Episodes
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates the joys of reading. For the start of spooky season, we are turning to the theme of Dark Academia. In this episode, Kim discusses the book “Down a Dark Hall” by Lois Duncan.
If you would like your own copy of the book discussed, it is available here:
https://amzn.to/4f5zyPv
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Socratica Reads is sponsored by The Socratica Foundation as part of their Literacy Campaign.
You can learn more about this educational nonprofit at https://www.socratica.org
Support this work: https://socratica.kindful.com
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We reach a fairly specific audience with our YouTube channel, which focuses on advanced math, science, and computer programming. Our audience is spread all over the world, and while we may not all be studying the same things, or in the same professions, the one thing we all share is a love of learning.
In case you don’t know, I wrote a book called How to Be a Great Student, which is the true story of how I figured out the academic life, making LOTS of mistakes along the way. I was always VERY bright, but not always VERY disciplined as a student, because I didn’t have to be. For the longest time, I could just coast through. But we all reach a point where we find our limit, and have to actually DO the work. In my book I explain the various techniques I learned that mean success in academia. I’ll include a link in the show notes in case you’d like to get your own copy.
It’s Autumn here in the northern hemisphere, everyone has gone back to school, and it’s also the start of spooky season. Today is Hallowe’en, tomorrow is the start of Dia de los Muertos. All that adds up to a theme I’d like to introduce into the Socratica Reads podcast: DARK ACADEMIA. We’ve mainly been reading science fiction together, and by now that may seem like the theme of the podcast as a whole, but it’s actually the books that influence us, that inspire us in our work. Science fiction is a helpful thing to read because it keeps you looking ahead, wondering about what will happen, what are the consequences of your scientific investigations or your cutting edge engineering project.
Dark Academia is another theme that has particular appeal for our people, friends of Socratica, or as we call them, Socratica Friends. We are a community of people who love learning. We love the autumn because it means Back to School. We love sharpened pencils and fountain pens and Japanese ballpoint pens and notebooks and...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates the joys of reading. In this episode, Kim discusses the book “Stir of Echoes” by Richard Matheson. Matheson is maybe best known for penning several books that were later made into thrilling movies, as well as some timeless Twilight Zone episodes.
If you would like your own copy of the books discussed, they are available here:
Remembrance (collected letters of Ray Bradbury)
https://amzn.to/3SYKjcZ
A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
https://amzn.to/3TVagf6
Neuro Transmissions video about Hypnotism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQ9mCadSzM
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Socratica Reads is sponsored by The Socratica Foundation as part of their Literacy Campaign.
You can learn more about this educational nonprofit at https://www.socratica.org
Support this work: https://socratica.kindful.com
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We are known mostly for our YouTube channel, where we teach college-level STEM topics, as well as how to be a great student. We have quite a number of other projects—an educational nonprofit called The Socratica Foundation, a channel for the youngest learners, Socratica Kids, and more recently we started Socratica High.
These are all obviously connected to each other in terms of education. A bright line of curiosity and learning links these experiences you had from way back when you’re a kid. Remember back then, what that’s like? You can’t get enough about dinosaurs or space. This enthusiasm can carry you a long way when you’re a kid. But you might come back to Earth hard, and land awkwardly in high school where it’s a lot more work, and very often you have to learn something even if you’re not ready, or you don’t see the point.
There’s a little bit of a disconnect then between our high school channel and our main “grownup” channel, Socratica. For the most part, people who are watching Socratica LOVE STEM. They love math, they love computer science, they love biology, chemistry, physics, all of that good stuff. So there’s a kind of survivor bias. We see all the people who survived algebra. Survived their brushes with rough classes where they were in over their head, or dull classes where they were bored, or you know, sometimes you don’t get to study what you’re REALLY interested in until you get to college. Like let’s say...
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Missing episodes?
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates a love of reading and discovery. In this episode Kim shares a new-to-her author (Charles Beaumont) she learned about by reading the letters of one of her favourite authors (Ray Bradbury). She poses the question: how do you find new books to read? What leads you to them?
If you would like your own copy of these books, they are available here:
Remembrance (collected letters of Ray Bradbury)
https://amzn.to/3SYKjcZ
Perchance to Dream by Charles Beaumont
https://amzn.to/3T04C9S
The Hunger and Other Stories by Charles Beaumont
https://amzn.to/434agwb
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful educational videos on a variety of STEM topics: math, science, computer programming—and underlying everything we do is this notion that we are natural learners. I don’t just mean me, personally. Humans. Learning is our natural state of being.
I really don’t understand this idea that you get one shot at your education, mostly when you’re a child, and that’s it. I refuse! I refuse to accept that idea. So one way you can give yourself the chance to continue your education—for the rest of your life—is with READING.
What freedom! You can read whatever you want, going as deep as you want.There is this tendency, of course, to gravitate to the familiar. You keep picking out the same kind of book, reading the same authors. I’m guilty of that. Well, guilty is maybe the wrong word. There’s nothing wrong with continuing to read wonderful authors. I still have a few Charles Dickens left, and I haven’t read ALL of Shakespeare, and I was absolutely delighted when a new book of Ray Bradbury’s collected letters just came out.
Have you ever read letters or marginalia from one of your favourite authors? It can really be a trip, because you’re used to seeing their professional, polished work, as opposed to their thoughts in progress, mid-process. It can feel a little like spying. Letters can be so intimate.
