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audiobook
(27)
Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music
by Robert Greenberg
read by Robert Greenberg
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Johannes Brahms was a man of contrasts. His serious Teutonic music was balanced by joyful dance music. His miserliness with himself by exceeding generosity with family and associates. His kindness to working people with a biting, malicious wit reserved for those he encountered in artistic and aristocratic circles. He was not an easy man to know, destroying a good deal of his own work and almost all of his lifetime's correspondence, in later years even collecting his letters from friends so that he could consign them to the flames. Yet you can know this enigmatic genius through this 8-lecture series, which uses biographical information and musical commentary to link the complexities of Brahms the man with the electrifying music of Brahms the composer. You'll learn how Brahms found unique ways of combining the rigor and formal complexity of older Classical and even Baroque genres and forms with the melodic inventiveness, harmonic sophistication, and expressive richness so prized in the Romantic age. And how his fanatical perfectionism led him to write, rewrite, and ultimately destroy more than 20 string quartets before publishing a pair of exceptionally exquisite pieces at the age of 40, breathing new life into the old bones of this exacting chamber music form.
audiobook
(12)
International Economic Institutions: Globalism vs. Nationalism
The Complete Course Contains All 24 Lectures
by Ramon P. DeGennaro
read by Ramon P. DeGennaro
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Since the end of World War II, groups such as the World Trade Organization, European Union, and G-20 have sprung up to promote trade, ensure financial stability, fight poverty, and perform other economic missions. Included among these goals is an ultimate aim: preventing the kind of global economic instability that so often leads to war. But while such bodies are trying to knit the world together, the voices of nationalism are objecting that national sovereignty is being lost. Furthermore, such organizations have the failings common to all human institutions. Do they really work? Are we better off without them? What is the best route to prosperity, and do they help smooth the way or obstruct it? International Economic Institutions: Globalism vs. Nationalism uses these influential bodies as a lens to study today's globalized economy. In 24 half-hour lectures, award-winning teacher and economist Professor Ramon P. DeGennaro of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, conducts you through the dizzying array of international institutions, their backgrounds, goals, and the important roles they play in the economic life of the entire world. In a lively and fascinating presentation, he analyzes the organizations in depth to reveal their strengths and weakness. Among the topics covered are the origins of the Great Depression; the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference; the causes of the Great Recession of 2007 - 2008; and the background to the UK's "Brexit" vote in 2016 to leave the European Union.
All Lectures:
1. The Politics of Economic Institutions
2. Financial Regulation across Borders
3. International Anarchy under One Roof
4. Messy Multilateralism
5. The Fed and the Roles of Central Banks
6. The Pre - World War II Rise of Big Government
7. Interest Groups, the State, and Corporatism
8. The World Bank, Poverty, and Violence
9. Group Choices: Rock, Paper, Scissors
10. The United Nations: A League of Its Own
11. Exchange Rates and the Gold Standard
12. What Caused the Great Depression?
13. "Higgledy Piggledy": F. D. R.'s Stimulus Plan
14. The Bank for International Settlements
15. Intrigue at Bretton Woods: July 1944
16. The International Monetary Fund
17. The Asian Development Bank
18. The World Trade Organization
19. The Euro
20. The Great Recession: Mismanaging Risk
21. After the Recession: A Bigger House of Cards
22. Banking Supervision and the Basel Accords
23. A Unified Europe, and Then Brexit
24. The G-Zero Era of Instability
audiobook
(12)
Advanced Investments
The complete course contains all 24 lectures
by Steve L. Slezak
read by Steve L. Slezak
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
This is an advanced course for investors in the market, covering cutting-edge investment principles and practices used by professionals. You learn hands-on techniques for analyzing the central problem of investing: How to determine if a potential investment is a good deal. Employing concepts from probability and statistics, you learn how to measure risk accurately. Then you explore methods for determining if a given security, such as a stock or bond, will generate returns that compensate for its risk. Throughout these 24 in-depth lectures, you weigh the relative advantages of active and passive investment strategies. An active approach takes advantage of mispriced securities that can be traded for a profit. A passive strategy seeks to build a well-diversified portfolio that can be put on automatic pilot. Many investors combine these strategies, and Professor Slezak takes you through a wide range of cases that show how to devise a balanced approach. His many useful tips include how to avoid the most common mistakes that investors make, why you should think in terms of net present value in evaluating a company, how to combine securities in order to control risk, and the importance of analyzing an investment before you act. Professor Slezak is an expert who knows how to communicate effectively. He enlivens his presentation with colorful anecdotes and object lessons from the recent history of Wall Street. His parting advice: Don't be afraid of the market. Nothing is a sure thing, he stresses, but the market has performed consistently over the long term.
All Lectures:
1. Investment Decisions and Goals
2. A Framework for Investing
3. Mistakes Investors Make
4. The Characteristics of Security Returns
5. The Theory of Efficient Markets
6. Evidence on Efficient Markets
7. Valuation Formulas
8. Bond Pricing
9. The Term Structure of Interest Rates
10. The Risks in Bonds
11. Quantifying Interest Rate Risk
12. Value Creation and Stock Prices
13. Present Value of Growth Opportunities
14. Modeling Investor Behavior
15. Managing Risk in Portfolios
16. The Behavior of Stock Prices
17. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
18. How to Exploit Mispriced Securities
19. Performance Evaluation
20. Market Making and Liquidity
21. Understanding Derivatives
22. Using Derivatives
23. Pricing Derivatives
24. Trade Opportunities or Risk?
audiobook
(34)
Earth's Changing Climate
The Complete Course Contains All 12 Lectures
by Richard Wolfson
read by Richard Wolfson
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-representing a global consensus of hundreds of scientists-concluded that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal," citing observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. And they noted that human activity is "very likely" the cause. Whatever your views on climate change, it's important to understand how the current scientific consensus on global warming evolved out of basic physical principles and a broad range of observations. This lucid series of twelve lectures is designed to do exactly that-reviewing the most up-to-date research and explaining the concepts, tools, data, and analysis that have led an overwhelming number of climate scientists to conclude that Earth is indeed warming and that we humans are in great part responsible. In clear and accessible lectures designed for nonscientists, you'll learn about the "fingerprints" of global climate change-ranging from borehole temperatures to melting glaciers to the altered behavior of plant and animal species and other indicators-that convince scientists that our Earth has been warming at an unprecedented rate in recent decades. The lectures address only scientific issues and make no policy recommendations. Instead, they have been designed to serve as your personal scientific briefing to equip you to engage knowledgeably in one of the most important environmental issues of our time.
All Lectures:
1. Is Earth Warming?
2. Butterflies, Glaciers, and Hurricanes
3. Ice Ages and Beyond
4. In the Greenhouse
5. A Tale of Three Planets
6. Global Recycling
7. The Human Factor
8. Computing the Future
9. Impacts of Climate Change
10. Energy and Climate
11. Energy - Resources and Alternatives
12. Sustainable Futures?
audiobook
(13)
How the World Learns: Comparative Educational Systems
The complete course contains all 24 lectures
by Alexander W. Wiseman
read by Alexander W. Wiseman
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
America's blueprint for mass education has been followed across the globe - yet international student assessments show that achievement varies sharply, with the US and much of Europe typically scoring average at best. Not surprisingly, this state of affairs has sparked anxieties about an educational crisis. Adding even more fuel to the fire: many cite a growing disconnect between what schools teach and the needs of a rapidly changing market.
The problem, if there is one, is highly complex, and in these 24 thought-provoking lectures led by an associate professor of comparative and international education, you'll take a meaningful look at education around the world to understand why.
You'll go beyond prescriptions for quick fixes to engage in a detailed comparison of teaching methods and student achievement, from the focus on STEM instruction and the intent of morals education to the role of preschool and the importance of creativity. You'll discover why Finland and South Korea rank as the two best educational systems despite having diametrically opposed approaches and consider the unique challenges facing schools from America to South Africa.
You'll use internationally comparative data to identify strengths and weaknesses and to see how this information is used - and sometimes misused - to enact policies. The data and systems are not studied in a vacuum, however. Instead you'll explore how cultural, religious, socioeconomic, and historical contexts may influence these methods and whether one nation's best practice could backfire in another.
Along the way you'll contemplate questions about the goals of education and the ways teachers may help students reach them, from whether standardized testing is the best way to measure what a person is capable of to whether teachers should have a role beyond presenting academic content.
