Science and technology are, without a doubt, two forces that will change the way you live your life in the coming months, years, and decades. And in recent decades, these forces have evolved and developed at a lightning-fast pace.

Explore the many possibilities of what your future may look like with these 24 lectures: a scientifically accurate and enlightening survey of today’s most advanced research in fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, and theoretical physics.

You’ll see firsthand how recent developments in science and technology can potentially fulfill this need in a range of modern-day, real-world areas like transportation, computing, medicine, and energy. The lectures are filled with intriguing sneak peeks at the latest developments and technologies in a range of scientific fields, including nanorobots that could identify and destroy cancer cells, personalized medicine that could be customized to an individual’s specific genome, and biofuels that could be created from food industry waste.

In discussing these and other eye-opening topics, Professor Grossman always makes a point to emphasize fact and truth over fiction and hype. By the final lecture, you’ll have a stronger sense of some important fundamental scientific principles being used right this moment to innovate your life. You’ll also find yourself filled with a sense of excitement and wonder for both how, and how quickly, science and technology are working to make your world a better place.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Product details

• Listening Length: 11 hours and 50 minutes
• Author: Jeffrey C. Grossman, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Jeffrey C. Grossman
• Audible.com Release Date: March 04, 2019
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07PBXFT7R

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What exactly is liberty? Where do your rights begin… and end? How is a democracy supposed to work? While the terms and concepts of political philosophy are ingrained in our global consciousness, we often – whether we realize it or not – have an incomplete picture of how those ideas developed, or their intentions and implications. The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas is your opportunity to navigate the labyrinth of Western political and social theory. Guided by award-winning Professor Cahoone, these 36 eye-opening lectures reveal how political philosophers created virtual blueprints of action for leaders to implement – for good or ill. YouÍll gain not only the tools necessary to comprehend and evaluate the omnipresent language of politics, but also a thorough understanding of the wellspring of thought that has emerged over centuries of political philosophy. Offering impressive breadth and depth, The Modern Political Tradition has a scope youÍre unlikely to find in a traditional university course. Here, youÍll consider a range of fascinating topics such as fundamental notions of freedom and rights, moral realism versus moral relativism, the dangers and advantages of the free-market model of economics, questions of distributive justice and the welfare state, the ñjust warî theory (which is currently being tested by the war on terror), and the inequality of a policy of ñcolor blindness.î In every lecture, youÍll meet revolutionary figures who have left an indelible mark on history and, in many cases, continue to influence political debate. After completing The Modern Political Tradition, politics will come into focus like never before.

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What is reality? Ask yourself whether you can actually know the answer, much less be sure that you can know it, and you’ve begun to grapple with the metaphysical and epistemological quandaries that have occupied, teased, and tormented modern philosophy’s greatest intellects since the dawn of modern science and a century before the Enlightenment.

These 36 lectures are the perfect introduction to the basics of modern and contemporary Western approaches to the philosophies of both reality (metaphysics) and knowledge (epistemology), right through the end of the 20th century. Led by Professor Cahoone, you’ll partake in an engaging intellectual journey that encompasses prominent figures from all the major traditions of Western philosophy.

You’ll explore the ideas behind modern philosophy’s most important movements, including dualism, rationalism, empiricism, idealism, existentialism, and postmodernism. You’ll plunge into the thought of some of philosophy’s most important thinkers, including Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Peirce, Nietzsche, James, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Rorty, and Derrida, learning how many of them were in fact considered radicals, their views appreciated far less in their own era than in later ones.

And you’ll gain a clear sense of how each of these movements and thinkers fits into philosophy’s broader progression, often pushing philosophy in dramatically new directions right up to the present day, as well as how philosophy is intimately related to a multitude of other disciplines.

Product details

• Full Audio MP3 Program
• Full PDF E-Book Included
• Listening Length: 18 hours and 46 minutes
• Author: Lawrence Cahoone, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Lawrence Cahoone
• Audible.com Release Date: July 08, 2013
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DTO5BTO

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This course offers an overview of the English language that is literary, historical, cultural, political, and scientific in its scope and designed to give you greater insight into the written and spoken word.The lectures provide a thorough understanding of the history of the English language – from its origins as a dialect of the Germanic-speaking peoples through the literary and cultural documents of its 1,500-year span to the state of American speech today.

