Great Courses: Effective Editing by Molly McCowan

 An essential part of becoming a good writer is embracing the process of editing what you write.  In this 13-lesson course, Ms McCowan walks the listener through the different kinds of editing, and discusses each in detail. She emphasizes the importance of doing the editing process in the correct order, from big picture to granular, and gives helpful instructions and examples of each stage. She ends the series with a class on "what's next" which explains what to do with your manuscript after you have done all the editing you can do.

I am currently writing a short children's novel for my grandchildren, and decided to listen to this course to give me suggestions about my editing process. It was super helpful and it made me want to go back and edit some of the similar novella that I have written for them in the past.  I think a lot of her advise is conventional wisdom and would be familiar to anyone who was serious about writing, but for me, who  has never had a creative writing class, it was really good information given in an accessible format. I am planning on listening through it again next time I am about to start an writing project. (5 hrs. 2021)

Great Courses: The Aging Brain by Thad. A. Polk

 Everyone knows that certain cognitive abilities decline with age. In this series of twelve lectures, Dr. Polk discusses what brain functions decline and which stay the same.  He delves into the physiological causes of declines and explores a variety of theories about what causes age related changes.  He also touches on the main causes of dementia and talks particularly about Alzheimer's disease. He finishes off the course by discussing what people can and can't do to mitigate effects of aging on the brain. 

I checked this out because I am on the nether side of 60 and occasionally can't find something in my memory that I know should be there. I found these series of lectures very informative and accessible.  There are terms and ideas that I had heard of but realized that I didn't fully understand before listening to the lectures. I imagine that if you viewed this series in its video format there would have been interesting graphics and charts, but it works fine without those. Dr. Polk has a engaging lecture style and I would recommend this series to anyone who might be interested in an entry level treatment of the topic. (6 hrs, 2016)

Great Courses: Synthetic Biology by Milton Muldrow, Jr.

 Synthetic Biology is using splicing or other means to create altered or completely new DNA sequences.  In this lecture series Muldrow enthusiastically examines the potential of this emerging technology.  He starts out explaining the different methods of artificial gene alterations and the history of synthetic biology.  Then, in following lectures, he talks about the potential applications in fuel, food production, di-extinction, genetic disorders, space exploration, and eugenics. He is enthusiastic about his topic and spends much more time on the potential benefits and less time on ethical issues.  

I checked out this lecture series as a kind of related topic to the Epigenetics series I listened to a couple of months ago.  It was interesting, but quite technical.  I found myself tuning out a lot of the technical details and jargon, and just focusing on the ideas for applications.  Some of them I think have real possibilities, but others were pretty far out there in the "do-ability" scale. His discussions about how synthetic biology may be leveraged to make Mars colonization possible was especially futuristic, and not likely to take place in my or my grandchildren's life times. Still, the series made me wonder how synthetic biology will affect the world in the future.  Will it be the next big life changing innovation like the internet, cell phones, and AI? (2022, 9 hrs)

Great Courses: Epigenetics by Dr. Charlotte Mykura

Epigenetics are a complex set up chemicals that surround a gene and tell it when to express itself or go dormant. In this 12-part lecture series, Dr Mykura explores the science and controversy of epigenetics study. She discusses how epigenetics applies to the formation of a fetus, how it responds to external and internal environment.  She explains the importance of the gut biome and how epigenetics play out in autoimmune diseases.  She ends the series by tackling the question as to whether epigenetic states can be passed from parent to child. 

Dr. Mykura presents this fairly technical topic with the charisma and energy of a TED talker. She is fond of enthusiastic hyperbole, like "This is the most amazing process in the history of human biology". This makes her lectures very engaging despite the density of scientific terminology.  Throughout the lectures I kept reminding myself, that, of course, things like exercise, stress, and diet change our body's makeup.  I just had never thought about how that worked before, and now I feel like I have a better sense of what that process looks like. I enjoyed her creative metaphors to describe difficult concepts, like how a methylated chromosome looks like a tangled ball of string.  My favorite fact from the series is that, since a woman's eggs are formed while she is a fetus in her mother's womb, parts of us have been around much longer than we think. That means part of me was first formed in 1935!  (6 hours, 2023)

Great Courses: A Historian Goes to the Movies by Greg Aldrete

 In this 6-hour Great Courses series, a professor of Roman history critiques some of the most famous "Sword and Toga" movies ever made.  He discusses their history, success, and impact, and also critiques how closely they adhered to actual historical facts. Some of the movies he critiques are Ben Hur, Spartacus, Gladiator, Cleopatra (with Liz Taylor) and even The Life of Brian.  

