Podcast Database

This project is designed to enhance student's critical thinking in economics. The majority of students that I teach are non-econ majors. Because of this, it becomes imperative that my course be applicable to all students regardless of major. Including podcasts in my classes helps me accomplish this goal.

Economic concepts are something that we use on a daily basis—my goal is to utilize podcasts to help students make the jump from theory presented in class to real-world application in their own lives. I currently use news articles to give students real world application of the theories that we study. And while I will continue to use selected articles, I would like to reduce their use due to the lackluster response that I sometimes receive from students. There are, however, a wide variety of podcasts available today that not only discuss economic concepts, but relate them to the world around us in a clear and often humorous way.

Podcast Database (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 28kB Aug28 18)

For in-person classes, I post the podcasts on Canvas and have students listen and then discuss during the next class period. I sometimes have students take notes while listening to the podcast and then submit these for a grade. For my online classes, I have students listen to the podcasts and then post about it in an online discussion board.

The podcasts included in the database file come from the following sources:
NPR's Planet Money

NPR's The Indicator:

Freakonomics