I’m not finished with this book of Bradbury’s letters, yet—it’s called Remembrance—but I wanted to tell you about an experience I had, how by picking up THIS book, it led me to discover a whole new author. Well, new to me. Charles Beaumont, who was a friend of Bradbury’s.
So I came across this name in Bradbury’s letters, and it sounded so familiar, but I knew I had never read anything by someone named Charles Beaumont. So I looked him up, and it turned out I was used to seeing his name—in the
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that is a home for people who love reading and want to revel in how good it makes you feel when you find a great book, or revisit a much-loved classic. In this last episode of the year, Kim returns to the “Dark Is Rising” series by Susan Cooper. Last year at this time, we discussed “The Dark Is Rising,” the second book in the series, set on the longest night of the year. This time we’ll look at the first book of the series, Over Sea, Under Stone. This book series is masterful in the way it helps children understand the scope of time, and how stories can last for generations. It’s a lesson that is helpful for adults to be reminded about as well.
If you would like your own copy of this book, it is available here:
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
https://amzn.to/3Tzyo7c
The Dark Is Rising (5 book boxed set)
https://amzn.to/3WeMeuv
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You know, Socratica, the company that makes educational videos on YouTube. It’s true, we make beautiful STEM videos that help you Learn More. But I hope you will also think of us as a group of people who simply love learning.
I wrote a book called “How to Be a Great Student,” and it’s not so much about getting better grades in school as it is about making room in your life for the joy of discovery. Understanding how to do right by yourself, so you’re not getting in the way of doing your best work. When you help yourself become a great student, you take ownership of your own learning, and no one can take that from you. We are all born natural scientists, making observations about the world. Or—detectives if you prefer.
I think that explains why it’s so delightful to read mystery stories. It taps into this great pleasure we get from exercising our brains.
Now, I’m not going to pretend to be ignorant about this sad fact: there’s a lot of anti-intellectual sentiment out there, a kind of sneering at book-learning. But I believe that’s the dark side, and we are on the side of the light. There might be a battle we will win today, like, keeping one of your favourite childhood books in the library, but somewhere else in the world someone is trying to prevent a girl from going to school. We can’t assume that all of human society has come to the universal agreement that learning is good and that’s settled. You’re going to have to keep up your end of the struggle. Even if all you do is post on Twitter how much you love your local library. That helps. Wearing a Socratica sweatshirt. That helps. Um…you could buy a copy of my book and send it to your little cousin. Just a...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates the power of reading to inspire. In this episode, Kim returns to her favourite Hallowe’en friend, Ray Bradbury. Back in the day, every Hallowe’en, RDB would read from his book The Hallowe’en Tree at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. But that’s not the only work of Bradbury’s that is appropriate for Hallowe’en! “Skeleton” is a remarkably funny and creepy little tale, perfect for the season. This may also be the motivation Kim needs to get back to making Biology videos.
If you would like your own copy of this story, it is available here:
The October Country by Ray Bradbury
https://amzn.to/49isi0v
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You may know us best from our YouTube channel where we make the educational videos of the future. Mainly math and science—STEM topics. It’s been a few years since I’ve made biology videos, which is too bad because I am a molecular biologist. I keep meaning to get back to that series.
This podcast is all about the books we read that inspire our work. And here’s a little story from my fella Ray Bradbury, that speaks to me on a certain level as a biology enthusiast. It’s called SKELETON, and you can find it in his collection of stories called The October Country. I of course associate Ray Bradbury with Hallowe’en, what with his brilliant “The Hallowe’en Tree” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” but there are so many stories from Bradbury that remind us of our human body, our frailties that come from being incarnate. These are things that many people are afraid to look square at. But as a biologist, you must.
Especially now, in the era of COVID, I find myself baffled by how out of touch people are with how their body works. How we are in a fight for survival against a mindless horror. Maybe that’s why I found re-reading this story oddly comforting on this Hallowe’en night. It strikes the right tone for me right now, and it reminds me a bit of what it’s like to KNOW what is going on inside your body. You might be horrified by the idea of a virus replicating in your body. This fellow in the story is so out of touch with his body that he is horrified by the idea that there is a skeleton carrying him around. He kind of goes to war with his own body.
Before I read a passage to you, I’m going to pause to say—we are sponsored by The Socratica Foundation. And the Socratica Foundation is sponsored by—you. The Socratica Foundation is an educational nonprofit dedicated to the three timeless pillars: Literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking. We have a Literacy Campaign to spread the love of reading and share its enormous power. This includes reading lessons, book donations, and this podcast, Socratica Reads. You can learn...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates the power of reading to inspire. In this episode, Kim presents a surprising vision of the future from a celebrated novelist of manners and society, E.M. Forster (author of A Room With a View, A Passage to India, etc.).
If you would like your own copy of this story, it is available here:
The Machine Stops, The Celestial Omnibus, and Other Stories by E.M. Forster
https://amzn.to/48C22Os
Recommended by Bookpilled
https://www.youtube.com/@Bookpilled
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful futuristic educational videos. That means we’re often inspired by science fiction, as it treads a fine line between celebrating new discoveries and inventions, and showing us a picture of how it could all go wrong if you forget your humanity along the way. Today I’d like to share with you an unexpected source of one of these stories!
