The Great Courses

Education can be enriching and transformative. It can also be downright excruciating—even demoralizing. When it comes to learning, why are some of us lovers and some of us haters? Welcome to the world of educational psychology....

Words. We use them all the time, every day, mostly without giving them much thought at all. We take for granted that they’re here at our disposal whenever we need them. But if you’ve ever wished you could communicate more effectively, words are the place to start....

Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language....

One of the greatest scientific feats of our era is the astonishing progress made in understanding biology-a progress to which the period we are living in right now has contributed the most....

How is it possible for the disciplines of cosmology, geology, anthropology, biology, and history to fit together?....

Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have been delighting readers for generations. Filled with gentle humor, whimsy, and kindness, the stories A.A. Milne created have become classics that are as beloved now as they were when they were first published 100 years ago.

In an exciting partnership with the Smithsonian, The Great Courses presents these 24 lectures that offer an unforgettable tour of Japanese life and culture....

These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life....

The power of an effective speech is undeniable. It has the capacity to engage, inform, motivate, and create change in an audience - and in the world....

Learn how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today....

Professor Curzan approaches words like an archaeologist, digging below the surface to uncover the story of words....

Think you know chemistry? Think again. In How Chemistry Surrounds You, award-winning University of Utah professor Janis Louie reveals the surprising science behind the everyday world—no lab coat required.

Join Brandy Schillace for a look back at the development of forensic science over the past two centuries, a journey that will take you from Victorian serial killers to digital sleuthing in the 21st century.

In these 24 lectures, you'll learn the astonishing story of Siddhartha Gautama - who was to become the Buddha, or "enlightened one"....

You'll explore the ideas behind modern philosophy's most important movements and thinkers....

From the days of Freud and Skinner to the modern science of fMRIs and genetics, Introduction to Psychology is a grand introduction to one of the most captivating fields of inquiry - where the subject is you, and everyone around you....

Throughout history, Earth’s great rivers have lived at the heart of human life. As sources of food, and arteries of transport, trade, irrigation, travel, religious ritual, and more, rivers have not only shaped the landscapes through which they flow, they have also shaped civilization.

In the 12 fascinating lessons of Neurohack It: Using Neuroscience for Better Living, you’ll learn how to take the latest discoveries from neuroscience research and apply them to your own life.

Noted Japan expert Professor Mark J. Ravina of the University of Texas at Austin covers the politics, economics, and culture of the island nation since World War II - a conflict that saw the end of Japan’s dream of regional conquest, which Professor Ravina calls Empire 1.0....

Whether around the campfire, between the covers of a great book, or in the theater, the desire to tell stories has been a common human impulse for thousands of years....