MCCS: The Great Courses

Making a few simple adjustments to the way you see things and act on them-learning to ""think like an economist""-can give you newfound power and confidence in a surprising range of financial and personal situations that make up your daily life. You can find yourself making better decisions that not only save time and money, but also produce optimum results in other ways important to you. And you can also sharpen your understanding of world and national events. In the 12 fast-moving and crystal-clear lectures of Thinking like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making, award-winning Professor Randall Bartlett of Smith College presents some of the fundamental principles and concepts that shape the lenses through which economists view the world. He then shows you how to use these simple analytical tools to understand what you see through those lenses. By learning to identify the many varied situations in which economics affects your life and how to wield the tools that can help you make the wisest choices in those situations, you'll enhance not only your understanding of daily life but your own success in living it. A Tool Kit for Changing How You Look at Daily Life Many of the concepts in Professor Bartlett's tool kit may be familiar. People respond to incentives. There's no such thing as a ""free lunch."" There are at least two sides to every interaction. Everything affects everything else. Any action can bring with it significant unintended consequences. In this world of complex interrelationships, no one is really in control. However, when used in the context of three core concepts of economic rationality, marginal analysis, and optimization that Professor Bartlett clearly lays out, his tool kit can make this perhaps the most practical, life-enhancing economics course you'll ever take. It's an approach that makes Thinking like an Economist a real-life how-to guide that sets aside those often-dry economics textbooks and reveals just how often the seemingly remote forces discussed in their pages are in fact at play in your own life-often in situations in which you may never have dreamed they'd be present. While most of us can readily appreciate the role those forces play in expected areas-the ones in which monetary values are obviously at work-many of us often give little notice to the full reach of those economic principles into almost every other aspect of our lives, from the safety of our environment to the amount of candidate information we really need in order to cast a wise vote. After a dozen lectures with Professor Bartlett, things will look very different. You'll see how basic economic ideas like incentives, risks, rewards, and rationality are not just the province of professional economists, government policymakers, or your local bank's loan officer, but instead lie at the root of nearly every decision you must make in your daily life. Those decisions can include choosing wine from a restaurant menu, buying an extended warranty on that new television set, deciding how to get to work each morning, or nearly anything else you might imagine. Real-Life Examples Clarify Each Key Idea Using examples drawn from his own life and likely echoing yours, Professor Bartlett shows you how to see the world as an economist sees it, examine the rationality of individual decisions, and evaluate the outcome of those decisions in terms of both personal benefit and social efficiency, which can sometimes differ. Professor Bartlett has designed Thinking like an Economist to require no previous economics education. And he has scaled his examples to include not only those situations common to us all, but also to those felt across entire countries and even the world, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the debate about global warming and the most practical ways to respond to it. An engaging and remarkably clear teacher, Professor Bartlett has for years attracted a widespread audience-from both on and off campus-for his annual lecture series on financial literacy. This course will help you grasp why those lectures are so popular, and why the lessons taught in them are so valuable to you.

So why is a Chinese guide to military strategy written in 330 to 320 B.C. so prevalent in modern military operations, business school curricula, sports, and popular culture' What can its lessons offer us today' As award-winning Professor Andrew R. Wilson of the U.S. Naval War College demonstrates in the six expertly crafted lectures of The Art of War, this classic's wisdom for staying nimble in an ever-changing environment and for maximizing reward while minimizing risk remains eternally fresh. As war and business become more mental and less physical, human intellect plays an ever greater role in competition-making Sun Tzu's strategies highly relevant to the information age. Furthermore, as China becomes increasingly economically influential, militarily capable, and politically assertive, it behooves us to study a book so central to the country's philosophical past. Through a precise explanation of the original text and case studies, this course examines how the seminal work's model of leadership has been applied-and misapplied-throughout the realms of war, politics, business, and beyond. An Inquiry Grounded in History As an expert in Chinese history, language, and culture who has studied numerous versions of The Art of War, Professor Wilson is uniquely qualified to orient you to the cultural landscape against which the guide was composed. You'll begin your exploration by delving into the work's likely origins with an anonymous author who appropriated Sun Tzu's military credentials two centuries after his death. Then, you'll trace how dramatic changes in the scale, scope, and expense of war between the 8th and 4th centuries B.C. inspired this new strategic paradigm. You'll learn how armies of aristocrats from feuding confederations waged battles predicated on ritual, glory, and vengeance during the Zhou dynasty in the 8th century B.C.; the dominant northern state of Qi began to choose the talent of commanders over a noble pedigree in the 7th century B.C.; and organized states with massive armies and standardized weaponry formed in the Warring States period that spanned the 5th to 3rd centuries B.C., yet anachronistic notions about war prevailed. With this historical framework established, you're ready to delve into the critical calculations that must be made prior to war-what Sun Tzu refers to as knowing the enemy, knowing ourselves. A New Model of Leadership The Art of War is both a guide for competition and preparing so well for competition that one's organizational strength and focus awes the enemy into giving up without a fight. Through the professor's use of real-world examples, you'll understand the qualities effective commanders must possess and the work's practical implications for outmaneuvering competitors in daily life. Beyond the Modern Phenomenon Sun Tzu's words are often easy fodder for superficial approaches to the work. However, The Art of War eschews reducing the maxims to mere platitudes and removing the lessons from their original context. As an expert in Chinese strategic thought who is so passionate about this book that he's read the original text word for word in classical Chinese, Professor Wilson demonstrates the nuanced meaning of the language, along with the work's contemporary value, from a scholarly perspective that makes your independent reading exponentially more vital. By taking this course, you will appreciate Sun Tzu's content on a far deeper level.

Yet this is often easier said than done. Many of us have a deep fear of public speaking. Or we think it's just an intuitive talent that can't be learned. But according to award-winning Professor John R. Hale of the University of Louisville, a masterful public speaker who has delivered more than 1,000 speeches to all manner of audiences, that couldn't be further from the truth. All it takes is confidence, practice, and the knowledge of time-tested techniques and strategies used by history's greatest public speakers-all of which you'll find in The Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History. This 12-lecture course is your guide to the secrets of this essential skill, an insider's look at what makes history's enduring speeches so unforgettable, and an invaluable reference tool you can use any time you have to speak your mind. Learn from History's Greatest Public Speakers As both a lecturer and a distinguished historian, Professor Hale has a strong awareness of how public speaking has been used effectively in the past. What makes The Art of Public Speaking such a unique educational experience is that you learn about the craft from some of the best public speakers in history. Each lecture features powerful speeches by iconic individuals that illustrate how the strategies of public speaking have been used in real situations. Here are some of the powerful voices you'll meet: Abraham Lincoln, who defined the art of delivering a strong conclusion with his iconic Gettysburg Address Marie Curie, whose commencement address to Vassar College in 1921 exemplifies how to turn dry facts into captivating stories Martin Luther King Jr., who illustrated the best way to share beliefs in his stirring ""I Have a Dream""speech A Course Designed for All Speakers Explorations of public speaking are often bogged down in complex rhetorical terms. But Professor Hale has designed The Art of Public Speaking to be accessible to everyone. In order to do this, he takes you through each of the three key components of successful public speaking. How to prepare for public speaking: Learn from Patrick Henry, Elizabeth I, and others how to overcome stage fright, control your voice and body, use humor, and personalize your delivery. How to craft a great speech: Learn how to build captivating speeches from people such as Paul the Apostle and Susan B. Anthony and how to use stories, examples, logic, and impressive visual images. How to handle your audience: Learn from Mark Antony, Gandhi, and others how to focus on your audience, persuade them to agree with you, invite them to share your vision, and inspire them to change. Practical Advice to Help You in Any Situation The Art of Public Speaking, though rooted in rich history, is packed with practical advice. Here are just three of the tips you'll find: Speak from personal knowledge: Use personal experiences to allow your audience to better connect with you. In polite conversation, talking about yourself is frowned upon; in public speaking, it's essential. Organize your facts into a story: When drafting a speech, find the underlying stories in your topic and organize your information around these stories. You'll find it easier to remember your speech, and your audience will engage more with your message. Weave familiar references into your speech: Using familiar quotations when addressing your audience can establish a common ground. They may not be your words but, when used sparingly, they can infuse your speech with added power. A Course that's Informative and Inspirational Praised by both our customers and his students for delivering lectures that are informative and engaging, Professor Hale is the perfect instructor for a course on the power of public speaking. Each of his lectures is an example of lecturing at its finest, demonstrating firsthand the ability of a public speaker to tell stories, to inform, and to inspire. So join him on this invaluable and practical look at one of the most important skills in your personal and professional life. Whether you want to finally become the confident public speaker you've always wanted to be or are just looking for fresh advice on how to strengthen your public speaking skills, this dynamic course has everything you need.