Professor Lerer defines concepts by illustrating them with copious examples. He often speaks in the dialect appropriate to each lecture – be it Old English, Chaucer’s Middle English, or the colloquial style of Mark Twain’s most unforgettable characters.

Reviews

Loved them then
I listened to all of these twice through as borrowed library items. Loved them then, and am very happy to own the set now. Lerer is an orator.

Every English teacher should be listening!
Fantastic–I am going to incorporate some of this information in my English classes in the fall. If you are taking English in high school you should learn something about how the language came to be.

Product details

• Listening Length: 18 hours and 27 minutes
• Author: Seth Lerer, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Seth Lerer
• Audible.com Release Date: July 08, 2013
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DTO56NU

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Japan’s extraordinary culture is like no other in the world, and it remains mysterious to many of us. And that’s unfortunate, because to truly understand Japan’s influence on the world stage, one needs to understand Japan’s culture – on its own terms.

In an exciting partnership with the Smithsonian, The Great Courses presents these 24 lectures that offer an unforgettable tour of Japanese life and culture. Professor Ravina, with the expert collaboration of the Smithsonian’s historians, brings you a grand portrait of Japan.

From the dawn of Confucianism and the Meiji Restoration to World War II and the economic miracle years of 1955 to 1975, you’ll explore landmark periods of Japanese history and learn how broad events and movements introduced, innovated, and revised everything from spirituality to popular entertainment. Along the way you’ll get revealing insights into Shinto (Japan’s indigenous religion), the art of Katsushika Hokusai, literary works like The Tale of Genji and the haiku of Basho, the everyday lives of samurai, the universal appeal of filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, foods like yakitori and tempura, and so much more.

You’ll come away from Professor Ravina’s final lecture with a stronger sense of the very soul of this one-of-a-kind nation.

Reviews

Good lectures.
This was a great basic overview of Japanese history. If you are already well versed, this may be too basic for you, but if you only have a limited background on Japan, this course will serve you well.

Worth it
This was a very interesting and comprehensive cultural history of Japan. Great context prior to my first trip there.

Product details

• Listening Length: 12 hours
• Author: Mark J. Ravina, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Mark J. Ravina
• Audible.com Release Date: July 24, 2015
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B012F4UXFU

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One of the 20th century’s greatest fiction writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was lured by the promise of Hollywood glamour to try his hand at screenwriting. He failed. His misadventure became a cautionary tale for aspiring screenwriters for decades. Meanwhile, Oscar-nominated scriptwriter John Milius, who penned the script for Apocalypse Now, once said that his job was “hackwork.” So which is it? Is writing for the screen a glamorous vocation or formulaic drudgery? Is it a difficult undertaking that can sink a great novelist at the height of his career, or simply another boring day job that requires minimal skill?

What lies at the heart of screenwriting is the same thing that undergirds all great fiction writing: the story. Writing a script is simply another way of telling a story, albeit one with its own special set of possibilities and limitations. If you want to write stories—in any style or genre—the practical and versatile skills you can learn from screenwriting will enhance any tale you want to tell.

Whether you want to write your own scripts or simply gain a deeper appreciation for the great stories you see unfold on the screen, Professor Angus Fletcher is here to show you the way in Screenwriting 101: Mastering the Art of Story. Professor Fletcher, Professor of English and Film at The Ohio State University, brings both a personal and scholarly perspective to this craft. As a screenwriter himself, he has experienced the ins and outs of the process first-hand. And as a key faculty member in Project Narrative, a think tank devoted to using cognitive science to study the effects of stories on the human mind, Professor Fletcher offers unique insight into storytelling from both a neuroscientific and a literary perspective. In the 24 lectures of Screenwriting 101, you will understand not only how to write a script, but how to tell a great story that moves audiences—the ultimate goal of storytelling in any medium.

