Video lectures for the knowledge hungry

August 23, 2012 8:23 AM

You are probably familiar with TED, a fantastic collection of talks on a wide range of topics available online. What other, similar collections are there?

• There's Ignite a 5 minute presentation where the slides are automatically advanced every 20 seconds. A solution to Seattle's congestion is a funny one.
• There's Google Tech Talks and Google Talks. Here's George RR Martin, Authors@Google.
• There's also this user on youtube that seems to have a bunch of DEFCON talks. There's also this user that has a number of security related videos, amongst them one about hacking millions of consumer routers.

Please recommend some more. I'm not through any of these sources, but more variability in terms of subject area would be cool.

posted by aeighty to Education (14 answers total)

PopTech
posted by functionequalsform at 8:28 AM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not lectures, but debate: Intelligence Squared.
posted by MuffinMan at 8:45 AM on August 23, 2012

Seminars About Long-term Thinking
posted by brother at 9:00 AM on August 23, 2012 [4 favorites]

I love "Letters of Note" if you're looking for a collection to read, rather than watch/listen to.
posted by jph at 9:21 AM on August 23, 2012

RSA Animate
posted by Obscure Reference at 9:25 AM on August 23, 2012

Fora.tv is where I go when I'm bored and need intellectual stimulation.

Also +1 on the longnow seminars, every single one of those had me thinking for days afterwards. And don't skip the Q/As.
posted by tempythethird at 9:33 AM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

These aren't videos, but the In Our Time podcasts are AMAZING history podcasts with a host and three experts.
posted by mercredi at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2012

Gel Conference

And a slightly less self-serious counterpart to Ted: Bil.
posted by O9scar at 11:37 AM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

IdeaCity is pretty much exactly like TED, but Canadian.
PechaKucha (pronounced like "Mahna Mahna") is I think the inspiration for Ignite; it's 20 slides for 20 seconds each, mostly design-focused.
posted by jhc at 2:11 PM on August 23, 2012

There's Creative Mornings, an online video archive of breakfast lectures for artists and creative types.
posted by pinetree at 4:43 PM on August 23, 2012

I second "In Our Time," by the way. I also like Thought for the Day from BBC, described as "a unique reflection from a faith perspective on topical issues and news events."
posted by pinetree at 4:45 PM on August 23, 2012

The Do Lectures have a strong environmental focus. Some really great talks including:

How To Read Digital Tea Leaves

Why Good Bread Needs To Be For Everyone

How Do You Manage 6 Brands, A Knitwear Company, And A Flock Of Sheep? And Still Have A Life?
posted by u17tw at 2:24 AM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Surprisingly, Microsoft Research has a gargantuan collection of video lectures. They also have a smaller set of visiting scholar videos, which are typically less technical and broader in scope.

One option you might not have considered is the various open courses from Stanford, Coursera and MIT Open Courseware. I found the Standford Financial Markets and the MIT Electronics courses interesting.

There's also your public library, which sometimes carries these massive bundles of Great Courses on DVD. I kinda liked Thinking About Capitalism, as it recasted a good deal of history in a different light for me. They tend to have long queues, so ample use of holds seems appropriate. TTC itself holds cyclical sales on these things, so you can wait for your most desirable to go on sale as well.
posted by pwnguin at 12:22 PM on August 25, 2012

I love the World History crash courses. They're pretty basic, but still astonishingly comprehensive, and a world of fun. I'm sure you also know about all the great videos at the Khan Academy -- they're not as entertainment-oriented as TED talks or the Crash Courses, but are also super informative.
posted by idlethink at 7:41 AM on February 26, 2013