship and Public Service (feed) Brian Walker – UCLA
This course surveys political philosophy of public service, from the ancient Greeks and Chinese to the present. Walker has a gift for explaining sometimes dense and difficult philosophic ideas with concrete and often entertaining examples. While some of this material is tough slogging, it’s worth the effort for the ample food for thought it provides.

East Asia Thought (feed) Victor Magagna, UC San Diego
In this summer session course political science professor Victor Magagna explores the world of East Asian political thought, and how the Eastern political tradition continues to influence political and business leaders in Asia today.

Introduction to Political Theory – Website – feed – Brian Walker – UCLA
UCLA Professor Brian Walker, this course, has an infectious enthusiasm for political theory that makes this course a joy for his listeners. The course surveys the work of two conservative theorists, Aristotle and Confucius, and two liberal theorists, John Stuart Mill and Henry David Thoreau.

Isaiah Berlin Centenary (iTunes, feed ) Isaiah Berlin, Oxford University
These lectures by the renowned philosopher Isaiah Berlin were originally broadcast in the 1950s.  See:  Jean-Jacques Rousseau: enemy of liberty.

Justice: An Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy (website), Michael Sandel, Harvard University
Are starving men in a lifeboat morally justified if they murder and eat one of the crew? Can you put a dollar value on human life? Can you harvest a healthy man’s organs in order to save other people?  Sandel challenges his students with these and other questions and brings to bear readings from Kant, Mill, Aristotle and others. The syllabus is here.  Links to many of the readings are here.

United States Political Thinking from 1865 – Website - Brian Walker – UCLA
This is an overview of the influential thinkers of the last 150 years who have provided the theoretical underpinnings of all of our great political debates from the aftermath of the Civil War to the present.

Reading Political Philosophy: From Machiavelli to Mill (iTunes), multiple speakers, Open University.
This podcast series gives the background for understanding and appreciating the great political philosophers.  See: Machiavelli: not such a bad guy.

Physics

Quantum Physics Made Relatively Simple – website- Hans Bethe

In 1999, at age 93, Nobel laureate Hans Bethe gave this series of lectures about quantum physics to fellow residents of the Kendal of Ithaca retirement community. Because he was speaking to a lay audience, he kept the concepts simple and relatively math-free. Listening to his soft, German-accented English, is like touching a piece of history. Along with his discussion of quantum theory, he relates anecdotes about his fellow physicists (eg Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein) and puts their discoveries in context.

Physics 10: Physics for Future Presidents - website – iTunes – feed – Richard Muller, UC Berkeley
Muller says that he is serious about the title — this is the physics that he wants every future president to know, and he hopes that he has a future president sitting in his class listening to his lectures. Muller mixes the science with economics, current events and policy debates.

Psychology

Arming the Donkeys (iTunes) Dan Ariely, Duke University
Ariely, a best-selling author and professor of behavioral economics, is always fun to listen to. He has a lilting, mischievous voice with just a hint of a Hebrew accent– rather like an Israeli leprechaun. Each episode is a short (15 minutes or less) conversation with a researcher who has something interesting to say about the way our minds work.

Developmental Psychology – Website – Lori Markson, UC Berkeley
This is a fascinating look at how kids grow and develop. I wish I knew this when my kids were small.  See especially the lecture entitled The 21st Century Family, which describes research on different parenting styles, contrasting permissive styles with authoritarian styles.  Bottom line: it’s best to give a child firm limits, while maintaining some flexibility.

Human Emotion – Website – iTunes – Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley
You’ll never think about people in the same way after you listen to what psychologists have learned over the last generation about human emotion. Although philosophers since classical times have warned us to follow our reason and not our “passions,” it turns out that our emotions are key to clear thinking, helping us with memory, reasoning and predicting what our fellow humans are thinking and feeling. You will get the most out of this course if you buy the recommended textbook, Understanding Emotions, which is pricey, but you can get it used for about $35.

Human Happiness (website, feed), Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley
This interdisciplinary course taught by psychologist and emotion researcher Dacher Keltner will cover the philosophy and psychology of happiness. Keltner brings his signature humor and conversational style to this  offering. The booklist is here.