As you learn the structure and techniques of screenwriting, you will also receive an immersive education in effective storytelling by looking at over a dozen successful film and television scripts. Whether you want to achieve the grand vision of Star Wars or challenge your audiences like Do the Right Thing, charm viewers like The Princess Bride or sustain comedy over time like The Simpsons, Professor Fletcher shows you how to use successful scripts to write your own, as well as come to a deeper understanding and respect for outstanding stories.

For those just starting out, understanding the reality of writing for the screen—what it can accomplish and the best methods to achieve your vision—is the first step to deciding if it is the right way to tell your story. If you have already tried your hand at screenwriting but don’t quite know how to best use the form to your advantage, the next step is to see how great scripts work and how the tools used by screenwriters can be used by anyone. And even if you have no intention of writing but want to see the inner workings of how great film and television works, learning the creative process is the key to genuine appreciation.

Begin at the End

There are two key questions a screenwriter must ask when embarking on a story: Where do I want to take my audience? How do I get there?

The question of where is about more than just physical time and place; it is the “where” of cognitive effect—the emotional and psychological response you want to elicit from your audience. This makes the “how” more complicated, as it goes beyond settings, costumes, and characters, and instead goes deeper, into the most fundamental processes of the human mind.

Despite what you may have been told, writing a great script is not about formulas and three-act structure. Great scripts—great stories—are those that create the desired emotional response in audiences, something that can only be achieved by knowing which methods are most effective and how they suit the story you want to tell. To uncover these methods, Professor Fletcher gives you an invaluable tool that you will put to use in every single lecture of Screenwriting 101 and in your work beyond: reverse engineering.

Reverse engineering a story allows you to begin at the end and work your way backwards to uncover the “secrets” of the story’s influence on the audience. It is not used to uncover tropes or archetypes—those are easy enough to discover without any special tools—but something much deeper and more fundamental. Start with the effect you want to achieve: from the tragic sublime and existential meaning to sympathy and romantic longing, the cognitive effects of storytelling tap into the primal roots of the human experience and are powerful because they are universal—just ask the ancient Greeks, whose storytelling techniques are one of many foundations Professor Fletcher utilizes as he shows you how structure can lead to innovation. Once you have identified the effect of a story, tracing the story structures that created it will give you limitless possibilities in your own work and a greater understanding of what makes great film and television work so well.

The Elements of Storytelling

Understanding the overall cognitive effect of a story is a crucial step in creating and understanding audience response, but that is not the only thing you must do. While there are no templates or formulas for the perfect story, there are four key elements that must work together seamlessly in every successful narrative:

1. Story world: The rules of your creative universe. Is your story world one where dreams come true? Where superheroes can fly? Or is it rooted in harsh reality? Genres and other pre-existing structures can give you a little help, but you must always give the rules your own special twist.
2. Character: A great character can lead an audience anywhere. Main characters need to be special to stand out from everyone else, but they are all created by tapping into three basic human experiences: conflict, fear, and sympathy.
3. Tone: Every story has a narrative voice, a lens through which the story is viewed and which determines how audiences should feel about the characters and story beats. Film and television are visual mediums and the language you use as a writer is crucial to how your story will be translated to the screen.
4. Plot: The plot is the engine that keeps your story moving forward. Humans are actually naturally inclined to plot, which can be a problem if you don’t know how to constrain your plots in the face of limitless possibilities. Rather than using diagrams and formulas, plotting your story beats backwards can keep you on track.

Study the Greats

Once you have a grasp on reverse engineering and the basic elements every story needs, you can take your newfound knowledge and apply it to a range of powerful and effective stories of film and television. First, you will study 12 film scripts selected by the Writer’s Guild of America as some of the greatest ever written. Then, turn to television by looking at several representative episodes and genres. Each story you encounter demonstrates a different sensibility in both technique and cognitive effect.

