Why we stopped foraging and started farming

The invention of agriculture was probably the most important change in human history but scholars argue about why it happened, and propose three main conflicting theories.
These theories, and the difficulties in domesticating plants and animals are the subjects of lectures 14 and 15 in UCSD anthropologist Tara Carter’s great course, Prehistory and the Birth of [...]

Why Americans hate government

When Ronald Reagan said in 1981 “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” he was tapping into a long history of American suspicion of government.
UCLA political science professor Brian Walker has a theory about where that suspicion came from. He lays out his ideas in the Oct. 10 lecture (download [...]

10 new free courses at Yale

Yale’s excellent Open Yale Courses website just got even better. Ten new free courses are now available for your viewing/listening pleasure. The offerings now total 25, with 21 cross-listed on Apple’s iTunes U.
Some of the new courses:

Introduction to New Testament History and Literature, Spring 2009
The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food, Fall 2008
Global Problems of [...]

Human happiness

UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner is the real deal — the kind of professor I wish I’d seen more often in my university days. Not only is he a cutting-edge researcher in the field of human emotion, he’s also a gifted teacher, who gives well organized, interesting lectures and who has a flair for [...]

Two promising psych courses

The fall 2009 semester at UC Berkeley is in full swing and I am newly returned from a trip to Europe. Here are a couple of promising courses I’ve been sampling as I’ve been recovering from jet lag.
Psychology of Dreams (website, feed).
Are dreams a window into the spirit world, a key to the unconscious or [...]

Coming attractions at UC Berkeley

Get out your notebooks.
The UC Berkeley podcast website has begun posting its offerings for the 2009 Fall semester. Classes start Aug. 26.

Brush up on your Spanish / French

It’s time to spray some WD40 on my rusty Spanish and French. I’ve been hunting around iTunes for some podcasts to help me remember the rhythms of the languages, and refresh my vocabulary.
Here are two that I’ve been enjoying.
Learn French by Podcast (website, iTunes )
Each podcast features a conversation that you might hear in [...]

The Structure of English Words

This one is for you word nerds out there. Stanford linguist William Leben offers a lively romp through the history and structure of the English language in Structure of English Words (iTunes) on iTunes U. Even if you hated grammar and diagramming sentences back in school, Leben may well get you hooked on the [...]

Open Yale Courses — now on iTunes U

Open Yale Courses, 15 high quality Yale courses, have been available for more than a year on the Open Yale Courses website. Now you can also download 13 of them, in video and audio, on iTunes U. For the syllabi and transcripts you’ll still have to go to the website.
Related posts:

Why northerners fought in the [...]

Introduction to Biological Anthropology

UC Berkeley neurobiologist Terrence Deacon gives a rousing grand finale to his spring 2009 course Introduction to Biological Anthropology (website, feed).
The final three lectures explore the ways that our bodies and minds have been shaped by evolution, sometimes in ways that leave us poorly prepared for the artificial environments in which we now live.
He’s not [...]