Critical Thinking: How to Effectively Reason, Understand Irrationality, and Make Better Decisions

Groundbreaking new scientific research illuminates surprising ways in which you can live a more healthy, happy, and flourishing life. Until now, psychology has focused on resolving people's problems. But the relatively new field of positive psychology instead examines the things that make your life worth living. Positive Psychology: How to Sustain Happiness in Your Life gives you practical steps for leading a flourishing life. Your guide is Professor Catherine A. Sanderson of Amherst College, named one of America's Best 300 Professors by the Princeton Review. The author of "The Positive Shift," she introduces you to cutting-edge scientific research on happiness from a range of disciplines. You'll cover psychology, economics, biology, neuroscience, and more. In 15 lectures filled with practical examples, you'll explore fascinating questions about how various aspects of your life influence happiness: •How are gender, age, culture, and even political orientation linked with happiness? •Is happiness rooted in our genes, wealth, or relationships? •How can we find happiness while struggling with daily stressors or major life crises? You will understand how various factors in your day-to-day routine - like nature, technology, and religion - influence your state of mind. Armed with this new knowledge, you can immediately start reaping the benefits of happiness every day.

The next wave of technological change will shape not just our gizmos and gadgets, but our own bodies and minds. Join award-winning historian Michael Bess to learn what to expect from the “Superhuman Revolution." In the near future, developments in bioenhancement technologies will not only alter how we make a living, communicate, and interact with each other, but will offer direct and precise control over our own physical and mental states. People will be able to sculpt their own selfhood over time, reshaping their bodies, augmenting their cognition, micro-managing their emotions and moods, and reconfiguring their character and personality. In this captivating audio series from Michael Bess, author of Our Grandchildren, Redesigned: Life in the Bioengineered Society of the Near Future, you’ll explore the promise and peril of tinkering with human bodies and identities. In these 28 illuminating lectures, you’ll examine the challenges posed to human civilization by developments in pharmaceuticals, bioelectronics, and genetics. Using an interdisciplinary approach, you’ll tackle a series of provocative questions, including: -To what extent can human personhood be modified before it begins to break down? -What would be the likely social and cultural consequences if practices of human redesign were to be widely adopted? -How much can we control the direction in which science, medicine, and technology are taking our civilization?

How does your brain work? This 15-lecture audio course will increase your excitement and wonder about the mysterious organ responsible for so many of the invisible but important things (like love, personality, and emotion) that make us who we are. The field of neuroscience is booming, heralding bold new discoveries and fresh insights into human nature, our behaviors, the mind - body connection, and even artificial intelligence. Now, How Your Brain Works: A User's Guide to Neuropsychology gives you exactly the sort of orientation you need to contextualize these discoveries and understand your brain. Your guide is Professor Gerald D. Griffin (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania), winner of several awards from national research institutions and of the Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award at Hope College. You will find that Prof. Griffin brings an infectious energy to every lecture. He makes you appreciate what a fascinating and multidisciplinary field neuroscience is - building on the discoveries of biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology to arrive at new understandings of the nervous system and behavior. Though this course, you will gain a better understanding of how the chemistry, structure, and electrical connections of your brain give rise to complex perceptions and behavior. By the end, you will understand how a multitude of small, delicate changes in the nervous system shape your reality.

Navigate Viking history, culture, and literature with world-renowned medievalist Christopher R. Fee, Ph.D., named by the Princeton Review as one of America’s best professors. Frequently depicted as “Scandinavian scavengers,” warlike pirates, raiders, and invaders, the Vikings have lately surfaced from the depths of history to become pop culture’s most adored ruffians. For Prof. Fee, this recent craze for all-things Viking is a mixed blessing. The spike in popular fascination often occasions a need to separate the wheat from the chaff: fact from fiction, history from myth, literature from legend. This 24-lecture audio series rights the ship by offering you a scholarly and comprehensive overview of Viking history, geography, literature, religion, and culture. Prof. Fee leads this series with canny and personable teaching. As you meet the great Viking adventurers, you’ll explore pivotal events such as the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 739 and the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066, as well as lesser-known curiosities: the etymology of the term “Viking,” the story of the Vikings known as Varangians who guarded the Byzantine Emperor, and the origins of the state that we now think of as Russia. From runic inscriptions to heroic sagas, pagan belief to Danelaw, you’ll ponder the Vikings’ lasting significance as you immerse yourself in the seen and unseen record of their fascinating civilization.

Known as “Mr. Civil Rights” for his advocacy on behalf of racial justice, Thurgood Marshall argued before the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, arguably the most important Supreme Court decision in history. He later became the first African American to serve as US solicitor and as a Supreme Court justice. Justice William Brennan wrote that his friend and colleague was “the central figure in this nation’s struggle to eliminate institutional racism.” In this powerful 15-lecture audio series from award-winning law professor David L. Hudson Jr., you’ll follow the trajectory that led Marshall to become a transformational counsel for the NAACP and in 1967 the first African American Supreme Court justice. He sat on the court for 24 years, leaving an indelible impact in many areas of law. You’ll understand why Justice Elena Kagan has called him “the most important lawyer of the 20th century." The author or editor of more than 40 books, Hudson is a leading expert on the US Constitution and landmark Supreme Court cases. He presents on Marshall’s groundbreaking accomplishments with authority and awe. This series will leave you with a deeper appreciation of one of America’s racial pioneers and true heroes of American life.

From acclaimed American historian and biographer Jeff Webb, essential listening for history buffs. Leading presidential historians and public opinion agree - Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s greatest presidents. Through this unique audio course, Professor Webb explores the reasons Roosevelt enjoys such widespread and enduring approval. As you listen to this engrossing 15-lecture audio series from Prof. Webb, you’ll understand why Roosevelt’s colorful personality and audacious leadership style so enthralled Americans in the early 20th century and continue to fascinate us today. Roosevelt’s years in office were marked by executive actions and policy measures that moved the institution along a new path and cemented its influence on the world stage. By stretching the boundaries of executive authority, Roosevelt inaugurated new practices that came to define the modern American presidency. In this compelling series, you’ll examine Roosevelt’s early life and political career before he unexpectedly found himself president, at age 42, following William McKinley’s assassination in 1901. Then, you’ll explore Roosevelt’s presidency, noting instances where he blazed new trails for future presidents. A leader with inexhaustible energy and legendary charisma, Roosevelt’s celebrity status represented a powerful shift in US political tradition. Join Prof. Webb to learn how Roosevelt shaped our collective idea of what a US president should be.