March 30, 2006

Stanford on iTunes: Plath and Hughes

Recently I listened to an incredible literary discussion made available through Stanford’s Books & Authors program on iTunes. The latest update to this section is entitled “Her Husband: Plath and Hughes” and is comprised of an interview and discussion with Diane Middlebrook, author of a recently published Plath-Hughes biography by the same name. If you are a fan of modern literature and poetry in particular, than you owe it to yourself to hear this.

Everyone that has read Sylvia Plath will find it hard to divide her life, marriage, and death from her work. That said, much of the discussion in this program deals with how aspects of her life informed what she wrote. The factors talked about include turbulent mental health, a volatile yet mutually beneficial marriage and how motherhood may have amplified Plath’s talent beyond that of previous female authors. This is all interesting to be sure, but what really struck me was the attention given to Ted Hughes. I had never really thought about him before aside from the fact that he was married to Plath and probably contributed in part to the downward spiral that ultimately led to her suicide. Middlebrook provides him more dimension by making Plath’s death the primary moment in his creative evolution. For the rest of his life, the centerpiece of Hughes’ work lied in how he processed the pain of losing his creative soulmate. Middlebrook ends the session with a poem written by Hughes to Plath just before his 1998 death. What is read here sums up the loss of a loved one so poignantly that even Middlebrook herself sounds as though she’s been brought to tears while reading it. This is an incredibly valuable discussion about what tore apart, fueled and ultimately re-connected two highly creative people.

March 22, 2006

Audio Learning is Cheating!

I had a good friend from Minneapolis in town last night. We had a great time catching up and got on the subject of audio books when he was telling me how the parents of a kid who he coaches (he’s a tennis pro) but audiobooks for their kid to listen to instead of reading the printed version. He considered it cheating and thinks the parents should have the kid read instead.

I guess I kind of agree with him.

I don’t think audio learning should ever be a complete substitute for reading. In today’s age it’s more important than ever to read and honestly everyone would do themselves a favor by learning to read faster so they could process information quicker. A great program to help with that is EyeQ which is a piece of software that can up your reading spead dramatically. But I digress…

The point is not to look at audio learning, audiobooks and podcasts as a means of replacing reading. Instead it’s a great compliment and a tremendous opportunity to crank through books and other stuff you’re interested in during times when you can’t read.

I love to read. But with my reading time I find myself gravitating increasingly to material that I can’t listen to. For example, blogs (I love my Bloglines!), magazines and books that haven’t been made into audio. Every time a new book comes out the first thing I do is check to see if an audio version is available. If it is I’ll usually go that route. I’ve done this recently with titles such as The World is Flat and My Life. Books that previously I would have spent many hours over several months reading are now completed in a few weeks during my drive and exercise time, while I’m washing the dishes, etc.

The best part is that I didn’t take any additional time out of my day to “read” these books.

What does that equate to? A major time savings. In my case, it’s time to work on the business, time to relax a bit and of course time to read.

We live in a society in which, for most people, time is more scarce than money. That’s why I love audio learning is that it literally adds time to my life. If I’m committed to lifelong learning and know that there will be books each month that I want to (and perhaps need to) read then I know now that I can listen to them, still get the full impact of and benefit from the material and yet not take up any additional time in my day by doing so.

I’ve been doing this for so long now that it’s ingrained in me that I forget that this idea probably hasn’t occured to many people. It hadn’t really occured to my buddy but I think by the end of the night I sold him. And if I didn’t I’m going to dropping an audiobook or two in the mail for him to seal the deal. 🙂

March 20, 2006

Audio Learning at the LA Marathon

I completed marathon #4 yesterday here in LA and for the first time I tried listening to an audio book while I’ve ran. I’ve listened to music in the past and listened to audio books and podcasts while training but I’ve never tried listening to audio books during a race before. It actually went pretty well.

I listened to the first half of John Battelle’s book The Search. It’s an interesting look at the history of search engines with a more specific focus on Google. It’s one of the multitudes that I always tell myself I should read or want to read but never seem to get around to. Knocking out the first half of it while doing something I knew I was going to do anyway was kind of cool.