I had read so many similar books in a row, I was in the mood for something different.  I wanted a nonfiction, but nothing too heavy and this series fit the bill.  Dr. Aldrete not only is a professor of Roman History, but must also be a movie buff.  He had certainly done his research on each of the movies he talked about.  I found his lectures fun and interesting.  I kept sharing factoids I learned with my family and friends.  I especially liked the lecture about Liz Taylor's Cleopatra movie.  It is amazing what lengths the movie makers went to to produce it. Movies are still really expensive to make, but with the advent of CGI I don't think they will ever use the lavish sets and casts of thousands they did back then.  (2020, 12 lectures)

Great Courses: Identity in the Age of Ancestral DNA by Anita Foeman

 Many people base a lot of their personal identity on their race and family narrative. What happens, then, if you take a DNA Ancestry test and discover that your race or family narrative is not what you thought it was? This is the guiding question of this 12-part Great Courses Lecture Series.  The presenter has spent 18 years doing research on this topic.  She finds volunteers that are interested in doing a DNA test, interviews them, and then gives them the test. When the results come back she interviews them again. She spends the beginning of the lectures talking about different ways people can deal with the results emotionally.  Then she does a couple of lectures talking about ethical issues surrounds DNA results, especially related to medical issues that might arise. Finally she talks philosophically about the different elements of personal identity and their importance in our lives.  

Sometimes when I finish a book and don't know what to listen to next, but I don't want to spend a lot of time selecting a new book, I just look at what Great Courses are available.  I don't know why I chose this one this week. It didn't turn out to be what I expected. I thought they would go into more of the science of how ancestral DNA tests determine where someone's ancestors are from, but this course dealt with that only tangentially. Instead it mostly dealt with how people feel when they get unexpected results.  It was a little amazing to me that the lecturer could find enough to fill six hours of lectures on this topic. After listening to it, though, I realized that because I am from a religion that encourages members to know their genealogy, I know much more about my ancestry than the common American. When I did an Ancestry DNA test it was no surprise at all that 97% of my ancestors came from the British Isles. Listening to these lectures opened my eyes to the plight of mixed racial people who might not know if their great grandparents were white, African, middle eastern, or American indigenous. I guess it could be a little disorienting if you have always identified as African American and then your Ancestry DNA test shows that you are only 1/4 African, 1/2 Asian and 1/4 white.  Do you then stop seeing yourself as African American and instead start identifying as Asian?  Or what if you do the test and find out that your parents used a sperm donor, and you have a dozen people who are your biological half siblings? It ended up being an interesting topic, though one I probably won't have occasion to apply to my personal life. (6 hrs, 2022)

Great Courses: The Secret World of Espionage

 Espionage has been a part of society as long as there has been society.  This fairly new Great Courses recording explores the nature and history of espionage focusing on the last two hundred years in Europe and the US. There are lectures on misconceptions about spies, women spies, coding and decoding, famous spies, and double agents. The course concludes with a discussion of new challenges to espionage in the modern computer and internet age. 

This Great Courses offering is different from others I have listened to because it isn't a set of lectures given by one professor. Instead, there are short discussions with a variety of professors and one x-CIA officer on each of the topics. The format was engaging and I found the lecture series very interesting and entertaining.  There were some of the historical figures and events that I recognized, but many that the speakers assumed people know about that I had never heard of.  I was a bit amused that they kept on bringing up James Bond and how unlike that fictional character real intelligence agents are. The recording is only four hours long, and I think it would be a great choice for a couple to listen to on a road trip. (2023)

Great Courses: How the Medici Shaped the Renaissance by William Landon

 Some scholars have argued that the Medici family of Florence Italy were the main force behind the Italian Renaissance. In this 6 hour series, Professor William Landon attempts to give an unbiased picture of the different members of the Medici family from Giovanni di Bicci to Anna Maria Luisa  and their impact on history. 

