Baba Brinkman doing his thing...

I’m going to start this post by saying I’ve never cared much for rap music. I suppose I could use the excuse that I’m a an over 40 year-old, white, raised-on-a-farm Albertan Canadian, but I know others in that same demographic who love rap so, so much for that excuse.

Uber-Skeptic Desiree Schell

Last week, Baba Brinkman was on my favorite Skeptical podcast – Skeptically Speaking with Desiree Schell and now, suddenly, I really like rap music. Well, I really like Baba Brinkman’s rap music, anyway.

So that leads me to think that my disconnect with rap has been because what the rapper’s where saying didn’t resonate with me.

Well, what Baba Brinkman has to say resonates with me.

What does Brinkman rap about? Rationality! Freethinking! Science! Evolution! And Darwin baby! DARWIN!

Baba Brinkman is getting the word out about these things in a new manner, and to a new audience. For those who don’t ‘get’ things like the theory of evolution, his songs are terrific consciousness raising experiences and, for those of us who do ‘get it’, they are powerful anthems.

You can find Baba Brinkman:

• on his website
• on CBC Radio 3 were you can listen to him online (my favorite one is ’Natural Selection’) and, from there, buy his music on iTunes.
• on his Skeptically Speaking interview
• and on youtube where you’ll find a good selection of videos including the one you see embedded below – the Rationalist anthem “Off That”.

(In case you are wondering, the beautiful music is part of the Shawshank Redemption Score composed by James Newton Howard,)

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

The jewel on the TED website is undoubtedly their collection of videos. Again, I’ll let TED speak for itself:

The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 450 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

Under those broad categories of Technology, entertainment and design, TED covers a lot of ground – especially for the scientifically inclined, or those simply looking for some inspiration. Suffice to say, I am in complete agreement with Renshia – TED is an amazing place. One of the best the web has to offer. The fact that their videos are free to view or download (in many formats including mp3 and high-resolution video) is a testament to the power of the web as a learning tool.

With that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite TED videos. Enjoy!