But first, I’m going to interrupt myself here to say—there won’t be any more interruptions, because this podcast has ZERO ads. No ads! That’s because we’re sponsored by The Socratica Foundation. And the Socratica Foundation is sponsored by—you. The Socratica Foundation is an educational nonprofit dedicated to the three timeless pillars: Literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking. We have a Literacy Campaign to spread the love of reading and share its enormous power. This includes reading lessons, book donations, and a little PR for reading in the form of this podcast, Socratica Reads. You can learn more at socratica.org
Now I was telling you that I was surprised to learn about this episode’s book. I heard about it from a BookTuber I’d like to recommend—a channel called BookPilled—that features all kinds of classic sci fi in my favourite form, the inexpensive used bookstore paperback, preferably with a lurid cover. I spend almost every episode saying Never Heard of It. NEVER heard of it! And I have my phone open and I’m looking up these books. There’s very often an auction associated with the episodes so if you really want to get your hands on that exact copy you can place a bid. I’ll include a link to bookpilled in the shownotes. The channel is great fun, and it helps me expand my understanding of this art form, so I consider it an educational channel. I started reading scifi before the internet existed, and I only really knew about the books that were on the shelves of my local library—which was truly excellent, but even the best library doesn’t have EVERY book. That was one thing that was a real trip about visiting bookstores in different towns back then, you might actually discover a book you didn’t know existed.
Like this book. Let me actually start talking about this episode’s book.
It’s called The Machine Stops. It’s either a very long short story or...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates books and authors. She introduces you to the wide variety of writing that has influenced the work at Socratica. Often, it’s the incomparable Ray Bradbury. It’s his birthday, and we’re talking about his short story “The Pedestrian.”
“The Pedestrian” used to be in “The Golden Apples of the Sun” story collection, but it has been removed from the more recent editions. You might be able to find it in an older edition from a used bookstore.
Here’s a collection that does contain “The Pedestrian”:
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury
https://amzn.to/45iefWe
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful educational videos that look to the future. We’ve had a lot of help along the way from a certain special fellow. It’s his birthday today. Ray Bradbury. He, more than anyone else, taught me to be a futurist.
I’m going to interrupt myself here to say—there won’t be any more interruptions, because this podcast has ZERO ads. That’s because we’re sponsored by The Socratica Foundation. And the Socratica Foundation is sponsored by—you. The Socratica Foundation is an educational nonprofit dedicated to the three timeless pillars: Literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking. Socratica Reads podcast is part of our Literacy campaign. You can learn more at socratica.org
A literacy campaign is an optimistic thing. Ray Bradbury is an optimistic writer, but he’s also a realist. One of the most powerful things you can accomplish with science fiction is you can do an end-run around all the psychological barriers we have—all the denial, all the whistling through the graveyard about the fate of humankind. It’s so much easier to face up to our frailties when they’re given to the people of the future.
That’s what this story, The Pedestrian, lets us do. Now this story was written in 1950, and it’s set in 2053, but it’s also about today. It’s pretty spooky.
Are you ready? Let’s begin.
{Kim reads excerpt}
This is a very short story, and I’m tempted to just read the whole thing, because that would be a good time for me, but I do very much want to encourage you to check this out from the library or support your local bookstore and find a copy for your very own. This story, “The Pedestrian,” is in my old copy of The Golden Apples of the Sun, but it’s been removed from more recent editions. You should be able to find it in other story collections, so I’ll include a link in the shownotes.
If this story reminds you of Fahrenheit 451, uh…me too. You can see Ray Bradbury pinning down this idea about how what is NORMAL is enforced and what kinds of formerly natural and beneficial human behavior becomes subversive. How do we anesthetize ourselves...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading and encourage others to develop this habit. In this episode, Kim introduces a short story by Poul Anderson called “Call Me Joe” that may remind you of a certain movie franchise with humans colonizing a land by impersonating the blue natives.
Call Me Joe (Collected Short Works) by Poul Anderson
https://amzn.to/3rqlRqK
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You might know us from our YouTube channel, where we teach STEM topics like math, chemistry, biology, astronomy, computer programming. We’re looking to the future when we make our videos. And that’s why, very often, we find ourselves inspired by science fiction.
Before we go on—don’t you hate interruptions—there won’t be any more because this podcast is FREE from ads. That’s because it’s sponsored by The Socratica Foundation. And the Socratica Foundation is sponsored by—you. The Socratica Foundation is an educational nonprofit dedicated to the three timeless pillars: Literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking. Socratica Reads podcast is part of our Literacy campaign. You can learn more at socratica.org
This podcast came to be because I wanted to share this feeling, this idea—that all the books you read, all the ideas you come across in your life comingle and stew in your head, sometimes for years, before they emerge into something new.
Here’s a fun example, I think, of a book that must have, at least on some level, inspired a certain movie franchise about humans colonizing a land by impersonating the blue natives. This is “Call Me Joe” by one of the golden era sci-fi writers, Poul Anderson.
This is a short story that first appeared in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction in 1957, so you might imagine kids consuming it and the images and ideas later influencing their creations. That’s what I’d like to think, anyway.
Call me Joe is about a group of scientists who are working on exploring Jupiter. They don’t land. They’re orbiting the planet, and they’re using some kind of telepathic remote control of an artificial body that is suited for life on this hostile planet with high gravity, where you take shelter in an ice cave and breathe hydrogen and helium, and drink methane.
