If you have an interest in science/medicine/critical thinking, I highly recommend Dr Steven Novella’s talks.
We’ve discussed these before in other threads (and people have given specific recommendations). See, for instance:
The Great Courses
Has anyone bought products from The Teaching Company?
“The Teaching Company”: Anybody ever buy any of these CDs/DVDs?
“The Great Courses” --any experience/recommendations?
The old formats were cassettes and videotapes (some of which I still have).
Is there a way to turn these into university credits or even degrees? E.g. can you listen to one of the tapes, read the book, go take a proctored examination (or submit completed homework, or an essay, etc.), pass, and get 3 credits in Classics or History or whatever toward a degree?
No.
That is, you might be able to find a college somewhere that would offer you credit for submitting work or passing an exam in a subject, and these “Great Courses” might help you prepare for that, but in no more “official” a way than reading books or watching YouTube videos or any other method of self-education.
I’m currently listening to “The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World”. It’s interesting enough but doesn’t really live up to my expectations. Like others have mentioned, it’s very much a survey course. Frankly though, it has taught me very little that I have not already learned in high school history classes, museums, and other vaguely-interested-layman reading. To be fair my high school classes were really good, including a really outstanding humanities class.
A little more specific to this course, I’m finding that it’s not really focusing much more on the history of ordinary people than in my other classes. There’s still a lot about Great Men And The Battles They Fought, and big sweeping cultural and religious changes. Did history used to be taught entirely by memorizing important dates and rulers?!
Aside from my griping, it’s a solid introductory history course. I think I was just expecting something more like a 200- or 300- level seminar with much more thorough examination of primary evidence. Some of the best parts have been when the lecturer spent time on topics directly relating to his own scholarship.