I have long been fascinated by the Medici family.  On the one hand they were minor rulers.  Florence in the 1500's only had about 40,000 residents.  On the other hand, they made a big enough impact on the world that almost everyone in the Western world have heard of them.  This series is a good introduction to the dynasty, but because of the other lecture series about Italy I have listened to this year, there wasn't much new information.  I was interested to learn about Anna Maria Luisa, who was the last recognized leader of the family's dynasty, who willed all of the Medici property and art collection to the city of Florence.  It is because of her that much of their collection has stayed intact, and delights visitors to Italy to this day.  Landon focus's primarily on the family's political roles and impact.  I would have liked to have heard more about their interactions with the prominent artists and scholars of their day. Still, Dr. Landon's presentation is well organized and interesting and I would recommended it to anyone interested in the topic. (2021, 12 1/2 hour lectures)

Great Courses: Conquest of the Americas by Marshall Eakin

 In 1491 both North and South America were full of thousands of native civilizations.  Some were large like the Mayas and the Incas.  Most were smaller, and ranged from primitive hunter/gather's to agrarian cultures to societies rivaling Western cultures in their achievements.  Then Columbus crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the islands of the Caribbean. Everything started to change, and within two centuries the demographics of the Americas had totally changed.  Professor Eakin discusses this process of the conquering of the Americas by the Europeans in 24 lectures.  His main premise is that there were three groups of people who came together to form what we know now as Americans: the native people, the Europeans, and Africans brought to the Americas as slaves. He talks at length about how each groups played significant roles in the creation of the modern Americas. 

In the past few months I listened to Great Courses lectures on the history of the Middle East, Italy, and now the Americas during the period of the late medieval and early renaissance periods.  I feel like each one helped me fit another piece in place for understanding this time period.  I learned so much from this series that I didn't know before.  For example, I hadn't understood that only 6% of all Africans who served as slaves in the Americas were in what was to become the United States. Most were enslaved in Central and South America to work on plantations and in mines. I had heard that 90% of native peoples died of disease after the Europeans arrived, but I didn't understand that that die-off had already taken place in North America before the Pilgrims arrived. The diseases had spread north from the Spanish colonies of Mexico, and so when Europeans arrived in what was to become the United States, it was mostly an empty land. There was so much I found interesting but this review is already getting too long.  I know the title of this lecture series sounds like a bit of a downer, and it is, a little, but it is fascinating. (12 hrs, 2002)

Great Courses: Charlemagne by Philip Daileader

Charlemagne is one of the historical figures that looms larger than life.  His father was a successful ruler, Pepin,  King of the Franks, but Charlemagne was able to expand his inherited kingdom to include almost all of the continental Europe. After his brilliant military victories, he instituted educational and civil reforms that have positively impacted Europe ever since. In this 12 lecture series, Dr. Daileader looks at Charlemagne's life and impact in several different categories, including his military successes, his leadership in the Carolingian Renaissance, his religious reforms and others. He finishes with a lecture about how Charlemagne's legacy has lived on into the modern day.

I have listened to several different Great Courses lecture series lately about the middle ages in Europe.  This is partly in preparation for my planned trip to Europe in the fall. I have enjoyed all the Great Courses classes I have listened to, but I must admit that is one wasn't my favorite.  It may be that I wasn't really in the mood for it, but it seemed a little more dry than the one I listened to about Italy or the one I listened to about the history of the Levant. I did learn a lot of new facts about Charlemagne and Europe in the Middle Ages.  For instance, I am embarrassed to admit I had always thought of Charlemagne as French since his name sounds French, but he was actually more German than French. I was also interested in the section about how he managed his family and his dynasty.  When I listened to the history of Italy, one of the big problems with Italian medieval leaders was that they had a hard time establishing heirs. Charlemagne seemed to manage his own dynasty better than most. I also found it interesting that one of the reasons Charlemagne was so successful is that Europe just happened to have several years of really good weather during his reign, increasing crop output and decreasing plague. This isn't a bad introduction to an impressive historical figure, but, as I said, a little bit boring in its presentation. (12 hr., 2023)

