Podcast Recommendation: Seven Ages of Science

I don't know about you, but I do a fair number of tasks at work that are important but pretty mindless and repetitive, so I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work to keep myself from entirely losing my mind. And I'm sure it will shock you to hear that a lot of my favorite podcasts are from the BBC. In addition to their regular ongoing shows, they've done a bunch of limited-run shows on a variety of historical topics.* One I've been enjoying this summer is Seven Ages of Science. Their description:

Lisa Jardine traces the evolution of scientific endeavour in Britain over the last four centuries. We often hear how science has changed our world. In this series of seven programmes, Lisa explores how our world has changed science: pushing it in new directions, creating new disciplines and pioneering new approaches to scientific understanding. It’s a history of science that weaves science back into the fabric of everyday life and shows how the concerns of the scientist are the concerns of us all.

The episodes are about half an hour long, and episode four - "Age of Inspiration" - just came out. I love history of science stuff because, well, it lets me think about history and interesting scientific ideas at the same time, and this series has been an enjoyable overview. You can subscribe via iTunes or RSS or download individual episodes.

* Most of these are still available in free archives. I can do another post with links to my favorites, if you'd like.