My Weekly Checkup (#11)

A Collection of Some Things I Found, Some Thoughts I Had This Week

Today's Weekly Checkup will reveal just how nerdy I am. It involves a recent foray into The Great Courses Plus streaming catalog. My subscription has been so worth it.

At the beginning of the Pandemic, when the Quarantine was put in place, I decided to subscribe to The Great Courses Plus streaming program. It is a collection of video lectures on a variety of subjects by experts in their respective field. My wife and daughters were excited about their Hulu and Disney+ services, while I was giddy for a vast collection of video recorded college courses.

My first few courses covered drawing, storytelling, and fiction writing. And then, last week, I came upon Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It. The title alone was enough. From that moment forward, I began watching 2-3 lectures a day. Each lecture is about 30 minutes long, just perfect for those free moments between finishing up the laundry, mowing the lawn, and prepping dinner.  And one more right before bed for good measure. There are about 24 lectures--enough to keep me occupied for a 2-3 weeks, but not too much that I fail to finish the series. That allows me to binge a single topic within a week or two, or cover several topics at the same time over the course of a month.

In this case, the subject is the philosophy of science, namely, what scientists know, and how they know it. And there is plenty of history included. (It's like Christmas in June!) The topic is quite timely. In the past month I have become interested in how people have been using (and in some cases, misusing) science in order to achieve their political agendas. This course reveals the strengths, but also limits, of science, and how it all came about. It has answered a lot of my questions and alleviated many of my concerns about our current perceptions of science. 

More importantly, it has done all of this through an incredibly entertaining and effective teacher: Steven L. Goldman, Ph.D., a professor at Lehigh University. Yes, it is all lectures, with a few crappy "slides", and some interesting images. But he is so animated and passionate about the subject. He is also very good at connecting current elements of the topic with previous lectures, so you never feel lost. Finally, he makes you feel like the material is something your ought to know something about.

I mean, I already knew I loved the subject, but he keeps driving the fact home in each new lecture.

In the end, I doubt most people reading this post will find this particular topic as exciting as I do. That's fine. I understand. But, The Great Courses Plus offers videos for all sorts of topics, from cooking and camping, to economics and finance; how to write and draw, to how to understand statistics and calculus; from the history of the Mongols and the Tudors, to the science of sleep and addiction. There is a course for just about everyone.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find out more about science in the Age of Reason.