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

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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...

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...

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)

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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 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

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...

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...

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)

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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 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...

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)

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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 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...

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)

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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 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