Podcasts do not replace higher education

When I was in undergrad, there were a bunch of classes I was required to take. Some of them, like Discrete Math or Introduction to Programming, I took to immediately. Others, like Calculus/Analysis, I struggled with. It took me all of Calculus1 and a bit of Calculus 2 to finally understand the power of epsilon-delta proofs. That shift in thinking has served me to this day, even though I am doing very practical things.

That was a more obvious exposure to very different ways of thinking, but I also had very different professors, with very different ideas of how to teach and learn, and how to think.

These days there is a plethora of podcasts about academic and technical topics, in all fields of the humanities, sciences, engineering, and so forth. Each podcast has a whole community around it, with people forming relations and developing intellectually under the podcasters` purview. Some people might think that this is a substitute for a college degree, and with the cost of higher education being as it is these days, it's understandable that they might prefer to spend a fraction of the cost to financially support their favorite teachers.

But every field, I think, has a variety of subfields and approaches. And no single academic, not even a small group thereof, is going to give a beginner the exposure to all of these that an actual degree from a university program would. Even when these people are fully open about their own biases, they are not going to be able to present other views like someone who actually held them.

I would like to think of myself as mature enough, seeing as I have been exposed to different views in academia and outside of it, to take a contrary stance to existing podcasts. I know that I usually will listen to them, maybe immerse myself in their community, but then tire of the repetition and the limitations, and either leave or at least make sure to expose myself to other attitudes. But I worry about those who seem to fit in too well.

Science sometimes involves a lot of serious arguments about methodology, theoretical frameworks, occasionally facts. Cultural criticism can come from many directions, some of them incompatible with each other, and their interaction with cultural practice can be a bit difficult. Technology advances, changes, and occasionally old, washed-out ideas become new again, while other times the cutting edge leads absolutely nowhere.

While you will end up with your own biases and specializations, you shouldn't let yours be completely dictated by a specific choice of community that came when you were the most impressionable, and most able to understand things differently, if you were given the opportunity, or forced to.