I recently found an amazing (and I don't use that word lightly) resource from Google that I think is completely under-used and seriously under-marketed. This resource is called Google Talks and it contains over 170 fascinating lectures, given to the very lucky and privileged Google staff, most around 1 hour long.

I chanced upon this archive of knowledge while researching a new article about psychics (look for it soon, it's called "I see Dumb People.") Anyway, the first person I thought of was James Randi, noted magician and "debunker" of people who claim to have super-natural powers. The best video I found in my search came from a place on YouTube called authors@google. I watched it, spellbound, James Randi at 78 years old is a terrific, vibrant speaker with a great sense of humor. You can view his video below.

But then I also discovered talks from musicians@google, and women@google. So I did a little digging and found a whole repository of in-depth, wonderful lectures from some of the finest minds in writing, news, acting, politics, science, cuisine, music and more. Here's just a short list of the people who have given talks for those Google folks I envy more every day.

Tom Brokaw

Hillary Clinton

Ron Paul

Marco Pierre White

Dr. James D.Watson

Clotilde Dusoulier

Matt Amsden & David Wolfe

Now, these are just a few of the people I was interested in listening to. But I urge you, when you have an hour to kill, to pop over to Google Talks at You Tube and treat yourself to a perk of the job that Google employees get. You'll be glad you did.