The Great Courses (Firm)

Learn to cope with uncertainty and risk with advice from a master economist. Economic uncertainty is like the weather: you can’t stop storms, but understanding them prepares you. Uncertainty is beyond our control, but when you take the mystery and dread out of uncertainty, you can respond much more effectively. The practical and empowering lectures of The Economics of Uncertainty give you tools to deal with risk..

What do you think about during sex? Jessica Graham's work reveals that many of us are focused on how we look, what our partner thinks about us, how we're "performing" - all thoughts that take us outside our body. Instead, learn how mindful sex allows you to better access the pleasure in your own body, create a deeper connection with your partner, and enjoy your own sexuality more than ever before.

If you have a clever anecdote, an interesting memory, a new way to explain how something works, or an opinion on a social or political issue, then you have an essay in you. Unlike a novel, history book, or scientific publication, essays provide you with the versatility to express all the various facets that make you you. The concise and direct nature of an essay means that you may tap into your sense of wit, share your individual point of view, persuade...

Probe deeper into Dubrovnik's remarkable political system, highlighting its ingenious diplomatic strategies and progressive policies, such as a free public health service. Visit the sites connected to this history, including the Rector's Palace, the 15th-century orphanage, and the still-operating pharmacy founded in 1317, and enjoy the majesty of the city's diverse architecture.

Death serves as the horizon against which our lives unfold and shapes the choices we make about how to live. In fact, the knowledge of mortality has inspired much of human activity—religion, philosophy, music and visual arts, even scientific endeavors and monumental architecture have all been driven by our understanding of death. Whether viewed as a transition to paradise or punishment, an ultimate separation or ecstatic joining, the end of existence...

Unlike the well-founded theories you've studied so far in this series, turn to one that is as-yet-unproven -- but mindboggling in its implications. Cosmic inflation proposes that a period of explosive expansion occurred in the first instants of the Big Bang. This startling idea accounts for two puzzling features of today's universe: the observed uniformity of matter and the flat geometry of space.

Learn about the spiritual revolution of King Akhenaten, and the monuments that bear witness to it. Begin with a look back at an earlier necropolis that influenced Akhenaten, that of Beni Hasan, containing some of the most beautiful painted tombs in Egypt. Continue to the capital city of Amarna, the setting for Akhenaten's religious reformation that focused on the sole worship of the sun god Aten.

After Solomon's reign, grasp how the kingdom of Israel divided into a Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Observe how the Northern Kingdom became dominant under the powerful King Omri, creator of the capital of Samaria, excavated in the early 20th century. Learn of the divisive rule and tragic fate of Omri's son, Ahab, and how the kingdom fell to aggression by the Assyrian Empire.

One of the CIA's first major setbacks was the tragic failure of the Hungarian uprising, despite the agency's attempts to liberate the Eastern Bloc countries during the early 1950s. Here, investigate CIA efforts to organize anti-communist Eastern European emigres to liberate their homelands and the creation of Radio Free Europe to counteract communist-controlled media.

Every time you watch baseball, you’re participating in the latest chapter of a compelling story that goes back hundreds of years. In 24 lectures that paint a portrait of the sport’s remarkable past and take you from the decades before the Civil War to the pivotal year of 1920, Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime strikes a perfect balance between sports lore and cultural history.