As you study the work of over a dozen great screenwriters, you will also get fascinating glimpses into the production and ongoing influence of groundbreaking films and TV shows. Throughout the lectures you will:

1. See how a forgotten Hollywood genre can be revived by the right script at the right time;
2. Understand how a film that flopped on initial release can go on to become a beloved classic through the power of community;
3. Witness the ways collaboration can shape a film throughout production and shape the story beyond the script;
4. Discover how a script that went through nineteen rewrites ultimately rewrote film history for decades afterward;
5. Compare the storytelling structures of television and film and see why it is so important for writers to understand the different opportunities they offer; and much more.

Each story you encounter uses different tools to achieve a variety of psychological and emotional responses. Your journey through each script mirrors the pattern Professor Fletcher establishes within the first six lectures, beginning each by reverse engineering the overall story, then similarly deconstructing each of the four story components to see how they operate as part of the whole. From the redemption arc of the Western Unforgiven to the romantic longing of Annie Hall, each story offers invaluable insights you can bring to your own writing—and viewing—experiences. While Professor Fletcher encourages you to watch each of the stories he discusses in their final form, he forgoes video clips in favor of line readings in the lectures, adhering closely to the way screenwriters work from day to day. To further immerse you in the process, the video versions of the course feature on-screen scripts with highlighting to follow each passage and scene.

There is no cookie-cutter formula for writing scripts and no checklist for what makes a film or television show great. What Screenwriting 101 offers instead is an infinitely flexible storytelling tool that has worked for the greats—from Euripides to Shakespeare to Pixar—and a selection of resources to show you how to put it to use. In the end, you will have gained the invaluable ability to appreciate more films and TV, tell better stories, and write your own scripts. How you decide to use these limitless creative possibilities is up to you.

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There’s an art and science behind how doctors diagnose and treat medical patients. Where do doctors get these skills? The Grand Rounds experience, where they practice how to make accurate diagnoses by examining real patients. And with Dr. Benaroch’s 24 unique lectures, you’ll explore how a master physician solves medical problems just like a detective.

Whether you’re a patient, a current or future medical professional, or just someone who enjoys a good mystery, you’ll discover how doctors use medical science to identify and combat injuries and diseases; how they uncover tiny clues patients can fail to notice; how they sometimes make misdiagnoses that lead to costly (and life-threatening) problems; and how they think their way toward putting patients on the fast track to proper treatment.

Drawn from actual medical stories, these 24 Grand Rounds take you everywhere from the calm of a doctor’s office to the chaos of an emergency room. You’ll hear how a 33-year-old man’s fever and mouth sores are clues to one of today’s most notorious diseases; why an explorer’s life-threatening nausea and pain demand emergency surgery; how doctors treat a trauma patient at the site of an accident; and much more.

Dr. Benaroch has crafted a rewarding learning experience; one packed with thrilling Grand Rounds cases that will captivate you, that will provide you with an exciting new way to think about medicine, and that will help you become a better, more informed patient.

Reviews

Great grand rounds cases!!!!!!
I am a Nurse Practitioner and wanted these Grand Round cases on audio CD’s to sharpen my skills! I love these Grand Rounds cases! Very interesting for medical and non-medical people! I would highly recommend these for everyone!! I am so enjoying and have listened to them several times! An easy 5 stars!!!

Interesting, Insightful, Useful
I used to think doctors were high functioning psychopaths—stabbing you with needles, cutting you open, treating you generally like a Lego set that they can disassemble at will. This let me see that the practice of medicine is more like detective work than butchery, which has made me more tolerant when they are poking and cutting me.

Product details

• Listening Length: 12 hours and 5 minutes
• Author: Roy Benaroch, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Roy Benaroch
• Audible.com Release Date: May 02, 2014
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00K2NEDP8

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To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That’s the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people’s personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives.

Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why. Throughout his illuminating lectures, five important personality traits come into focus, traits that form the foundation of how psychologists approach the topic of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness.

Combining psychology with neuroscience and behavioral genetics, this exploration will open your eyes to the myriad ways our traits, motives, emotions, beliefs, and values are shaped by things like our genes, environment, experiences, and evolutionary history. Why is it so hard to change our behavior? Why do people develop different values and morals? Does personality change as we age? Is personality passed down through genes?

