The Perimeter Institute has videos of classes of all of their areas of research:

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Quantum_Gravity/

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Superstring_Theory_/

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Quantum_Foundations_/

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Cosmology_%26_Gravitation/

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Particle_Physics_/

http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Outreach/What_We_Research/Quantum_Information/

Scroll to the bottom for the lectures.

 

A lecture from 2005  by Roger Penrose on the pre-Big Bang and Weyl Curvature.

INI Web Seminars: Penrose, 2005-11-07

This one is quite good. "Time is nothing to a photon."

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8 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 6:56 AM

And why is this useful for a rationality site, as opposed to a physics site?

It improves the map.

The judgment would be whether it is considered useful to the users and sufficiently related to the allied goals of rationalists. If a strict ground is needed, it should suffice that these videos address topics in physics which are often the target of (generally unrealized) mystical thinking or mysteriousness. Insofar as they help people discard either, they advance rationality in the viewer at least as much as the various posts on why we should all be atheists.

We study rationality in order to, you know, do something with it. If we talk only about rationality we miss out on a chance to practice our skills with each other.

We study rationality in order to, you know, do something with it.

Speak for yourself. ;)

(OK, ok, at least 10% of my rationality study is to do something with it.)

Why do you make the time and the effort to study rationality, then?

PS I didn't downvote

Leonard Susskind has published a bunch of videos outlining the theoretical foundations of modern physics. The collective title is Modern Physics: The Theoretical Minimum, and it seems intended to serve as his take on the simple physics of everything. He disregards constants in the equations, using the natural units wherever possible and so on, thereby managing to explain the dynamics of a wide range of physical phenomena quite compactly. The series on cosmology was excellent.

A nice intro is Richard Mullers lecture series on 'Physics for future presidents' available as podcast and video on youtube.