Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute? 550
confusus writes "Trapped in the daily routine of commuting for 1-2 hours every day, I started to ponder different ways of recycling commute-time waste. I tried listening to the radio, but 9.9/10, it ends up being just 'duh-whatever.' Then, I tried listening to audio books: it is really hard to find audio books that are tailored toward nerds. Thus I decided to find audio of interesting/geeky/nerdy/sciency interviews, talks, lectures. What would be the websites which provide such content?" I'd really like to find more informative downloadable audio content, too. Perhaps informed commentary and self-guided tours of historical and other sites, like national parks and significant buildings in the U.S. and elsewhere, basically self-guided audio walking (or driving) tours. Can anyone recommend a source?
Do the math (Score:3, Interesting)
a week, 50 weeks a year (for a total of
two weeks "time off" for good behavior
each year), you pull in 500 hours/year
in a metal cage. If you do a decade of
work like this, that's about 208 days
in a car. Or, about the length of time
for a first-time non-violent felony
prison sentence, like robbery without a
real gun, grand theft auto (the real
thing, not the game), embezzlement,
and similar crimes. The difference
is that if you committed a real crime,
you'd at least have a chance of getting
away with it. But since you took this
crappy job, you're being sentenced to
a metal cage, without the benefit of
having potentially profitted from a crime.
Pray tell, what crime did you commit to
be sentenced to this metal cage that you
call "your commute"? Or do you not value
your freedom enough to demand or expect
something better out of life? (Don't be
ashamed if this is what you want for
yourself; the world does need cogs after all.)
Re:podcasts (Score:3, Interesting)
I link several podcasts that I like.
Quirks and Quarks (Score:5, Interesting)
As a bonus, you can even get it in Ogg.
yo.
Re:podcasts (Score:2, Interesting)
the total lack of mentioning podcasts in the Q just confirms it... he says that he's a nerd, but haven't heard of podcasts yet? not likely.
Books off net then text-to-speech (Score:1, Interesting)
against podcasts (Score:1, Interesting)
While I appreciate the parent has to give the questioner the right keyword to suceed in his search (this is not an attack on the parent). I would implore other slashdot users not to use the term "podcasts" because it's just buzzword corporate hype for downloading sound files.
Queue the "oh so you mean we should say GNU/podcast?" jokes that attempt to normalise and supress the idea that politics exists in everything, even the words we use.
Foreign language? (Score:3, Interesting)
It is a perfect setting - lots of free time, a CD player, and nobody else around. (You feel pretty stupid repeating words over and over again in a foreign language if you are around other people). All of the Pimsleur lessons are 30 minutes each.
Re:Do the math (Score:3, Interesting)
I am easily able to entertain myself. At home I often sit in a chair and think. I use my commuting time to do more of the same. Yes, I listen to CBC radio and sometimes to classic rock, but mostly I entertain myself with my thoughts.
Would I prefer not to commute? You bet. While I don't find the time torture, I'd sooner have the 25-minute walk I had before I moved. And I do feel guilty consuming the amount of energy that I do.
Some day we'll get positions in the same vicinity. But our present circumstances don't make it all that easy.
Pacifica Radio and CBC if you can get them. (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, Canadian Broadcasting is good if you can get it. You'll recognize a few programs as "oh, *that's* what PBS was ripping off when they did this program...".
Back when I was doing an occasional 1.5-hour-each-way commute from NJ to Long Island, I found it was just about right to listen to a bit of traffic radio plus tapes of the Grateful Dead Hour. These days I usually work from home, with an occasional 1-hour commute into San Francisco by train, but since I don't have to drive I can use my laptop.
SETI Radio Network (Score:5, Interesting)
2600 off the hook (Score:2, Interesting)
Supreme court audio (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/nitf/273/ [oyez.org]
They provide a basis for our legal system, and reflect some pretty important times in our history. Plus, there are inevitably arguments for and against that I had never considered, (Can I mod justices +1 insightful?)
Speech synthesis (Score:1, Interesting)
I also spent a year trying to learn Mandarin with a language tape. I'm not very good but the ability to speak the language even a little has occasionally been a real ice-breaker.
You can pay attention to both. (Score:3, Interesting)
I really do not see an issue with the poster's request. Having something to listen to does not, in my own experience, reduce the "bandwidth" that goes to the road.
In fact, I'll even go further: when fatigue starts to set in, having silence in the car is far worse than listening to anything that keeps your brain occupied. Nothing seems to induce sleep better than a quiet, monotonous drive.
Re:CBC "Ideas" (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a pretty serious factual mistake, given that she claims to be an authority and introduced this information as a club with which to hammer home her point.
This is the Fox style. Make up "facts" and aggressively argue them without substantiation. They usually get away with it.
There are plenty of great audio books and lectures (Score:3, Interesting)
Then there are two excellent "audio lectures" companies that basically record college freshman-level lecture courses on CD. (One of them is called the Teaching Company [teach12.com], and the other, I forget.) Most of these are decent, and some are quite excellent. There are lots of titles available, and if you're like me and have an interest for almost everything academic, you won't run out of stuff.
Now, I hate to say this, but it has come to my attention that many of these recordings are available illegaly through newsgroups and some p2p sources like eMule. I leave it to your conscience what to do with this information (keeping in mind just how many immoral acts are legal and illegal acts moral). If you asked me whether I prefered motorists who enrich their minds with bootleg lectures about the Aneid, Roman history, or Feynman's excellent lectures on Relativity to motorists who adhere religiously to federal IP laws, I must say that I'd choose the former. But don't ask me. I teach ethics at a major university.
http://freeaudio.org/ (Score:3, Interesting)
-russ
Bill Gates took the stereo OUT of HIS car... (Score:1, Interesting)
If you read the bio of Gates by Manes, it explains that Gates had
the stereo removed from his car so he could think.
Which might be reason why he is a billionaire, and the rest of you aren't.
And I'm not joking.
Re:Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm sure someone more clever than me could script something in bash to automate this, but I just have it record in the background while I'm doing other things on my PC.
I commute to 40's and 50's radio programming (Score:1, Interesting)
My favorites include Lucille Ball's 'My Favorite Husband', which was written by the same writing and production staff as I Love Lucy. The Jack Benny Show, which covers 25 years and, interestingly, serves as a history lesson to current events of the time as parodied by the show. Eve Arden's Our Miss Brooks was quite articulate, even when it goes through cliche' sitcom storylines (though I guess they weren't cliche' at that time). Type "OTR" on eBay and you'll find dozens of old programs.
In Our Time (Score:3, Interesting)
In Our Time is a show presented by Melvyn Bragg, who discusses a different subject each week, with expert guests. In general they apply a historical context to some scientific, technological, religious, philosophical or political movement.
Interesting recent subjects have been:
Quality of guests is high: for example, Simon Sing was on the crypto program, Roger Penrose and John Gribbin are regulars, etc.
As well as being broadcast on Radio 4 on old fashioned analogue radio, In Our Time has the honour of being chosen as the BBC's experiment in podcasting [bbc.co.uk].
Dr Karl (Score:2, Interesting)
Find out how to listen at http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/podcast.htm [abc.net.au]