November 27, 2021

iTunes U Shut Down, But Many Courses Still Remain

UPDATE! As you might’ve heard, iTunes shut down their iTunes U section at the end of 2021. iTunes U was launched in 2007 to showcase free educational material from universities, colleges, and other institutions. Now the bad news is that you can no longer browse iTunes U and some of their courses and offerings are gone. But the good news is that many of their courses have now moved over to the iTunes Podcast Directory. At LearnOutLoud we’ve tried to feature the top audio & video learning content that iTunes U had to offer over the years which we’ll highlight below.

After going through their courses which we featured, here are some of courses that still remain on the iTunes Podcast Directory and we still feature on our site:

Over 70 Courses & Lectures from Stanford University on iTunes & YouTube

12 Courses from La Trobe University

23 Free Courses from UC Davis on iTunes & YouTube

16 Courses from East Tennessee State University

19 Courses from Missouri State University on iTunes & YouTube

11 Courses from Harrisburg Area Community College

And here are some of the individual courses and offerings we’ve featured over the years:

The Literature of Crisis

In addition to their other offerings through Stanford on iTunes, Stanford University is offering this course for free through iTunes U on audio download. This Intro to Humanities course entitled “The Literature of Crisis” explores crisis when it occurs at the personal, familial, and societal levels through six major works of literature. Professor Martin Evans and Marsh McCall are both dynamic lecturers that lead listeners through these works. While it seems a lot can be derived from the lectures without reading the works, you may want to read (or listen to) some of the works yourself in conjuction with listening to the lectures. Here are the works they examine (with links to these titles on audio book): Apology by Plato, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Aeneid by Virgil, and Candide by Voltaire.

Story of Freedom in America

Professor J. Rufus Fears was an American historian, scholar, teacher, and author, who was best known for his many courses he taught through the Teaching Company that produces The Great Courses. Now you can get one of his “great” courses absolutely free from the University of Oklahoma through iTunes U. In a series of 18 dynamic audio & video lectures supplemented by downloadable documents, Professor J. Rufus Fears tells the story of how America’s vision of freedom became a model for the entire world. As Fears argues in the first lecture, one of the main reasons America has endured is because the founding fathers used lessons from the past to make decisions in the present and plan for the future. This sense of what works historically and what we should avoid has given the great American leaders (from Jefferson to Lincoln to FDR) a sturdy precedent that can be used as a tool to forge ahead. With that established, Fears says the purpose of the course will be to reflect upon the lessons provided by major turning points in American history and how we can use this history to tackle the problems the world faces today. Enjoy this course from a truly great professor and historian. Now on YouTube.

Colonial and Revolutionary America

The ways in which scholars and teachers approach American History has gone through a major shakeup in recent years, and in this free course presented by Stanford, students will be given a chance to assess the new ways we might investigate American origins. Historian and professor Jack Rakove identifies two strands of thinking when it comes to American history: the first, more conventional take examines American history through the prism of British colonial involvement and the transplantation of English institutions into North America. The second, more contemporary view sets the clock back to European “discovery”, starting with Columbus and tracing the vast exchanges over what became known as the Atlantic Ocean. Setting up his survey in these terms, Rakove explains that writing a strong narrative of American history has always been tough to do, and the course will try to navigate the complex series of interactions that led to the development of the North American continent up the Revolutionary generation. This course is available on audio through iTunes U.

Romanticism Course

Who were the Romantics? In this free course conducted by Timothy Morton, listeners will learn about an innovative literary period between 1790 and 1820 that produced influential writers such as William Blake, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Mary Shelley. Centered primarily in England at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the Romantic poets began to grapple with a changing world that was dominated by capitalist ambition, a growing consumerism, and the explosive development of democratic political reforms. Morton also feels that with this change there came a new self-awareness that the romantics tapped into, where many became conscious of a newfound intellectual and expressive freedom. The course will not only cover the writers and their work, but also pay special attention to how their thinking helped influence modern self-understanding. It’s being offered on audio on iTunes U.

How to Think Like a Psychologist

In this free mini-course provided by Stanford University, Upside of Stress author and psychologist Kelly McGonigal hosts a survey of current trends in psychology and how they might offer strategies for use in daily life. With each class, cutting edge psychologists offer a lecture on their specific areas of study, followed by lively interviews with McGonigal and questions from the class. Fascinating topics covered include how to use meditation to combat anxiety, finding practical techniques to manage our emotions, and what really makes human beings unique. A must for anyone interested in the role psychology plays in daily life, and for those that want to learn more about the newest, exciting innovations in the field. This course is available on video through iTunes U.