All Lectures:
1. The Global Challenge to Educate
2. Sputnik Launches the Science-Math Race
3. Education Is Life
4. Evidence-Based Policy Making in Education
5. What Should We Compare about Education?
6. The World Learns from Horace Mann
7. When Culture Invades the Classroom
8. Germany and Japan's Shattered Expectations
9. Borrowing Foreign School Cultures
10. The Value in Linking School to Jobs
11. Why Blame the Teacher?
12. Gender Pipeline Lifts Equality Dream
13. Gulf Schools: The Non-National Advantage
14. Who Is Accountable for Education?
15. How Parents Shape Student Outcomes
16. Reading, Writing, and Religion
17. International Test Scores: All and Nothing
18. Turning a Good Teacher into a Great One
19. The Foundations of Civil Society
20. From National Student to Global Citizen
21. The Problem with Teaching's Best Practices
22. A School inside Your Phone?
23. The Rich-and-Poor Learning Cycle
24. How to Fix Education: Heart, Head, Hands
audiobook
(5)
America and the New Global Economy
by Timothy Taylor
read by Timothy Taylor
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Globalization continues to be a force in our economic climate. And the origins of this globalized economy, its effects on important contemporary concerns, and its future trends are just a few of the intriguing issues you explore in these 36 lectures. Go beyond the economy of the United States and examine the recent history of economies in other countries and regions. As you journey with Professor Taylor through the last 50 years of world economic history, you'll explore international perspectives on the new global economy and develop a richer understanding of our increasingly interconnected world. To get a comprehensive picture of the new global economy, you consider the individual economies of countries including China (which may be the world's largest economy through much of the 21st century), India (the accelerated growth of which is based in service industries), and the Middle East (where most economies are surprisingly quite small). You'll also focus on a range of economic issues that have important ramifications for everyone, such as labor laws, population growth, and international economic agencies such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. Taken together, these lectures are a comprehensive look at economic globalization you can't get from reading the business section of a newspaper. They're your opportunity to grasp the economic histories, issues, and trends that affect us. With the knowledge gained from these lectures, you're able to understand the latest developments in our global economy and better prepare for a future in which all our economies will be linked.
audiobook
(19)
America and the World: A Diplomatic History
by Mark Stoler
read by Mark Stoler
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
In barely more than two centuries, the United States evolved from a sparsely settled handful of colonies into the most powerful nation the world has ever known. How could such an implausible metamorphosis have occurred? These 24 insightful lectures address that penetrating question and many others. Professor Stoler offers you a fresh view of America's shift from the periphery of international politics to its very center as he explores the key components of American diplomatic history, including the origins of American beliefs about our "mission" and proper place in the world; the expansion of the original United States across the North American continent through war and treaty; the achievement of victory in two world wars; and the 45-year cold war with the Soviet Union. You'll also learn the origins and evolution of famous or significant pronouncements and policies, including Washington's Farewell Address, the idea of "Manifest Destiny", the Monroe Doctrine, the Open Door policy, isolationism, the Marshall Plan, and the "containment" of Communism. Presenting history's events as only a single part of a much broader whole, Professor Stoler adds the "how" and "why" to the "what" of American diplomatic history. The result is an entertaining series of lectures that will not only deepen your outlook on American history but will prove to you that not all history is made on the battlefield.
audiobook
(12)
Literary Modernism: The Struggle for Modern History
by Jeffrey Perl
read by Jeffrey Perl
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Professor Perl invites you in these eight lectures to abandon your preconceptions and consider some of the most controversial authors of the 20th century: the Modernists. Who were they? How did "classical" Modernists like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce differ from "neo-Modernists" like Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams? What made them believe and write as they did? Why were political extremism, war, and self-destructive behavior such defining forces in their writing (and their personal demons)? What do they have to say to us today in the 21st century?
These lectures place literary Modernism within the wide-ranging context of the philosophy, literature, politics, and morality of its time. In doing so, they allow you to look more clearly at the writers and works who have contributed to the definition of human culture. You'll see Eliot, Joyce, Pound, Yeats, James, Lawrence, and others spring to life with their radical beliefs about art and their unforgettable novels and stories. These lectures do not shrink from the challenges imposed by exploring Modernism, or from challenging the answers that scholars have routinely accepted. Nor do they shy away from the difficulties of literary Modernism itself; a literary genre that intimidates many. But despite all this, these lectures are brilliantly organized, crystal clear, and an invaluable tool for finally wrapping your brain around a dramatic roster of authors and an enduring canon of literature.
audiobook
(17)
Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann - Their Lives and Music
by Robert Greenberg
read by Robert Greenberg
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
In all the annals of Western music, there has never been a couple like the Schumanns: he a pioneering critic and composer (the only ever to achieve greatness as both), she one of the leading concert pianists of Europe, as well as a composer of no small talent herself. This series of eight lectures by an award-winning composer and acclaimed teacher includes excerpts of works by both of the Schumanns as part of an introduction to an extraordinary couple and the musical legacy left to us in spite of the difficulties that dogged their marriage. Though a loving one that produced eight children, their partnership also had to withstand the pressures of raising those children, managing two careers, and overcoming the tensions posed by Robert-an emotionally unstable man who alternated between manic bouts of awesome creativity and terrifying fits of depression, exacerbating the worsening effects of the syphilis that would eventually kill him. His death left Clara to not only raise the children but also to support the family through an exhausting schedule of concertizing. Despite his ill health, Robert still left behind a magnificent legacy of compositions and insights into music that you explore in these lectures-a legacy that included his return to criticism so he could introduce to the world a then-unknown Johannes Brahms.
audiobook
(17)
Medieval Heroines in History and Legend
by Bonnie Wheeler
read by Bonnie Wheeler
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
This series of 24 fascinating lectures draws on the latest modern scholarship to explore the lives of four medieval women who still shimmer in the modern imagination: Heloise, the abbess and mistress of Abelard; the prophet Hildegard of Bingen; Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine; and Joan of Arc.
These lectures exemplify today's golden age of medieval scholarship, in which the role women played in medieval life is being clarified for the first time. You examine both old legends and new facts to address several provocative questions, such as: Were Hildegard's visions the result of migraines? How did Joan conduct herself in battle and react to its bloody reality? What does Eleanor's life tell us about a woman's role in the Crusades? As you journey through a past we are only now beginning to understand fully, you learn how these remarkable heroines have been both understood and misunderstood throughout history, and you'll better understand how history passes judgment on both women and the Middle Ages.
audiobook
(11)
Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages
by Thomas Williams
read by Thomas Williams
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Today we tend to separate questions of logic from questions of belief, philosophy from religion, reason from faith. But for 1,000 years during a pivotal era of Western thought, reason and faith went hand-in-hand in the search for answers to the most profound issues investigated by Christianity's most committed scholars. In 24 ambitious lectures, Professor Williams examines the great Christian philosophers from Augustine to Ockham, following their efforts to illuminate the full scope of Christian doctrine using philosophical tools inherited, in large part, from the ancient Greeks. Far from being a "dark" age, this was an era when faith was not blind and reason was not godless, when the great philosophers and the great theologians were the very same people, and no one saw anything surprising about that. Building on the work of Plato and Aristotle, medieval philosophers worked diligently to show how the Christian faith is consistent with what can be demonstrated by reason, asking such questions as: Can God's existence and attributes be established by reason alone? Are there Christian doctrines that are beyond the scope of logical demonstration? How can Christian beliefs be defended and shown to be internally consistent? During this extraordinarily rich period of intellectual ferment, philosophers participated in a common struggle with transcendent questions, using reasoning in the service of faith. This course serves as a fascinating philosophical backdrop to illuminate the stimulating debates that occupied many of the greatest minds of the era.
audiobook
(17)
Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity
by Molly Birkholm
read by Molly Birkholm
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Do you ever wishyou could just get rid of all of your problems?
Recent research shows that we grow into our best and most joyful selves not when we avoid our problems but when we embrace them, confident that we are resilient enough to work through themto an appropriate resolution. Resilience is our ability to physically, emotionally, and mentally bounce back from adverse circumstances. In fact, our capacity to thrive in life depends directly our resilience. Without it, we would be down for the count every time we ran into a problem. In Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity, you'll learn how our challenges, and even our traumas, can become gifts that bring wisdom and growth.
In the 17 fascinating classesand 7 "hands-on" practice sessionsof this course, you'lllearn about and experience the process of buildingtheinner calm and clarity of mind that creategreater resilience.