Great Courses: Great Minds of the Medieval World by Dorsey Armstrong

Dr. Dorsey is from Purdue University and has done several Great Courses videos on Medieval History.  In this one she focuses on 12 people who made great intellectual contributions during the middle ages. She groups them into categories.  First she talks about the early church fathers like Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory.  She then talks about other great Catholic philosophers like Bede, Thomas Aquinus, and Bernard of Clairvaux.  She spends several lectures talking about Moslem and Jewish scholars of the middle ages, and then finishes up with people who made contributions who were not religious leaders.  She is very knowledgeable, and has a pleasant presentation style. She covers the subject's lives mostly, but also touches on their main ideas and values.  

You who are my regular readers know that I love this kind of stuff.  When I was in college I studied Latin and Greek, but the time period I was most interested in was the early medieval period.  I had heard about almost all the people she talks about in this series, but it was fun to get more details about their lives, and to be reminded about their accomplishments. There were a couple I hadn't heard about before, particularly some of the people in her last section about late medieval nonreligious leaders. I kept hoping she would mention Peter Cantor, who was the person I did my honors thesis about, but no luck. (He was more like a tear two historical personality.) Listening to the Great Courses classes really does take me back to my college years.  (24 1/2 hour lectures, 2014)

Great Courses: The Italians before Italy by Kenneth Bartlett

 In this Great Courses series, Dr. Bartlett focuses on the history of Italy from the 11th century until the unification of Italy in the 1800's, with extra focus on the Italian renaissance.  There are 24, 1/2 hour lectures.  In the first few he does an overview of what happened to Italy after the fall of Rome, and the major political and economic forces that held sway in the different city states. Then he dedicates one or two lectures to each of the major city states, highlighting their history, economy and cultural contribution and introducing influential figures. He spends a couple of chapters talking about the papacy, and more than two chapters of Florence. 

I checked out this series because I hope to travel to Italy this year.  I had studied a lot about Rome and Italy in college because I was a Humanities major with a classics emphasis. In my humanities classes I got a pretty thorough introduction to the Italian Renaissance, focusing on the great masters and their patrons. I gained some new insights into this period by listening to this series.  I hadn't ever connected the reign of the Medici Popes with Martin Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation before, but they were contemporary. I also hadn't realized that all the city states were allied with either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor and the two factions were the main cause of strife in the regions.  I also hadn't realized how long the Medici dynasty ruled in Florence. I was interested to see that the lecturer had a distinct measurement of the success or greatness of a particular ruler:  If they patronized the arts, Dr Bartlett thought they were great.  If they didn't, he was much less complimentary.  He only mentioned tangentially whether any leader helped their subjects in humanitarian ways.  It reminded me of an observation I had as a student...it is usually decadent and corrupt rulers that create great monuments of art or architecture. Even though I enjoyed the series, I must admit it was pretty dry and I don't think that it would have a wide popular appeal. (12 hrs, 2007)

Great Courses: Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor

 In this 24 part lecture series, Harl traces the history of Asia Minor from the period of the Hittites in about 2000 BCE to the rise of the Ottoman Empire in 13th century AD. He looks at how the different civilizations were manifested politically and culturally from the city of Troy, through the great empires of the Old Testament, Alexander the Great, the Roman empire, the Holy Roman Empire and finally the Ottoman Turks. Each lecture is about 1/2 hour long and Dr Harl is an informed and passionate advocate for increased appreciation for this part of the world. 

