Ask HN: What's the best lecture series you've seen?

It could be tech related or otherwise. What made it so special?

MIT 9.13 The Human Brain, Spring 2019: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP60IKRN_pFpt...

Particularly about human vision and how visual information gets processed, priority and timing, etc. Some cool experiments (upside down face recognition).

Not sure best ever, but I really enjoyed “The Other Side of History” (available from Great Courses Plus now Wonderium). I found the deep dive into daily life through history helped me better understand the common threads that all humans experience.

Course Description:

Imagine you're a Greek soldier marching into battle in the front row of a phalanx. Or an Egyptian woman putting on makeup before attending an evening party with your husband. Or a Celtic monk scurrying away with the Book of Kells during a Viking invasion. Welcome to the other side of history, the 99% of ordinary people whose names don't make it into the history books—but whose lives are no less fascinating than the great leaders whose names we all know. Here you'll encounter such diverse individuals as:

a Mesopotamian hunter-gatherer making a living in one of the world's earliest permanent settlements;

an Egyptian craftsman decorating the pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings; a Minoan fleeing the island of Santorini during a volcanic eruption;

a Greek citizen relaxing at a drinking party with the likes of Socrates;

a Roman slave captured in war and sent to work in the mines; and

a medieval pilgrim on the road to Canterbury.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-other-side-of-hi...

A long time ago I found a free UC Berkeley class, I think it was Psych 117: Drugs and Human Behavior that was absolutely phenomenal, but I can’t seem to find it anymore.

On that topic, see also Medical Neuroscience by Leonard White - old but good

  https://online.duke.edu/course/medical-neuroscience/
  https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-neuroscience

He does a good job explaining the crux of a much deeper science; his intent is mainly to provide background knowledge for aspiring doctors, but his own research is full-on neuroscience. It's a good example of topological sorting, building topics up from no-knowledge. And of course any knowledge of neuro-anatomy is humbling :)