My Podcasts

In October 2008 the university asked me if they could podcast my lecture series Philosophy for Beginners. Having said ‘yes’, I forgot about it. In August 2009 I received an email asking me if I knew I was global number one on iTunesU.

The podcast of my first lecture, A Romp Through the History of Philosophy was being downloaded 25,000 times a week! This podcast has now been downloaded nearly two million times.

My next series ‘An Introduction to Critical Reasoning’ was even better. The first in this series, The Nature of Arguments, has been downloaded nearly four million times. On 3rd May 2011 it even held every single one of the top ten download positions on iTunesU.

I have since made several other podcasts with the university. I get emails from people all over the world saying how much they enjoy them. Here are some extracts from these emails:

“Thank you for the wonderful initiative of having your philosophy colleges online for download on iPod. I am living in Norway and it  wouldn’t be possible to hear this wise lectures without this  initiative. Now i can drive my car while listening to your philosophy course and leave my car a bit wiser then when I entered it.Keep up the good work! Best regards from a Norwegian fan”

“My wife and I recently watched your online video podcast series, ‘An Introduction to Critical Reasoning’. So much did we enjoy it, that I felt moved to send you a quick e-mail to say thank you. I have studied philosophy as an undergraduate, my wife has not. We both found the series accessible yet not simplistic, interesting and engaging (indeed, so engaging that the discussions resulted in several late nights and one missed meeting!). We just signed up for an online course (it was the next one to start). We can’t wait! Thank you so much for pointing us in this direction.”

Enjoy the podcasts, and tell me what you think of them!