Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Best Talk That I Actually Listened To

Sunday night when I posted all those talks by Elder and President Hinckley I really hadn't listened to any of them but I thought the titles were pretty interesting, so up they went (I've since listened to them and I think the books match the covers pretty well). A few weeks ago I started exploring speeches.byu.edu, an amazing archive of free mp3s just about every devotional or major address ever given at BYU. The amazing thing about it is how far back it goes...if you want to hear Spencer W Kimball speaking on morality in 1951, you can hear Spencer W Kimball speaking on morality in 1951 (me, it was probably the first time I ever heard his "real" voice. Very commanding), if you want to hear the most recent Devotional address of this year, that's there too. Before President Hinckley's passing I had been meaning to talk about the talks I've been listening to thanks to this site, and that post will come, but I listened to a super-excellent old Hinckley talk today and I wanted to post it before my eventual display of enthusiasm for Nibley talks and such:

Caesar, Circus, or Christ, 1965.

Don't miss his joke about choosing topics to speak on at BYU at the beginning or his definition of a beatnik towards the end.

Looking over the three pages of Hinckley mp3s, there's a lot of excellent looking titles. If anyone listens to ones that I haven't posted, please let me know what you think of them and maybe we can get a good little Guide to the Archived Speeches of Gordon B Hinckley going here.

Addendum I remember one summer riding home from our annual YM/YW rafting trip (or maybe something entirely different) in the YW Leader's car and she put in a tape of her favorite church talks (and this wasn't an old lady, it was Sister Julian, she was just in her 20's or something) and I remember thinking (even though I was a pretty good kid) "Man, what kind of dork keeps a tape of their favorite talks to listen to in the car?" Fast forward 16 or 17 years and here I am, listening to Apostles on my iPod as I ride the subway. So it goes.

1 comment:

M said...

i whole-heartedly second your endorsement. for about two years, i've been downloading various talks from this website and listening to them on my iPod while running. i especially love hearing Pres. George Albert Smith, Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith, Pres. Hugh B. Brown and Elder McConkie and other general authorities whom I never heard speak in person. Hearing their voices adds a more personal dimension to their testimonies.