After reading Jen’s blog about her relationship with podcasts during her weekly commute between Eugene and Corvallis, I got inspired and decided to check out her suggestions and got hooked on a few. I also have a few suggestions of my own that I think can be interesting to you if you are into podcasts.

A podcast really does represent some kind of ultimate free-choice learning – it’s not tied to any particular time and place, you decide what you want to listen to and when, you pace your time on it yourself like Jen said, no one is there to make sure you are paying attention or drifting in and out, and with the huge number of podcasts out there, you can delve as deeply or as shallowly as you want into almost anything that interests you.

To feed the science geek inside, “stuff you should know” is a good podcast to explore concepts in any discipline. Their slightly irreverent approach to everyday knowledge answers all those questions we had as kids, but somehow forgot were important to us when we become adults, like why the sky is blue. It is really about stuff we all should know. “Bytesize science” demonstrates the relevance of science in daily life situations, much like what we talked about in our weekly theory meetings when our group was reading “Everyday Cognition” and investigating the how everyday activities shape and are shaped by all kinds of mathematics thinking. “A history of the world in 100 objects” is my attempt to become more knowledgeable about the world and its development. Each episode is shaped around a single object from the British Museum as a historical landmark. “The writers block” is for those of you who love writing because, lets face it, who doesn’t? “The Naked Scientist” is a podcast to keep up with the scientist within. Finally, of course I could not forget “All in the mind” to dive deep in the human mind, brain and behavior.

In a recent podcast I listened to they talked about people’s notion of happiness and of a meaningful life. One would think both would normally positively correlate, but not always. In fact, some people who say they try to live a meaningful life are not always happy. The point is that people who are happy are normally “takers” and people worried about building a meaningful life are largely “givers”. So, in the spirit of the solstice and the change with the new year, I recommend you listen in to that one and think about giving and taking and what it means for making you happy and for making your life meaningful.

Thanks Jen for sharing and inspiring me to share some meaningful resources.

Happy New Year Everyone! Or should I say Meaningful New Year Everyone!