I don’t have many links this time, and all videos.  If you’re one of the readers who doesn’t watch videos, you can skip this one.

The Physics of Dissonance | minutephysics (video, 27 min) – A good introduction to the overtone theory of dissonance.

The one thing I would add, is that it’s useful to distinguish “dissonant” from “unpleasant” from “rough”.  Dissonance is a cultural concept–basically a set of musical tropes used to convey darkness or tension.  For some reason people often define dissonance as an unpleasant sound, but this is obviously untrue–minor chords are considered dissonant and yet people often like them.  In the context of psychoacoustics (as in this video), many authors use “roughness” for the psychoacoustical effect, and “dissonance” for the cultural construct.  Roughness often aligns with dissonance, and is theorized to explain it, but it obviously can’t explain dissonance completely given the cultural and historical variation.

Downton Abbey and the Origin of Capitalism | Unlearning Economics (video, 1:02 hours) – A discussion about the historical origins of capitalism, informed by academic theory and also a TV drama.  There’s the cartoon version of history, where everybody used to barter until somebody invented currency, but that’s definitely not how it actually happened.  According to the argument in this video, capitalism arose specifically in England within the last few centuries.

This argument makes capitalism look pretty good, honestly, but mostly in comparison to the aristocracy-based system it supplanted.  Everyone in this argument is aware that capitalism can still be bad.

Fantasies of Nuremberg | Jacob Geller (video, 49 min) – Jacob Geller describes the actual history of the Nuremberg Trials, and how it was perceived by contemporaries.  When the historical details are examined, it seems to illustrate the futility and dissatisfaction of justice.