And with this solid background in place, you'll explore a broad group of tragedies in close detail. In particular, you'll see how individual tragedies used traditional myths (often tales from the Trojan War), and what Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides intended to accomplish by changing or adding to the basic story. You'll examine what certain tragedies imply about the world of 5th-century Athens and the importance, in turn, of the cultural background for explaining those tragedies.

And it can leave its scars on your community and even your nation. Handled well, however, conflict can be extraordinarily useful. If you have the skills needed to identify and resolve conflict, it can actually be your ally. It can help you identify and solve problems. And it can build deeper and stronger relationships, whether with your coworkers, supervisors and subordinates, or your closest friends and loved ones. Most of us, though, haven't been lucky enough to have been taught those vital skills or to have learned the ways in which factors like perspective, emotions, goals, and power can create or drive a conflict. For better or worse, we've had to pick things up as we went along, beginning in our homes or schoolyards and going on from there. All with uneven results that can play out for the rest of our lives, burdening us with a default conflict ""style"" that may be dysfunctional at best and seriously harmful at worst. The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work, and Beyond is an opportunity for you to gain those essential skills. Its 24 lectures are brimming with practical tips, tools, and techniques everyone can use to better manage conflict in his or her professional and personal lives, which receive equal emphasis in the course. Strategies and Tactics You Can Use Right Now Presented by Professor Michael Dues of The University of Arizona-an award-winning teacher, writer, author, and successful consultant to both public and private organizations-these lectures will show you how to effectively deal with conflicts of all kinds, using the ""win-win"" model that has dominated the field for the past six decades. You'll gain effective techniques for handling conflicts in your workplace, other organizational settings, or your personal life, whether you're dealing with supervisors, coworkers, acquaintances, close friends, or family members. You'll learn the best ways to analyze conflicts and work through the steps toward resolving them, including clarifying goals, handling difficult emotions, and negotiating agreements. And you'll grasp the fundamental tricks of the trade that experienced negotiators have long used to deal with even the most seemingly intractable moral and cultural conflicts. While drawing on the latest groundbreaking research, Professor Dues has designed this course to be as practical as possible. Requiring no background in conflict management, negotiation, or psychology, the lectures offer you not just knowledge, but strategies and tactics you can put to work in your own life right now. See the Best Conflict Management Techniques in Action Best of all, you'll be able to see those strategies and tactics in action. Professor Dues has crafted 70 professionally acted dramatizations to illustrate different conflict situations at home and in the workplace. Most of these situations will be familiar to all of us, undoubtedly echoing similar conflicts we've experienced in our own lives. And as you watch them unfold, you'll grasp far more than what works and what doesn't. You'll understand why. Moreover, to ensure that you gain a true working feel for the dynamics at play in each of these situations, Professor Dues ends each lecture with a simple yet provocative ""assignment."" He asks you to focus on events in your own life in which those same dynamics have been felt, and to then apply what you have just learned in evaluating your own statements and actions. There's no better way to get a real handle on a conflict you know well and to see immediately what needs to happen to resolve it. Even something as simple as offering an apology, for example, takes on a whole new light after you learn the five components that must be included if an apology is to be truly accepted and effective. And while most of us probably believe we already know how to apologize, it's likely that many of our own apologies might not include all of these essentials: A specific statement of the offending behavior An acknowledgment that it was harmful Our assumption of responsibility for both the behavior and the harm done An admission of regret Our commitment to not repeat the behavior Discover New Realizations about the Conflicts in Life Time after time, you're likely to catch yourself in a quick one-two punch of realization after Professor Dues makes a telling point, or after a pair of dramatizations illustrates the right and wrong way we can communicate during a conflict: Realization No. 1: Well, of course. That makes sense. I probably knew that already. Quickly followed by... Realization No. 2: I don't think I actually said it that way the last time I was in that situation. Maybe that's why things didn't work out as well as I had hoped. The lectures abound with examples producing similar realizations. Professor Dues repeatedly reveals conversational pathways that make all the sense in the world, but that we might not necessarily take or even consider on our own. By folding these insights into the findings of six decades of research and presenting the material in easily digestible form, he succeeds in leaving you with knowledge that manages to be both eye-opening and intuitive. That knowledge becomes a toolbox of techniques you can put to work today, not only preventing as many conflicts as possible but equipping you to manage in the best possible way the ones that do take place in spite of your best efforts. One of the most remarkable points Professor Dues makes is how even the most seemingly intractable conflicts can be eased toward resolution by these techniques. His riveting descriptions of how they have been put to use on the world stage-including President Carter's creative eliciting of empathy during the Camp David negotiations between Israel and Egypt-offer profound examples of how powerful these techniques can be. And while your own conflicts may not seem to rise to a similar scale, there is no mistaking the impact they can have on your own world, where your relationships-at work, with friends, or with family-define your success and happiness. You don't have a choice about becoming involved in conflict. You do, however, have a choice about learning to manage it successfully and about using the invaluable tools this course can give you.

Some people enjoy it. Others do not. But everyone can cultivate it and learn how to handle common challenges such as these:Salary negotiations: Few situations are as awkward as salary negotiations when you're being offered a new job. The employer has the upper hand, but there are reasonable steps you can take to ensure that you are treated fairly and get the going rate for your position. Sharp tactics: Aggressive negotiators are often not as sharp as they seem, since many rely on standard tricks that are easy to spot-if you know what to look for. Be alert for nibbling, limited authority, and double-talk tactics, among other gambits, and know how to counter them. Haggling: Haggling is what many people hate about negotiation. But it's possible to turn a win/lose confrontation into a mutually satisfying agreement by focusing on the interests of the two sides, which can be complementary.Good negotiating goes beyond succeeding in the marketplace; these skills are crucial for solving conflicts of all types, getting fractious groups to work together, counseling friends in distress, persuading people to give to a charity, and generally getting anyone to accept your point of view-and they enable you to do it in ways that enhance rather than strain relationships.Wouldn't a course that equips you with such valuable knowledge pay for itself many times over'The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal is exactly that course, taught by an expert negotiator, mediator, business school teacher, and former corporate attorney: Seth Freeman, an adjunct professor at New York University Stern School of Business and at Columbia University. In 24 engaging and practical lectures, Professor Freeman teaches you how to approach all phases of a negotiation and deal with a wide range of problems. You'll learn how to negotiate effectively in both competitive and collaborative situations, always being "hard on the problem and soft on the person"-which is the key to achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.A Negotiator's Play-by-PlayPreparation is all-important for successful negotiating. But where do you begin, what do you cover, and how do you organize your time, which may be running out' Professor Freeman structures The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal around a mnemonic device that can serve you like a wise old friend in any negotiation situation. Fittingly, the mnemonic is I FORESAW IT-each of the 10 letters standing for a word or short phrase that, together, guide you in assembling the strongest possible case. After taking this course, you will understand how to use the I FORESAW IT framework to sketch out a coherent and flexible bargaining strategy, on very short notice if necessary.Among the elements of I FORESAW IT are these:Options: You don't have to take "no" for an answer when you're working toward a deal. By coming up with creative options-innovative deal terms-you have a good chance of satisfying both your needs and your counterpart's.Alternatives to agreement: Determine your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA). This gives you an exit strategy if the other's offer seems too harsh. Also consider your worst alternative (WATNA), so that you don't court disaster by overestimating your strength.Independent criteria: Identify objective benchmarks-for example, the Blue Book's report on the market value of a car, or a leading publication's salary survey covering jobs for someone with your qualifications-that can support what your negotiation is trying to achieve. These and seven other steps are key ideas that skilled negotiators explore to prepare for important talks. Professor Freeman created the I FORESAW IT mnemonic based on social science research, experts' accounts, and his extensive negotiating experience, and he illustrates each of the ideas with memorable anecdotes. Some concern major negotiations gone horribly wrong-as when famed industrialist Andrew Carnegie violated a cardinal rule by lowballing himself, asking for far less than his counterpart, J. P. Morgan, was prepared to offer. Others are about triumphs-as when a student's research helped her persuade a reluctant corporate donor to give five times more to her charity than it had before.Object Lessons in NegotiationStories, says Professor Freeman, have an almost magical ability to engage the listener, illustrate ideas, and stay in the mind. Therefore, The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal features scores of real-life incidents that teach powerful and memorable lessons. These object lessons in negotiation include these: Don't be greedy: Sports agent Bob Woolf represented some of the most celebrated players of his day. But his practice was to stop short of getting the maximum for his clients. Why' "It's possible to push the price so hard, create such antagonism, that the last 10% really isn't worth it," said Woolf.Think beyond the negotiating room: Sometimes an impasse can be resolved by bringing new players or other factors into the negotiation. Learn how this insight helped one passenger rescue a planeload of desperate fellow passengers, who had been waiting hours to dock at their gate in Detroit during a blizzard. Solve the trust problem: The fractious young United States was on the verge of disintegration in 1787 when state delegates met to negotiate a new compact. The resulting U.S. Constitution incorporated a host of trust mechanisms that bound the nation together, while creating a unique blend of state autonomy and federal power.Some of the most famous negotiations have happened on the world stage, pitting the competing interests of nations against each other. These riveting talks highlight important principles. You'll hear about the bargaining breakthroughs that led to the Camp David Accords and the resolution of the Cuban missile crisis. You'll also hear how a courageous U.S. Army general persuaded his superior to overcome great misgivings and let him land with the first wave of troops during D-Day. Each of these negotiations hinged on an insight that can be put to good use when you next sit down to negotiate.Knowledge is power, and The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal gives you a potent set of tools to serve your interests, resolve disagreements, and advance causes that you hold dear in respectful, principled ways. What could be more useful than that'