When people think of the leaders of Ancient Europe and Asia, they don't usual think about Asia Minor (the part of modern day Turkey between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas) but Dr Harl argues, convincingly, that they should. I was drawn to this series because I have been studying the New Testament this year, and the Apostle Paul, especially, talks a lot about cities in Asia Minor.  As I listened, however, I realized I was recognizing stories, places, and personalities I had studied in my Humanities classes in college.  It also gave me new perspective about the middle ages, especially the crusades and how Asia Minor switched from being the center of Christianity to being dominated by Muslim nations. When I told a co-worker I was listening to this series she commented that she thought it would be rather dry.  Maybe to many it would be, but I found it very interesting and it changed the way I saw the progress of history.  (2001, 24 lectures)

Great Courses: The Real History of Secret Societies by Richard Spence.

 Secret societies have existed from ancient times to today.  In 24 lectures, Richard Spence touches on every kind of secret society imaginable from ancient Greek wisdom cults to modern ISIS.  He spends quite a bit of time on the Free Masons and related organizations, focusing on their influence in history.  He has a lecture on the Mafia, a couple of lectures on the Knights Templar, and several on modern political societies.  In his lectures he gives both what is know through historical documentation about these groups, but also seems to delight in recounting unsubstantiated rumors as well.  He is careful to distinguish between the two, but he is also clearly focused on entertainment value as much as education.  

I had started another book whose plot turned out so silly that I couldn't finish it,(Come Back to Me by Jodie Hedlund)  so I picked this title since I vaguely thought it went along with the spooky tone of October.  It was interesting, and Spence is an entertaining lecturer.  As I mentioned above, Spencer is just as happy to quote obscure historical novels and he is historical documents. It seems like he not only quoted them for entertainment purposes, but because he doesn't discount their possible veracity. Despite the liberal mixing of fact and fiction, I came away from the series with the understanding that "secret" societies are more ubiquitous than I had thought, and that they have many similarities with each other.  It seems that forming secret societies meets some common human need, and therefore when one organization dies another is sure to pop up.  This is a good choice for those interested in listening to fairly light pseudo-nonfiction about an engaging topic. (2020, 24 1/2 hr lectures)

Great Courses: Origins of the Human Mind by Stephen P Hinshaw

This is an older series of 24 1/2 hour lectures about the evolutionary origins of the human mind.  Actually, about half of the lectures are a basic introduction to the brain and mind, and how they relate with each other through physiology and psychology. He spends several lectures exploring the most common mental illnesses and tries to show their biological and sociological basis and how these maladies could persist in the genome even through centuries of natural selection. Throughout the lectures he is fairly clinically detached, almost, at times, to the level of creepiness.  He almost seems to regret ethical restrictions that don't allow scientists to do certain kinds of clinical studies. I was therefore a little surprised when he finished the series with a fairly personal story of his own father and his struggle with severe mental illness. Overall, it is a good lecture series.  The presenter is knowlegeable and intelligible.  I have listened to several books and lectures on similar topics, so there wasn't a whole lot of new information for me in this series.  I think the main new take-away I had was that sometimes genes that, in certain combinations, cause mental illness, in other combinations probably helped our ancient ancestors survive. That is somehow oddly comforting. (2010, 12 hrs)

Great Courses: Introduction to the Qur'an by Martyn Oliver

 This Great Courses lecture series contains 12 half-hour lectures of the Qur'an by Dr. Martyn Oliver.  The first lecture deals with the way Muslim people view the Qur'an.  Subsequent lectures discuss the book's origin, its basic themes, structure, portrayal of Biblical characters, and different schools of interpretation. He ends the course with discussions about difficult doctrines of Jihad and Sharia Law.  Oliver is obviously a fan of the book, and portrays it in a favorable light.  His lectures are interesting and insightful, and he is careful to indicate when he is giving an opinion that is not widely held.  Several times he includes recordings of a woman who recites passages in the original Arabic and in the traditional style.  The original version of this lecture series must contain slides because Oliver makes longer than normal pauses as he moves from one topic to another. It isn't too distracting, though, and overall, it is a very good introduction to a very important piece of literature. (2020, 6 hrs)

Great Courses: Influence by Kenneth Brown

 In this twelve lecture series, Brown discusses how people are able to influence others, for good or bad, and how people can recognize and resist predatory influence.  He starts out by identifying four elements that factor into an interaction, and how these factors can be tweaked to improve the chance of influence. He also discusses how to recognize con-artists and how they use the same elements to trick people.  Professor brown quotes different studies throughout and also takes examples from both research and popular media.  He ends each lecture with suggested exercises to reinforce the principles taught.

