The Modern Scholar: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur

Such a great series of lectures about dinosaurs. Very comprehensive. Gives a history of paleontology and goes into the evolution of dinosaurs throughout the Mesozoic era. Also discusses the role of dinosaurs in pop culture and details all the things they got wrong/got right in Jurassic Park (among others). Very entertaining lecturer. Recommended to anyone interested in dinosaurs.

Audio lectures don't get any better than this. In this series, John Kricher takes us through his subject both broad an deep. Starting with delightful lighter chapters about discovery history, pop culture and movies about dinosaurs, he does not fall short when comes down to the details. In perfect pace, perfect structure, perfect sequence, he takes us from one interesting aspect to the next. At any moment he make us feel the solid science behind his facts. It is unbelievable how much can be derived from looking at just the fossil bones, in comparison with properties of living creatures. Prof. Kricher manages to pursue 30-minutes-long, complex arguments without ever loosing the reader. I am stunned by this performance, I wish more of my teachers had been of this quality. This book cannot be recommend highly enough.

Fascinating, inspiring, and memorable to the end. Listens like an audiobook, not a lecture. Explains what we know, don't know, and how we find out answers to the first questions that come to the layman's mind. The professor's narration is delightful. I only wish he had narrated the other half dozen audiobooks on natural history that I have listened to.

Modern Scholar is among my favorites for history, science and technology lectures.

The authors time line description of the chronological order in terms of one year. It gave me a sense of how much time elapsed between first life and first complex life.

The authors narration is wonderfully inspiring. Plenty of explanations of terms and theory
that are very understandable.

I did in fact listen to it in one sitting.

A complete and thorough overview of dinosaur history. Kricher is charming and credible and ads bits of humor to his reading which make the time fly by. Also the content is well-presented and put together in a cohesive manner as to make it all come together with much sense. I greatly enjoyed it.

The substance here is a little fluffy. It sounds more like the material from a professor's attempt at keeping a group of unwilling undergrads fulfilling a gen-ed requirement, which is a step down from a lot of the other Modern Scholar series. There's a LOT of unnecessary "but I'll talk about that in lecture X" and two distinct times where the lecturer goes into two different extended metaphors to explain geologic time. The chapter divisions are a bit unusual as well, feeling more like something chosen for effect rather than by logic. However, I can't really fault it for not going that deep, and it certainly succeeds as a very broad overview.

I have never written a review for any of the many audio books I have listened to in the past. However, I felt obligated to write a review for this one as it is the best performance I have ever listened to. Kept me highly entertained throughout. Did not want it to end!

Already have - about 3 times!

Professor Kricher knows his subject and makes it accessible and interesting! It was like being a kid again and discovering how cool dinosaurs were for the first time. He doesn't just talk about the dinosaurs but also the history of fossil hunting, the personalities of the people who found and studied the fossils, and there's even a chapter of dinosaurs in film. Finishing this lecture had me searching (fruitlessly) for other audiobooks about dinosaurs.

Absolutely fantastic lecture/audiobook, whatever it is. It's informative but easy to understand, even for dummies like me.

I am always pleased with "The Modern Scholar" series. This title is no exception. I highly recommend it.

The lessons cover all aspects of dinosaurs. So it's inevitable that there will be a lesson topic you don't care for as much.

This program is geared toward "non-experts". But the final few lessons concerning modern theories is really great, and should interest everyone including the experts.