In 24 lectures you learn the building blocks of an argument, the different categories of argument and the issues that are at stake in each, the kinds of evidence that serve as proof in an argument, and many other aspects of argumentation and reasoning, illustrated with examples from some of the most famous speeches, debates, and controversies in American history. What You Learn Award-winning Professor David Zarefsky of Northwestern University has five goals for this course: You will learn how to recognize arguments; how to find them in conversations, newspaper editorials, speeches, in controversies of any kind; and how to know them when you encounter them. You will become aware of how arguing reflects choice, broadening your understanding of the choices that arguers can make and that you can make when you build and construct an argument. You will learn how to evaluate various types of arguments. In the process, you'll learn the standards that should govern your assessment of these qualities. In attempting all of these tasks you will examine examples of a variety of historical and contemporary arguments, shedding light on some significant controversies by looking at them from the perspective of argument. Having become familiar with argumentation theories, you should be able to improve your ability both as an analyst and as a maker of arguments. Argumentation starts with four lectures that review the intellectual and historical backgrounds of argumentation. Then in Lectures 5 through 11 you explore the strategies and tactics of argument construction, attack, and defense. Lectures 12 through 18 consider the components of argument in greater detail and examine how they work. Next, Lectures 19 and 20 focus on the appraisal of arguments. Finally, in Lectures 21 through 24, you investigate how argumentation functions in society, covering such topics as argumentation in specialized fields and the different ways that arguments can end. Argumentation in Action Professor Zarefsky infuses Argumentation with rich historical examples to illustrate the principles of argumentation in action. For example, in 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a dramatic speech before the U.N. Security Council, seeking approval for the use of military force against Iraq. Dr. Zarefsky uses this speech to explore how arguments employ complex structures. Secretary Powell's address used a combination of parallel and convergent structures. Through careful analysis, you'll learn how these structures work logically and why supporters of President Bush's Iraq policy treated the arguments as purely parallel, while opponents treated them as convergent. Why should you practice this kind of argument analysis' ""It enables you to understand what's going on in the argument,"" says Professor Zarefsky. ""Few of us are ever going to have the opportunity to address the U.N. Security Council, but if you do this with a letter to the editor, or an editorial in the local newspaper, or in a conversation that you have in your family, the same process works just as well, and you can get some real insight into the nature of the arguments."" Principles behind Historic Speeches More examples of important principles at work in historic speeches include The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: The dueling speeches of U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas illustrate the principle that argumentation takes place with a particular audience in mind-in this case, the swing voters of central Illinois. You also learn that all argument involves risk, and that Lincoln and Douglas each sacrificed strategic advantages in meeting to debate. Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Voting Rights Message: President Johnson's historic address to a joint session of Congress was a policy-oriented speech that focused masterfully on the relevant topoi-the traditional categories of issues that arise in dealing with a controversy. You learn why it was named one of the top 10 American speeches of the 20th century by a national survey of communications scholars. The Kennedy-Nixon Debates of 1960: John F. Kennedy's reply to a journalist's question during the third presidential debate with Richard Nixon illustrates the application of the ""mini-max"" principle-the minimum effort and risk yielding the maximum gain. You see why Nixon's rebuttal does not reflect the best strategic choices in meeting Kennedy's arguments. Abraham Lincoln's House-Divided Speech: Lincoln's speech accepting nomination to run for the U.S. Senate against Stephen Douglas demonstrates a classic use of figures of speech. Lincoln employs the analogy of workmen building a frame house to connect prominent politicians of the day with a plot to legalize slavery throughout the United States. He can't prove it directly, but by using a clever figurative analogy he makes a convincing case that the plot is inexorably unfolding. Franklin D. Roosevelt's December 8, 1941, War Message: Roosevelt's speech to Congress on the day after the Pearl Harbor attack is a vivid model of a type of argument called the warrant from example. A warrant is an authorization to make an inference from evidence to claim, and Roosevelt cites a litany of examples of Japanese aggression to establish their intent for general war. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ""I Have A Dream"" Speech: You learn how this celebrated speech illustrates a sign argument, in which Dr. King juxtaposes intolerable conditions for African Americans with a Scriptural allusion to the onrushing ""mighty stream"" of justice. He infers that one phenomenon predicts, or is a sign for, the other. A Teacher with Passion, Insight, and Humor These are just some of the creative ways that Professor Zarefsky explains a subject that is inherently fascinating, though often technical and demanding. Rarely has it been taught with the passion, insight, and humor that Professor Zarefsky displays. For instance, in discussing the concept of ""stasis,"" he shows how a simple accusation of theft offers a variety of responses that will determine exactly what is at issue and therefore what needs to be settled. That point of dispute is called the stasis. The claim, ""You stole my car,"" could be countered with, ""No, I never had your car,"" asserting that the act never took place. This is called ""stasis of conjecture"". By contrast, the reply, ""I only borrowed your car,"" signals an argument over how to characterize the act and is called ""stasis of definition."" ""I needed your car for an emergency"" cites urgent circumstances and is called ""stasis of quality."" And a refusal to discuss the matter at this particular time and place with the response, ""If you've got a case, then take me to court,"" indicates that another forum is more appropriate and is called ""stasis of place."" Determining stasis is crucial to understanding the issues at play in any argument. Additional technical aspects of argumentation that you study include the basic structure of arguments (claim, evidence, inference, and warrant); the patterns of complex arguments (multiple, coordinative, and subordinative); the six types of inductive inference (example, analogy, sign, cause, commonplaces, and form); and such strategic issues as patterns of attack and defense, choices of language and style, and fallacies to avoid, including the surprising insight that the exact same pattern of inference can sometimes be fallacious and sometimes valid, depending on circumstances.

