July 11, 2011

Free Learning Guide

Free Audio Books

At LearnOutLoud.com we’re getting close to adding a lot more free titles to our site. We’ve taken inventory of the over 3500 free audio & video titles and over 2000 podcasts that we have and we’ve put together this free stuff guide to some of the best free titles from the best sources of free audio & video content on the Web. We’ll be updating most of these providers with the latest titles, but for now you can check out the ones we’ve featured. We’ll start by giving you a guide to the best free audio books.

FREE AUDIO BOOKS:

LibriVox.org – A great site which brings together volunteers to read books in the public domain that they then offer as free audio book downloads on MP3. We feature 1100 of their best audio books.

FORA.tv – Offers over 2000 free videos from over 115 different partners covering the world’s most interesting political, social and cultural issues. We’ve selected 500 of their top videos.

ThoughtAudio – Over 30 free downloadable audio books including Metamorphosis, Siddhartha, The Art of War, The Call of the Wild, and more.

ejunto.com – Free historical and philosophical audio books to download on MP3.

Literal Systems – LiteralSystems records free MP3 downloadable audio books of classic literary works that are in the public domain. All their audio books are featured on Gutenberg.org.

Audio Anarchy – Audio books and writings on the political philosophy of anarchism.

FreeAudio.org – A few classic free audio books including Common Sense and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

Speak the Speech – Free full cast dramatizations of plays by William Shakespeare.

PennSound – Original recordings of poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Gertrude Stein.

Free Lectures & Talks

Beyond the free audio books we feature we also have 1000s of lectures and talks from 100s of authors and speakers. We’ve gone through many of the most popular sources for educational talks and tried to pick out the best and most interesting ones they have to offer. Here are some of the best of the best of online audio & video lectures.

LECTURES & TALKS:

TED Talks – Some of the best talks from the TED Conference. The Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference has been featuring talks from leading thinkers not only in technology, entertainment, and design, but also religion, science, literature, psychology, personal growth, and numerous other areas.

The Forum Network – Tons of free videos and audio downloads from the expansive WGBH Forum Network which records events at MIT, Harvard, Boston College, Cambridge, and many other colleges and institutions in the Boston area.

Barnes & Noble Media – Numerous audio & video programs through the Barnes & Noble Media section of their website. Their current programs are One on One (a weekly audio conversation with writers), Upstairs at the Square (a monthly video series featuring writers and musicians), Live from B&N (videos of readings, discussions and author Q&As), Meet the Writers (audio and video interviews with popular writers), and more.

Google Talks – Talks delivered at Google. Most of their @GoogleTalks are their series called Authors@Google, but they also have a few other series including Leading@Google (featuring leadership authors talking about their leadership books) and Women@Google (featuring outstanding women such as the world’s greatest female marathoner).

MIT Lectures – Links to over 100 free video lectures from MIT including ones from Jack Welch, Michael Dell and Noam Chomsky.

Naropa University – Free historic audio from this Buddhist-inspired university, focusing on lectures and poetry readings by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at their Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

Ashbrook Center – Public affairs lectures from leading conservative thinkers and politicians.

Vega Science Trust – Links to 40 free video lectures on subjects like nanotechnology and physics.

The Cato Institute – Talks delivered at this libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Lannan Foundation – Readings and conversations with contemporary literature and poetry authors.

Conversations with History – UC Berkeley’s Harry Kreisler talks with major thinkers in the world of foreign policiy and global politics.

Dharma Seed – Free Dharma talks and meditations.

Intercollegiate Studies Institute – Talks delivered at this conservative educational organization.

MeaningOfLife.tv – Interviews with leading philosophers, scientists, and theologians conducted by Robert Wright.

Mises Institute – Top speakers at this center for the Austrian School of Economics.

UCTV – Lectures delivered at the many University of California campuses.

Free Speeches & Historical Audio

And even beyond that we have a lot of free audio of historical speeches and other historic audio you can listen to. Check out some of our top providers of this audio content:

SPEECHES & HISTORICAL AUDIO:

American Rhetoric – By far the internet’s largest provider of free historical speeches. Download many of the greatest speeches of all time on MP3.

American Memory from the Library of Congress – Some amazing audio projects including Voices from the Days of Slavery and the September 11th, 2001 Documentary Project

Free Sermons from Sermon Index and SermonAudio.com – We’ve posted links to sermons from people like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday

C-SPAN – Political events and interviews captured by the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network.

History and Politics Out Loud – Historic addresses and historic audio available to stream.

Nobelprize.org – Historic Nobel Prize acceptance speeches on audio & video.

Miller Center of Public Affairs – The largest collection of presidential audio on the web along with many talks delivered by historians.

Authentic History Center – Historic audio organized into specific time periods in American and World history.

Radio Diaries – Everyday people tell their stories in these diaries from American history.

Free Podcast Providers

And along with all of these free resources from our free directory we also have a lot of free providers in our podcast directory. You’ll probably recognize these popular podcasters so we’ll just list them here:

National Public Radio

American Public Media

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

PBS Podcasts

KCRW (Public Radio Station in LearnOutLoud’s hometown of Santa Monica, CA)

Personal Life Media (Podcasts with expert advice on personal growth, anti-aging, intimacy and relationships)

NASA Podcasts

New York Times Podcasts

CNET Podcasts

Oprah Winfrey’s Podcasts

The New Yorker Podcasts

Public Radio International

Quick and Dirty Tips Podcasts

CNN Podcasts

Stay tuned for way more free audio & video from LearnOutLoud.com!