December 13, 2005

Best of 2005 Audio Books (iTunes)

I just got an e-mail forwarded to me from Apple which lists the “Best of 2005” for audio books. Not sure how scientific this is 🙂 but wanted to pass the chosen titles along.

Editors Pick: Freakonomics

Customer Favorite: How To Talk To Anyone

Health, Mind & Body: YOU: The Owner’s Manual

Current Events: The World is Flat

I’d give you a link to the complete listing but since it’s in iTunes I’ll just have to tell you to go to the Audiobooks section of the Music Store and look for the Best of 2005.

Happy listening!

December 13, 2005

Tookie Williams

For those of you who have been following this, Tookie Williams was executed earlier today in California. I don’t know enough about the details of the case to offer any sort of qualified opinion on it but I did want to point people to a two-hour audio interview that Tony Robbins did of Tookie Williams from San Quentin Prison. It’s a very interesting interview although it’s a bit haunting to listen to now that he’s gone.

Anyway, here’s the link:

Tony’s Interview with Stanley Tookie Williams

December 12, 2005

Shownotes for Audio Learning Revolution Episode #013

Audio Learning Revolution Podcast for Dec 11th, 2005

December 12, 2005

Shownotes for Audio Learning Revolution Episode #012

Audio Learning Revolution Podcast for Dec 2nd, 2005

• Intro and Interlude Music – “Walk Away (Bitsream Dream Remix)” by Lovespirals from The Podsafe Music Network

• Introduction
  – Direct Link to the show
  
  – Link to Feeds for Audio Learning Revolution podcasts
  
  – Link to LearnOutLoud.com Podcast Directory
  
  – Comments or Questions about the Podcast directory E-mail

• Religion & Spirituality Podcasts
  – Link to Religion and Spirituality Podcast Category Page.
  
  – Link to The Catholic Insider Podcast
  
  – Link to The Vatican Radio Podcast
  
  – Link to Zencast Podcast
  
  – Link to Rachel’s Choice Podcast
  
  – Link to Consciousness: The Inside Story Podcast

• Interlude Music – “Love Survives” by Lovespirals from The Podsafe Music Network

• Politics Podcasts
  – Link to Politics podcast category page
  
  – Link to Left Right and Center Podcast
  
  – Link to Sen. John Edward’s Podcast
  
  – Link to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Weekly Radio Address Podcast
  
  – Link to the Presidential Weekly Radio Address Podcast
  
  – Link to the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast
  
  – Link to the CNN News Update Podcast
  
  – Link to the Newsweek On Air Podcast
  
  – Link to the CBS News Face the Nation Podcast
  
  – Link to ABC News: The Afternote Podcast
  
  – Link to Slate Magazine Podcasts
  
  – Link to Shelley the Republican Podcast
  
  – Link to Democrats are Lost Podcast
  
  – Link to The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly Podcast
  
  – Link to The All RNC Podcast
  
  – Link to The Democracy Now Podcast
  
  – Link to The Mother Jones Radio Podcast
  
  – Link to The Progressive Radio Show Podcast
  
  – Link to Radio Nation Podcast
  
  – Link to THIS IS HELL Podcast
  
  – Link to The Air America Podcasts

• Interlude Music – “Ecstatic (Radio Edit)” by Lovespirals from The Podsafe Music Network

• Philosophy
  – Link to Philosophy Podcast Category Page.
  
  – Link to DebateGod Podcast
  
  – Link to Awaretek Podcast

• Self Development
  – Link to Self Development Podcast Category Page.
  
  – Link to NPR: Health & Science Podcast
  
  – Link to KCRW’s Second Opinion Podcast
  
  – Link to The Health Report Podcast
  
  – Link to The NBC5 HealthWatch Podcast
  
  – Link to The MommyCast Podcast
  
  – Link to the Gay Parenting Show Podcast
  
  – Link to Dr. Alan Rubin’s HealthCast Podcast
  
  – Link to the Intraspectus Podcast
  
  – Link to the All in the Mind Podcast
  
  – Link to the Sound Medicine Podcast
  
  – Link to Strengthcast
  
  – Link to the Motivation to Move Podcast
  
  – Link to More Hip than Hippy Podcast

• History Podcasts
  – Link to History Podcast Category Page.
  
  – Link to Speeches and Historical Audio Podcast
  
  – Link to History According to Bob Podcast

• Outro – “Our Nights” by Lovespirals from The Podsafe Music Network

  – Link to the LearnOutLoud.com Podcast Directory

December 9, 2005

Narnia Mania

If you haven’t spent the last couple of months in a cave you’re probably aware that Disney is releasing their latest projected blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe today. The Chronicles of Narnia was originally a seven-book series written by C.S. Lewis. I fondly remember reading these as a child. I’d have to check with my parents but I’m pretty sure I probably read them all.