When is the right time for your company to change its business model' Is moving across the country for a new job the best option for you and your family' At what point do you roll out a new product or service currently being tested' Should you sell your house now, or wait until the housing market improves' But making a good decision and avoiding a horrible one is not a chance act. It's a skill-one that can be learned, honed, and perfected. Mastering the art of critical decision making is the key to improving your life at home, at work, or in your community. When you understand the necessary components of a smart decision, you can examine mistakes you might have made in the past and sidestep potential mistakes in the future. And when you know the underlying psychological, social, and emotional components that influence decision making-whether they are your own decisions or the decisions of others-you can make sounder choices that produce better results. Now you can learn to approach the critical decisions in your life with a more seasoned, educated eye with The Art of Critical Decision Making, a fascinating 24-lecture course that explores how individuals, groups, and organizations make effective decisions and offers you tips and techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your own decision making. Taught by award-winning Professor Michael A. Roberto of Bryant University-a scholar of leadership, managerial decision making, and business strategy-this dynamic course is an engaging and practical guide to one of the most fundamental activities in your life. Three Levels of Decision Making The heart of this accessible course is a thorough examination of decision making at three key levels: The individual level: Studying how individuals make decisions reveals a wealth of insights into how-and why-they make particular choices. Most individuals do not examine every possible alternative but instead draw on experience and rules of thumb. Most of us, it turns out, are susceptible to what psychologists call cognitive biases: decision traps that can cause us to make certain systematic mistakes when making choices. You also learn how intuition, surprisingly, is more than just a gut instinct and represents instead a powerful pattern recognition capability. The group level: Because you don't always make choices on your own, it's important to understand decision making at the level of group or team. Here, you try to answer the question of whether groups are smarter and more capable of making critical decisions than individuals. The lectures show you problems that typically arise in group decision-making scenarios, including groupthink (the notorious tendency for groups to be pressured into conforming to a particular view) and a lack of synergy between team members. You also learn how groups can overcome these and other problems to make better decisions. The organizational level: Studying decision making on the organizational level requires you to grasp how the structure, systems, and culture of a particular organization shape the behavior of its individual teams and members. Professor Roberto shows you how history's wrong decisions usually cannot be attributed to one wrong decision or poor leader. He also demonstrates how some organizations have encouraged and reliably performed vigilant decision making in the face of risky scenarios. The Key to Effective Decision Making The Art of Critical Decision Making reveals that bad decisions are usually made because of a poorly thought-out decision-making process. If decision makers put more emphasis on how to make a decision, ensure that they remove personal biases, collect information beforehand, glean the diverse perspectives of others, and perform a number of other constructive activities, they can vastly improve the strength and success of the process. Professor Roberto employs the case method used by America's most prestigious business schools, including Harvard University. Designed to expose students to a breadth and depth of real-world examples and scenarios, the case method allows you to compare and contrast various situations as a way to recognize patterns. In doing so, you refine your ability to distinguish between smart and poor decision making. Among the many compelling case studies you engage in throughout the course are these: IDEO's appropriate use of expertise: You study the decision-making practices of this California-based design consultancy. One of the key lessons you learn is that IDEO uses experts and their knowledge in an appropriate manner-recognizing that sometimes expertise as defined by past successes is not always ideal in a quickly changing environment. Improving patient care in hospitals: Professor Roberto's independent study of hospital staff demonstrated how experienced nurses can positively influence patient care through intuition. By relying on an understanding of warning signs and using the Socratic method of asking questions, veteran nurses were able to prevent patients from experiencing life-threatening problems and reduced the rates for heart attacks and mortality. General Motors' financial woes: In 1972, General Motors was the nation's most profitable company, but in late 2008 the carmaker's profitability sank drastically. According to Professor Roberto, the management team's assumptions during the 1970s-including the persistence of energy sources and the internal promotion of managers-were proved false in the near and long term and only perpetuated outdated ways of thinking in the company. Compelling historical and contemporary examples provide a captivating window through which to see the process of decision making at work. In taking key principles that great scholars and leaders have studied from history, business, and the modern world, Professor Roberto helps you understand exactly how the successful and unsuccessful decisions involved in these and other events are relevant to your own life. Learn to Make Smarter Decisions Whether you're the head of a Fortune 500 company, a government agency, or an everyday household, you constantly make decisions important to you and those immediately around you. The Art of Critical Decision Making offers you a toolbox of practical knowledge and skills that you can apply to various decisions-whether large or small-in your everyday life and work. Professor Roberto's lively lectures are packed with useful anecdotes, tools, and advice designed to improve your own ability to make informed decisions. Among the many insights you gain from these lectures are that a large part of making a good decision is not just solving a problem but accurately defining it; framing a decision in terms of what may be lost usually causes us to take greater risks than if a problem is framed in terms of potential gains; and hidden problems, not visible ones, are the true enemies of effective critical decision making. Become a Better Critical Thinker While a thorough exploration of decision making can be a complex endeavor, it takes a professor as knowledgeable and comprehensible as Professor Roberto to expose just how easy to grasp this science is. Warm, engaging, and vibrant, Professor Roberto possesses a passion for his field that is undeniably contagious.

Information is literally everywhere around you; in newspapers and magazines, on the radio and television, and across the Internet. But as the amount of information out there increases, so too does the amount of misinformation. So it's more important than ever before to become a better critical thinker-someone who can analyze and construct arguments and arrive at more sound, more informed opinions. And the key to success lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works-and goes wrong; mastering the fundamental skills behind logic, reasoning, and argumentation; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. All this and more you can find in the 24 rewarding lectures of Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills. Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine-an academic neurologist, award-winning instructor, and public educator-equips you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully than ever before. Explore the Inner Workings of Critical Thinking Our brains, according to Dr. Novella, are our greatest strength as critical thinkers. But they can also be the source of many weaknesses and impairments in critical thought. In Your Deceptive Mind, you'll take a closer look at the neuroscientific details of critical thinking and how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter: The neuroscience of critical thinking: Approach the act of thinking not as some abstract concept but as an action rooted deep within your brain. In clear, easy-to-understand language, Dr. Novella takes you deep inside this powerful organ to examine how you form beliefs, perceive your surroundings, and remember events. Biases and problems in critical thinking: The key to success as a critical thinker lies in understanding the range of biases and problems that can stand in the way of reason and truth. You'll encounter-and learn how to deftly sidestep-fallacies such as retrofitting of evidence, collective wish fulfillment, reliance on ""factoids,""and ad hominem arguments. Science and pseudoscience: Knowing how to separate science (the foundation of critical thought) from pseudoscience is of the utmost importance to any well-rounded critical thinker. Here, you'll investigate common examples of pseudoscience that surround us every day-from the denial of established evidence to the belief in grand conspiracies. Along the way, you'll sample a range of illuminating case studies, experiments, and observations from nutrition, science, technology, mass culture, and even politics; all of which vividly illustrate the core components of (and threats to) responsible critical thinking. These include how purported sightings of UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot are, in reality, plagued by a host of cognitive flaws that also reveal secrets about how we all make sense of unexplainable events; how functional MRI scans have demonstrated that different parts of our brain work together to construct an aggregate consciousness and sense of reality; how a 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds so easily incited mass hysteria in listeners and actually convinced them that an alien invasion was at hand; and how reactions to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy illustrate the inherent tendency in human beings to fall into the cognitive trap of grand conspiracies. Unpack the Critical Thinker's Toolbox Throughout Your Deceptive Mind, Professor Novella provides you with a critical thinker's toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information or to make a more informed decision. The smaller the scientific study, the greater you should be concerned about the potential for statistical noise. Larger scientific studies are often needed for the random effects to average out so that a more reliable answer can be arrived at. While it's important to remember that emotions have an influence on an individual's thought processes, it's dangerous to completely deny them when analyzing information or trying to make an informed decision. Learn to be comfortable with the uncertainty of the world. The truth is that there is no single guarantee of legitimacy when it comes to scientific information, only solid indicators of legitimacy. Be particularly on guard when dealing with controversial subjects frequently covered in the media. The more controversial a topic, the greater the chances are that information about that topic is skewed in one direction or another. These invaluable tips, techniques, and strategies are only a few of what you'll find in these lectures. And that's not all. Your Deceptive Mind's greatest strength lies in Professor Novella's delivery and engagement with the material. In addition to being a master teacher, he is an expert on critical thinking and its intersection with science. President and cofounder of the New England Skeptical Society and the host of its award-winning show, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Professor Novella has dedicated himself to increasing the public's ability to use critical thinking skills to better navigate the mass of information (and misinformation) in today's highly mediated world. And the world is only going to get more and more saturated with information. So take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing and rewarding course. While these lectures can't read the news or make decisions for you, they'll undoubtedly give you the concrete knowledge for doing so more intelligently.

