James Burke’s Connections: A BBC History of Innovation

What the sociology of the Industrial Revolution has to do with combinatorial creativity.

In 1978, BBC aired a 10-part series entitled Connections, in which science historian James Burke made a compelling case for what’s essentially our founding philosophy: That ideas and innovation don’t occur in isolation, and that creativity is a combinatorial force. (Something more recently echoed by Paula Scher, Nina Paley and Steven Johnson.) True to the program’s subtitle, An Alternative View of Change, Burke debunks the myth of historical progress as a linear force and instead explores the interplay and interconnectedness of events and motives as the origin of modernity’s gestalt.

It’s about the things that surround you in the modern world and, just because they’re there, shape the way you think and behave; and why they exist in the form they do; and who — or what — was responsible for them existing at all.”

The entire Connections series is now available for free online, including the two sequels to the original 1978 program — Connections² (1994) and Connections³ (1997).

For a higher-quality experience, each of the three parts is available as a 5-disc box set, all of which we’ve promptly wishlisted.

The series was also adapted in Burke’s excellent 1995 book Connections, a fascinating 320-page journey into the history of innovation.

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Walt Disney’s Man In Space: Retrofuturism from 1955

Before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Walt Disney took audiences there. Man In Space is a fascinating and rare 1955 Disney program exploring humanity’s obsession with the cosmos with equal parts scientific futurism and historical investigation. The entire segment is now available on YouTube in four parts, gathered here in a convenient playlist for your retrofuturist bemusement.

From prehistoric rockets to the science of the moon to space medicine, each segment explores a different aspect of man’s last frontier of conquest. The series culminates with a vision for launching man’s first foray into space, a purely hypothetical and, for many, unimaginable proposition at the time. The cherry on top: The segments is narrated by Dick Tufeld, the voice of the robot from cult vintage TV series (and subsequent 1998 film adaptation) Lost in Space.

Man In Space appears on the excellent Walt Disney Treasures – Tomorrow Land: Disney in Space and Beyond — a priceless two-disc collection of the “science factual” Disney programming that aired in the 1950s, covering multiple facets of the pre-modern fascination with outer space.

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The Cassiopeia Project: Free Science Education Online

What a mysterious retired physicist has to do with the future of learning.

In 2008, The Cassiopeia Project began quietly publishing high-definition videos exploring in an intelligent yet digestible manner nearly every corner of the science spectrum, and releasing them online for free. With more than 100 videos to date available on iTunesU and YouTube, the project offers an invaluable resource on everything from quantum mechanics to evolution to the theory of relativity — another wonderful piece in the ever-expanding puzzle of free educational content online that is changing how we think about learning.

We believe that if you can visualize it, then understanding it is not far behind.”

The project, operating under the slogan “No science teacher left behind,” is funded by an adamantly anonymous retired scientist who, after weighing the benefits of helping academic institutions versus helping teachers, he chose the latter and made it his mission to champion science literacy in the US.

All the content is open-source and educators are encouraged to edit, remix and otherwise customize the footage. While all videos are self-contained, a companion sci-fi / romance novel, CounterClockWise, is used as a contextualizing plot vehicle to pique interest in the project.

The project is named after the Cassiopeia Constellation at the edge of the Milky Way, known for its wayfinding capcaity; once you find Cassiopeia, you can easily locate all other constellations in the Northern hemisphere — a beautiful metaphor for the illuminating mission of the project.

Sadly, the effort appears to be in stagnation since 2009, but we sincerely hope to see it resurface with more fantastic content. Meanwhile, explore the existing video library and appreciate the wonders of grassroots, web-enabled education.

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Inside The Kelly Writers House Audio Archives

The muses of happiness and misery, or what closet hedonism has to do with the arts.

For the past fifteen years, Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania, our alma mater, has been hosting over 150 public programs each semester — poetry readings, lectures, film screenings, seminars, workshops, radio broadcasts, salon-style gatherings and other multimedia happenings. One of KWH’s most invaluable assets is the Fellows Program, connecting young writers with seasoned and accomplished ones. Since 1999, KWH Fellows have included cultural luminaries like Gay Talese, Susan Sontag, David Sedaris, E. L. Doctorow and many more. Archival recordings of readings by and discussions with many of the fellows are available on the program website and, today, we’ve curated a few of our favorites.

Ian Frazier on imitation and writing (2:18)

Susan Sontag on the physical spaces of writing: her library and New York City (5:29)

I’m very drawn to the ways in which the arts transform us, or have the potentiality of transforming us and deepening us. You can say that lots of other experiences could do that too, but then what instrument of consciousness do we bring to that experience?” ~ Susan Sontag

David Sedaris on the importance of anger (6:35)

Art Spiegelman on disaster as a muse (05:29)

I don’t work when I’m feeling good. I know artists who do, they work out of exuberance, and I work more out of trying to retain enough equilibrium so I can say ‘good morning’ to people in an elevator and just function in a day.” ~ Art Spiegelman

The question always is there: What kind of a privilege is it just to be able to feel purely and simply happy? But we can, and in spite of so much knowledge.” ~ Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich on happiness as the opposite of guilt (5:19)

Susan Sontag on conversion that sticks: the need for narration & promoting the inner life (10:02)

I’m such an up-front, out-in-the-open moralist. I am a closet hedonist. I do respect the search for pleasure because I don’t believe it is to be taken for granted. And just the sheer pleasure that the arts give, the pleasure of color, for instance, and the education of the eye, actually to see, the education of the ear — those things, I don’t really know how to factor them in. But I think of the arts as being something that really keeps you alive, keeps you going, keeps you growing.” ~ Susan Sontag

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