Silver Linings: Podcasts and the Love of Learning

One of the things I enjoy most as an academician is the ability to learn all the time. As I read new publications and get acquainted with new test results or new theories, or try to read about a related field that I haven’t explored in depth yet, I feel it very rewarding to see how knowledge grows in the mind.

But besides my field of study, I find it important to keep learning continuously about other aspects of our world.
One of the challenges I imposed on myself for 2013 is to learn something new every single day.

There are several ways to learn something new. I enjoy reading books, ebooks, blogs and follow online courses. But one of my favorite ways of learning is by listening to podcasts while I am cutting vegetables or having dinner.

My absolutely favorite podcast is 15 minute history from UT Austin. I am interested in history, but I have only taken an elective in music history during my engineering studies in Brussels. My barriers for entry to understanding the work of historians are fairly high.

The podcasts from 15 minute history are accessible, thought-provoking and a noob like me is able to follow the contents and actually learn from it. After every episode, I think to myself: “Now that is interesting, I really learned something in these past 15 minutes.”

If you want to spark your joy for learning and go outside of your field of study, I recommend you listen to the episodes of “15 minute history.“