At some point in my life, before I really got into computers and technology, I figured out how to download things with a Bittorrent client. While I am all for supporting artists whose work you enjoy by shelling out the cash to buy what they make, this was around the time when I was in college and was not in a position to spend—or at least was not very excited about spending—much on things that I liked but did not strictly need. This was before streaming music and movies became the quotidian thing it is today, the transitional period when it was clear that everything would end up on the internet, but the companies that distribute media still had the mindset that this was something they were going to fight.
Like many people at the time, I downloaded movies and music, but also, maybe like fewer people, I used it as a source of educational material. One discovery I made in my search of torrent trackers was the existence of several sets of academic lecture series created by a company called The Teaching Company, now The Great Courses. These lectures covered a wide range of subjects and employed exceptional professors as lecturers.
I listened to many, many of these lecture series, but a few stand out in my memory today, many years later. Among them were John McWhorter’s lectures on linguistics, which was a serious interest of mine for a while, and Robert Greenberg’s series on music and composers, both of whom are still making content for the Great Courses as of recently. One series I found especially edifying was titled The Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition and was taught by an ensemble cast of lecturers.
With a title like that, you can guess that this covers a lot of ground. It starts with the pre-Socratics, goes through the ancient Greeks and Romans, on through the Middle Ages and up to the post-war era. I can recommend it if you are in the market for a survey course on western history and philosophy. I can’t say that this knowledge has been especially useful in my later career, but there is something to just knowing, when you come across a name like Immanuel Kant or Max Weber, a little about who these people were and what they contributed to the world.
Of all the lecturers in the series, a particular favorite of mine was a guy named Michael Sugrue. He spoke in a steady, measured tone and displayed a passionate engagement with thought, ancient and modern, and an appreciation and enthusiasm for the material that is everything you want in a teacher. I was so impressed with how he gave his lectures that, when I would give a presentation in class, I would try to imitate his cadence.
Many years later, after moving from torrents to Youtube as a source of education and entertainment—the one bit of internet addiction I will allow myself—I discovered that Sugrue’s daughter had create a channel for him, where you can find those lectures from The Teaching Company, along with recently recorded videos of him discussing various topics in history and philosophy. It turned out that I was not the only one who had been impressed by Prof. Sugrue, that he had a fanbase who enjoyed his lectures just as I had.
I also found out that he was suffering from a prolonged battle with cancer. A few weeks ago, I learned that he had passed away.
I never met the guy, never had any interaction with him other than as a listener and learner, but those lectures left an impression on me, and so I wanted to mention him and how his work has affected me. If you are interested, give his videos a watch. Especially if you are new to these topics, they are some of the best introductions you will find.