What could be learnt just by listening?

Welcome to fluther. You could try NPR.

It would depend, obviously, on your interests. My sister learns Italian while on the treadmill; I watch cooking shows.

Learning or relearning a foreign language is an obvious choice; so are lectures on observational astronomy, the bios of some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, gardening, and any of my other present passions. If you want to be just like me, choose something from my list.

(Or, as @Adirondackwannabe so sensibly says, listen to your public radio station. Recently I have heard lectures on drones, climate change, the Metropolian Opera, Mayor Bloomberg, and the NYS budget.)

I’ve learned a lot from Radiolab.

@hopesecret My first job required a lot of travel, so I used the library of audio books they had. I took a bunch of courses on marketing, sales, etc. See if your college library has some audio books.

Languages, history, almost anything.

It depends on your interests, but just about anything can be learned by listening.

Even though “learnt” is considered to be a proper word (mostly outside of the US), it always grates on my nerves for some reason.

State secrets that get you killed.

Languages for sure. Audio books?

BBC podcasts. I think you can get them abroad.

Everything above plus all the rest.

nobody has every learned anything from the sound of their own voice

I bought a French language CD set but I found it a bit distracting while I was driving so I haven’t really used it. You can download lectures from people like Noam Chomsky or other leading ‘thinkers’ of the world. What would you like to learn?

I certainly think it’s a great idea to use the time you are in the car productively. Just choose things you can listen to without being distracting.

Listening to your girlfriend nag will teach you to pick and choose your battles.

@thorninmud: “I’ve learned a lot from Radiolab.”

Radiolab is definitely one of my favorite podcasts. The most recent episode (“Are you sure”), however, was by far the worst thing they have released. I am still wondering what happened. Part of me thinks that they released this with the intention of it being the subject of a future Radiolab. The whole coverage of Jeff Vineyard and his loss of faith was insulting to the audience, and frankly, devastatingly-insulting to Jeff. I’ve never heard them destroy a guest like that before. Think “native savages”. To top it off, however, they wrap up that segment with treatment of Pascal’s Wager that they should be ashamed and embarrassed of.
I’m hoping a future episode deals with the concept of a trusted source getting something so wrong.

@tom_g Ooh, didn’t listen to that one yet…I’ll check it out.

Thanks for all your responses, guys..
You guys gave me so many ideas. I ll try whichever works best for me.
@Adirondackwannabe I can’t listen to radio since I’m using an iPod shuffle to listen music but I’m gonna try looking for library audio books.
I ll try for podcasts from Radiolab( @thorninmud ) or BBC( @flutherother ).
Learning Languages( @gailcalled, @marinelife, @KNOWITALL) is pretty good idea which I thought at first.
Listening to lectures( @gailcalled, @bellatrix ) can be useful to me.

@thorninmud – Not that this stuff matters, but the public radio bracket has entered the finals. It’s This American Life vs. Radiolab. It’s currently very close. I’m a This American Life listener, but it is no Radiolab.