If you’re a Narnia fan you’ll want to check out a couple of things we’ve put together here at LearnOutLoud.com. The first is our C. S. Lewis Author Page. We’ve collected every audio and video title from or about C.S. Lewis that we could find. One of my favorites include the The Chronicles of Narnia CD Box Set which contains unabridged recordings of all seven Narnia books for a very affordable price ($52.50). Another interesting title is a reading of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe read by Michael York.

If you’re interested in learning more about C.S. Lewis or delving into some of his non-Narnia material there are a couple of things you may want to check out. You can start with our free reading of the C. S. Lewis Wikipedia entry where you’ll learn more about the man behind Narnia. Then you can move on to The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics Audio Collection, a collection containing The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain and Mere Christianity.

If you’re heading to the movie this weekend drop a quick post in the forums and let us know how it was.

Have a great weekend everyone!

December 9, 2005

1,000 Registered Members!

We cracked the 1,000 member mark tonight (1,002 at last check). A minor milestone no doubt but kinda cool nonetheless.

If you haven’t registered yet you can do so here. Registration is free, takes only a few seconds and allows you to do a bunch of stuff like post to our forums, rate and review titles and more. So go register and join the Audio Learning Revolution today!

Updated: I just found out that we also crossed the 10,000 title mark on the site this week as well. Right now we’re at 10,082 and counting. Lots of options for you to get your Learn Out Loud on. 🙂

December 8, 2005

Lennon Out Loud

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, one of the most influential rock musicians in history. Very few people have had a bigger influence on their craft than Lennon. For more background on Lennon’s life and untimely death, check out the John Lennon Wikipedia entry. And check out Zaadz for some Lennon quotes.

We don’t have a lot of Lennon titles on our site but for those curious in learning more about this incredible man here are a few you might be interested in listening to.

The Beatles and The Beatles – Two biographies of the same name but by different authors. The first is the newly released and highly anticipated book by Bob Spitz. The second is an older title (originally published in 1968 and revised in 1996) by Hunter Davies published by Blackstone Audiobooks.

John – A biography of John Lennon written by his first wife Cynthia and published by Random House Audio. An unabridged version is also available.

Lennon wrote an array of amazing and innovative songs and his “Imagine” has always been on my short list of favorites:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

I can’t think of many messages that the world needs more right now than that.

Rest in Peace John.

December 7, 2005

The Impending Death of the Apple iPod

Yesterday I wrote about the death of CDs (well, sort of…). Today I’m writing about the death of the Apple iPod.

Wait a minute? The death of the iPod? Do I mean the same “iPod” as in the sleek, hot-looking little iPod Nano and the innovative very popular video iPod? Do I mean the same iPod as in the ones that are flying off the shelves this holiday season and that will no doubt boost Apple’s earning and stock price to record levels?

Yup, I most certainly do.

Tonight I got my first introduction to Real Rhapsody, the unlimited pay-as-you-go music service from Real Networks. And while this might be a bit premature given that I’ve been a subscriber for about three hours, I’m completely and unabashedly a huge fan. For $9.99/month I get unlimited access to over 1.3 million songs. For that same price I get unlimited access to…10 songs on iTunes. Hmmm…

OK, now you’re probably saying “Hey, that’s cool and all but I want to take my music with me.” That’s where Rhapsody To Go comes in. With Rhapsody To Go I can now take any of those 1.3 million songs with me whereever I go. One catch…I can’t take them with me if I have an iPod. Apple stubbornly refuses to license its Fairplay DRM and thereby have shut Rhapsody users out of putting their (legally purchased) music on the iPod.

Apple has done the same thing with audio books as well. The only option you have if you want to purchase audio books and put them on an iPod is Audible.com. Legally purchased audio books from Sounds Good, Simply Audiobooks and Jiggerbug won’t work. And that’s a shame because I think those companies (along with NetLibrary and Overdrive) are offering some very cool innovations in the spoken word audio world.

The funny thing is that this is a bit of deja vu for Apple. They built a walled garden around the Mac back in the 80s and we all know how well that turned out for them. I’m certainly not anti-Apple. I love what Steve Jobs has done with the iPod in terms of promoting portable media. I just think we’ve moved passed the days of only allowing content to work with your player or your software. People don’t want that. The era of darknet is over. The era of lightnet is upon us.

So what does all of this mean? First of all, if Apple doesn’t start changing their tune (sorry, bad pun…) soon I think that the relatively more open platforms are going to win out. I don’t know a better tip-off of that than this recent blog post from Chris Anderson, editor over at Wired Magazine. Like him, I’ve come to the conclusion that my next portable device probably won’t be an iPod. It’ll probably be something like the Zen Micro pictured above.