The greatnews is that you can proactively improve your resilience to better face any adversity ahead.
In fact, we know more about how we can boost our resilience now than we everhave before.
In this course, you'll not only learn about the components and importance of resilience, but you'll also be working hands-on to increase your own resilience. In addition to 17fascinating classes, seven 30-minute guided practicesgive you theopportunity to experience active and relaxing yoga poses, breath work, mindfulness, and how to evoke your body's natural relaxation response, among other techniques.
Whether you're a trauma survivor or someone who is reaching for a more fulfilling and joyful life, your life will be enriched when you proactively increase your resilience.
audiobook
(22)
Thinking About Religion and Violence
by Jason C. Bivins
read by Jason C. Bivins
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
In a world where violence in the name of religion can impact so many other people's lives, it's critical to understand the intersection between religion and violence. What's required is not to see religion as inherently violent but to recognize that the violence associated with religious groups and communities is worth exploring and interrogating.
In these 24 lectures, embark on a global, multidisciplinary investigation of religious violence. Delivered with honesty and sensitivity to the diversity of spiritual beliefs, these lectures examine the roots of this phenomenon and guide you toward more informed ways of thinking about it.
You'll consider how faiths like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism view concepts like human sacrifice, martyrdom, and penitence; the ways religious violence can be directed toward specific races and genders; concepts like heresy, witch hunting, and demonology; and more. You'll probe complex ideas and concepts that will help you fashion your own interpretations, such as "religion," "Other-ing," and "cult." And you'll burrow deep into both current issues relating to religious violence - as well as their historical and conceptual sources.
Professor Bivins doesn't take a clinical or pessimistic approach to the material. Rather, he's an engaging on-screen presence with a fierce open-mindedness to the varieties of religious experience. He's also optimistic about what we can learn from a comprehensive study of religious violence. And at the individual level, it starts with approaching the topic in a way that's immersive, insightful, thorough, and important for our times.
audiobook
(21)
The Life and Writings of John Milton
by Seth Lerer
read by Seth Lerer
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
There is no disputing that John Milton is considered one of the supreme writers in the history of English letters. Yet, for a number of reasons, many modern readers are unaware of the pleasures of his poetry and prose. These 12 lectures examine Milton's life and work in order to understand the richness and depth of his poetry, its ways of representing 17th-century English life and culture, and its impact on later writers and on English literary history as a whole. You'll learn about Milton's works in all their fullness, whether or not you've read them in the past. You'll get both an introduction to Milton's achievements and a means by which you can cultivate your own thoughts and opinions about works including Paradise Lost and Areopagitica. While Paradise Lost alone could easily be the subject of an entire lecture series, Professor Lerer chooses not to restrict himself to this unique masterwork, but rather to make it manifest in the context of its maker's life and career, and to give you a foundation on which to build your future enjoyment of Milton. Because of this, you'll get a chance to explore Milton's early poetry, "Lycidas," his various political works, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and more. Professor Lerer describes these lectures as "an invitation to the modern reader to find ways of enjoying, appreciating, valuing, and even struggling through a poetry that says as much about human nature and political life now as it did over three centuries ago." And in learning to feel the living pulse of Milton's world, you'll join generations of readers and authors, including William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot, and Mary Shelley, who have taken inspiration from his genius.
audiobook
(24)
Freedom: The Philosophy of Liberation
by Dennis Dalton
read by Dennis Dalton
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Professor Dalton explores the meaning of freedom and examines the progress of both personal and political freedom. These eight lectures are a guided tour along the byways of the philosophy of liberation, beginning with its ancient roots and ending in 20th-century America.
Throughout these lectures, you'll follow the progress toward personal liberation and spiritual freedom found in the lives of those who were often consumed by fierce and difficult struggles for political freedom. And you'll see that the results achieved along the way are not separate mysteries but truths linked by the same path.
But you'll also learn that the philosophy of freedom was never intrinsically American and has its roots in diverse ancient cultures. For example, you'll learn about the ancient Hindu philosophy of dual freedom as described in the Bhagavad Gita, the Greek philosopher Plato's study of freedom in the republic of Athens, and the major contributions Christian philosophy has made to the ideal of freedom. Traveling from the ancient world to the modern, you'll consider the lives and work of John Stuart Mill (the 19th-century philosopher who defined the meaning of freedom with extraordinary clarity), Mahatma Gandhi (the political leader who led the Indian subcontinent out of British domination), Martin Luther King, Jr. (who synthesized the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi to create a method of nonviolent resistance), and others.
audiobook
(16)
White Collar Criminal Law Explained
by Randall Eliason
read by Randall Eliason
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
We are surrounded by real-life stories of white collar crime, with pharmaceutical executives going to jail for their roles in the opioid crisis, titans of Wall Street prosecuted for insider trading and securities fraud, and senior government officials charged with fraud and corruption. But although it's widespread, a fascinating aspect of white collar crime is just how blurry its boundaries are.
In 24 lessons, consider the characteristics of white collar crime that set it apart from other areas of criminal law. Early lessons offer you a foundational understanding of the nature and tools of federal white collar prosecutions, including the role of federal prosecutors, federal grand juries, subpoenas and search warrants, and the federal criminal justice system. At the heart of this series: in-depth looks at the most common white collar offenses, including mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, money laundering, insider trading, and extortion.
Professor Eliason's legal expertise in the area of white collar criminal law, combined with his background as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, transforms what would be, in lesser hands, dry legal lectures into eye-opening investigations into some of the greatest crimes in US history, involving infamous figures such as financial fraudster Bernie Madoff and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling.
audiobook
(10)
Reconsidering JFK
by Michael Shelden
read by Michael Shelden
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
The John F. Kennedy presidency has an indelible hold on our imaginations. Even more than half a century later, we remain captivated by the charismatic young leader who promised us the moon, who remained steadfast in the face of nuclear catastrophe, who told us to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"-and whose life was cut short by shocking assassination.
Although so much ink has been spilled about JFK, recent years have seen the public release of documents and interviews, shedding new light on a man who perhaps never fully revealed himself to anyone. Reconsidering JFK is your chance to transport yourself back to a presidency mythologized as "Camelot." In these 12 in-depth lectures, Professor Michael Shelden of Indiana State University brings you the latest research and first-hand accounts to portray a fresh angle on a multi-faceted, always fascinating American president.
Here, you consider the story through the eyes of people who experienced it, from speechwriters to squabbling politicos to staffers who got an inside look at the risqué private life of John F. Kennedy. Historians traffic in drama-the turning points that change the world forever. JFK's presidency certainly was a turning point, but what remains so compelling is the human drama behind events such as the Bay of Pigs or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reconsidering JFK is a story of the human drama-and the heart of the intriguing leader who changed the world.
audiobook
(14)
Storytelling and the Human Condition
by Alexandra Hudson
read by Alexandra Hudson
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
The stories we tell ourselves are central to how we engage with the world around us. Stories help us make sense of the world, tell us who we are and why we're here, and define our purpose for existence. Stories empower us to learn from the experiences, successes, and failures of others, and can guide us as we make difficult choices in our own lives. They can entertain us; instruct us; and, above all, connect us-to the world, to people in other times and places, to each other, and to our innermost selves. Stories remind us of the remarkable constancy in human nature and the human experience, while simultaneously helping us to learn and grow.
We are perpetually interested in questions related to the human condition: What does it mean
to be human? Why are we here? What is the best way to live? These stories comprise
"The Great Conversation"-the iterative dialogue between thoughtful people across time and place about questions of origin, purpose, and destiny. Studying stories from The Great Conversation across media, across history, and across culture allows us insight into how people have answered these questions for themselves. Doing so helps us become better able to understand who we are and how we can live life richly and, well, in the here and now.
To examine the connection between the storytelling impulse and our implicit desire to understand our lives and our place in the world, you will go on a globe-spanning, time-travelling, media-traversing tour in the 12 lectures of Storytelling and the Human Condition. Your guide is award-winning journalist, author, and storyteller Alexandra Hudson, founder of Civic Renaissance, a community of lifelong learners, which she invites you to join at Civic-Renaissance.com. In this course, she will illuminate the many ways stories shape our lives throughout history and across cultures.
In the Beginning ...
We're storytelling-and story-listening-creatures from day one. According to narrative paradigm theory, conceptualized by communication scholar Walter Fisher, all meaningful human communication occurs through storytelling. This theory argues that, whether we realize it or not, each of us are storytellers, or listeners of stories, at different times in our lives.