I’m such a big fan of listening to audio books and podcasts during exercise. Not only is it a great way to crank through a lot of stuff that you normally wouldn’t have time for but it’s also a great way to come up with new ideas. I think there’s something about the extra blood flow to the brain coupled with exposing your mind to some new knowledge that can trigger a hell of a lot of creativity. I’ve had some of my best ideas over the last year when I’ve been out for runs while listening to podcasts like The Gillmor Gang or Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders.

If you’ve never tried listening to an audio book or podcast during your workout I’d highly recommend it. It’s a great way to “kill two birds with one stone” and the ideas you’ll come up with will make it time very well spent.

March 15, 2006

Reading aloud for a living

Good article from the LA Times about audiobook narrators:

Reading aloud for a living

A couple of good passages:

A survey done by the trade association found the average listener earns 25 percent more than nonlisteners, has a higher level of education and is more likely to hold a professional or managerial position.

I’ve always known that audiobook listeners were smarter than the average folk.

With iTunes, Audible.com, Mediabay.com, Jiggerbug.com and other Web sites sending downloadable audiobooks through cyberspace, prices will inevitably go down.

What?! Where’s LearnOutLoud? 🙂 I guess I need to drop Mimi an e-mail…

March 1, 2006

Free Audio Bliss

I finally got the sound fixed on my laptop last week (kudos by the way to the fine gentleman at Experts Exchange who provided the fix…love that site!). It’s ridiculous that I went such a long time without it working. After all, I run an audio learning company… But now it’s back and I’m absolutely loving it.

One of the things that I’m growing more amazed at by the day is the amount of ridiculously cool free audio that’s out there. For instance, here’s my playlist for the afternoon:

The latest episode of the Venture Voice Podcast. It’s an awesome interview with John Bogle, the man who started The Vanguard Group. You’ve got to listen to this one as it’s an incredibly story of idealism and entrepreneurship.

The Carson Workshops Summit – Gee, I can’t think of something a lot more fun than listening to guys from Google, Yahoo!, Delicious and 37 Signals discuss the future of Web. Good warm-up for this weekend’s BarCamp here in LA. 🙂

Guided Meditation – I came across this very cool guided meditation from Beliefnet. Almost instantly made me calm. Not bad…

So with this explosion in audio content how do you find the latest and the greatest? While we’ve got a lot of it in our Free Audio and Video Directory and in our Podcast Directory. But my goal is to try to make sure as much of this stuff as possible finds its way into our new Free Resource of the Day newsletter. We’ve got some really cool stuff lined up for that including a lot of exclusive titles. You’ll definitely want to sign up.

And oh yeah, I am listening to a lot more music now too. I’m having a lot of fun trying out new services and sites like WebJay, last.fm and my new favorite MusicRadish.

With all this cool stuff to listen to I’m not sure I ever want to stop working…

February 16, 2006

Let Your Ears Be Your Guide

I haven’t tried it yet but from what I’ve heard, audio walking tours are becoming all the rage. Audio tours of cities and museums have been available for years but it hasn’t been until recently with the growing popularity of the iPod and other portable MP3 players that these have really taken off. I’m incredibly excited to go on a walking tour soon and now that Rough Guides has a walking tour for Santa Monica I don’t really have an excuse. Here’s a sampling of some of the great walking tours we have available here on LearnOutLoud:

Sounds for Sights – Four walking tours of New York City including Lower Manhattan and the Financial District and Times Square: The Crossroads of the World.

Soundwalk – More walking tours of New York City but also one of Paris as well.

Sound Travel – Walking tours of European cities such as London and Venice.

If you’re looking to “try before you buy” you may want to take a look at an excellent post put together by Wynn Williamson over at the Stingy Scholar blog. He has a great listing of free walking tours including ones for cities in the U.S. such as San Francisco and cities abroad such as Glasgow.