The story has a few elements of its time—that can be a double-edged sword. I love that this is a book from the 50s the very start of the era of molecular biology, and that was part of the zeitgeist, the concept of genetics involving actual molecules. So here, Anderson is describing creating artificial life pretty convincingly. On the other hand, in this story
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Socratica Reads Episode 20: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading and to help others find their way back to reading, or to develop a new habit. In this episode, Kim gets around to reading something off her TBR list: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. She didn’t love it, but that’s okay. You don’t have to love every book to love reading. There’s still something interesting to be had when you figure out WHY you don’t love a book.
You can get your copy here (and decide for yourself):
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
https://amzn.to/45RBsiS
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make futuristic videos about math, science, and computer programming. This podcast is all about how reading inspires the work we do. But it’s also about how great books connect us with the ideas people have around the world, not just now, but in the past AND the future.
One topic that’s like CATNIP to any STEM kid is: The Multiverse. Parallel lives. Every time you make a choice: strawberry or chocolate—you split off another life. How different would our lives be if we had made different choices along the way?
So today’s book on this topic has been on my TBR (To Be Read) list for a while now—The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It’s one of those books you see on the shelf of recommendations at your local bookstore, and your friends have all read it, and the LA Public Library keeps offering it to me on my ebook app (available now for a quick 7 day loan) so I finally gave in and read it.
Socratica Friends, I did not like it.
But just because you don’t like a book, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. It’s fun to share your enthusiasm for a book that really works, but it’s also interesting to figure out WHY a book doesn’t work. So what happened here?
As soon as the premise became clear I was into it. There’s a library you might get a chance to visit at the moment when you straddle life and death. When you open a book from this library, you are allowed to see the roads not taken.
This is a story I want to read. I want to know if the main character already knows about the choices she made that changed her life, or were there small things she didn’t realize she could have done differently. But you know, we need to care about the protagonist. We need to understand them, and feel something for them. We don’t have to love them. We might be frustrated by them, or annoyed by them, or even hate them.
I feel nothing. The protagonist, Nora, doesn’t make any kind of sense to me. She’s not a real person.
A writer is a Creator, in the truest sense of the word. They have the power to Create living, breathing, thinking people who continue to live in our minds long after we close the book. Tell me Elizabeth Bennett isn’t a real...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading and to foster the development of this excellent habit. In this episode, Kim talks about what happens when everyone is recommending a book that just isn’t that great (cough cough The Three Body Problem) and how you can come back with a better book that explores similar themes (Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke).
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
https://amzn.to/40FdUKC
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
https://snu.socratica.com/join
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You probably know us for our futuristic educational videos, including how to program in Python, SQL or “sequel” - we also have a course we’re launching on Mathematica…but the big news to a lot of programmers is what’s gonna happen now that there are some generative AI out there in the wild, like ChatGPT. What does that mean for programmers, if there’s an artificial intelligence system that can do your job faster.
Well, there’s a literary genre tailor made for helping us think about the impact technological advances have on human society. Science Fiction. We spend a lot of time on this podcast thinking in terms of scifi, because we’re sort of a forward-thinking company. Our goal is to create the tools you’ll need to be an educated person now but also going forward. That’s going to require a little flexibility.
I wonder if some of this anxiety about the future and people feeling obsolete explains why so many people have been recommending the book The Three Body Problem to me. So I read it, and it just did not do it for me. I was interested for a few reasons. It’s partly set during the Cultural Revolution in China, and I came up in science working with some people who experienced it firsthand. And it was just as tragic as you might imagine. So there’s one appealing aspect of the book. For science fiction fans, how do you reconcile humans who are so creative and capable of having beautiful visions of the future turning on each other and demonizing the very people who would help us move forward into the future?
Anti-intellectualism is a pretty scary thing for a scientist. It’s like our real-life boogeyman - it really exists, we’ve seen it happen again and again.
Now what if there was an outside influence who had immense power and could shut down these curious people. Take away all their initiative. They lose heart completely. These are some of the ideas explored in The Three Body Problem, and these ideas are intriguing and meaningful to me.
But this is not a very good book. It’s just not well-written. I don’t think it’s a translation issue - there’s a lot of great English translations of books from various other languages. It’s just so wooden. I can’t even pick a
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast as a way to share her love of reading. She credits most of her professional success (and much personal joy) to her lifelong habit of reading everything she could get her hands on. In this episode, Kim discusses the special pleasure of seasonal re-reading. The context: it’s the Winter Solstice, which is the perfect time to read “The Dark Is Rising” by Susan Cooper.
The Dark Is Rising (5 book boxed set)
https://amzn.to/3WeMeuv
The Dark Is Rising (book 2 of 5)
https://amzn.to/3vfdsF7
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
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Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
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If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You know us for our beautiful and futuristic videos about math, science, computer programming, and How to be a Great Student.
Because we’re a kind of educational technology company, and we make videos on YouTube, and we have a website we’re developing, socratica.com, I think it surprises some people that we are big proponents of one of the oldest, original forms of educational technology. That is—reading.
Yes, of course, I want you to spend time with our videos, and our website, but I really, really, want to make sure I never give you the impression that the good old techniques are obsolete. I owe ALL of my success in life to being a reader. A lifelong reader.
