Podcasts are one of the great learning tools to have sprung up in the past few years. There is
an increasing number of universities, learning establishments, media channels and motivated
individuals with specialisms publishing their lectures, talks and interviews for free general
consumption.

These podcasts are available as MP3 files or sometimes via itunes and are best downloaded
onto an MP3  player for listening to (on the way to work for extra brownie points).

Social intervention fields are not yet well catered for (as opposed to pop psychology or pop
science) but as they become more widely available we'll keep you up to date. We have so far
found some genuinely excellent lectures that can augment a worker's usual diet of occasional
reading and occasional training days.  For the hardy many universities are now publishing
entire semester's worths of lectures - giving you upwards of twenty hours of listening.
 
Drugs and Behaviour
  
David Presti                                                                                                     
 Web Page
An excellent series of lectures from Berkerly aimed at undergraduate psychology students on
the complex histories of substances in society. Each lecture is by and large centred on a
different substance (both illicit and non-illicit) with even the lecture on nitrous oxide being
fascinating. The terminology is not too complex and lay persons should find the lectures
accessible and interesting.

Listening to all the podcasts is quite an undertaking. They being a direct record of the lectures,
a listener has to also be  prepared to listen to regular college talk about lecture dates and term
time etc. The lectures are set at quite a low volume so be sure to be in a quiet place whilst
listening.

Here we also link to the host Learnoutloud website which is well worth exploring.
Useful Podcasts
The Social Work Podcast
  
socialworkpodcast.com                                                                                   
 Web Page
A website blog dedicated entirely to podcasts on topics of social work. The podcasts take the
form of interviews with leading practitioners and cover a diverse and interesting range of
subjects from supervision to Dialectical Behavioural Therapy. This is a new resource that should
grow more and more confident and interesting as it establishes itself.
Guide to listening

The links provided
here will lead to the
webpage containing
the link to the
podcast. When at
the webpage, for any
episode you want to
listen to, click on the
"Download MP3" link
and the audio will
start playing.

For any episode you
want to save to your
computer, right-click
your mouse and
select the "save link
as.." or "save target
as..." option. More
developed websites
will give you other
options involving
itunes. Some
podcasts can only be
streamed, which
means you can
listening to them but
not save them.
The RSA lecture podcasts
  
The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures &
Commerce)                                                                                                       
 Web Page
The RSA is a British institution dedicated learning and theories on the improvement of lives (this
is roughly their mandate). One of their key activities is to produce one-off lectures by guest
lecturers of very high esteem -  each of these lectures, on subjects as varied as psychology and
war and criminal justice, is recorded for podcast. Some of these lectures are excellent. This
resource particularly recommends the Dec07 lecture by James Flynn on intelligence and the
Oct07 lecture by Robert Cialdini. Cialdini, whose theories are much discussed in different parts
of this website is a psychologist of persuasion and influence. The lecture here is an easy entry
into his ideas (for British workers it is interesting to note that the guest lecturer is Louise
Casey, director of the Respect taskforce, who was a key figure in the development of
professionalised and accountable homeless services under the auspices of the Social Exclusion
Unit) .
Towards improved social intervention
Google
 
York College Lectures (psychology 102)
  
York College, New York                                                                              
 Web Page
This link is to the introduction to psychology semester of lectures that form the beginning of the
undergraduate psychology degree at York College. They make good listening but as with the
drugs and behaviour lectures you must prepare yourself for the full 3d effect of being in a
classroom, including the lecturer marking students down for turning up late. The lectures move
slowly (mostly because none of the students have done the reading) but it does cover the solid
basics. A recommended series.