The player you will need, if you do not already have it, is available for free from http://www.real.com (Real offers much software for sale. But some version of "Real Player Basic" (not "Plus") should be available at no charge. Look for "Top Free Downloads." "Real Player 8 Basic" is the one I am currently using with an IBM-compatible computer. Newer versions will undoubtedly continue to be made available from time to time.) The files here should work with either a 28 or 56 K modem.

Please note that the files available from this page may not play on the older versions of Real Player; you may get a "this is not a real file" error message. Ignore the message; it is a Real Player file; you just need an upgrade for your Real Player -- which you'll benefit from having in other ways as well.

Another alert: These files have been properly programmed (that is, with "rtsp" rather than "http" -- and you don't have to know what that means) to enable you to move quickly within them to the portion of the audio or video file you want. Unfortunately, I have discovered -- perhaps because of the size of the files -- this only works when they are being accessed from a T-1 connection. With a phone line and modem when you move the Real Player marker forward you must wait for it to stream everything prior to that point before it will start playing -- thus defeating at least a part of the purpose. Of course, if you want to listen/watch through from the beginning of the file there is no problem; all begin relatively promptly.

These files represent only a beginning effort (as of July 2000). Prior to the creation of this page the only audio and video clips available from my various Web pages were both very short (a minute or two) and took some time to download before being played. So you probably don't want to access them. (If you'd like to hear and see them anyway just click on audio and video clips.) -- Nicholas Johnson, Iowa City, June 31, 2000; July 8, 2000; July 13, 2000; July 18, 2000.

The University of Iowa College of Law has prepared a nine-minute video tape, "The Iowa Law School Endowment Campaign for the 21st Century: Securing Resources to Prepare Tomorrow's Leaders," 1999. It is of high professional quality, interesting to watch and short. In addition to serving the purposes of the Endowment Campaign, it also provides a useful brief look at law school in general, and this excellent school in particular, for anyone considering a law school education. The quality of the sound and picture you will see and hear with this clip via the Internet over a T-1 line will approach the quality of the videotape itself. A poorer quality clip is available as well that will probably work better with a 56K or 28K modem. As with all streaming video, the quality of the sound and picture you will see and hear with this poorer quality clip is far inferior to the quality of the original tape -- which you are encouraged to use instead if available to you. If not, and you would like to acquire, or borrow, a copy of the tape, please contact Dean N. William Hines, University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City IA 52242, 319-335-9034.

Wendell Johnson. General Semantics class, University of Iowa; one from a series broadcast over WSUI-AM, Iowa City, Iowa. This sample is the lecture delivered December 7, 1956. The subject is the process of abstracting. The clips are in two parts. This selection is the first 30 minutes only (that is, side "A" of a two-sided audio tape cassette). Because classes were scheduled for 45 or 50 minutes, side "B" is only about 14 minutes. These clips are audio only, and seem (to me) to be of excellent quality.

Wendell Johnson. In addition to his research and writing in the fields of speech pathology and general semantics, Dad also had an affection for limericks, "laws" -- and songs. For some reason, he had recorded one of the latter on this class lecture tape. So here is Wendell Johnson singing about his "Gray Hairs."

Nicholas Johnson. "Media Regulation in the Age of the Internet." This is streaming video of a lecture and question and answer session presented as the Seventh Annual Mount St. Clare College Media Forum, March 30, 2000, in Clinton, Iowa. It runs a total of one hour and 25 minutes, and thus the quality was reduced somewhat to create a video file of manageable size. The college's Dr. Brad Howard introduced Nicholas Johnson, and credited Johnson's granddaughter, Laura Johnson, with her role in encouraging her grandfather's participation.

Nicholas Johnson. "UCSD Guestbook." This 27-minute television program was produced by, and is copyright by, UCSD-TV Channel 35, San Diego. It is made available here with the permission of UCSD-TV. It was recorded February 2, 2000, during Nicholas Johnson's visit to the University of California San Diego as a Regents Professor. He is interviewed by Professor Robert Horwitz of the UCSD Communications Department, Host for the program.

Producer: Shannon Bradley. Director: John Menier. UCSD-TV General Manager: Mary Lindenstein Walshok. Managing Director: Lynn Burnstan.

Streaming video, as distinguished from audio, leaves much to be desired with the technology and bandwidth generally available in the year 2000. So it is with this file. The picture is small (160x120), and the audio needs improvement. There is also a larger version (320x240) available which, if you have a very fast computer and access to a T-1 line, or other broadband service, may work for you. (Otherwise the picture jumps, and the voices are out of sync with the faces.)

The best quality version, should you be interested, is the videotape itself, available from UCSD-TV: Voice 858-534-7076, E-mail ucsdtv@ucsd.edu, Postal UCSD-TV 0176TV, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, Ca 92093.
 

There is a bit of history to this one. This is streaming audio only of a speech delivered by Nicholas Johnson November 5, 1970. Johnson was a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission at the time of this speech, challenging the establishment -- including his fellow commissioners and the broadcasting industry -- with a string of dissenting opinions, articles and speeches -- including his book How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (available in full text from his main Web site).

In the very early 1960s Johnson taught at the University of California, Berkeley, law school (Boalt Hall). In 1970 he was invited back to deliver the campus-wide Barbara Weinstock Lecture. The lecture was subsequently published by the University of California with the title of the lecture: Life Before Death in the Corporate State (1971).  This lecture, and that book, were early versions of what ultimately became the book Test Pattern for Living (also available in full text from his main Web site).

So imagine yourself in the late '60s and early '70s: opposition to the Viet Nam war is raging, Black Power has been exerted, Nixon and Agnew are in Washington, the women's movement is growing, troops have been used to quell urban riots, students have been shot and killed at Kent State University, the Beatles are singing, Berkeley is in radical revolt, and "if you're going to San Francisco, be sure and wear a flower in your hair." You're on the Berkeley campus, in the Pauley Ballroom, packed wall-to-wall with college students who've come to hear an evening lecture. Sit back, relax, and relive those days with this hippie presidential appointee preaching alternative politics and lifestyle to the choir.