When a high school student has trouble learning a subject like math or history, the problem may lie not in the teacher's ability or the student's I.Q--often it is because the student has never been taught how to learn. The little town of Worland, Wyoming, produces a steady stream of honor students who win scholarships and get into top universities. In this series of lectures, Worland's "secret weapon," Dr. Tim McGee, illuminates how any student...

Professors Robert Solomon and Kathleen Higgins help the user discover the heart and mind of this systematically unsystematic philosopher. Each lecture focuses on the specific ideas that preoccupied Nietzsche, while tracing the profound themes that give shape and meaning to his philosophy. These themes form the foundation of modern humanistic culture.

Relativity and quantum physics touch the very basis of physical reality, altering commonsense notions of space and time, cause and effect. Both have reputations for complexity, but the basic ideas behind relativity and quantum physics are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. The essence of relativity in a single sentence: The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion. Relativity and quantum physics are the gateway...

Examines the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Teofilo F. Ruiz gives a series of lectures on the history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who united the country, took power from the Moors, gave aid to Columbus, ordered the expulsion or conversion of Jews and Moors, and built the framework for modern Spain.

Buddhism challenges some of the most important Western ideas about God, human life, and the self. In Buddhism, there is no single almighty God who created the world. Instead, Buddhism teaches that all of life is suffering, and there is no permanent self. Moreover, it teaches that in accepting that all life is suffering, bliss can be achieved in this life. Buddhism's core philosophy that nothing is permanent--all is change--has made it an astonishingly...

Dr. Vandiver introduces the great epic of ancient Greeks, the Iliad. She addresses critical and interpretative issues, and gives background information on cultural assumptions.

Clear introductions to essential principles of physics support these lectures, including density, quantum theory, gravity, and the General Theory of Relativity. Also includes forays into disciplines such as chemistry and biology as needed to explain events in astronomy.