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I try to use lectures on YouTube as a form of podcast, where I can listen to the lecturer while doing other things. I think this system is very good when it comes to most of the historical philosophical and social sciences; sometimes, it works okay for economics as well. I have not tried too much to listen to technical, mathematical, or engineering lectures.

Lectures that can be listended to is much easier than the ones that are

Lecture List

American Civil War​

This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840sj to 1877. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple meanings of a transforming event in American history. Those meanings may be defined in many ways: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction.

  • This was a very interesting course. Liked, in particular, the understanding of the economic factors behind the war, and some cool highlights. Definitely recommend.
  • The Dred Scott decision was probably the most catastrophic Supreme Court decision ever.
  • In regards to warfare and warfare production, then there was a massive difference in industrial output.
  • The American civil war was a war about slavery.
  • Slaves were the most valuable "commodity" in the US except land. Extremely much money in this business.
  • Free-soilers were anti-slavery because they feared the "planters" and their almost nobility-like way of doing farming. There was little humanitarianism.

Economics Introduction​

  • The taxi medallion king was an interesting story.
  • Taxi system of medallions, a simple use case of transferring cost from the customer to the medallion owner, the taxi driver is dirt poor.

Early Middle Ages​

Major developments in the political, social, and religious history of Western Europe from the accession of Diocletian to the feudal transformation. Topics include the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the "Dark Ages," Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance, and the Viking and Hungarian invasions.

  • Fun to learn about Arab history after the establishment of Islam. An interesting trivia was the opposite incentives of
  • Charlemagne was fun to hear about.
  • The most fun was probably the million different types of Christianity.

Power and Politics in Today's world​

This course provides an examination of political dynamics and institutions over this past tumultuous quarter century, and the implications of these changes for what comes next. Among the topics covered are the decline of trade unions and enlarged role of business as political forces, changing attitudes towards parties and other political institutions amidst the growth of inequality and middle-class insecurity, the emergence of new forms of authoritarianism, and the character and durability of the unipolar international order that replaced the Cold War.

  • Interesting, especially in the discussions around non-western countries. Especially the discussion about South Africa was interesting.
  • Also, Tatcherism was interesting, as well as discussions around unions. The longest Suicide Note in History
  • 3-changes rule, where a stable democracy can be assumed after 3 switches of ruling parties.

Cryptocurrency Engineering and Design​

*Instructor: View the complete course This course looks at the design of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how they function in practice, focusing on cryptography, game theory, and network architecture. *

  • Merkle trees were an interesting concept.
  • Impressed with the technology behind the bitcoin.

Calling Bullshit​

  • I wrote an article, highlighting the concepts from the lectures: Calling Bullshit
  • Very interesting series of lectures would love to read the book as well.
  • Brandolini´s Bullshit Asymmetry: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
  • Calling Bullshit Book Review

Introduction to Data-Centric AI​

I have not looked much into this course as of yet. But I like the premise very much.

  • I got very much interested in data centric AI, i recommend to check it out. I wrote a little bit about it in Data Cleaning

The Missing Semester​

This course is a super smart way for people who know the basics of programming to get a super quick head start to the CS and the world of computer science and the things you don't learn in classes.

Behavioral Biology​

It is an interesting lecture series about cognitive neuroscience and how it influences the difference. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a facinating and good lecturer, which makes the subject much more interesting.

Links

Thoughts

  • Open Culture has an interesting list of YouTube channels Link
  • I usually find the MiT and Yale courses on YouTube to be the best and easiest to access.
  • YouTube Premium makes it easy to listen to courses as downloadable and outside of the YouTube player. Godsend.
  • Some of the more technical lectures are difficult to have in an audio format and require more concentration.
  • I find the politics and the history courses to work like podcasts and may give a lot more "knowledge" than podcasts, as podcasts are quite loose in the definition of facts.