This isn't just true for our own moment-but for people in all times and places. Every civilization and culture have stories they use to explore the big questions of the human condition, beginning from their earliest, pre-literate days. From the art on the walls of caves to oral storytelling traditions to the (much later) impact of writing and literacy, stories are always central to living lives of meaning in our world. As you examine ancient and influential stories like the Enuma Elish of Babylon, the creation story of Genesis, or the histories of Hesiod, you will gain a better understanding of how these earliest of stories share many of the same questions people have pondered across the history of our species.
The stories that Alexandra presents explore the breadth of the human experience: beginning with origin stories and progressing through themes such as suffering, humor, love and sex, pride, death, freedom, and much more. In each lecture, she crosscuts culture, era, and medium to show how stories from different disciplines, people, and places are in conversation with each other across generations and continents. All great art tells a story, as Alexandra shows. Whether you are examining ancient creation stories, analyzing the plays of Shakespeare, diving into modern poetry, or considering the lyrics of a song from the 20th century, you are invited to see how the drive to understand our world and ourselves in story is universal.
The Plot Thickens
The human condition, said 17th-century French polymath Blaise Pascal, is defined by the greatness and wretchedness of man. As there is duality to our nature as human beings, there is duality to our stories. Great stories lay bare a cu
audiobook
(19)
From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author
by Louis Markos
read by Louis Markos
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Any lover of Shakespeare or the Romantic poets can concede that poetry is pleasurable. But is it good for you? Can it teach you anything? These are questions that have beguiled and engaged eminent critics for millennia, and now you can develop your own answers and options with these 24 lectures.
The source of poetry's wellspring; the relationship between poetry and human progress; the possible truths (and lies) involved in the literary arts; the role of the author; these lectures tap into an enormous range of material to explore these and other provocative issues. You'll follow the strands of this "conversation" between philosophy and the literary arts down the millennia, profiting from in-depth analyses of works by Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, Northrop Frye, Foucault, Derrida, and more.
Throughout these lectures, you'll meet the poet in many guises. These include: the divine poet (a supernatural creator who transcends the laws of nature), the alchemical poet (the inspired individual who fuses humanity's divided nature into one), the common poet (the poet who roots himself or herself in the real world and speaks for the common individual), the playful poet (who champions sensitivity of feeling, contradictory truths, and uncertainties), and the prisoner poet (who's a product of, and a slave to, his or her own subconscious suppositions).
By concentrating on critical reflections about poetry - the oldest of the literary arts - you'll come away with lessons on how to understand literature, and all of the arts, more generally. More importantly, you'll be prepared to join in these critical conversations yourself.
audiobook
(18)
How Digital Technology Shapes Us
by Indre Viskontas
read by Indre Viskontas
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Most adults are concerned that children have much too much technology in their lives these days and are spending way too much time on screens. But as Professor Indre Viskontas points out in How Digital Technology Shapes Us, we are not the first to worry that new technology will harm our children and future generations. At least since the beginning of recorded history, we have been underestimating the capacity of the human brain to adapt to and take advantage of emerging technologies. In this course, Professor Viskontas shares some of the most exciting research into this relatively new topic, providing a scientific approach to judging the true pros and cons of our interaction with technology in the digital age.
Many of us believe we are adjusting well to this new digital technology with its constant demands on our time and attention by increasing our multitasking. But multitasking cannot save us because our brain is not capable of true multitasking. What we experience as multitasking is actually our brain flitting back and forth from this task to the next to the next to the next. That we can do, but in the process, we could be losing the ability-and opportunity-to perform deep work, the opportunity for deep reading, and the empathy that builds up when we think deeply about people who are different from us, to truly expand the tribe rather than reinforce tribalism.
The good news is that just recognizing the significance of deep work and deep reading, we can make it a priority and arrange some time to focus on just that without distractions. If we do, those pathways that lead to deeper cognition can become reinforced. We can also help our children focus on the positives of digital media, empowering them to connect with others to find purpose, motivation, and support. We can spend time with them to encourage them to find opportunities for deep reading and deep work in age-appropriate ways.
Digital technology definitely shapes us. But once we learn how it does so, we can make good decisions for our ourselves and our children.
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(50)
Ancient Empires before Alexander
The complete course contains all 36 lectures
by Robert L. Dise
read by Robert L. Dise
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Complete your knowledge of the ancient world with this comprehensive look at the dozen empires that flourished in the 2,000 years before the conquests of Alexander the Great. Over the course of 36 insightful lectures, you'll follow the Egyptians, the Mycenaean Greeks, the Persians, the Carthaginians, and others as they rise to glory, create administrative and military structures, clash with one another, and eventually collapse. Professor Dise immerses you in the political, administrative, and military details of these thrilling civilizations, analyzing three basic questions: How did this particular empire emerge? How was it governed and defended? How and why did it ultimately fall? These questions raise a host of profound issues on the growth, development, and failures of vast imperial systems. Grounded in a chronological approach, you'll find no better guide through the palatial halls, administrative offices, and war-torn battlefields of these empires than Professor Dise. Each lecture is packed with a range of rich sources on which our current understanding of the ancient Near East rests, including cuneiform tablets, colorful narratives, and archaeological remains. As you comb through these intriguing records, you quickly become more informed about how the past is recorded and passed down to subsequent generations. Spanning thousands of years of human history and encompassing regions both familiar and forgotten, this course is a remarkable tour through the farthest reaches of the ancient world - in all its marvelous diversity.
All Lectures:
1. A Meditation on Empire
2. Lands, Seas, and Sources
3. Sargon and the Dawn of Empire
4. The Third Dynasty of Ur
5. The Empire of Hammurabi
6. Mitanni and the Kassites
7. The Rise of Hatti
8. The Government of Hatti
9. Hatti at War
10. The Climax and Collapse of Hatti
11. The Rise of the Egyptian Empire
12. The Imperial Army and Administration
13. The End of the Egyptian Empire
14. The Minoan Thalassocracy
15. Mycenae and the Dawn of Greece
16. The Collapse of the Mycenaean World
17. The Birth of Israel
18. The Empire of David and Solomon
19. The Dawn of Assyria
20. The Rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
21. The Government of Assyria
22. Assyria at War
23. The Climax and Collapse of Assyria
24. The Neo-Babylonian Empire
25. The Rise of the Persian Empire
26. The Outbreak of the Greek Wars
27. Xerxes and the Invasion of Greece
28. From Plataea to the Peace of Callias
29. The Persian Empire from 450 to 334
30. The Government and Army of Persia
31. Alexander and the Fall of Persia
32. The Origins of Carthage and Its Empire
33. Ruling and Defending Carthage's Empire
34. The First War with Rome
35. Hannibal and the Fall of Carthage
36. Ancient Empires before Alexander, and After
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(20)
The History of Science: 1700-1900
The complete course contains all 36 lectures
by Frederick Gregory
read by Frederick Gregory
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
The scientific theories that were first discovered and made public in the years 1700-1900 are some of the most pivotal in history. Landmark theories of planetary motion, the workings of nature, and the speed of light were all ideas that took the world by storm.
Now you can share in that story of discovery in a series of 36 lectures designed to give you a rock-solid understanding of the great discoveries of Newton, Darwin, Franklin, Pasteur, and so many others. You’ll see clearly how these great thinkers brought their ideas into a world and a time that resisted them, gaining a new admiration for their achievements in an atmosphere where scientific advancement had to struggle against established ways of both scientific and religious thinking.
While many presentations of scientific history often neglect to consider its context - the societies and cultures in which our most influential "natural philosophers" (the term scientist didn’t exist until the mid-19th century) made their contributions - these lectures put that context in the forefront where it belongs, exploring how dynamics of time and place help determine the questions that get asked and the directions scientists pursue in response.
The result is a series that adds invaluable historical depth and dimension to your study of science. As much about history as science - and often far more so, with the focus on the climate and process of scientific discovery rather than the science itself - this course will enhance your ability to see contemporary scientific events in a vividly informed context.
