Links to Keep You Sane! Classes, podcasts, exercise, streaming, and more.
Mar 17, 2020
Have some free time on your hands? Now is the time to learn or try something new! We’ve pulled together some of our favorite, LOW-ANXIETY resources and links below for exercise, the arts, streaming recs, adult and kid learning, online socializing, and grownup and kid podcasts. The vast majority of these are free. If you know of others, please share in the comments! Let’s all help each other.
Of course, we’re most partial to Viral Monologues, a streaming answer to the long-running 24-Hour Plays, founded by our own Tina Fallon! The fun happens TONIGHT!
“The purpose-written monologues will debut from 6pm-midnight ET, with a new piece published every 15 minutes on IGTV @24hourplays and https://24hourplays.com/viral-monologues/.”
Participating actors include David Cross, Richard Kind, Rachel Dratch, Andre Royo, Denis O’Hare, Will Swenson, Hugh Dancy, Tavi Gevinson, Marin Ireland, Ashlie Atkinson and Patrick Wilson.
The original monologues were written by David Lindsay-Abaire, Hilary Bettis, Hansol Jung, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Christoper Oscar Peña, Howard Sherman, Jesse Eisenberg, Simon Rich, Sam Chanse, Kathleen Hale, Jenny Rachel Weiner, Lily Padilla, Harrison David Rivers, Ken Greller, Rachel Axler, Lily Houghton, Charlie O’Leary and Monique Moses.
Read on for more recs, and as Brooklyn’s Nighthawk Theater recently put it:
EXERCISE
- BalletNova Center for Dance | Free online classes
- Planet Fitness | Free online classes for members or non-members
- Free online audio fitness | Listen at home or outside (socially distancing, obvs) to everything from meditation to pilates to barre
- Down Dog | This yoga app usually offers plenty of free content but until April 1, the whole dang thing is free.
- 15-minute, full-body HIIT routine
ARTS
- The Met Opera is streaming for free every night!
- Tour the British Museum
- Louvre virtual tour
- Start a text relationship with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | This one is so cool, we promise.
STREAMING
- Great British Baking Show is so soothing. You’ve probably seen it. Who cares? It’s worth a rewatch.
- Cheer and Last Chance U on Netflix | You might have seen Cheer but don’t sleep on the same team’s first outing.
- Casketeers on Netflix | Sleeper hit about a Maori-run family funeral home in New Zealand. Yes, it’s a funeral home, no it’s not gory or disrespectful. Lighthearted and heartwarming goodness.
- A Good Job | Barely heard of this one on its release but stumbled across it recently on HBO (also available for a rental fee on Prime). Steve Buscemi goes back to his old firehouse to reminisce, plus a larger look at NYFD. Trigger warning for 9/11 discussion but heartfelt and deeply watchable.
- Love Your Garden | Basically GBBS with dirt. Sweet garden makeovers for the deserving by Brits who take this whole gardening thing seriously.
ADULT LEARNING
- General Assembly | PT of FT courses and workshops to advance your career. NOTE: Fee
- DuoLingo | The OG of free online and app language learning.
- 450 Ivy League Courses for Free
- Forget the haters, start a podcast.
KIDS LEARNING
- Resources For Teaching and Learning During This Time of Social Distancing
- Scholastic Learn at Home
- At-Home Science Fun
- Play Along Twitter Games
- Online music education resources
SOCIAL
- Finally figure out WhatsApp | Might just be talking to myself here.
- QuarantineChat!
- Oh, man. It’s probably a good time to update your LinkedIn.
PODCASTS
- LeVar Burton Reads | Let LeVar mellow you out just like when you were a kid but this time reading his favorite (grownup) short fiction.
- This Is Love | The people behind the hugely successful Criminal podcast turn their attention on sweeter subject matter.
- 10% Happier | Meditation skeptic turned gruff believer Dan Harris interviews people about their experiences with meditation.
- Who? Weekly | “Everything you need to know about the celebrities you don’t”
- Sooo Many White Guys | Comedian Phoebe Robinson interviews a who’s-who of non-white-guy comedians and celebs (with one token white guy per season).
PODCASTS FOR KIDS/FAMILY
- 20 Best Podcasts for Families On the Road (or at home!)
- Best Podcasts for Kids Adults Will Like Too
- But Why? A Podcast for Curious Kids
- Story Time | 10-15 minute podcasts to go to sleep by.
- Eleanor Amplified | Serialized podcast for tweens about a plucky radio reporter with old-timey sound design.