The many practical benefits of meditation include marked and lasting reduction of stress; increased ability to focus and concentrate, as well as clarity of thinking; freedom from detrimental patterns of thought and emotion; increased learning capacity and memory; and greatly enhanced well-being and peacefulness. If practiced consistently, the results are real and very far-reaching. In the largest sense, meditation allows you to live in harmony with the realities of the world-to embrace life's ever-changing impermanence, to live in equanimity with the inevitable ups and downs of being human, and to feel deeply connected to the whole of life. Now, in Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation, award-winning Professor Mark W. Muesse of Rhodes College takes you on a dynamic exploration of your own mind, giving you a clear and useable understanding of the essence of meditation and how to practice it. In 24 detailed lectures, using numerous guided exercises, Professor Muesse teaches you the principles and techniques of sitting meditation, the related practice of walking meditation, and the highly beneficial use of meditative awareness in many important activities, including eating and driving. As a major strength of the course, you learn in depth how to use the skills of meditation in working with thoughts and emotional states, in deepening sensory awareness of the body, and in becoming deeply attentive to the operation of your mind. Emphasizing clarity and practical understanding, this course will leave you with a solid basis for your own meditation practice and for bringing meditation's remarkable and empowering benefits to every area of your life. ""Mindfulness""-The Eye of the Witness Meditation, as you learn it here, is closely related to the notion of ""mindfulness."" In Professor Muesse's words, ""Mindfulness is a deliberate way of paying attention to what is occurring within oneself as it is happening. It is the process of attentively observing your experience as it unfolds, without judgment or evaluation."" ""Meditation,"" he adds, ""refers to certain exercises that can be used to enlarge and refine mindfulness."" Meditation cultivates mindfulness by training you to develop deep attention to the present moment, allowing the mind to become settled and centered. With the ongoing practice of meditation, you gain the ability to bring the liberating effects of mindful awareness to moment-to-moment living. Ultimately, this means developing a mind of openness and flexibility, profound physical calmness, and a deepening freedom to choose how you respond to life. Throughout the lectures of this course, you practice the principles of mindfulness through focused meditations and guided exercises, including these: Sitting meditation: The core practice of the mindfulness tradition. You learn the specific methods of meditation with mindful awareness. Body scan meditation: A second fundamental practice, bringing deep focus to the body and bodily sensations, promoting both concentration and physical relaxation. Mindful engagement with thoughts: You learn four specific practices for releasing detrimental patterns of thought. Metta meditation: Central to the mindfulness tradition, you learn this form of directed contemplation, focusing on the well-being of others and powerfully effective for cultivating compassion. Meditations for physical pain: You practice two forms of meditation for alleviating pain and physical discomfort of all kinds. The Insights of Meditation in Action Building on your practice-based understanding, Professor Muesse takes the exploration into many different areas of life, showing you in depth how meditation and mindfulness apply to daily living. Early in the course, you practice meditative awareness in the act of eating, in an exercise vividly highlighting all five senses. This exercise uncovers a richness of experience that usually goes unexplored and illustrates one of meditation's significant benefits-being deeply present in the moments of your own life. You study the mindfulness tradition's approach to difficult emotions, using the example of anger. Here you find a way of disarming anger that builds on meditation, based in nonjudgmental attention, conscious acceptance, and the mental spaciousness to choose your response. In the course's second half, you explore how mindfulness is used both in building qualities of personal character and in facing life's most challenging experiences. In individual lectures, you learn specific practices for cultivating generosity, empathy, and the beneficial use of speech, and for dealing with the inevitability of loss and grief. Clarity on the Nature of Reality As a core theme of this course, you delve into one of the most revealing and practical benefits of mindfulness-the freedom that comes with rigorous clarity about the nature of reality. Drawing on what Buddhism calls the ""three marks of existence,"" you see how our conditioned resistance to the transience and passing away of all things causes suffering, and how mindfulness practice allows you to freely and joyfully embrace life's impermanence; you explore the ways in which mindful awareness gives you freedom from the ""insatiable"" quality of human experience-the tendency to endlessly pursue the outward symbols of happiness and achievement; you look at the factors that determine the sense of separateness that burdens many people, and how mindfulness practice leads to a fundamental experience of connectedness to the whole. The Power of Living Mindfully An expert in Eastern philosophies, Professor Muesse is the rare teacher with both extensive academic credentials and decades of experience as a meditator, having studied and practiced with meditation masters in Thailand, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He enriches your experience with compelling reflections on his own journey with mindfulness practice, filmed demonstrations of key techniques, and enthralling stories and perspectives from the great spirits of history. You hear the Buddha's penetrating counsel to a woman in the throes of grief, and Rilke's passionate words on the necessity of giving joyful consent to all of life. You hear about Professor Muesse's own transformative experience with the practice of generosity, and you contemplate the Zen parable of a man caught between two hungry tigers, highlighting the existential choices we all face in living rich and satisfying lives and in savoring life to the full. In Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation, Professor Muesse offers you a rare and extraordinary opportunity. By grasping the essential nature of meditation and mindful awareness within the setting of specific, grounded practice, you deepen the power to shape your own mind and experience, to know a well-being that is not ruled by circumstances, and to find yourself truly and lastingly at home in the world. Join Professor Muesse in this empowering journey of the spirit-the art of living at its most fulfilling, expansive, and meaningful.

Information is literally everywhere around you; in newspapers and magazines, on the radio and television, and across the Internet. But as the amount of information out there increases, so too does the amount of misinformation. So it's more important than ever before to become a better critical thinker-someone who can analyze and construct arguments and arrive at more sound, more informed opinions. And the key to success lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works-and goes wrong; mastering the fundamental skills behind logic, reasoning, and argumentation; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. All this and more you can find in the 24 rewarding lectures of Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills. Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine-an academic neurologist, award-winning instructor, and public educator-equips you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully than ever before. Explore the Inner Workings of Critical Thinking Our brains, according to Dr. Novella, are our greatest strength as critical thinkers. But they can also be the source of many weaknesses and impairments in critical thought. In Your Deceptive Mind, you'll take a closer look at the neuroscientific details of critical thinking and how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter: The neuroscience of critical thinking: Approach the act of thinking not as some abstract concept but as an action rooted deep within your brain. In clear, easy-to-understand language, Dr. Novella takes you deep inside this powerful organ to examine how you form beliefs, perceive your surroundings, and remember events. Biases and problems in critical thinking: The key to success as a critical thinker lies in understanding the range of biases and problems that can stand in the way of reason and truth. You'll encounter-and learn how to deftly sidestep-fallacies such as retrofitting of evidence, collective wish fulfillment, reliance on ""factoids,""and ad hominem arguments. Science and pseudoscience: Knowing how to separate science (the foundation of critical thought) from pseudoscience is of the utmost importance to any well-rounded critical thinker. Here, you'll investigate common examples of pseudoscience that surround us every day-from the denial of established evidence to the belief in grand conspiracies. Along the way, you'll sample a range of illuminating case studies, experiments, and observations from nutrition, science, technology, mass culture, and even politics; all of which vividly illustrate the core components of (and threats to) responsible critical thinking. These include how purported sightings of UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot are, in reality, plagued by a host of cognitive flaws that also reveal secrets about how we all make sense of unexplainable events; how functional MRI scans have demonstrated that different parts of our brain work together to construct an aggregate consciousness and sense of reality; how a 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds so easily incited mass hysteria in listeners and actually convinced them that an alien invasion was at hand; and how reactions to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy illustrate the inherent tendency in human beings to fall into the cognitive trap of grand conspiracies. Unpack the Critical Thinker's Toolbox Throughout Your Deceptive Mind, Professor Novella provides you with a critical thinker's toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information or to make a more informed decision. The smaller the scientific study, the greater you should be concerned about the potential for statistical noise. Larger scientific studies are often needed for the random effects to average out so that a more reliable answer can be arrived at. While it's important to remember that emotions have an influence on an individual's thought processes, it's dangerous to completely deny them when analyzing information or trying to make an informed decision. Learn to be comfortable with the uncertainty of the world. The truth is that there is no single guarantee of legitimacy when it comes to scientific information, only solid indicators of legitimacy. Be particularly on guard when dealing with controversial subjects frequently covered in the media. The more controversial a topic, the greater the chances are that information about that topic is skewed in one direction or another. These invaluable tips, techniques, and strategies are only a few of what you'll find in these lectures. And that's not all. Your Deceptive Mind's greatest strength lies in Professor Novella's delivery and engagement with the material. In addition to being a master teacher, he is an expert on critical thinking and its intersection with science. President and cofounder of the New England Skeptical Society and the host of its award-winning show, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Professor Novella has dedicated himself to increasing the public's ability to use critical thinking skills to better navigate the mass of information (and misinformation) in today's highly mediated world. And the world is only going to get more and more saturated with information. So take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing and rewarding course. While these lectures can't read the news or make decisions for you, they'll undoubtedly give you the concrete knowledge for doing so more intelligently.