All Lectures:
1. Science in the 18th and 19th Centuries
2. Consolidating Newton's Achievement
3. Theories of the Earth
4. Grappling with Rock Formations
5. Alchemy under Pressure
6. Lavoisier and the New French Chemistry
7. The Classification of Living Things
8. How the Embryo Develops
9. Medical Healers and Their Roles
10. Mesmerism, Science, and the French Revolution
11. Explaining Electricity
12. The Amazing Achievements of Galvani and Volta
13. Biology is Born
14. Alternative Visions of Natural Science
15. A World of Prehistoric Beasts
16. Evolution French Style
17. The Catastrophist Synthesis
18. Exploring the World
19. A Victorian Sensation
20. The Making of The Origin of Species
21. Troubles with Darwin's Theory
22. Science, Life, and Disease
23. Human Society and the Struggle for Existence
24. Whither God?
25. Forces, Forces Everywhere
26. Electromagnetism Changes Everything
27. French Insights About Heat
28. New Institutions of Natural Science
29. The Conservation of What?
30. Culture Wars and Thermodynamics
31. Scientific Materialism at Mid-Century
32. The Mechanics of Molecules
33. Astronomical Achievement
34. The Extra-Terrestrial Life Fiasco
35. Catching Up With Light
36. The End of Science?
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(14)
Western Literary Canon in Context
by John M. Bowers
read by John M. Bowers
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
What exactly is the Western literary canon? Why does it contain certain works and not others? And what do particular works in the Western canon tell us about the development of literature and civilization? Explore these and other thought-provoking lectures with a thorough investigation of more than 30 key works of the Western canon and the critical roles they played - and continue to play - in the development of Western literature. Over the course of 36 lectures, you'll discover the exciting stories behind these classic works and their often surprising connections with one another. You'll gain invaluable insights into the stories behind these masterpieces and some of the important elements involved in canon formation, including the influence of editors on the New Testament, the influence of culture on Homer's and Virgil's epics, and the influence of education on J.R.R. Tolkien. You'll also examine the unique connections between each work and its predecessors, allowing you to participate in a riveting literary discussion and examine how history's greatest writers have "talked" with one another, from the way Virgil's Aeneid echoes the Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey to the way John Milton's Paradise Lost is a catalog of the canonic works that precede it, from Plato's "The Apology of Socrates" to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. A panoramic look at literature, this course is your opportunity to witness a rich literary dialogue and take an amazing journey through thousands of years of literary beauty, grace, and humanity.
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(10)
Must History Repeat the Great Conflicts of This Century?
by Joseph S. Nye Jr.
read by Joseph S. Nye Jr.
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Twice in the first half of the last century, the great powers engaged in wars that killed nearly 70 million people, with the aftermath of each shaking the international political system, changing the maps of the world, and setting the scene for the next great conflict. And for most of the past 50 years, the Cold War dominated international politics. Is this the history we are condemned to repeat?
This series of eight lectures about international politics will hone your ability to approach that question with knowledge and insight. It reveals how concepts such as the balance of power and the international system interweave with and help shape history, showing you what actually happened in the great conflicts and why. The lectures will help you answer many of the key questions those concerned with creating a stable peace must answer every day; did the end of the Cold War bring peace and harmony or war and chaos? Does the United States play a dominant role in international affairs or is its role declining? Is military power still the key to world leadership, or has economic power become more important? Should the United States attempt to play the role of global police force, or should it withdraw from its overseas military commitments?
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(10)
Theories of Human Development
The complete course contains all 24 lectures
by Malcolm W. Watson
read by Malcolm W. Watson
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
"Human development" is the science that studies how we learn and develop psychologically from birth to the end of life. To a large extent, the study of human development is the study of child development, because the most significant changes take place from infancy through adolescence. This very young science not only enables us to understand children and help them develop optimally, but also gives us profound insights into who we are as adults.
In Theories of Human Development, Professor Malcolm W. Watson, the George and Frances Levin Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, introduces you to the six theories that have had perhaps the greatest influence on this field. You will meet the people who formulated each theory, become familiar with their philosophical backgrounds and the historical contexts in which they worked, and study the specific processes of human development that each theory describes.
The lessons of this course are not only about learning, behavior, and relationships in our youth - they apply at any age. Taken as a whole, they provide our best answers to the questions of human nature - how we learn, adapt, and become who we are at every stage in life.
All Lectures:
1. Introduction - The Value of Theories
2. The Early History of Child Study
3. Two Worldviews - Locke vs. Rousseau
4. Later History - Becoming Scientific
5. Freud's Psychodynamic Theory
6. How We Gain Contact with Reality - The Ego
7. Freud's Psycho-Sexual Stages
8. Erikson's Psycho-Social Theory
9. Erikson's Early Stages
10. Identity and Intimacy
11. Erikson's Later Stages - Adult Development
12. Bowlby and Ainsworth's Attachment Theory
13. How Nature Ensures That Attachment Will Occur
14. Development of Secure and Insecure Attachments
15. Early Attachments and Adult Relationships
16. Bandura's Social Learning Theory
17. Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory
18. Piaget's Cognitive-Developmental Theory
19. Piaget's Early Stages
20. Concrete Operations
21. Piaget's Last Stage
22. Vygotsky's Cognitive-Mediation Theory
23. Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
24. Conclusions - Our Nature and Development
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(15)
How to Make Stress Work for You
The complete course contains all 18 lectures
by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura
read by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Life is stressful. There’s just no getting around it. But while everyday stressors are a fact of life, that doesn’t mean they have to control you. Rather, with the right scientific understanding, you can actually make stress work for you instead of against you.
All Lectures:
1. A New Mindset about Stress
2. Happiness: A Fickle Queen
3. Anger: A Tyrannical King
4. Swimming in an Ocean of Sorrow
5. Why You Stress: Arousal and Value Judgment
6. Choose Your Adventure: Choose Your Stress
7. Heaven and Hell Can Be Other People
8. Our Overstressed, Overscheduled Kids
9. Change Your Mind to Change Your Stress
10. Emergency Stress Management
11. Good Stress Helps You Handle All Stress
12. The Stress of Learning and Mastery
13. Alternative Approaches to Stress
14. Mindfulness: Heart Healing to Manage Stress
15. Channeling Stress for a Competitive Edge
16. Emerging Stress Management Technology
17. Rest, Restore, Recover Your Resilience
18. Learning from Your Stress
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(4)
The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pain Relief
by Barbara K. Bruce
read by Barbara K. Bruce
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
If your life or the life of someone you love has been hijacked by pain, you're not alone. One out of every three U.S. adults lives with chronic pain - pain that can rob your vitality, confidence, friendships, intimacy, and even your will to live. But it doesn't have to be that way. That's why the experts at Mayo Clinic have teamed with The Great Courses to craft this research-based guide to pain relief and recovery. In The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pain Relief, Barbara K. Bruce, Ph.D., L.P., provides a tried-and-true framework for coping with chronic pain. Dr. Bruce's scientific explanations and biology-based suggestions can help you create a vibrant and fulfilling future for yourself, in spite of chronic pain. Based on a scientific understanding of the causes of pain and behaviors that make pain better or worse, Dr. Bruce explains why opioids do not work for chronic non-cancer pain; how to empower yourself by developing appropriate "SMART" goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-limited; and how social support affects your physical health. You'll learn about the extraordinary complexities in your brain's interpretation and management of pain and the multifaceted relationships between pain and stress. This course provides a practical guide for building an appropriate health care team and creating an individualized pain-management program with your physician that addresses the issues of physical stamina, stress management, social support, sleep, and mood. Dr. Bruce doesn't want you to wait for a cure or pain relief before you move back into your life. "I want you to begin living your life today," she says. And with this course, you'll be on your way.
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(23)
Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature
by Arnold Weinstein
read by Arnold Weinstein
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
What if you could travel anywhere, whether Europe, South America, or the remote reaches of the African continent? And what if you could choose not only your destination, but your era, as well - so that you might choose from the sparkling court society of 18th-century France, a 19th-century whaling ship out of New Bedford, or the streets of Dublin in the early part of the 20th century? And what about the most remarkable journey of all: the voyage inside the mind of another human being, in which you plumb the thoughts and emotions that usually remain hidden deep within? What remarkable secrets would you learn about the puzzling, sometimes shocking thing we call human nature? The lives lived in distant lands and eras? And, most important, ourselves-the human race of which you are a part? If you're a serious reader, you already know that these are the kinds of adventures that await you in the classic novels of great literature. And if you're not, the 36 spellbinding lectures of this series, delivered by a gifted and prize-winning teacher, might just convince you why you ought to be, as you take an epic journey through three centuries, sojourn in foreign lands, and enter remarkable realms of the imagination. The lectures take you beyond what is often offered in literary courses-plots, anecdotes, facts about where and when a novel was written. Instead, you'll gain something far more profound: an opportunity to experience the startling brilliance that makes each of these works-from geniuses like Dickens, Joyce, Tolstoy, Balzac, Proust, and many others-a classic.
