<\/a>In a political debate or in a college classroom lecture, one minute can feel like forever\u2014if you\u2019re not well-versed in a subject you\u2019re being asked about. But if you\u2019re knowledgeable, a 60-second time limit can be a straightjacket. There\u2019s hardly time to get in the main points, let alone clear your throat, meander, or tell an illustrative anecdote. Having recently helped prepare a candidate for such a forum, I can testify to the difficulties that a well-informed, articulate speaker encounters when trying to pour a gallon of information into a one-minute teacup.<\/p>\n

But it can, and has, been done, not only by the candidate I worked with, but by other politicos and by \u201cexperts\u201d in many fields of study. In fact, that\u2019s exactly the challenge presented to a variety of speakers at an intriguing \u201clecture\u201d series at the University of Pennsylvania. According to Brain Pickings<\/a>, every semester for the past four years, the university has been inviting leading faculty to share their ideas on topics as far-ranging as poetry, pottery and political science in one-minute micro-lectures.<\/a><\/p>\n

The lecturers are faculty members of the University\u2019s School of Arts & Sciences. They present their talks on the campus\u2019 Locust Walk, sharing perspectives on topics ranging from human evolution and the knowable universe, to poetry and fly-fishing. Among many others, you can see a math professor lecture on abolishing the study of fractions and a classics professor race the clock to ponder whether America is like the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

The most recent 60-second lectures are available on YouTube<\/a>. To look at the complete archive<\/a>, go to the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s website. [Unfortunately, some of the older videos don\u2019t seem to be compatible with current video software\u2014I couldn\u2019t view them using Window Media Player. But for these, the U-Penn website helpfully includes transcripts.]<\/p>\n

Most of the micro-lecturers manage to beat the clock. But some don\u2019t, and their talks violate the 60-second limit by spilling over to anything from a few seconds to a shocking two full minutes. I did mention that this was hard, didn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a political debate or in a college classroom lecture, one minute can feel like forever\u2014if you\u2019re not well-versed in a subject you\u2019re being<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,6],"tags":[2482,1410],"yoast_head":"\n