And it can leave its scars on your community and even your nation. Handled well, however, conflict can be extraordinarily useful. If you have the skills needed to identify and resolve conflict, it can actually be your ally. It can help you identify and solve problems. And it can build deeper and stronger relationships, whether with your coworkers, supervisors and subordinates, or your closest friends and loved ones. Most of us, though, haven't been lucky enough to have been taught those vital skills or to have learned the ways in which factors like perspective, emotions, goals, and power can create or drive a conflict. For better or worse, we've had to pick things up as we went along, beginning in our homes or schoolyards and going on from there. All with uneven results that can play out for the rest of our lives, burdening us with a default conflict ""style"" that may be dysfunctional at best and seriously harmful at worst. The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work, and Beyond is an opportunity for you to gain those essential skills. Its 24 lectures are brimming with practical tips, tools, and techniques everyone can use to better manage conflict in his or her professional and personal lives, which receive equal emphasis in the course. Strategies and Tactics You Can Use Right Now Presented by Professor Michael Dues of The University of Arizona-an award-winning teacher, writer, author, and successful consultant to both public and private organizations-these lectures will show you how to effectively deal with conflicts of all kinds, using the ""win-win"" model that has dominated the field for the past six decades. You'll gain effective techniques for handling conflicts in your workplace, other organizational settings, or your personal life, whether you're dealing with supervisors, coworkers, acquaintances, close friends, or family members. You'll learn the best ways to analyze conflicts and work through the steps toward resolving them, including clarifying goals, handling difficult emotions, and negotiating agreements. And you'll grasp the fundamental tricks of the trade that experienced negotiators have long used to deal with even the most seemingly intractable moral and cultural conflicts. While drawing on the latest groundbreaking research, Professor Dues has designed this course to be as practical as possible. Requiring no background in conflict management, negotiation, or psychology, the lectures offer you not just knowledge, but strategies and tactics you can put to work in your own life right now. See the Best Conflict Management Techniques in Action Best of all, you'll be able to see those strategies and tactics in action. Professor Dues has crafted 70 professionally acted dramatizations to illustrate different conflict situations at home and in the workplace. Most of these situations will be familiar to all of us, undoubtedly echoing similar conflicts we've experienced in our own lives. And as you watch them unfold, you'll grasp far more than what works and what doesn't. You'll understand why. Moreover, to ensure that you gain a true working feel for the dynamics at play in each of these situations, Professor Dues ends each lecture with a simple yet provocative ""assignment."" He asks you to focus on events in your own life in which those same dynamics have been felt, and to then apply what you have just learned in evaluating your own statements and actions. There's no better way to get a real handle on a conflict you know well and to see immediately what needs to happen to resolve it. Even something as simple as offering an apology, for example, takes on a whole new light after you learn the five components that must be included if an apology is to be truly accepted and effective. And while most of us probably believe we already know how to apologize, it's likely that many of our own apologies might not include all of these essentials: A specific statement of the offending behavior An acknowledgment that it was harmful Our assumption of responsibility for both the behavior and the harm done An admission of regret Our commitment to not repeat the behavior Discover New Realizations about the Conflicts in Life Time after time, you're likely to catch yourself in a quick one-two punch of realization after Professor Dues makes a telling point, or after a pair of dramatizations illustrates the right and wrong way we can communicate during a conflict: Realization No. 1: Well, of course. That makes sense. I probably knew that already. Quickly followed by... Realization No. 2: I don't think I actually said it that way the last time I was in that situation. Maybe that's why things didn't work out as well as I had hoped. The lectures abound with examples producing similar realizations. Professor Dues repeatedly reveals conversational pathways that make all the sense in the world, but that we might not necessarily take or even consider on our own. By folding these insights into the findings of six decades of research and presenting the material in easily digestible form, he succeeds in leaving you with knowledge that manages to be both eye-opening and intuitive. That knowledge becomes a toolbox of techniques you can put to work today, not only preventing as many conflicts as possible but equipping you to manage in the best possible way the ones that do take place in spite of your best efforts. One of the most remarkable points Professor Dues makes is how even the most seemingly intractable conflicts can be eased toward resolution by these techniques. His riveting descriptions of how they have been put to use on the world stage-including President Carter's creative eliciting of empathy during the Camp David negotiations between Israel and Egypt-offer profound examples of how powerful these techniques can be. And while your own conflicts may not seem to rise to a similar scale, there is no mistaking the impact they can have on your own world, where your relationships-at work, with friends, or with family-define your success and happiness. You don't have a choice about becoming involved in conflict. You do, however, have a choice about learning to manage it successfully and about using the invaluable tools this course can give you.

These lectures provide you with smart and savvy ways to find-and use-the most helpful online and print resources available today, including U.S. population censuses, the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), and the National Archives and Records Administration. You'll also learn tools of the trade for working with these and other sources, as well as countless tips for making your own research more useful. You'll also discover how to write engaging historical narratives that can inform and entertain family members or general audiences. You'll explore seven steps for personalizing biographical facts; specific ways to construct and narrate the timeline of an ancestor from birth to death; four fundamental questions you need answers to before you start writing about your ancestors; and more. So grab that old photograph, sit down with an elderly relative, comb through old records, and prepare to embark on a personal adventure that can dramatically reshape how you think about your past - and yourself.

Successful conversations help you advance professionally and make, maintain, and deepen relationships. Moreover, research shows that talking, when done on a substantive level, is correlated with a feeling of happiness and general well-being. Being a great conversationalist requires practice and effort. The good news is it's a skill set anyone can acquire and refine. In just six lectures, How Conversation Works: 6 Lessons for Better Communication will teach you key strategies that can dramatically improve your ability to converse with anyone, from strangers to supervisors. Delivered by award-winning English professor Anne Curzan of the University of Michigan, this highly practical course focuses on the fundamental principles you need to know to become more conversationally aware and savvy at home, in the workplace, and beyond. You'll be amazed by how much you can learn by stepping back from conversations and examining how they operate. You'll notice things you never picked up on before-like what kind of speaker you are, the strategies you typically rely on (often without realizing it), and the subtleties of the strategies others may use when speaking with you. You'll find yourself putting these lessons into practice to create more effective dialogues from the very first lecture. Choose Your Words Wisely An expression like "shooting the breeze" makes conversation sound easy and free-flowing, but even low-stakes conversations have an underlying systematic structure that propels them along. This course examines that framework while showing you how the effective selection of words can help you forge connections and accomplish your objectives. Professor Curzan walks you through techniques for negotiating a variety of difficult situations, from proffering successful apologies to engaging in "face-threatening acts"-those uncomfortable moments that have the potential to do damage if your words aren't chosen carefully. You'll learn graceful ways of pointing out a mistake; asking someone to do something he or she doesn't want to do; preparing a person for "no"; asking for a big favor; and providing information the recipient doesn't want to hear. Conversations can only deepen connections when you pull your weight. In How Conversation Works, you'll learn this involves knowing how to skillfully open and close an exchange, take turns speaking or "negotiate the conversational floor," and send people subtle signals. Perhaps most important is sharing the burden to make discussions feel more mutual and enjoyable. These lectures arm you with numerous conversation-facilitating devices such as asking your fair share of questions and follow-up questions, which requires active listening; providing informative (but not overly informative!) answers to other people's questions; introducing new topics for discussion and picking up on the topics of others; and telling good stories and helping good stories along. Talk Your Way to Success Whether you want to build rapport with colleagues, promote your accomplishments in an interview, give a winning presentation, ingratiate yourself with your boss, or even create a connection on a first date, knowing what to say and how to say it allows for more productive, smoother interactions. How Conversation Works helps you get ahead by outlining simple techniques for accomplishing all of this and more. Short vignettes featuring professional actors demonstrate what to do-and what not to do-in a variety of everyday scenarios such as striking up a conversation at a party. In video formats, green-screen technology places the professor in a range of environments as she provides concrete advice for taking an uncomfortable conversation in a new direction, making polite requests, mastering the "humble brag," limiting your "talk time," and monitoring your use of distracting discourse markers such as "um" and "you know." In addition to sharing these out-the-door tips and techniques, Professor Curzan dispels common myths about conversation and presents enlightening research on how the conversational styles of men and women share much in common, despite differences in socialization; how you may be perceived for using direct speech or sentence fillers; how language-style matching quickly creates a sense of compatibility; how parents serve as conversational role models; and how e-communication has surprisingly systematic conventions. A Guide for the Real World As a professor of English and linguistics and member of the American Dialect Society, Professor Curzan offers a refreshing yet scholarly take on the subject of conversation. Using a developmental and skills-based approach that gets right to the heart of the matter, her course provides tangible, actionable methods that can be worked into your conversational repertoire immediately. At first, the newfound awareness you'll acquire from How Conversation Works may cause you to become self-conscious when you speak, but the act of "conversational noticing" will soon become second nature. Before long, you'll realize you have the tools to make yourself clearly understood, put others at ease, rescue a conversation that's gone wrong-and keep conversations from going off course in the first place.