If that hasn’t been true in your life, I want to tell you it’s never too late. It’s not like gymnastics or being a ballerina or something. You’re not going to age out of this window when you can become a reader.
So in this podcast, Socratica Reads, I’m kind of coming around to this theme—it’s been evolving over time—of reading what inspires you. Reading that makes you happy, reading that makes you think, reading that makes you feel. Reading isn’t JUST for education. It IS an essential tool in your lifelong learning, but it’s also a partner in your life, like a family member. A loved one who will be there with you, your whole life.
Today I want to share this idea that reading is one way you can celebrate certain times in your life. I hear this every year—I’ve said it myself—it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet. Well, that might mean it’s time to re-read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The Hallowe’en Tree by Ray Bradbury always gets me in the mood for Hallowe’en. I’ve read these books dozens of times, but every year it feels a little different, because YOU’RE a little different.
This year, I’ve been doing a lot of gardening, and it’s made me much more aware of the seasons changing. I’m not a morning...
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Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading, that most accessible of learning tools. Today Kim talks about how the shortest stories can create an indelible impression. And for those short on time, or finding it hard to commit to a long work, this can be a good way to ease into the reading habit. The short story Kim introduces is All Cats Are Gray by Andre Norton, which is available for free on Project Gutenberg as a standalone work. It’s also available in paperback in this volume of collected short stories:
Tales from High Hallack (volume 1)
https://amzn.to/3NWprQO
Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Sign up for Socratica Dialogue (Newsletter)
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If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful videos about math, science, computer programming, as well as the meta-topic - How to be a Great Student.
One of the most essential tools to being a great student is to develop the habit of reading. You don’t want reading to be some weird exceptional thing you only do when you’re taking a class or because it’s the only option. If reading becomes part of your life, if you do a little every day, you’ll find it easier and easier to slip into a book, or an article, and easier and easier for you to create written material yourself.
There’s a certain way you compose your thoughts for writing that’s quite distinct from giving a talk, or making a video, and I’ve got to tell you, although I’m in the business of making educational videos, I would never in a million years tell you that videos have replaced books.
Reading has made a huge difference in my life. I’ve learned SO much from people I never met, and especially people who lived and died long before educational videos were a thing.
So, having said all that, I do understand that there are a lot of demands on our time. And it’s easy to push off reading, while there’s a constant feed of short video content right there on your phone. But I’m asking you and telling you - don’t give up on reading. Your brain needs it.
Do you read short stories? If you’re short on time, or finding it hard to commit to a long work, this can be a good way to ease into the reading habit. I’m going to recommend, as always, Ray Bradbury, but I want to make sure you try on all kinds of authors. Here’s another one of my favourites, Andre Norton. One of the things that sets apart Andre Norton for me is - I remember characters and places from Andre Norton stories better than from a lot of other writers. This is an interesting exercise when you read a short story. Ask yourself - what were the essential characteristics that the author got across VERY fast. How is it that some books go on for hundreds of pages, and you don’t take much away from them, but others can accomplish something unforgettable in...
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Socratica is known for spreading a love of learning. Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her favourite reading experiences. Today Kim talks about her favourite part of Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz.
Get your copy here:
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
https://amzn.to/3SpJ05e
How to Be a Great Student
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica.We make beautiful videos about STEM topics, and a lot of our work is infused with an appreciation of the History of Science. Our videos are all non-fiction, but we also enjoy reading historical fiction - especially when it involves scientific discoveries.
So there’s this meme going around about how do you know when you’re reading Fantasy or Science Fiction. Here’s an example: In Fantasy, you buy things with COIN while in Science Fiction it’s CREDITS. But I’ve got to tell you, I’m not SURE that you can say if this book is one or the other.
When I was reading this book, Anatomy, I was struck by what a genre-bending/ genre-blending experience it was. It’s set in Edinburgh in the early 19th century, and centers around a school for surgery. So there’s a Dark Academia feel. There’s some spooky resurrection experiments going on, like Frankenstein, and there’s a little bit of romance with some kiss-kiss in a graveyard, and there’s a plague - timely - and some social questions about class and women being denied the opportunity for education. There’s a lot going on, and it’s also just really fun and perfect for the beginning of the Hallowe’en season.
I had a really hard time picking my favourite part for this podcast, because the whole book hangs together so beautifully. So here goes with a little bit that makes me simultaneously disgusted and intrigued, which is kind of the perfect way to feel about this era of science and medicine.
{Kim reads excerpt}
It’s still amazing to me how a good book can transport you to a different time and place and inside someone else’s head. I hope you’re getting that sense from this podcast, Socratica Reads. Thanks for listening.
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One of the missions of Socratica is to share the joy of learning, especially the power of reading. Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her favourite reading experiences. Today Kim talks about her favourite part of I Sing The Body Electric by Ray Bradbury.
Get your copy here:
I Sing the Body Electric and other stories
https://amzn.to/3c3eTkj
I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45472/i-sing-the-body-electric
How to Be a Great Student
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful, futuristic educational videos. You might wonder where we get our vision of the future. Why do we look forward to a better future? A lot of it comes from growing up on a steady diet of Ray Bradbury who was a real visionary. Today is his birthday. He would have been 102 today, and I wish he were here so we could talk to him. I’d like to think he’d have some thoughtful, and ultimately hopeful reaction to the strange times we’re living in. Thankfully, we have Bradbury’s stories, and as long as we’re reading him, he will live forever.
