検索キーワード： 著者 "The Great Courses" すべてのカテゴリー

In 10 riveting episodes, paleoanthropologist Elen Feuerriegel takes you on an unrivaled tour of the human fossil record in search of the biological and behavioral underpinnings of our very “humanness”.

As the Black Death swept across Europe, killing up to a half of the population in certain areas, a young Geoffrey Chaucer came of age in England. While he and his family avoided the worst of the disease, all were shaped by its presence and impact on the British island. With expert Simon Doubleday, professor of history at Hofstra University, in After the Plague, examine medieval literature like The Canterbury Tales for firsthand accounts from minority voices not typically heard from in the period.

The world of espionage is shrouded in mystery—even to those in it—but so much of what we think we know about spy craft is rooted in pop culture. Even though the true nature of espionage is quite different, that doesn’t mean history’s real spies are any less heroic, or less fascinating. In these nine episodes, go behind the shadows with a distinguished panel of historians—including a former intelligence case officer—in search of the secret meeting places, complex codes, stealth observations, and cutting-edge technologies spies have used throughout history.

Numbers. Like the alphabet, they’re one of the most elementary of concepts learned and memorized at a young age; but outside of figuring out tips and taxes, you probably haven’t given much thought to them since then. To a mathematician, every number has its own unique properties and personality - and when studied, played with, and manipulated, numbers can actually be tons of fun.

New religious movements aren’t earthquakes - they’re not generated by blind natural forces, and they’re not inevitable. Social and spiritual change requires a catalyst to set it in motion. And in the case of Islam, that catalyst has a name: Muhammad. He was a charismatic individual, born of the existing culture of sixth-century Arabia and yet somehow alienated from it. He drew on existing religious ideas in radically new ways that would change his world - and ours - forever. Join Maria Dakake of George Mason University for a riveting exploration of Islam’s founding prophet.

Histories of the United States often overlook the women who shaped the nation. Museums, textbooks, historical sites, and even documentaries omit essential parts of the whole because they leave out her story. Join Allison K. Lange, historian and professor, as she guides you through the fascinating lives of 12 early Americans, all of them women.

In Understanding Your Inner Genius, presenter Laura Helmuth reveals the latest scientific thinking on genius and intelligence - from the making of a genius, to the increase of worldwide IQ scores, and the mysteries of acquired savantism. With Dr. Helmuth as your guide, you’ll explore the groundbreaking work conducted by distinguished psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and educators. With myth-busting exhilaration and more than a bit of controversy, scientific studies point the way to increasing the intellect.

Have you ever been in love? Falling in love is the easiest thing in the world. The difficult part comes later, when you are trying to stay in love. Half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. As it turns out, failing in love is just as easy as falling in love.

England: From the Fall of Rome to the Norman Conquest takes you through the mists of time to the rugged landscape of the British Isles. Over the course of 24 sweeping lectures, Professor Jennifer Paxton of The Catholic University of America surveys the forging of a great nation from a series of warring kingdoms and migrating peoples. From Germanic tribes to Viking invasions to Irish missionaries, she brings to life an underexamined time and place.

In The History and Future of HBCUs, Professor Crystal R. Sanders and Professor Reginald Ellis take you back to the pre-Civil War origins of some of the earliest HBCUs and walk you through the complex history of these institutions. As you witness their growth - and the power struggles that often came with the fraught political and racial landscape of the US in the 19th and 20th centuries - you will meet some of the great minds they produced. Uncover the indelible mark they have left on American education, the fight for Black liberation, and the Civil Rights movement.

Some say Charlemagne was a great king, while others believe the many atrocities committed under his reign make him the first in a line of political disasters throughout Europe. This debate has been going on for over a millennium.

If you believe in luck — or if you absolutely do not believe in luck, join Associate Professor of Philosophy Daniel Breyer as he makes the case for the essential role that luck plays in our lives — and has played throughout human history. In this 10-part overview, he will give you a completely new appreciation for the surprising interplay between luck, responsibility, and free will.

In the 12 fascinating lectures of Understanding Human Emotions, Professor Lawrence Ian Reed helps us consider our emotions from an evolutionary point of view, exploring why we have these consistent feelings and physical responses to specific stimuli in our lives, and how they benefit us. Averaged over the course of evolutionary history, our emotions motivate us to act in ways that best promote our survival and reproduction. Without the full range of our emotions, we simply would not be here.

Think of Cultured: A World History of Cheese as a 10-episode cheese course, or a cheese plate large enough to contain a well-rounded sampling of great cheeses from around the world. Janet Fletcher, a noted food writer and publisher of the Planet Cheese blog, provides deeper (and delectable) insights into a familiar food you only think you know. Included in this Audible Original are peeks at the nine steps of cheesemaking, the 10 most important cheese families, and tips on how to taste cheese with the same refined palate as a professional cheese judge.

In his inspiring Audible Original, The Science of Friendship, Kyler Shumway, CEO of Deep Eddy Psychotherapy, offers you insights into what friendship is, how it works, and how to cultivate more rewarding connections in your own life - regardless of how lonely you may or may not feel. How does interpersonal connection work on a neuroscientific level? What schemas do we live under that keep us unconnected from one another? Why do some friendships evolve into romantic relationships or even become toxic?

It’s considered a given, once your child hits puberty, that she or he will become uncommunicative, rude, and withdrawn, but there are neurobiological, social, and developmental reasons for these often-frustrating behaviors, and understanding those factors can really help us parent well. Focusing on adolescents (covering preteens, teenagers, and young adults), Christine Carter - the parent of four teenagers, a parenting coach, and author - guides you through some of the most important factors when it comes to raising kids in the modern world.

In Understanding and Overcoming Fear, sociologist Margee Kerr, PhD, explains the physiological and contextual aspects of fear, revealing the complexities of this powerful emotion and explaining why you can never experience the exact same fear twice. In 24 episodes, illustrated with fascinating graphics, Professor Kerr takes you on a journey similar to the one she has taken in her own work - from considering fear as a toxic, destructive force that needs to be defeated to an emotion with tremendous upsides in the right circumstances.

The political, and very human, dynamics behind presidential cabinets, from George Washington to Joe Biden, come to life in The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. What Lindsay M. Chervinsky offers in this eye-opening Audible Original is an investigation of the good, the bad, and the ugly of presidential cabinets. Covering more than two centuries of history, it’s a fascinating tour of scandals, colorful personalities, big events, and triumphs of diversity and bipartisanship. Not to mention jobs with a very high turnover rate.

The Berlin Wall is perhaps modern history’s most infamous edifice. The Berlin Wall: A World Divided is more than just the story of brick, concrete, and barbed wire. It’s the story of a city, a country, and a world - all of them divided. To hear how the Berlin Wall exemplified this division is to gain insights into a central tension of world history: between the human drive for freedom and the political will that would control and repress that drive.

In the 10 lectures of Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture, author and teacher Shannon Scott will take you around the world to explore the many ways humans have created and shared stories of wolves, shape-shifting, and lycanthropy.