I have listened to several Great Courses series before and this one was neither my favorite or my least favorite.  A lot of the things he talks about are part of common wisdom, like the importance of wearing a smile, using a firm handshake, and being genuine. As I was listening I thought that his suggestions were just as likely to help people manipulate others as to legitimately influence others.  I found it useful to think about his main points, and the series did remind me of some things I could do better with as a manager and government employee. (12 lectures, 6 hrs total, 2014)

Great Courses: Biology of Human Behavior by Robert Sapolsky

In this series of 24 lectures, Dr Sapolsky walks the listeners through many the physiological of human behavior.  He starts with a simple explanation about how a neuron works.  Then he talks about neuro-networks, and the chemicals that function as neuro- transmitters.  He talks about the structure of the brain and which parts have the biggest roles in influencing Human Behavior.  Then he shifts gears and explores several "buckets" or ways that people have approached the study of human behavior, including evolution, environment, heredity and environment. 

Dr. Sapolsky is a very engaging speaker with an obvious enthusiasm for his subject matter.  He has some bias in which theories about human behavior he thinks are worthwhile and which he thinks are ridiculous, but he is always careful to acknowledge his personal bias.  He often refers to diagrams in this lecture, and I stopped the recording a couple of times to look up similar diagrams, like the structure of the brain and the parts of a neuron, but I felt like he described most of his diagrams well enough that I could picture them in my head without actually seeing them.  I found the lecture series very interesting and it answered some of my personal questions about how different systems in the body work.  It was well worth the 12 hour listening time. (2005, 12 hrs)

Great Courses: Augustine: Philosopher and Saint by Phillip Cary

 Saint Augustine is now considered one of the theological fathers of the Catholic Church, but he didn't start out that way.  As a youth he was trained as a philosopher and rhetorician, and for a time he followed the heretical sect of the Manicheans. In twelve lectures, the author discusses Augustine's life and theology, and the impact he had on modern Christian thought. His lectures are based on the major writings of the Saint, including the Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, and the The City of God.  Cary emphasizes how Augustine adapted the teachings of the Neoplatonists to Christian theology.

Of course, having been a humanities major focusing on the middle ages, I had heard of Augustine, but listening to this lecture series, I realized how little I really knew about him and his teachings.  Professor Cary gives interesting and rather animated lectures and seems to be well informed on his topic. I enjoyed listening to the lectures, but I didn't gain a lot of respect for Augustine.  He really does seem to have ignored much of what we know about God and Christ from the Bible, and instead tried to God into the philosophies popular at the time in Rome. Augustine was clearly brilliant, but, in my opinion, misguided. 

(1998, 6 hrs)

The Higgs Boson and Beyond by Great Courses

 In 2012 the CERN scientists announced that a Higgs Boson had been created in the Large Hadron Collider. At the time I wondered what it was all about.  This week, in the mood for some nonfiction, I happened on this Great Courses offering about the Higgs Boson and checked it out on Libby.  The course has 12 1/2 hour lectures by Sean Carroll that cover some basic physics, the history of the Higgs Boson, and where physicists want to go from here.  It assumes about a high-school level of physics understanding and covers the current (as of the creation of the lectures) state of the wave theory of elementary particles and how the Higgs Boson is similar and different from other bosons.  It was a good level for me, though I did occasionally get lost in lingo.  I was happy to get updated on current physical science, since I hadn't had a class in it in 30 years. The lecturer is engaging and not at all condescending even though he seems to be a leader in the field.  I talked about the course enough to my husband who got an undergraduate degree in physics, that he put it on hold.  Not all the "Great Courses" offerings are well done, but many are, including this one.  I am glad so many are now available on Libby. (2013, 6 hours 20 minutes)