Enjoy what is left of iTunes U through the iTunes Podcast Directory!

May 1, 2021

1,000 Best Free Audio Books on Spotify

We’ve just added over 500 new audio books from Spotify into our Free Audio & Video Directory. That brings our total number of Spotify audio books to over 1,000. We’ve created a Spotify playlist on our LearnOutLoud Spotify account that you can use to find these audio books. The playlist features the first track of each audio book. Check out this playlist on Spotify:

Best Free Audio Books on Spotify Playlist by LearnOutLoud

In addition to music and podcasts, Spotify has increasingly become a destination for audiobooks. In order to listen to these audiobooks you’ll need a free Spotify account. You can listen for free with occasional ads, and they also have Spotify apps for easier listening on your computer or smart phone. If you want to listen ad-free and you love music as well, we can’t recommend Spotify Premium highly enough.

One of the issues with Spotify and audio books is finding the best audio books they have to offer. We’ve scoured through Spotify to find the highest quality audio books you can learn from and below we’ll list the publishers that have added many of their titles to Spotify. Browse through these publishers on our site and find some great audio books to listen to on Spotify today!

Note: It’s come to our attention that free users of Spotify can no longer play albums or playlists in order on mobile. Spotify mobile apps force free users to play in shuffle mode. Pretty annoying for audiobooks! If you’re not a Spotify Premium user and you want to play these audiobooks in order, you’ll need to play them on your desktop or tablet. Sorry!

Spotify Podcasts & Audio Books – For titles that didn’t fit under another publisher, we’ve added them to our Spotify publisher page. Here you’ll find some classic literature audio books that Spotify has published with professional narrators, along with some podcasts that are exclusive to Spotify. There are also spoken word albums of speeches, poetry readings, comedy, and a lot more.

Made for Success Audio Books – We feature over 250 audio programs from Made for Success which are available on Spotify and YouTube. They specialize in original audio programs to motivate you in your personal and professional life.

L.A. Theatre Works Audio Books – The best publisher of audio theatre has added over 80 of their plays to Spotify. You’ll find classic plays such as Twelve Angry Men and much more.

Penton Overseas Language Learning Audio Books – This publisher has added over 50 of their “Learn in Your Car” language learning audio programs to Spotify. Learn French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, German, English as a Second Language, and more.

Scholastic Audio Books – Scholastic Audio specializes in contemporary books for kids and offers about 50 of their audio books on Spotify including The Hunger Games.

Speechworks Audio Books – If you like great speeches, then Speechworks features over 25 collections of original recordings of amazing speeches on Spotify.

Vibrance Press Audio Books – This publisher offers over 50 of their unabridged audio books on Spotify, mostly in the areas of personal growth.

BN Publishing Audio Books – Check out over 50 classic self help audio programs from BN Publishing on Spotify. Mixed in are some great speeches, classic radio programs, and other historic recordings.

CSA Word Audio Books – If you want to listen to classic literature in abridged format, then CSA Word has over 50 audio books that typically run 2-3 hours in length. These abridged classics feature outstanding professional narrators.

Saland Publishing Audio Books – Love Shakespeare? Saland Publishing offers over 25 full cast Shakespeare plays on Spotify with many superb actors.

Krishnamurti Foundation of America Audio Books – Listen to 30 audio programs from the renowned spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti on Spotify.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Audio Books – Smithsonian Folkways publishes a lot of music, but they also have released some great spoken word collections. We feature 15 of them from Spotify.

Musically Speaking Audio Books – Take a journey through classical music with over twenty “Conductor’s Guides” to some of the greatest music ever composed!

Osho Audio Books – Over 20 talks on Spotify from the famous spiritual guru Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (featured in the popular Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country).

NAXOS Audio Books – Listen to 27 hour-long introductions of famous operas and 11 4-hour-long composer biographies from NAXOS. They’re all on Spotify and we’ve collected them here on a blog post.

Earworms Audio Books – Over 15 language learning programs featuring essential words and phrases in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and more.

The Relaxation Company Audio Books – The Relaxation Company offers over 30 of their pioneering audio programs on Spotify to help your relax with meditations, guided relaxations, and audio sleep aids.

There are even more audio books than that on Spotify, but the 1,000 audio books from these publishers we think are the best!