None of us knows what the future brings, but the wonderful thing about reading science fiction is that we can “try on” different possible futures. We learn a lot about ourselves by observing how we react to the possibilities. And then—we can use our reactions to guide how we go about preparing for the future. It’s a little like magic. Read about a possible future, decide how we feel about it, and change course if necessary. In this way, writing about the imagined future becomes a way to change the actual future!
A lot of sci fi is dark. Dystopian. And Bradbury certainly didn’t shy away from that darkness. I’ve spoken before about his Fahrenheit 451 as a cautionary tale. But even in the midst of great sadness, Bradbury always was there to show us the way through, with that flicker of hope and humanity.
Today I want to share with you another one of my favourites from Ray Bradbury—a short story called “I Sing The Body Electric.” You may recognize the title from a Walt Whitman poem, which is a rich and meaty thing to read. Please read it.
The poem is all about the mystery and glory and holiness of being incarnate. Of having a body, of BEING a body. Which is great fun to keep in mind as you read Bradbury’s story about a robot grandmother.
Like the best science fiction, by imagining a possible future, touched by technology, certain truths about the human condition are made more clear to us. Here’s my favourite part of I Sing The Body Electric—a family dinner. I’ll read it to you now. Are you ready? Let’s begin.
{Kim reads excerpt}
What a lovely, lovely man Ray Bradbury was. We remember him. Thanks for listening.
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Do you love to read? Can you think of something you read lately that changed how you did things? Or made you feel better about something you are dealing with in your life? Like…MATH?
Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her favourite reading experiences. Today Kim talks about her favourite part of At Sixes and Sevens by Rachel Riley and Dr. Gareth Moore
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How to Be a Great Student
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. In this podcast, I’m sharing my favourite reading experiences. I’m picking out books that made an impression, that I found influential, and I’m jumping right to my favourite parts. There’s a sea of books out there - we’ll never run out of things to read and books to share with each other.
This book comes to us from across the pond. If you’re an American, especially a younger American, you may be less familiar with the pun in the title: At Sixes and Sevens. It’s a book about math, hence the sixes, and sevens, but that phrase “at sixes and sevens” means you are confused and discombobulated. Which also is the state of many people when they think about math.
This is a book from Rachel Riley, who I first saw on a quiz show called Countdown.
The Brits really have us beat when it comes to quiz shows. Do you know COUNTDOWN? Or the funny nighttime version populated by comedians, 8 out of 10 cats does countdown? Ohh, my friend, you’re missing out. Okay, first I’m going to read to you a little description from Ms. Riley’s book and I’m curious if anyone would understand how the game actually works if you haven’t seen it. There’s a letters game and then there’s a numbers game, and this is Rachel’s description of the numbers game:
(reads excerpt)
Okay, so anyway, this game Countdown is completely addictive, and an extra challenging way to play it at home is to do it without paper. I was absolutely scandalized when I heard that some people record it and PAUSE the playback while they try to solve each round. That’s okay, really, the important thing is that you’re using your brains and doing math puzzles for fun. That’s pretty amazing that people all across the UK actually do this every day. What a country.
Rachel has a co-writer for this book, Dr. Gareth Moore, who I understand supplied some of the brain teasers in the book. I know Dr. Moore as the author of the Penguin Book of Puzzles, which is a collection of riddles from throughout history - ancient puzzles like the riddle of the sphinx and things from more recent history, like Victorian and Edwardian era and the modern era. So I recommend you look for that book as well. But today I want to talk about At Sixes and Sevens, because I’m so pleased that Rachel Riley is out there doing good work with the audience she has access to.
Now this book is full of tips and tricks and simple, real-life explanations of certain math situations. The whole book is pretty useful. But the very beginning, which contains a good pep talk for improving your math, and building your confidence, is my favourite part. I’m going to read it to you now. Are you ready? Let’s begin.
{Kim reads excerpt}
Before I let you go today, I want to tell you about a new project I’ve been working on that is also intended to help people feel more comfortable with math. I think you can tell, I love puzzles and word problems, and I would really like to help people enjoy them and enjoy being good at them. So on our newest YouTube channel Socratica High...
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Not all education happens in the classroom, or from reading textbooks. Be on the lookout for ALL the places where you can learn. If you’re really looking, you can find inspiration in the most unlikely places. Even…TWITTER.
Do you love to read? What are you reading that sparks your curiosity and brings you joy?
Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading—a love that has the power to transform your life.
Today Kim talks about her favourite part of Aggressively Happy by Joy Marie Clarkson
Get your copy here:
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How to Be a Great Student
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. At Socratica, we’re busy creating the “Education of the Future.” We focus on math, science, and computer programming, but underlying ALL of the work we do is this basic attitude of celebrating learning. It’s a matter of acknowledging the great joy that is to be had in discovery.
Most people think about learning taking place in a traditional context: classrooms, and textbooks.
But I would argue that you have to be willing to search out knowledge and inspiration—sometimes in unlikely places.
One of the unexpected virtual places I pick up useful knowledge is…TWITTER.
Okay, yes, maybe mostly I’m just being entertained by pictures of cats, but really, I have had great success following people like scientists and writers and learning from them.