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(5)
The First Amendment and You: What Everyone Should Know
by John E. Finn
read by John E. Finn
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
A mere 45 words, the First Amendment to the Constitution stands as a pillar of our democracy and has had an incalculable influence on the development of human freedom in the United States and the Western world. To study the First Amendment is to learn something about the meaning of America and who "We the People" are, and to see the significant and far-reaching cultural implications of these fundamental constitutional provisions.
These twelve practical lectures offer a guide to understanding the protections and limitations implied by the First Amendment. You'll learn…
• What and whom it protects, and why it matters to you personally.
• Consider questions of how we define speech, the meaning of "religion," and when the state can interfere with your rights.
Explore the questions courts and citizens will be grappling with for years to come:
• How does the First Amendment apply to the Internet?
• Does the First Amendment apply to video games?
• Should new communication technologies make courts reconsider well-settled rules?
• Is social media subject to existing principles, to new ones, or none at all?
Throughout these lectures, Professor Finn returns to a fundamental theme: What the First Amendment protects is largely a function of why it protects it, the why being America's commitment to democracy and liberty. In pursuit of these ideals, courts have often placed a higher value on political speech, although no such distinction is made in the Constitution. You'll examine numerous landmark Supreme Court decisions, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
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(11)
Introduction to the Study of Religion
by Charles B. Jones
read by Charles B. Jones
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
The religious experience is an extraordinarily powerful force that can define and shape the communities it creates. Over the course of 24 lectures, Professor Jones takes a vibrant first look at the discipline known as religious studies and shows how other fields - sociology, psychology, anthropology, and phenomenology - have tried to explain the complex relationship between individuals, cultures, and faith. This relationship is as old as the first human quest for answers to fundamental questions of life, death, and what may lie beyond. Here you'll trace the idea of studying religion itself, drawing not only on the challenging and provocative collection of theories from the many disciplines that have influenced the development of religious studies, but also on revealing anecdotes and illuminating case studies that make this course a surprising delight. You'll explore the way "functional" anthropologists such as Malinowski and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown helped pull their discipline out of the drawing room and into the field to study a given culture. You'll also study Immanuel Kant's phenomenology, his theory that we can never make actual contact with the external world but can know it only from the internal images our minds construct from the raw data pulled in by our senses. By examining belief and what it means - for believers and nonbelievers alike - you'll come away with a solid grasp of the major thinkers and ideas that have contributed to this fascinating field of study, including their strengths and weaknesses, as well as insights into many aspects of religious life, belief, and practices - insights that may well have applications in your own life, whether or not you adhere to a religious faith.
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(18)
War in the Modern World
by David R. Stone
read by David R. Stone
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
How were wars fought after 1945, and who fought them? Why did the United States invade Afghanistan, lose the war in Vietnam, and support authoritarian governments in South America? How do insurgent groups win wars against powerful, well-financed nation-states? What does the "McDonald's theory" have to do with peacekeeping? Why did the British, French, and Soviet Union empires collapse after World War II? How have new weapons and technologies reconfigured the rules of the battlefield? What would a war look like between the United States and Russia or China? And can "mutually assured destruction" save us from a third world war?
Explore these questions and more in War in the Modern World, a 24-episode course on war and warfare since 1945. Guided by military history and strategy expert David R. Stone, of the US Naval War College, learn about the causes and consequences of violent conflicts starting with the Greek Civil War. Dive into the postwar geopolitical realities that have transformed military strategy. Understand what insurgency and counterinsurgency mean. Survey the history of major conflicts across the world as well as their major players. Examine weapons from guided missiles to drones that have transformed warfare in the last 70 plus years. Investigate why highly localized civil and insurgent conflicts became the terrains on which great powers wage war and emerge with a keener ability to analyze and contextualize conflicts across the world.
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(24)
A History of Freedom
by J. Rufus Fears
read by J. Rufus Fears
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
It can be argued that one simple idea - the concept of freedom - has been the driving force of Western civilization and may be the most influential intellectual force the world has ever known. But what is freedom, exactly? These 36 engaging lectures tell the dramatic story of freedom from ancient Greece to our own day, exploring a concept so close to us we may never have considered it with the thoroughness it deserves. In exploring what freedom meant to Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, and other great historical figures, you'll probe a range of provocative issues related to a concept we in the 21st century sometimes take for granted. What does it take to be free, to have and to hold liberty? What role do the liberal arts and the world of the intellect play in the life of a free society or a free individual? How should we understand the relationship among freedom, religion, and morality? With Professor Fears guiding and informing your thinking, you explore the birth of the idea of freedom in Greece and the story of the world's first democracy; the status and meaning of freedom in both the Roman Republic and the Empire; the role of Christianity in that flowering of freedom, and the Christian view of the true meaning of human liberation; the debates about freedom that informed the framing and ratification of the United States Constitution; its awful testing on the battlefields of the Civil War; the struggles of free peoples against domestic injustices and foreign dictatorships during the 20th century; and the questions about freedom we still face today.
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(26)
The Real History of Dracula
by Brittany Warman
read by Sara Cleto, Brittany Warman
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Two folklorists shine a light into the dark recesses of our cultural obsession with vampires. Using folklore, literature, history, television, film, and more, they show you how-and why-vampires are a potent metaphor for what matters most about the human condition.
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(38)
The Economics of Uncertainty
The complete course contains all 24 lectures
by Connel Fullenkamp
read by Connel Fullenkamp
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Economies are deeply complex systems. The marketplace involves many economic actors behaving in rational and irrational ways, sustaining a dizzying array of interconnected activity. Because of the number of participants involved, the unpredictability of their actions, and the sheer variety of possible actions, some degree of economic uncertainty is inevitable.
In one of the most dramatic displays of economic uncertainty in our times, a wave of toxic loans almost brought down the American financial system in 2008-2009, and with it jobs and savings. Few experts forecast this catastrophe, which stands as a lesson in the power of economic forces to defy our predictions. This event may have been exceptional, but every day we are all at the mercy of economic uncertainty in matters such as the stock market, insurance, and career and retirement planning.
Uncertainty also plagues us in smaller ways. For example, everyone is familiar with rising prices, but the Internet now makes it possible for online shoppers to be charged more based on their buying history, adding a new level of unpredictability to pricing. And anytime you hire someone for a service - from roofing to dentistry - you face the principal-agent problem, in which the person hired may take unethical advantage of your lack of expertise.
Indeed, these large and small risks are so pervasive that it is all too easy to conclude that nothing can be done. But economic uncertainty is like the weather: You can't stop storms from happening, but understanding how and why they happen allows you to be prepared. In the same way, economic uncertainty is beyond our control, but we're in a much better position to respond if we know what's happening and why.
In 24 practical and empowering half-hour lectures, The Economics of Uncertainty takes the mystery and dread out of uncertainty, giving you the tools to deal with risk in every phase of your life.
All Lectures:
1. Man, Nature, and Economic Uncertainty
2. Turning Uncertainty into Risk
3. Five Ways to Face the Unknown
4. Probability: Frequency or Belief?
5. How We Misjudge Likelihood and Risk
6. The Reward in Risk
7. Decision Science Tools
8. Gambling Economics
9. Game Theory: Reveal or Conceal?
10. Adverse Selection: Hiding in Plain Sight
11. Moral Hazard: Whom Do You Trust?
12. The Principal-Agent Problem: When Mice Play
13. Compensation Traps
14. Caring, Sharing, and Risk Bearing
15. Mayhem! Insurance Protection
16. Uncertainty in the Numbers
17. The Business Cycle's Wheel of Fortune
18. The Danger of Inflation
19. Extreme Markets
20. Regulation, Innovation, Excess
21. Global Trade in Employment
22. No Limits to Growth
23. Hedging Business and Personal Risks
24. Stress Testing Your Finances
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(26)
The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas
The complete course contains all 36 lectures
by Lawrence Cahoone
read by Lawrence Cahoone
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Without even realizing it, we all use the fruits of political philosophy. From liberty to democracy to community, the terms and concepts originated by political philosophers are ingrained in our global consciousness. Yet many of us have an incomplete picture of how these ideas developed and, quite possibly, a skewed perception of their intentions and implications. This highly relevant course sheds light on the labyrinth of Western political and social theory, as well as its influence on modern history. Guided by an award-winning professor of philosophy and author, these eye-opening lectures reveal how political philosophers, in responding to the societal problems and changing conditions of their day in revolutionary ways, created virtual blueprints of action for leaders. You'll gain not only the tools to comprehend the omnipresent language of politics, but a thorough understanding of the wellspring of thought that has emerged over centuries of political philosophy and the intellectual origins of major historical movements and events. Throughout, questions of democracy, freedom, and distributive justice are addressed, and revolutionary figures who have left an indelible mark on history - from Niccolo Machiavelli to Ayn Rand - are encountered. By the conclusion of lecture 36, you will have the context necessary to appreciate the evolution of a myriad of political ideas, including hot-button topics of today such as libertarianism, neoconservatism, feminism, and environmentalism.