Designed as a fascinating, accessible scientific inquiry, these lectures will have you thinking about personality in a way that enriches your understanding of the complex psychological processes that make you who you are.

Reviews

Useful
Why You Are Who You Are is the great courses introduction to personality. It takes the academic approach to personality and explains it (the big 5/6 HEXACO traits: conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and honest/humility). The lecturer explains why these are considered the most important, while also discussing minor traits.

He then launches into a discussion of the heritable nature of these traits (most of them have been discovered to be 50% heritable), how upbringing and genetics interact so people express these traits differently at different times, and how the studies were made. Then there’s a huge discussion of the various mental disorders, some of which I didn’t know about, such as schzoid personality disorder, and narcissism.

Product details

• Listening Length: 12 hours and 52 minutes
• Author: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Mark Leary
• Audible.com Release Date: February 02, 2018
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07944J7LP

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Great music is a language unto its own, a means of communication of unmatched beauty and genius. And it has an undeniable power to move us in ways that enrich our lives – provided it is understood.

If you have ever longed to appreciate great concert music, to learn its glorious language and share in its sublime pleasures, the way is now open to you, through this series of 48 wonderful lectures designed to make music accessible to everyone who yearns to know it, regardless of prior training or knowledge. It’s a lecture series that will enable you to first grasp music’s forms, techniques, and terms – the grammatical elements that make you fluent in its language – and then use that newfound fluency to finally hear and understand what the greatest composers in history are actually saying to us.

And as you learn the gifts given us by nearly every major composer, you’ll come to know there is one we share with each of them – a common humanity that lets us finally understand that these were simply people speaking to us, sharing their passion and wanting desperately to be heard. Using digitally recorded musical passages to illustrate his points, Professor Greenberg will take you inside magnificent compositions by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and more. Even if you have listened to many of these illustrative pieces throughout your life – as so many of us have – you will never hear them the same way again after experiencing these lectures.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Reviews

Great lecture series
Filled with wonder information going back before the early Greeks and describes the development of classical music in a way that is easy to listen to and incredibly informative. The professor is very organized and truly knows his material. With time he becomes part of your family, sharing old stories about the wisdoms and controversies of the times. I enjoyed it so much, that I have purchased it for others including my brother who is now a retired music professor. I plan to listen to it again.

Product details

• Listening Length: 36 hours and 34 minutes
• Author: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Robert Greenberg
• Audible.com Release Date: July 08, 2013
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DTO6GXE

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We have never before in human history been able to share so much about ourselves so quickly. Neither have we ever been so exposed to forces that want to take advantage of that capability. Taking Control of Your Personal Data will open your eyes to the surprising extent of that exposure and will discuss your options for keeping your personal data as safe as possible. Your instructor, Professor Jennifer Golbeck of the College of Information Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, will show you what really goes on behind the scenes with the data you knowingly and unknowingly share all day long. You’ll be surprised to find out how much of your personal data is being manipulated perfectly legally – data you never intended for another person to see, data you didn’t even know was out there.

This course doesn’t offer a one-size-fits-all solution because no such solution exists. But this course will help you determine your personal privacy profile, decide whether or not to try the dark web and its Tor browser, and understand the current US laws and proposed state laws regarding privacy. Privacy issues are not going away; the technology that collects, analyzes, and derives insights from our data continues to grow at break-neck speed. As a society, we have not yet figured out how to apply appropriate ethics, values, and protections in parts of this domain. As individuals, we need exactly the type of information and direction provided by Taking Control of Your Personal Data.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Reviews

Great listen for all types
Wonderful listen for those who are concerned about privacy and steps to take to maintain it in our digital age. I’ve been in the IT world for over 2 decades now, and rarely have I come across a lecture that discusses the vital core of the topic, doesn’t diverge heavily and most importantly- keeps it from being “technobabble.” I plan to recommend this to a number of customers, and colleagues, who struggle with privacy and maintaining it.

Product details

• Listening Length: 5 hours and 15 minutes
• Author: Jennifer Golbeck, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Professor Jennifer Golbeck
• Audible.com Release Date: January 31, 2020
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0845YPK31

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