Instead of merely following the will of others, you can actively take charge of your decisions-and your life-by grasping the science behind how influence works and by strengthening your own skills at influence and persuasion. And whether you're in the corporate boardroom or at the family dinner table, you'll find yourself reaping a wealth of rewards when it comes to the myriad ways you interact with other people and groups on a daily basis. To master the art and craft of influence, the most powerful skill a person in 21st-century society can have, is to vastly increase your chances of achieving your particular goals, both at work and at home; strengthen your ability to persuade supervisors, coworkers, family members, and others that your opinions are the right ones; enhance the effectiveness with which you negotiate, shop, speak to groups, and engage in other activities; and protect yourself from the machinations of con artists and others who would use the tools of influence to your detriment. Now, in Influence: Mastering Life's Most Powerful Skill, discover everything you need to tap into the hidden powers of influence and persuasion-and use them to enhance your personal and professional life in ways you never thought possible. Delivered by award-winning Professor Kenneth G. Brown of The University of Iowa, an expert in management and a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources, these 12 lectures will teach you in clear and accessible language how and why influence works. Packed with eye-opening scientific and sociological experiments, case studies from fields including business and politics, practical exercises to test your skills, and more, this course will show you how to harness the power of influence at home, at work, at the store, in your social life, and anywhere else you may need it. Learn the Foundation of How to Influence Your ability to successfully influence others-including your children, your spouse, or your boss-is rooted in how well you can grasp and use the four fundamental components of any influence attempt. To help you, Professor Brown introduces what he calls the ATTiC model, which represents these four elements. Agents: These are the individuals or groups who are doing the influencing. What makes them so successful' What makes them fail' You'll see how the seemingly magical ability to win people over involves specific characteristics such as physical appearance, charisma, trustworthiness, and membership in a shared group. Targets: The individual or group you're hoping to influence is called your target-and some people and groups are more likely to be persuaded (or tricked) than others. One characteristic that may surprise you: age. Studies show that targets who are young adults or older adults are more prone to being easily influenced than others. Tactics: What methods and strategies of influence are more likely to increase your target's chances of commitment' Professor Brown's insights into influential tactics provide you with numerous tools, including rational persuasion, which involves putting forth specific ideas for why a particular course of action is the best way forward. Context: Contextual clues-such as scarcity of goods and the power of authority-are shortcuts that our brain uses to make sense of our social world and to make what are generally quite good decisions. You'll learn which of these psychological processes are under our control and which aren't. More than just a helpful acronym, the "ATTiC" model is the perfect metaphor for just how powerful (and often overlooked) these components are. "The four factors are much like the attic of a house," Professor Brown notes. "It's always there doing what it does, even when no one thinks about it. In the same way, the factors that make us susceptible to influence are built into our basic psychology." Discover Where-And How-Inluence Works From there, you'll explore some of the many scientific and real-world applications of influence in your everyday life. With the aid of eye-opening research on psychology and sociology, historical examples from politics and business, and several in-depth case studies, you'll get solid guidelines and tips for how to become a more influential person-and how to resist influence attempts when it's in your best interests to do so. With his vivid teaching style, Professor Brown shows you how influence operates in several areas of life you may or may not have considered, such as these: Impression management, which involves constructing and cultivating your own personal "brand" to strengthen your influential authority at work Sales, where the best tactics to increase your chances of getting a sale (and a better tip) include being genuinely interested in others, remembering names, and, easiest of all, smiling Negotiation, where it's important to use influence not just to get what you want but to make sure you and your negotiating partner feel satisfied that the results are fair Public speaking, where big business speeches or small family pep talks can benefit from a focus on the positives and a demonstration of good will toward your audience. You'll also get an expert's insights into the ethics surrounding influence, and how you can use these extraordinary tools to responsibly further your goals without becoming Machiavellian. Practical Applications for a Practical Skill "Influence is a practical topic," notes Professor Brown, adding that "you'll find many opportunities to apply what I present in this course to your everyday routines and interactions." To do so, each lecture concludes with a couple of simple exercises and tasks that will help illuminate what you've learned about influence and will increase your confidence in using the tools of successful influencers. Next time you're at a restaurant, learn your server's name and use it when addressing him or her. Also, make sure to smile. See if these efforts affect the quality of the service you receive. When you enter a negotiation where you hope for mutual agreement, use words like "we" and "us" and see whether it creates a difference in the other party's approach to the deal. When someone you don't know tries to gain your confidence, adopt the Russian proverb of "trust but verify" by double-checking his or her story against an additional source. These and other exercises are just a small part of the overall learning experience you'll get from Professor Brown, a management expert whose ability to teach to a range of audiences-from college students to corporate professionals to laypeople-has won him a wealth of awards and accolades, including The University of Iowa's highest teaching honor: the President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. His lectures will enlighten you, challenge you, inspire you, and possibly even transform you into a savvier participant in the often overlooked ways that everyday life influences us. With the insights, tools, and tips in Influence: Mastering Life's Most Powerful Skill, you'll be able to use influence on behalf of any professional or personal goal, or for any cause that is near and dear to your heart.

The many practical benefits of meditation include marked and lasting reduction of stress; increased ability to focus and concentrate, as well as clarity of thinking; freedom from detrimental patterns of thought and emotion; increased learning capacity and memory; and greatly enhanced well-being and peacefulness. If practiced consistently, the results are real and very far-reaching. In the largest sense, meditation allows you to live in harmony with the realities of the world-to embrace life's ever-changing impermanence, to live in equanimity with the inevitable ups and downs of being human, and to feel deeply connected to the whole of life. Now, in Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation, award-winning Professor Mark W. Muesse of Rhodes College takes you on a dynamic exploration of your own mind, giving you a clear and useable understanding of the essence of meditation and how to practice it. In 24 detailed lectures, using numerous guided exercises, Professor Muesse teaches you the principles and techniques of sitting meditation, the related practice of walking meditation, and the highly beneficial use of meditative awareness in many important activities, including eating and driving. As a major strength of the course, you learn in depth how to use the skills of meditation in working with thoughts and emotional states, in deepening sensory awareness of the body, and in becoming deeply attentive to the operation of your mind. Emphasizing clarity and practical understanding, this course will leave you with a solid basis for your own meditation practice and for bringing meditation's remarkable and empowering benefits to every area of your life. ""Mindfulness""-The Eye of the Witness Meditation, as you learn it here, is closely related to the notion of ""mindfulness."" In Professor Muesse's words, ""Mindfulness is a deliberate way of paying attention to what is occurring within oneself as it is happening. It is the process of attentively observing your experience as it unfolds, without judgment or evaluation."" ""Meditation,"" he adds, ""refers to certain exercises that can be used to enlarge and refine mindfulness."" Meditation cultivates mindfulness by training you to develop deep attention to the present moment, allowing the mind to become settled and centered. With the ongoing practice of meditation, you gain the ability to bring the liberating effects of mindful awareness to moment-to-moment living. Ultimately, this means developing a mind of openness and flexibility, profound physical calmness, and a deepening freedom to choose how you respond to life. Throughout the lectures of this course, you practice the principles of mindfulness through focused meditations and guided exercises, including these: Sitting meditation: The core practice of the mindfulness tradition. You learn the specific methods of meditation with mindful awareness. Body scan meditation: A second fundamental practice, bringing deep focus to the body and bodily sensations, promoting both concentration and physical relaxation. Mindful engagement with thoughts: You learn four specific practices for releasing detrimental patterns of thought. Metta meditation: Central to the mindfulness tradition, you learn this form of directed contemplation, focusing on the well-being of others and powerfully effective for cultivating compassion. Meditations for physical pain: You practice two forms of meditation for alleviating pain and physical discomfort of all kinds. The Insights of Meditation in Action Building on your practice-based understanding, Professor Muesse takes the exploration into many different areas of life, showing you in depth how meditation and mindfulness apply to daily living. Early in the course, you practice meditative awareness in the act of eating, in an exercise vividly highlighting all five senses. This exercise uncovers a richness of experience that usually goes unexplored and illustrates one of meditation's significant benefits-being deeply present in the moments of your own life. You study the mindfulness tradition's approach to difficult emotions, using the example of anger. Here you find a way of disarming anger that builds on meditation, based in nonjudgmental attention, conscious acceptance, and the mental spaciousness to choose your response. In the course's second half, you explore how mindfulness is used both in building qualities of personal character and in facing life's most challenging experiences. In individual lectures, you learn specific practices for cultivating generosity, empathy, and the beneficial use of speech, and for dealing with the inevitability of loss and grief. Clarity on the Nature of Reality As a core theme of this course, you delve into one of the most revealing and practical benefits of mindfulness-the freedom that comes with rigorous clarity about the nature of reality. Drawing on what Buddhism calls the ""three marks of existence,"" you see how our conditioned resistance to the transience and passing away of all things causes suffering, and how mindfulness practice allows you to freely and joyfully embrace life's impermanence; you explore the ways in which mindful awareness gives you freedom from the ""insatiable"" quality of human experience-the tendency to endlessly pursue the outward symbols of happiness and achievement; you look at the factors that determine the sense of separateness that burdens many people, and how mindfulness practice leads to a fundamental experience of connectedness to the whole. The Power of Living Mindfully An expert in Eastern philosophies, Professor Muesse is the rare teacher with both extensive academic credentials and decades of experience as a meditator, having studied and practiced with meditation masters in Thailand, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He enriches your experience with compelling reflections on his own journey with mindfulness practice, filmed demonstrations of key techniques, and enthralling stories and perspectives from the great spirits of history. You hear the Buddha's penetrating counsel to a woman in the throes of grief, and Rilke's passionate words on the necessity of giving joyful consent to all of life. You hear about Professor Muesse's own transformative experience with the practice of generosity, and you contemplate the Zen parable of a man caught between two hungry tigers, highlighting the existential choices we all face in living rich and satisfying lives and in savoring life to the full. In Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation, Professor Muesse offers you a rare and extraordinary opportunity. By grasping the essential nature of meditation and mindful awareness within the setting of specific, grounded practice, you deepen the power to shape your own mind and experience, to know a well-being that is not ruled by circumstances, and to find yourself truly and lastingly at home in the world. Join Professor Muesse in this empowering journey of the spirit-the art of living at its most fulfilling, expansive, and meaningful.

