This Week's Podcast Recommendations

I've listened to and watched a lot of TED talks; it's fantastic that hundreds of these talks over 6+ years are available in podcast form.  There are a ton of them that I like, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites, a few at a time.  Here are three TED talks to start with:

1. Sir Ken Robinson talks about the importance of creativity in schools.  He puts a stake in the ground by saying he believes creativity is as important in schools today as literacy.  The great thing about his talk, though, is that he weaves a ton of humorous anecdotes; it's a funny talk, but also serious, and I found him a fantastic speaker to listen to.
2. Chris Anderson of WIRED Magazine talks about technology's long tail.  This talk moved fast but was satisfying to absorb and he made the concepts really easy to understand.  He explains a model they have at WIRED about four stages of successful technologies.  Made perfect sense once he explained it with some classic technology examples.
3. Wow, this one is intense: Thomas Barnett talks about war and peace in the post-Cold War world.  Dr. Barnett advises the government on international security strategy; in this talk, he prescribes how the U.S. should wage war and the subsequent peace that comes once we enter a given region and win that conflict.  His basic premise is that the U.S. has the power to win any conflict; our problem is that we don't really know what to do afterward.  He makes some suggestions.

That's it for this week; I'll post a few more of my favorite TED talks next week.  If you've got favorite TED talks, post a comment to this blog entry and share your favorites.  Heck, they don't even have to be TED talks; I'm always looking for an interesting podcast to listen to.

Enjoy!

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