Second, if the open platforms start to gain more ground than the rules change a lot. The iTunes/iPod/Audible dominance in the spoken word audio market changes significantly. Certainly Audible is somewhat insulated because their service works with many non-iPod devices, but they will face increased competition. Hey, that’s what happens when monopolies are dissolved.

I loaded up on all the Bob Dylan songs I could find earlier this evening. I really enjoyed being able to go back through all the old stuff that I would never have bought on iTunes but were now a click away with Rhapsody. The one that seemed most apropos for the occasion? Well, it goes a little something like this.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last

Yup, the times they sure are a-changing… I just hope that Jobs and the gang realize that before it’s too late…again.

December 7, 2005

Audio Learning “Lens” on Squidoo

The Squidoo site went public today and our lens on “Audio Learning” is in the Top 100 (#10 as of this writing). Here’s the link:

http://www.squidoo.com/Audio_Learning/

Squidoo is a hot site (I love how their colors match ours!) and it’s a great idea. Seth Godin and the gang have done it again!

Kudos to Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion for the heads up (although I do disagree a bit with his assessment of Squidoo).

December 6, 2005

R. I. P. CDs Part 2: The Spoken Word

Aidin Vaziri, music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, has a great article up (thanks to Corante for the link) entitled R.I.P. CDs
Consider the alternatives to compact discs: iPods, satellite radio and hours of free or cheap digital music to download legally. Begone, bright discs and pesky cases! Begone! (that’s a mouthful huh?). He focuses on music so let me offer a quick companion article covering the spoken word. You might want to read his article first to get the full context:

10. Audible.com/Apple iTunes – As much as I sometimes get frustrated that Audible could be so much more than it is, I have to admit that they do a lot right. They’ve got a great selection, affordable pricing plans and a lot of free stuff. Plus, they basically invented portable spoken word audio and for that I thank them profusely.

9. The Teaching Company – Yup, The Teaching Company finally offers digital downloads. This is a very cool development because lugging around their voluminous courses can be a bit cumbersome. Only a smattering of courses are available for download but we’ll hope their entire catalog is made available soon.

8. Nightingale-Conant – Another newcomer to the download world. We’ll never know but my guess is that Nightingale-Conant has single-handedly added billions (I don’t think I’m exaggerating here) to the world’s economy through the people it has helped to inspire and to educate.

7. IT Conversations – I love, love, love what Doug Kaye is doing here. And you’re only going to see more of it as his Conversations Network gathers more steam. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Doug Kaye and the Conversations Network will change the world. You heard it hear first.

6. Net Library and Overdrive – Free audio book downloads for everyone? How cool is that! Sure it’s the Windows Media format (not compatible with iPods) and sure you have to have a library account and sure they expire just like regular library books but did I mention that these audio book downloads are free?

5. Learning Languages On Audio – I can’t tell you how cool it is to be able to learn Spanish when you’re walking to the store or pick up a bit o’ Italiano when you’re running on the treadmill. While a lot of this stuff is still available only on CD publishers like Pimsleur (Simon & Schuster), Berlitz and Living Language have made a good chunk of their foreign language material available for download.

4. Podcasts – A year ago I didn’t know what a podcast was. Now I think I’d have a hard time living without them. There is so much good stuff out there and I think we’re only scratching the surface of what we’ll see eventually. Personally the podcasts that are my must-listens include IT Conversations, Diggnation (from the guys @ Digg.com), a new favorite Venture Voice and our very own Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast.

3. Audio Cassettes – For some reason I still love the good ol’ cassette. Sure they’re bulky and all but I love being able to carry them from place and place and always have them remember where I am. A cool thing about cassettes too is that you can find older material from people like Wayne Dyer on eBay that isn’t available anywhere else.

2. Free Audio – I love to pay for my audio but I also like free stuff. Like free speeches from Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Like free audio books such as Common Sense and As a Man Thinketh. That’s good stuff and the more I save on this stuff the more I can spend on other stuff right? (I think I just set a world record for number of times using the word “stuff” in the same sentence…)

1. Audio CDs – Wait…wasn’t this supposed to be about the death of the CD? Yeah, I guess it was but I have to admit that there is still a lot of stuff that I listen to on CD. As far as I know the Sony rootkit wasn’t installed on any audio books so spoken word listeners are in the clear. And most cars only have CD players which means that CDs are often the best option for many people.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re listening to a download, a CD or a cassette. The important thing is that you’re listening. There are more choices out there than ever before. So get busy and start Learning Out Loud OK? 🙂