Location Taken: Kamloops area, British Columbia
Time Taken: June 2008
I don’t do audio.
Ok, I do listen to music and, you know, hear people talk the like. But I have a lot of trouble retaining information I learn that way. Even music blurs together, so while I enjoy it, I rarely remember more than a little of it. I have an absolutely horrendous memory for lyrics and I can literally forget I have music playing, despite it, you know, making noise.
This was a bit of trouble in school, since so much of the American education system is based around lectures. Luckily, I can solidify things in my memory by writing them down. Even if I never read my notes again, just the act of writing is enough. But to this day, anything purely audio only sticks at the basic concept level.
Except for a very few exceptions. Freakonomics Radio is one of those.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of Freakonomics. It was a book that made a big splash several years ago, a look at the odd ways economics works and how it affects our world. Mind you, I have yet to read the book. But I have listened to each and every podcast on that site.
I suppose it ties into that “retains basic concepts” thing. Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt are so good at clearly explaining things that everything gets reduced to basic concepts, which then stack on top of each other to present a thorough review of the subject.
They cover quite a wide range of topics, too. From looking at why the Japanese build essentially disposable housing to The Tale of the $15 Tomato to why you’re not too likely to die by fire these days.
Each week there’s a new show, and it’s always interesting to see what they chose to talk about. It takes a large degree of talent to get past my disdain for most audio media, and this not only manages it, it excels. If you’ve got time in your schedule to listen to even just a few of these shows, I do solidly recommend giving it a whirl!