All Lectures:
1. Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics
2. Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms
3. Machiavelli's New Order
4. Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract
5. Locke on Limited Government and Toleration
6. Rousseau's Republican Community
7. Kant's Ethics of Duty and Natural Rights
8. Smith and the Market Revolution
9. Montesquieu and the American Founding
10. Debating the French Revolution
11. Legacies of the Revolution - Right to Left
12. Nationalism and a People's War
13. Civil Society - Constant, Hegel, Tocqueville
14. Mill on Liberty and Utility
15. Marx's Critique of Capitalism
16. Modern vs. Traditional Society
17. Progressivism and New Liberalism
18. Fleeing Liberalism - Varieties of Socialism
19. Fleeing Liberalism - Fascism and Carl Schmitt
20. Totalitarianism and Total War
21. Conservative or Neoliberal - Oakeshott, Hayek
22. Reviving the Public Realm - Hannah Arendt
23. Philosophy vs. Politics - Strauss and Friends
24. Marcuse and the New Left
25. Rawls's A Theory of Justice
26. Ayn Rand, Robert Nozick, Libertarianism
27. What about Community?
28. Walzer on Everything Money Shouldn't Buy
29. Identity Politics - Feminism
30. Identity Politics - Multiculturalism
31. The Politics of Nature - Environmentalism
32. Postmodernism, Truth, and Power
33. Habermas - Democracy as Communication
34. The End of History? Clash of Civilizations?
35. Just Wars? The Problem of Dirty Hands
36. Why Political Philosophy Matters
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(3)
How Railways Transformed the World
by Patrick Allitt
read by Patrick Allitt
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Railways radically changed the way we experience the world. In this course, you'll explore the story and impact of railways, as you track evolving rail technology; learn how railways galvanized industry, commerce, and tourism; note the roles of railroads in colonial empires and major wars; learn where you can enjoy the best of rail travel today; examine railways' impact on art; and learn about future rail systems.
audiobook
(0)
The Future of Space Exploration
by Ariel Ekblaw
read by Ariel Ekblaw
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Taught by aerospace engineer and executive Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, this course explores the exciting future of space exploration-from ambitious missions to the Moon and Mars to the next generation of space stations. Discover how we're getting there, what we'll do, and how space travel may soon become accessible to ordinary citizens.
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(22)
Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic Works
by Eric S. Rabkin
read by Eric S. Rabkin
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Many of literature's greatest works, from ancient myths to the works of Nobel laureates, rely on fantasy. Even when there has been a dominant preference for realism, generation after generation of readers have been drawn to stories of the fantastic - not only for what they help us learn about ourselves as individuals or as members of society, but also for what they show about our social values. And now one of the world's foremost authorities on the literature of the fantastic and science fiction has created a series of 24 lectures that take you on a journey through some of the most remarkable feats of imagination in all of literature.
You'll study strange tales of talking frogs and cannibal witches, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Arthur C. Clarke's astonishing 2001: A Space Odyssey and beyond. Ranging from the early 1800s to contemporary times, Professor Rabkin casts a wide net for fantastic works and delves deeply into some of the most astonishing. You'll learn about the works and times of Edgar Allan Poe, the Brothers Grimm, Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and many others. And you'll see how artists you might not have even considered in this context - such as writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, or composers like Offenbach and Tchaikovsky - owe a creative debt to this remarkably vibrant genre.
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(40)
English in America: A Linguistic History
The complete course contains all 12 lectures
by Natalie Schilling
read by Natalie Schilling
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Think about this: How would you address a group of two or more people? Would you say "you", "you all", "yous", "you lot", "y'all", "you guys", "you'uns", "yinz", or something else? Would that change depending on whom you were talking to or where you were? Your answers can provide revealing insights into who you are, where you grew up or live now, and your social, economic, and educational background.
Welcome to the enthralling world of linguistics. If you've ever been curious about how words like awesomesauce ever came to be, let alone made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, or if you've wondered why you say "firefly" and someone else calls the same insect a "lightning bug", English in America is for you.
There's an incredibly rich and colorful history behind American English. A profoundly diverse assortment of cultures has influenced our vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, and the language continues to grow and shift. Dialect variations are widespread and actually increasing, and the new words, accents, and sentence structures both reflect and shape changes in our culture and society. Investigating these dialects is the domain of sociolinguistics, the study of the intricate interrelation between language variation and cultural, interpersonal, and personal identity.
Over 24 lectures, you'll encounter a wide range of ethnic and social groups that have shaped the course of the development of American English over the centuries: English speakers from all over the British Isles; speakers of West African languages; immigrants from Western and Eastern Europe; speakers of languages from Asia; and Spanish speakers from all over the world. In considering the contributions of these groups, you'll also gain deep insights into the perceptions - and misperceptions - about language and dialect variation. As you'll discover, American English is an umbrella term for many different EnglishES, reflecting who we have always been as a nation.
All Lectures:
1. Defining American English Dialects
2. The Foundations of American English
3. From English in America to American English
4. The Rise of American Language Standards
5. Where Is General American English?
6. Mapping American Dialects
7. Ethnicity and American English
8. African American English
9. Mobility, Media, and Contemporary English
10. The History of American Language Policy
11. Latino Language and Dialects in America
12. Where Is American English Headed?
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(5)
How the Great Migration Changed America
by Davarian Baldwin
read by Davarian Baldwin
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
How the Great Migration Changed America unpacks the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of one of America's most consequential migration events. With Davarian Baldwin at the helm, the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, you'll evaluate the scale, scope, and role of the Great Northward Migration in US history. Learn about the harsh realities of life in the North, from redlining to Red Summer. Tour bustling Black neighborhoods in Chicago and New York City. Explore tensions between new migrants and established Black residents. Learn about the rise of betting, Black baseball leagues, gospel, and jazz. And evaluate the migration's long-term ideological and political impact from the early 20th century to today.
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(25)
The Rights of Man: Great Thinkers and Great Movements
by Paul Gordon Lauren
read by Paul Gordon Lauren
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." These stirring words from the Declaration of Independence are a powerful statement of the importance of human rights in Western civilization. But many of the freedoms we enjoy today were not so "self-evident" to lawmakers throughout much of our history.
Instead, many of those freedoms - from racial segregation, from enslavement, from persecution for one's religion or ethnicity - were the result of long and fierce struggles that took place in courtrooms and meeting rooms, in churches and on battlefields, in classrooms and on streets, at home and abroad, often over many years.
Now an award-winning author and honored teacher and scholar tells you this inspirational and profound story in a series of 24 riveting, often moving lectures designed to strengthen your appreciation of both your rights and the long struggles to obtain them.
You'll follow the battle for human rights from the initial visions of history's greatest philosophers, religious leaders, and political thinkers to those who fought to make their visions of equality a reality, including Lucretia Mott, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela. Each lecture gives you an overview of historical movements like the struggle for women's suffrage, the emancipation of serfs and slaves, and the development of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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(9)
Understanding the Human Factor: Life and Its Impact
by Gary A. Sojka
read by Gary A. Sojka
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
The year is 8000 B.C. A man wanders across a field of prairie grasses in search of edible berries and roots and wild game to feed his family. As he walks, the tips of the grasses brush against him, releasing seeds. He collects a few of these seeds and brings them back to his camp. Later, he notices that when they fall on earth, they begin to sprout, and a new plant grows. In small moments like these, the path of Homo sapiens is changed forever. The process of domesticating plants and animals reflects the greatest transition in the history of humankind - one that served to make us the humans we are today. In this series of 24 thought-provoking lectures, an award-winning educator takes you on a journey through this fascinating story, surveying the remarkable innovations that transformed humankind into the sole agriculturists on our planet - an innovation the human race feels to this day. Drawing on the latest science from a wide variety of fields - including microbiology, genetics, archaeology, and sociology - Professor Sojka offers a seldom-seen, multidisciplinary perspective on human life. The result is a complex and remarkable synthesis of science and history that stretches from the ancient roots of human culture to some of the most significant issues facing the modern world.
