Intellectually stimulating videos
January 17, 2013 4:25 PM   Subscribe

Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman had a discussion about economics back in October 2012 that ran for an hour and a half. What other intellectually stimulating videos exist out there? I just want to sit back and learn stuff, and so either a friendly discussion or a partisan debate (where the debaters are equally matched) could work.
posted by SollosQ to Society & Culture (13 answers total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm very interested in what comes out of this question. I would love to find friendly discussion/debates. To your question, TED Talks are intellectually stimulating. Some aren't as stimulating as others, but there is a plethora of interesting stuff there.
posted by MMALR at 4:41 PM on January 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Best answer: if you're willing to pay $10 for a subscription The Munk Debates are well worth watching.
posted by makonan at 5:25 PM on January 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: I was aiming for participatory activities. Youtube has a nice search filter for long lengths, unfortunately most keywords I've thought of haven't resulted in much that is captivating. Unfortunately it seems that there isn't that much out there within this realm.

On preview: Oh wow, makonan, this looks like a grand find!
posted by SollosQ at 5:26 PM on January 17, 2013


Jonathan Miller's Atheism Tapes is really great. On Utube in 6 parts and available on Netlfix.
posted by PaulBGoode at 6:30 PM on January 17, 2013


A conversation between Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson on the poetry of science.
posted by HotPatatta at 6:32 PM on January 17, 2013




Lots of interesting political and other discussion happening here, as well.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 7:09 PM on January 17, 2013


Ontario's public broadcaster has a whole lot of lectures and conversations in their Big Ideas series.
posted by vasi at 7:10 PM on January 17, 2013


Best answer: I have really enjoyed the Intelligence Squared podcast (now with NPR). It's an Oxford style debate on controversial issues with 2 experts from each side. They're about 50 minutes each. Not a video, but thought you might enjoy it anyways.
posted by andrewconner at 8:54 PM on January 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Seconding the Munk debates - total treasure trove. I also love the Commonwealth of California, which has terrific panel discussions.

But does it have to be a debate? Because there are great courses online, at Yale for example, but I believe MIT and other schools have them as well. I've found that even if you don't do the reading (because we have lives and all), you can learn a lot and there are some captivating lecturers.
posted by walla at 4:42 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]




Crash Course! Fantastic courses in World history, English literature, Biology and Ecology. Seriously, it's my favourite thing ever right now. Their other videos, on the YouTube channel vlogbrothers are also good, though less overtly educational.
posted by guster4lovers at 8:10 PM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Try searching YouTube "(interest) debate". For example - "science debate" or "economics debate", results seemed promising when I tried this method.
Most of what I watch on YT is cosmology/astronomy, but I've always had good luck searching for a favorite person in the field (e.g. Lawrence Krauss or Neil deGrasse Tyson) clicking a potentially interesting video, and checking all the suggested/related videos in the right sidebar. And down the rabbit hole I go :)
Happy learning!
posted by tillei at 11:27 PM on January 19, 2013


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