One of my favorite performative genres is the introductory lecture to a university course.

Here are a few of my favorites, all of which I consider to be works of art:

Robert Sapolsky's introduction to human behavioral biology. The first five minutes in particular are the most arresting way to introduce a subject I've ever seen.

Hal Abelson's introduction to The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. As a friend said to me, it's like he's delivering a sermon.

Andrew Lo's introduction to finance.

"What I want to try to do over the next 13 weeks is to convince you that finance is the most important subject that you'll ever encounter."

THAT is the kind of intensity I want from a teacher.

It's striking (and a bit sad) how much better these old lectures are than anything you can find on Coursera or edX.

Lots of great recommendations in the replies! Thanks everyone. So far, we've got introductory lectures about:

- Justice
- Biology
- Reinforcement Learning
- The American Revolution
- The Art of Doing Science & Engineering

I'm collecting them here: https://davidklaing.com/links-sublime-introductory-lectures/