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(35)
Mind-Body Philosophy
The complete course contains all 24 lectures
by Patrick Grim
read by Patrick Grim
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Many people have heard the term “mind-body philosophy” used to describe the relationship between physical wellness and mental wellbeing. But mind-body philosophy in its truest form is so much more. It’s a philosophical inquiry that has engaged great minds for centuries, going far beyond the simple idea of a physical mind-body connection, and seeking answers for some of the most complex questions of human existence.
All Lectures:
1. Mind, Body, and Questions of Consciousness
2. Mind and Body in Greek Philosophy
3. Eastern Perspectives on Mind and Body
4. Using the Body to Shape the Mind
5. History of the Soul
6. How Descartes Divided Mental from Physical
7. Mistakes about Our Own Consciousness
8. Strange Cases of Consciousness
9. Altered States of Consciousness
10. Memory, Mind, and Brain
11. Self-Consciousness and the Self
12. Rival Psychologies of the Mind
13. The Enigma of Free Will
14. Emotions: Where Mind and Body Meet
15. Could a Machine Be Conscious?
16. Computational Approaches to the Mind
17. A Guided Tour of the Brain
18. Thinking Body and Extended Mind
19. Francis Crick and Binding in the Brain
20. Clues on Consciousness from Anesthesiology
21. Of Mind, Materialism, and Zombies
22. Thought Experiments against Materialism
23. Consciousness and the Explanatory Gap
24. A Philosophical Science of Consciousness?
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(16)
America's Long Struggle Against Slavery
by Richard Bell
read by Richard Bell
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
We're all familiar with the Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation, but the fight against slavery was not some sudden movement that sprang up in the middle of the 19th century. Resistance from the enslaved started on the western coast of Africa in the 15th century and continued as the institution of slavery was codified in America, culminating with the War between the States.
This 300-year struggle has too often been glossed over by history books enamored with American ingenuity, Manifest Destiny, and tales of Revolutionary freedom. But to understand America-to fully understand our country today-one must examine the whole history of struggle, oppression, and resistance, not only by famous figures like Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, but also by an enormous and often unfamiliar cast of characters.
What these disparate figures had in common was they gradually coalesced into a movement. Individuals gradually organized, and then the abolitionist movement led to war which led, in theory, to freedom. America's Long Struggle against Slavery is your chance to survey the history of the American anti-slavery movement, from the dawn of the transatlantic slave trade during the late 15th century to the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and beyond. Taught by Professor Richard Bell of the University of Maryland, these 30 eye-opening lectures give you an up-close view of a venal institution and the people who fought against it-and who often paid for their courage with their lives.
As Professor Bell examines the different means and methods that Americans, white and black, have used to escape slavery, he presents the grand problems that animated everyone engaged in this great struggle.
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(25)
Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare
The complete course contains all 18 lectures
by Paul Rosenzweig
read by Paul Rosenzweig
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Cyberspace is the 21st century’s greatest engine of change. Telecommunications, commercial and financial systems, government operations, food production - virtually every aspect of global civilization now depends on interconnected cyber systems to operate; systems that have helped advance medicine, streamline everyday commerce, and so much more. Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare is your guide to understanding the intricate nature of this pressing subject. Delivered by cybersecurity expert and professor Paul Rosenzweig, these 18 engaging lectures will open your eyes to the structure of the Internet, the unique dangers it breeds, and the ways we’re learning how to understand, manage, and reduce these dangers. In addition, Professor Rosenzweig offers sensible tips on how best to protect yourself, your network, or your business from attack or data loss. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this course are those of the professor and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.
All Lectures:
1. Stuxnet-The First Cyber Guided Missile
2. The Incredible Scope of Cyberspace
3. The Five Gateways of Internet Vulnerability
4. Of Viruses, Botnets, and Logic Bombs
5. The Problem of Identity on the Network
6. Cyber Fraud, Theft, and Organized Crime
7. Hacktivists and Insurgency
8. Nations at Cyber War
9. Government Regulation of Cyberspace
10. International Governance and the Internet
11. The Constitution and Cyberspace
12. Big Data-"They" Know Everything about You
13. Privacy for the Cyber Age
14. Listening In and Going Dark
15. The Devil in the Chips-Hardware Failures
16. Protecting Yourself in Cyberspace
17. Critical Infrastructure and Resiliency
18. Looking Forward-What Does the Future Hold?
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(23)
The Lives of Great Christians
by William R. Cook
read by William R. Cook
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Meet some of Christianity's luminary figures - the followers of Jesus who have practiced and preached their beliefs for centuries. Whether well-known or obscure or even nameless, their actions and achievements, their abilities and energies have changed the course of history and the nature of belief. These 24 inspirational lectures will inspire you by the many ways these figures found to live lives of faith. You'll stand spellbound in the crowd, listening to Bernardino and Augustine preach and teach. You'll visit the solitary cells and see the visions of Bernard, Clare, and Catherine. You'll witness the negotiations as Gregory VII and Leo IX reform the church. And you'll hear the verdicts of heresy against John Hus and against Martin Luther. More than doctrine or theology or even prayer, Christianity, for many, is the daily effort to live one's faith in every time and place. Professor Cook introduces you to those who have done so over the centuries and shows the many paths they found. If you seek your own path, their lives will inspire you. You will understand how Christians' faith has changed Christianity, and how these believers can help light your own way. And if you are wondering what Christians value and how they practice those values, you will see real lives that exemplify Christian faith in action. Christianity didn't just change believers; it defined all of Europe, eastern as well as western, and set many of the world's nations on a course still apparent today.
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(23)
Unexpected Economics
by Timothy Taylor
read by Timothy Taylor
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Why are we choosing to have fewer children, even as we put more time into raising each one? Why are we so often willing to follow the herd and the opinions of strangers when making important decisions, even when those decisions are deeply personal? Most surprising: Why are questions like these increasingly attracting the attention of economists? Find out why with these 24 fascinating lectures that will help you grasp as never before the ways in which these mechanisms for making choices are operating even in areas in which you may never have considered the forces of economics to be at work. Professor Taylor puts to rest the oft-quoted misconception of economics as "the dismal science." Instead, you'll take part in a wide-ranging and enjoyable investigation of how economic thinking - whether applied personally, nationally, or globally - relates to, and sheds fresh light on, just about everything. With the aid of findings from recent Nobel Prize winners and rapidly evolving leading-edge fields like behavioral economics, you'll look at subjects ranging from discrimination and natural disasters to charity and risk-taking, and even whether terrorism can be considered a "career choice." As you roam with Professor Taylor across this fascinating landscape, you'll discover unique vantage points from which to survey and understand these exciting and vital territories being explored every day by economists. And you'll gain a deeper understanding of the role of choice in your own life, whether choices you've made for yourself, or those made for you by leaders you've entrusted with that authority.
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(13)
20th-Century American Fiction
by Arnold Weinstein
read by Arnold Weinstein
Part of the Great Courses Audio series
Hemingway. Fitzgerald. Faulkner. These and other giants of literature are immediately recognizable to anyone who loves to read fiction and even to many who don't. Now, thanks to these 32 lectures, you can develop fresh insight into some of the greatest American authors of the 20th century. Professor Weinstein sheds light not only on the sheer magnificence of these writers' literary achievements but also explores their uniquely American character as well. Despite their remarkable variety, each author represents an outlook and a body of work that could only have emerged in the United States. As such, the aim of these lectures is to analyze and appreciate some of the major works of American fiction, using as a focal point the idea of freedom of speech. The works you'll investigate here include Winesburg, Ohio (among the most poignant descriptions of life at the beginning of the century); Light in August (which depicts the ravages of racism in the American South); Their Eyes Were Watching God (the first - and perhaps the best - account of growing up black and female in America); Slaughterhouse-Five (a poignant and wacky take of mass destruction and aliens); Sula (an experimental novel that makes rubble out of the conventions of black and white culture); and White Noise (which depicts our encounter with the technological madhouse in which we live). These American fictions, seen together, tell a composite story about coping, about fashioning both a story and a life. Much is dark in these stories, but the honesty and integrity of these writers makes us realize that reading is as much a lifeline as it is entertainment or education.