One of the people I follow on Twitter is Joy Marie Clarkson, who just published a book “Aggressively Happy.”
The title comes from a very funny online insult. Someone just couldn’t handle how positive Ms. Clarkson was. She responded by using it as her twitter description, and writing a treatise on the vital importance of finding the joy in your life. I love this response SO MUCH. I love her.
I know this is a parasocial relationship - I don’t actually know Ms. Clarkson at all, but I can’t help but feel we have a lot in common. One of my pet peeves is people who leave mean comments on our YouTube videos. What is their deal, anyway? I spend my life making gorgeous FREE high-quality educational materials. Are they trying to discourage us? My response is to block a lot of negative words, and block a lot of negative people. Ms. Clarkson went one step further, and created this book in response to the rampant negativity out there. A joyful manifesto.
I read Ms. Clarkson’s book when it came out this year, and when I finished it, I immediately turned back to the beginning and read it all over again. And here’s my favourite part:
(reads excerpt)
It turns out, Mr. Collins has a surprising strength: thankfulness. What? YES. I hope you will get your own copy of Aggressively Happy so you can read more of this wonderfully enjoyable and instructive and insightful book.
Oh!! I have to tell you about another lovely little treat that is at the end of each chapter in the book—there are recommendations of something to read, something to see, something to listen to, and a point to ponder. I love receiving and making recommendations, and this is something I’ve been...
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Do you love to read? What are you reading that sparks your curiosity and brings you joy?
Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her love of reading - a love that has the power to transform your life.
Today Kim talks about her favourite part of Star Daughter, by Shveta Thakrar
Get your copy here:
https://amzn.to/3M5R72U
How to Love Reading (Study Tips Video)
https://youtu.be/el-S8iroORQ
How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You may know our YouTube channel, where we teach math, science, computer programming…the real focus of our work is lifelong learning.
And for me, the SECRET to lifelong learning is READING.
The love of reading has taken me further in life than anything else.
It’s great, of course, that there are online videos (like ours!) to teach you a lot of different things, but, at least so far, there’s not a video for everything. Maybe one day. We’re working on it. It’s going to take a few generations of edutubers to cover the basic curriculum.
If you really want to be able to get inside the mind of a great thinker, you’re going to want to read what they write.
So in this podcast, I’m giving you a taste of the kinds of things I’m reading - what I find inspiring. And because time is short, I’m skipping to my favourite part.
Today I want to share with you a fantasy novel called Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar. This is a novel about a young woman named Sheetal who is half human, half star, who lives among us. Her true nature is hidden, along with her silvery hair that she has to keep dying. Speaking of dying, her father suddenly takes ill because of something Sheetal did, and she has to go searching for a way to rescue him. This involves a reunion with her starry relations.
But first, she visits a Magical Night Market. And this is my favourite part.
(reads excerpt)
One of the best parts about reading is that you enter someone else’s MIND. It’s one brain, talking to another brain. This might be someone who lives on the other side of the country, or in a different country, or someone from a whole other time that you would never get a chance to talk to. If you’re used to picking up books about people who are just like you, I encourage you to expand your horizons a little. You know what your life is like. Read about someone else’s life. Listen to someone else’s thoughts. Thanks for listening.
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After a brief hiatus, we’re starting Season 2 of Socratica Reads with a new theme: My Favourite Part. To foster and develop your love of reading, Kimberly shares her favourite parts of the books she’s reading. What are you reading that sparks your curiosity and brings you joy?
Today Kim talks about her favourite part of Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury.
If you'd like to talk about this podcast (and all things Socratica), you can join our Discord by becoming our Patron on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/socratica
Get your copy of Fahrenheit 451 here:
https://amzn.to/39nc382
Mentioned in this episode:
How to Love Reading (Study Tips Video)
https://youtu.be/el-S8iroORQ
How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You may know us best from our YouTube channel, where we focus on math, science, and computer programming. We also have a kind of meta-series on How to Learn, where we teach study techniques, and I recently wrote a book about how I figured out how to be a great student. It’s called….How to be a Great Student.
One of our most popular videos in this series is called “How to Love Reading.” We hear from a lot of our viewers that they want to cultivate the habit of reading, but for the most part it feels a chore to them. Something they HAVE to do, rather than something they WANT to do, or are even DRIVEN to do, from a deep NEED inside. I’m talking about myself right now, I NEED to read, I always have, so it’s a little hard for me to relate to this idea, that reading is a habit you need to try to develop. I’ve never had to force myself to read a lot.
So we made this video to try to bridge the gap and extend some understanding towards the people who aren’t great readers, but they see people like me doing it, I read everywhere in all situations, and I won’t stop talking about how much I loved a certain book, or how libraries are my favourite thing in the world, and…so we made this episode of our study tips series, and I think we were at least partly successful in what we were trying to achieve.
I say we because my friend Liliana and I wrote this episode together. She’s another great reader, and we have had such fun over the years exchanging books and finding new authors to share. It’s like a very small book club. She once brought me the new Neil Gaiman book and sat with me while I read it because she loved it so much and wanted to re-experience it with me. It’s a really special thing that we share.