Check ’em out and happy travels! 🙂

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February 14, 2006

Audio Learning for Tots

From PaidContent.org:

Products on the ways for kids include:

— an iPod-enabled rocking chair, Baby Einstein
— SpongeBob speakers for an iPod, Emerson Radio’s Nickelodeon line.
— Petz (rabbit, pig, frog, cat) hooked to an iPod move and light up to the music, MGA.

What an amazing way to expose children to foreign languages or classical literature. Making learning fun…that’s what we’re all about. Oh yeah, and we can’t wait to launch kids.learnoutloud.com someday!

February 14, 2006

Love is in the air…

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! No doubt today finds all of us in different spots. Some of us madly in love. Others dealing with loss or heartache. Regardless of where you are and how Valentine’s Day makes you feel it’s a good opportunity to reflect on love and what it means to you. A great way to further your understanding of love is to listen to some audio books on the subject. So here are a few suggestions that would make great Valentine’s Day listening:

Anything by Leo Buscaglia – Leo is one of my all-time favorites and just about the closest thing there is to an authority on the subject of love. After all, he used to teach a class called “Love” at USC! Leo’s material is heart-warming and I’d advise anyone to have a good stash of Leo’s stuff handy for those days when you feel a little down. Unfortunately a lot of his stuff is out of print but you can browse our selection here.

The Path to Love by Deepak Chopra – This is a book I’ve returned to a few times in my life. While I don’t think I’ve ever read it cover to cover there are some passages in here that are quite profound. Sometimes I find Deepak’s material a bit inaccessible but that’s not the case with this one. Another similar audio to this one is Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Mastery of Love. Both are highly recommended.

Poetry – What better way is there to woo your mate or deepen your ability to love then with poetry? Listen to poems is an entirely different experience from reading them. A few recommended selections include Classical Love Poetry, A Lover’s Gift from Him to Her and The Sonnets by William Shakespeare.

Have a very happy and love-filled Valentine’s Day!

February 10, 2006

Fantastic Friend: Dan Millman

Over on Tom Peters’ blog he has a neat feature he calls “Cool Friends.” Basically these are people who Tom has come across who he feels are extraordinary and worth a mention. I like this idea so much that I’ve decided to do it here at LearnOutLoud.com. Even though I’m borrowing the concept I decided that I’d come up with a different name. Besides I don’t think “cool” is enough of a superlative to describe these people!

Our first Fantastic Friend is Dan Millman. Many people know of Dan through his best-selling book Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Originally published in 1980, Way of the Peaceful Warrior has sold of 2.5 million copies and been translated into dozens of languages. It’s the story of a young gymnast who learns about life from a mysterious gas station attendant named Socrates. The subtitle for the book is “A Book That Changes Lives” and I’ve yet to talk to anyone who has read it (or listened to it!) whose life hasn’t changed in some fashion because of it.

In addition to Way of the Peaceful Warrior Dan has a wealth of material worth checking out. We’re hosting a number of his other audio titles here at LearnOutLoud. I’ve listened to most of them and really enjoy Dan’s style of teaching. While many of his principles evolve from Eastern teachings his material is also very pragmatic.

A few titles that I’d encourage each of you to check out are listed below. We have them available for MP3 download and have also made them available as MPEG-4 files. The benefit of MPEG-4 files is that they are bookmarkable which allows you to listen to something else and then come back to same point in the audio book. It’s definitely the way to go when you are listening to longer pieces of content.

Here are a few that I would highly recommend:

The Twelve Gateways to Freedom
Energizing the Body
The Laws of Spirit

Way of the Peaceful Warrior is being released as a major motion picture this summer (starring Nick Nolte and Amy Smart) so you’ll likely be hearing a lot more about him in upcoming months. In the meantime, take an opportunity to make your commute a lot more enjoyable this week by listening to some of his work. In addition, please check out his website at www.danmillman.com for more information, his upcoming event schedule, etc.

Kudos to Dan for being our first Fantastic Friend.

More to come!

January 26, 2006

A Microsoft “iPod” in the works?

Business Week reports that Microsoft just might have its own version of the iPod in the works.

The Bug in Microsoft’s Ear