September 25, 2006

Free Resource Highlights: Week 5

We’ve been sending out our “Free Resource of the Day Email” for a number of months now, and we want to share some of the free audio & video titles from past weeks that we have offered. Here are the free resources from Week 5:

Farewell to Baseball Address

All around the country Major League ballparks will be buzzing with as the 2006 baseball playoffs approach. To celebrate this exciting time of the season we bring you (courtesy of American Rhetoric) the farewell address of one of baseball’s finest players ever, Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken played his entire career for the Baltimore Orioles and holds the record for most consecutive games played at 2,632.

Ideas Lecture: Jared Diamond

The authoratitive historian, scientist and best selling author Jared Diamond speaks on the hows and whys of culutral collapse in this amazing lecture released by Australia’s Griffith University.

Diamond showcases compelling examples such as the the Mayan and Roman civilizations, and details what exactly led to their ultimate demise. He also goes on to offer ways in which we as a race can prevent such catastrophes in modern times and why the present is sometimes more important than the future. Timely and wise, this lecture is for anyone interested in how we can take important examples from history and apply them to present-day survival.

The True King: Tolkien and the Medieval

Are you a fan of the recent Lord of the Rings film trilogy? This lecture released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute serves as a wonderful way you can learn more about LOTR author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Lecturer Bradley J. Birzer discusses the major themes in Tolkien’s work including the onslaught of modernity, the true value of good in the world and the gift of loyalty. Birzer ends with a beautiful description of the character Samwise Gamgee, and how his role in the book serves as a symbol of Tolkien’s belief system in action.

Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka’s novella is a bonafide 20th century classic about a traveling salesman that wakes up one morning to find his body has been transformed into that of a giant dung beatle. This highly symbolic tale about the plight of the modern working man, human alienation, and the eternal need to fit in has gone on to be Kafka’s signature work.

The audio version is brought to you through Thought Audio, and is narrated in a crisp performance by Michael Scott. If you’ve ever been interested in Kafka or have heard of the story’s premise but never checked it out, now is the time. This book really is as good as everyone says!