So I’m thinking…this is what I’m going to do for at least a while, maybe a season or so on this podcast. It’s like a relaunch. Last year, the theme of the podcast was talking about the books that inspired our work at Socratica. And since so much of our work is about learning and trying to create the education of the future, it makes a lot of sense that science fiction books were inspiring for us. I went back and re-read a lot of the classics that were formative for me as a child and young adult,...
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Socratica Reads Episode 10 - The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis
What do you consider “real” science fiction? Does it include books like The Narnia Chronicles? In this episode of Socratica Reads, our host Kimberly Hatch Harrison talks about the increasingly common narrowing of the definition of science fiction, and recalls one of the Narnia Chronicles that she read as a child that does meet many of the criteria of science fiction, although it is a blend with various other genres.
You can buy your own copy of “The Magician’s Nephew” by CS Lewis here:
https://amzn.to/3C7JSns
And here is a complete set of “The Narnia Chronicles”:
https://amzn.to/3A6wP3A
My first book - How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
visit our YouTube channel:
youtube.com/socratica
and our website socratica.com
If you find our work at Socratica valuable, please consider becoming our Patron on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/socratica
If you would prefer to make a one-time donation, you can also use
Socratica Paypal
https://www.paypal.me/socratica
We also accept Bitcoin! :)
Our address is: bc1qda47tgfyk67lxa7yqn8y5m02hjcglghsd5c58n
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We make beautiful, futuristic educational videos. We focus on math, science, and computer programming, and you can find us on YouTube and on our website, socratica.com.
In this podcast, Socratica Reads, I’m tracing the books that have inspired our work here at Socratica. It shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that it’s very often SCIENCE FICTION that got into our brains and helped us dream of the future. But I want to be clear - that’s a pretty wide net I’m casting.
Are you a sci-fi snob? Do you insist on your science fiction being HARD sci-fi? That is, the science fiction that focuses on rigorous applications of science and engineering, and usually features realistic rocket ships and perfectly calculated orbits and technically correct warp drives and evolutionarily plausible alien life forms?
Or can you accept that the genre is flexible, and that many remarkable works include elements of fantasy, drama, mystery...and that some of these books leave out the technological details?
I ask you this, because it seems to me that many people I know read themselves into a corner, where they only read the same kind of book over and over. It doesn’t help matters that we’ve moved away from wandering through libraries and physical bookstores. Part of that is due to the PandemicTime, but even before then - were you relying on Amazon recommendations, for instance, that are just based on what other people also bought? If you bought one book by Larry Niven or Andy Weir, you’re most likely to buy another hard sci fi book? It’s just common sense, it’s good for Amazon’s bottom line, but are you reading yourself into a self-imposed bubble?
And I say this with great affection, because I...
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Isaac Asimov was trained as a chemist, but he achieved true immortality as a science fiction author. He wrote on every conceivable topic, including nonfiction works on the history of science and technology, The Bible, Shakespeare...His first big splash in sci-fi was the short story Nightfall, published when Asimov was only 21. You can buy your copy here:
Nightfall and other stories https://amzn.to/38M5Y1p
If you’d like to try Asimov’s nonfiction, maybe start with The Roving Mind, a collection of 62 essays on a variety of topics including creationism, pseudoscience, censorship, population, philosophy of science, transportation, computers and corporations of the future, and astronomy: https://amzn.to/3EswBqT
My first book is here!
How to Be a Great Student
ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3
Or read for free with Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJ
visit our YouTube channel:
youtube.com/socratica
and our website
socratica.com
If you find our work at Socratica valuable, please consider becoming our Patron on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/socratica
If you would prefer to make a one-time donation, you can also use
Socratica Paypal
https://www.paypal.me/socratica
We also accept Bitcoin!
Our address is: bc1qda47tgfyk67lxa7yqn8y5m02hjcglghsd5c58n
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You can find our beautiful math, science and programming videos on YouTube and on our website, socratica.com.
Our aim at Socratica is to create the education of the future. So it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that our work has often been inspired by the literature of the future: science fiction. Today I’m looking back at one of the earliest works of one of my favourite authors: Isaac Asimov.
Asimov famously wrote or edited over 500 books. To say he is an inspiration to me as a writer is a weaksauce understatement!
Asimov was a chemist by training, but you probably know him best as a science fiction author—although he only wrote a handful of sci-fi novels, including Foundation. Mostly he wrote short stories, and we’re going to talk about his first short story success today—a famous little tale called Nightfall. But, full disclosure—I really love Isaac Asimov for his nonfiction. There’s hardly a topic that I’ve studied that Asimov didn’t thoroughly digest and write about in the clearest of language.
The other day, I watched an interview with Isaac Asimov and Dick Cavett from 1989, and somewhere in the middle, I couldn’t help but say out loud—what a treat it was to listen to such a clear, good-humored thinker. I love him. I just LOVE him. I’m so grateful he left so much of himself behind for us.
The thing about science fiction is that it’s this wonderful combination—it’s both a peek into someone’s pure imagination and their problem-solving brain. I mean, I KNOW that Asimov had a firm grasp on previously solved scientific problems, and he was just a GENIUS at explaining things, especially the history of science and the story behind how much of technology emerged. But his works of fiction are also very precious to me because I get to see how this incredible teacher works out a hypothetical. I get to see Asimov doing thought experiments. It’s a real treat.
Nightfall reminds me in its setup of the very first science fiction story I can remember reading: All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury. I talked about it in my first episode of this podcast. In that story, set on Venus,...
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