Making a few simple adjustments to the way you see things and act on them-learning to ""think like an economist""-can give you newfound power and confidence in a surprising range of financial and personal situations that make up your daily life. You can find yourself making better decisions that not only save time and money, but also produce optimum results in other ways important to you. And you can also sharpen your understanding of world and national events. In the 12 fast-moving and crystal-clear lectures of Thinking like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making, award-winning Professor Randall Bartlett of Smith College presents some of the fundamental principles and concepts that shape the lenses through which economists view the world. He then shows you how to use these simple analytical tools to understand what you see through those lenses. By learning to identify the many varied situations in which economics affects your life and how to wield the tools that can help you make the wisest choices in those situations, you'll enhance not only your understanding of daily life but your own success in living it. A Tool Kit for Changing How You Look at Daily Life Many of the concepts in Professor Bartlett's tool kit may be familiar. People respond to incentives. There's no such thing as a ""free lunch."" There are at least two sides to every interaction. Everything affects everything else. Any action can bring with it significant unintended consequences. In this world of complex interrelationships, no one is really in control. However, when used in the context of three core concepts of economic rationality, marginal analysis, and optimization that Professor Bartlett clearly lays out, his tool kit can make this perhaps the most practical, life-enhancing economics course you'll ever take. It's an approach that makes Thinking like an Economist a real-life how-to guide that sets aside those often-dry economics textbooks and reveals just how often the seemingly remote forces discussed in their pages are in fact at play in your own life-often in situations in which you may never have dreamed they'd be present. While most of us can readily appreciate the role those forces play in expected areas-the ones in which monetary values are obviously at work-many of us often give little notice to the full reach of those economic principles into almost every other aspect of our lives, from the safety of our environment to the amount of candidate information we really need in order to cast a wise vote. After a dozen lectures with Professor Bartlett, things will look very different. You'll see how basic economic ideas like incentives, risks, rewards, and rationality are not just the province of professional economists, government policymakers, or your local bank's loan officer, but instead lie at the root of nearly every decision you must make in your daily life. Those decisions can include choosing wine from a restaurant menu, buying an extended warranty on that new television set, deciding how to get to work each morning, or nearly anything else you might imagine. Real-Life Examples Clarify Each Key Idea Using examples drawn from his own life and likely echoing yours, Professor Bartlett shows you how to see the world as an economist sees it, examine the rationality of individual decisions, and evaluate the outcome of those decisions in terms of both personal benefit and social efficiency, which can sometimes differ. Professor Bartlett has designed Thinking like an Economist to require no previous economics education. And he has scaled his examples to include not only those situations common to us all, but also to those felt across entire countries and even the world, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the debate about global warming and the most practical ways to respond to it. An engaging and remarkably clear teacher, Professor Bartlett has for years attracted a widespread audience-from both on and off campus-for his annual lecture series on financial literacy. This course will help you grasp why those lectures are so popular, and why the lessons taught in them are so valuable to you.

Thanks to rapid advances in technology and in our understanding of the brain, today's neuroscience research goes far beyond trying to understand how the brain works, and into the search for proven ways to optimize brain performance. In Your Best Brain , Professor John J. Medina - an award-winning scientist, New York Times best-selling author, and leading advocate for brain research - delivers 24 exciting lectures that probe the origins of consciousness, memory, emotion, attention, intelligence, and beyond. He focuses on five key areas of study in neuroscience: the brain's physical structure and function, and how it enabled us to become the planet's apex predator; the ways in which the brain processes information, and how that relates to intelligence; the intricacies of emotions and socialization, and how empathy is a vital survival mechanism; how our brains develop and change throughout our lifetimes; and how we can best use and expand our cerebral processing performance. After gaining a thorough understanding of the science behind your best brain, you'll learn scientifically proven methods for improving your memory, boosting your creativity, and keeping your mind sharp for years to come.

Information is literally everywhere around you; in newspapers and magazines, on the radio and television, and across the Internet. But as the amount of information out there increases, so too does the amount of misinformation. So it's more important than ever before to become a better critical thinker-someone who can analyze and construct arguments and arrive at more sound, more informed opinions. And the key to success lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works-and goes wrong; mastering the fundamental skills behind logic, reasoning, and argumentation; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. All this and more you can find in the 24 rewarding lectures of Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills. Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine-an academic neurologist, award-winning instructor, and public educator-equips you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully than ever before. Explore the Inner Workings of Critical Thinking Our brains, according to Dr. Novella, are our greatest strength as critical thinkers. But they can also be the source of many weaknesses and impairments in critical thought. In Your Deceptive Mind, you'll take a closer look at the neuroscientific details of critical thinking and how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter: The neuroscience of critical thinking: Approach the act of thinking not as some abstract concept but as an action rooted deep within your brain. In clear, easy-to-understand language, Dr. Novella takes you deep inside this powerful organ to examine how you form beliefs, perceive your surroundings, and remember events. Biases and problems in critical thinking: The key to success as a critical thinker lies in understanding the range of biases and problems that can stand in the way of reason and truth. You'll encounter-and learn how to deftly sidestep-fallacies such as retrofitting of evidence, collective wish fulfillment, reliance on ""factoids,""and ad hominem arguments. Science and pseudoscience: Knowing how to separate science (the foundation of critical thought) from pseudoscience is of the utmost importance to any well-rounded critical thinker. Here, you'll investigate common examples of pseudoscience that surround us every day-from the denial of established evidence to the belief in grand conspiracies. Along the way, you'll sample a range of illuminating case studies, experiments, and observations from nutrition, science, technology, mass culture, and even politics; all of which vividly illustrate the core components of (and threats to) responsible critical thinking. These include how purported sightings of UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot are, in reality, plagued by a host of cognitive flaws that also reveal secrets about how we all make sense of unexplainable events; how functional MRI scans have demonstrated that different parts of our brain work together to construct an aggregate consciousness and sense of reality; how a 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds so easily incited mass hysteria in listeners and actually convinced them that an alien invasion was at hand; and how reactions to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy illustrate the inherent tendency in human beings to fall into the cognitive trap of grand conspiracies. Unpack the Critical Thinker's Toolbox Throughout Your Deceptive Mind, Professor Novella provides you with a critical thinker's toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information or to make a more informed decision. The smaller the scientific study, the greater you should be concerned about the potential for statistical noise. Larger scientific studies are often needed for the random effects to average out so that a more reliable answer can be arrived at. While it's important to remember that emotions have an influence on an individual's thought processes, it's dangerous to completely deny them when analyzing information or trying to make an informed decision. Learn to be comfortable with the uncertainty of the world. The truth is that there is no single guarantee of legitimacy when it comes to scientific information, only solid indicators of legitimacy. Be particularly on guard when dealing with controversial subjects frequently covered in the media. The more controversial a topic, the greater the chances are that information about that topic is skewed in one direction or another. These invaluable tips, techniques, and strategies are only a few of what you'll find in these lectures. And that's not all. Your Deceptive Mind's greatest strength lies in Professor Novella's delivery and engagement with the material. In addition to being a master teacher, he is an expert on critical thinking and its intersection with science. President and cofounder of the New England Skeptical Society and the host of its award-winning show, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Professor Novella has dedicated himself to increasing the public's ability to use critical thinking skills to better navigate the mass of information (and misinformation) in today's highly mediated world. And the world is only going to get more and more saturated with information. So take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing and rewarding course. While these lectures can't read the news or make decisions for you, they'll undoubtedly give you the concrete knowledge for doing so more intelligently.