Public education broadcaster EBS said Tuesday that it would air a lecture series called “Great Minds,” starring acclaimed academics including American political scientist Joseph S. Nye.

“Great Minds” aims to close knowledge gaps exacerbated by the extended COVID-19 and fake news in social networking services. According to the broadcaster, a total of 40 scholars will star in the 200-part lecture series.

The production crew visited the scholars to film the lectures in person.

“I thought casting the famous economist Paul Krugman would be difficult, considering his and the current COVID-19 situation. But he was surprised about the educational broadcasting channel in Korea and was impressed with the goal of the project,” the EBS press release quoted the company’s chief producer Kim Hyung-joon as saying.

Renowned scholars from many different fields -- political scientist Joseph Nye, economist Paul Krugman, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher Michael Sandel, computer scientist John Hennessy and more -- will star in the 20-minute weekday episodes. 

The broadcaster plans to open a new global OTT platform in December to provide the contents of “Great Minds” in six different languages -- Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French -- to the global audience.

EBS is scheduled to broadcast “Great Minds” on EBS1TV and EBS2TV at 11:35 p.m. and 10 p.m., respectively, Monday to Friday, starting Aug. 30.

Each episode will be available in K-MOOC, a free online platform, and EBS’ official website after the broadcast without any additional payment.

By Lee Si-jin (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)