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (feed), David Peterzel, UCSD
This course covers how our minds make sense of the world. Peterzell is a great talker with a self-deprecating sense of humor and a store of interesting anecdotes.  One drawback for the cyber-student is that he plays a lot of pre-recorded videos in his class which do not come through well on the podcast. So, you want to listen to this course when you have your hands free so that you can fast forward past videos.

Introduction to Psychology – Website – Paul Bloom, Yale University
Professor Bloom takes us on a fascinating tour of the highlights of the modern science of the human mind. Even if you’ve listened to some of the more advanced courses on this list, you’ll find new insights in this class.

Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness – Website - Tal Ben-Shahar, Harvard University
Ben-Shahar talks about recent psychological research into what makes people happy. The answers won’t surprise you: it’s about relationships, meaningful work, simplicity and gratitude. Ben-Shahar also gives some easy tips on how to improve your own happiness, such as keeping a gratitude journal.

Psychology of Dreams (website, feed) Eleanor Rosch, UC Berkeley
Are dreams a window into the spirit world, a key to the unconscious or just meaningless noise generated by the sleeping brain? This course  surveys  the answers given by a range of cultures and by (often disagreeing) modern researchers and therapist. The book list is here. An old syllabus from 2006 is here. (The current syllabus is on the UC Berkeley site accessible only to students.)

Psychology of Personality – Website – (Streaming video only) – Oliver John, UC Berkeley
This course includes Freud, but goes way beyond him, looking into the new science of how our genes and environment influence our personalities. Again, this is best if you get the textbook, Personality: Theory and Research which I was able to find used for under $10.

Religion

Behold, There Were Twins in her Womb -Website- Robert Alter, UC Berkeley, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Yair Zakovitch, Hebrew University
This panel discussion, part of Jewish Bookweek 2007, offers three unique readings of the biblical story of the struggle between Jacob and Esau. it will be especially interesting to do-it-yourself scholars who have listened to Yale University’s Introduction to the Old Testament.

An Introduction to Islam for Jews (website), Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College
You don’t have to be Jewish to learn a lot from Rabbi Reuven Firestone’s fascinating talk.  He approaches the subject not as a rabbi, but as a sociologist of religion. He looks at religion an extremely effective way of “organizing and protecting human communities” and of inspiring people to “extraordinary behaviors,” sometimes admirable and sometime malevolent. (See post: You don’t have to be Jewish…)

Maimonides Mini Course – Website — Lenn Goodman, Vanderbilt University
This five-part lecture series is an introduction to the life and thought of Maimonides, the great 12th-century Jewish philosopher.

Social Science

Classical Social Theories -website- YouTube – Alan Macfarlane, Cambridge University
This course covers thinkers from Montesquieu in the 18^th century to Ernest Gellner and F.W.Maitland in the 20^th century. Macfarlane is an  insightful lecturer who has also posted some chapters from his many books on his website.  More lectures from MacFarlane are available on iTunes U.

Sociology of Mass Communication (feed, website),  Gabriel Rossman, UCLA
How does the American entertainment industry work and why does it work that way?  Why are media conglomerates getting bigger and bigger? You’ll find the answers in this course. Rossman has an entertaining, conversational style and peppers his lectures with lots of examples. The syllabus has links to many of the assigned readings, which are available for free on the web.

Strategies of survival: lectures on population, disease, war, famine -website- Alan Macfarlane, Cambridge University
Demographers can be a gloomy lot.  They spend their time thinking about population explosions, famine and war.  But these are not gloomy lectures.  Anthropologist Macfarlane talks about theories of population growth, and illustrates the concepts with lots of examples from history and his own research.

How do I choose a course or lecture for this list?

First and foremost, it needs a great teacher. All of the courses and lectures listed here have teachers who know how to interact with an audience. They all express emotion, be it enthusiasm or humor, and they all present their material clearly. If they are disorganized or speak in a dreary monotone, they don’t make the list.

Second, the subject has to pique my interest. I read widely in literature and the social sciences, so most of the courses are in those subject areas. I’ve also thrown in some science courses and lectures that have particularly appealed to me, but that’s not where my main interests lie.<

My ratings represent my subjective impression of how much I enjoyed the classes and/or lectures, and how much I learned.

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