Lectures in Intellectual History Institute of Intellectual History, University of St Andrews

Abstract and very academic, the selection of speakers is impressive but the sound quality of the recordings is often poor.

Generally, this podcast makes a classic university mistake of having someone sit in the middle of the crowd to hold up the microphone. The speaker sounds far away and the echoes are distracting. In one lecture, the audio is simply too quiet. I shouldn’t have to disable my iPhone safe audio feature just to hear one podcast. In one lecture the audio had an added distortion so that the speaker was even more garbled than usual.

I simply must give up on this podcast. The fact that the topics are very academic, abstract and densely packed with information and ideas makes it that much more imperative that the audio is clear and professionally produced. It’s been long since I was an undergraduate and my grade and livelihood depended on me focusing intently just to understand the words of a poorly recorded lecture. These days when people are listening to podcasts, they are driving or doing chores. We need good clear audio to be able to hear lectures like this.

There’s a high pitch whining sound throughout the David D’Avray lecture. It was annoying throughout but afterwards my ears hurt and now I have a high pitched ringing in my ears that won’t go away. The hosts of this podcast should pull that episode and others like it to avoid causing HEARING LOSS. Really hope my hearing recovers. No podcast is worth this.