Academic Videos
…are viewed and discussed every Thursday, 8:00 – 9:30 p.m. (unless noted), at the home of Flora & Hilton Brown. These videos usually come from The Great Courses (formerly known as The Teaching Company). For more info from/about them, visit their website. For more information about the discussion please contact Hilton Brown at brownofmtnview@aol.com.
Current Series Schedule
A course overview may be examined at
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/Courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=2212
On the same page, descriptions of each lecture may be seen by clicking the word (info) after the lecture title.
Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage
by John McWhorter
| Apr 26: | 1. Alarm over the Decay of English | and 2. Surprises in the Ancestry of Old English |
| May 3: | 3. Not Exactly Anglo-Saxon | and 4. Don’t Forget the Celtic Connection |
| May 10: | 5. From Insider Language to Lingua Franca | and 6. English as Easy German |
| May 17: | 7. The Viking Conquest of English | and 8. How the Words of Modern English Emerged |
| May 24: | 9. Black English–The Streamlining Continues | and 10. Honored Conceits of Blackboard Grammar |
| May 31: | 11. Pronoun Fashions Come and Go | and 12. Wrong Then, Proper Now–and Vice Versa |
| Jun 7: | – — – — – no meeting; AHA Conference | |
| Jun 14: | 13. A Procession of Accidents and Fossils | and 14. The Pursuit of Logic in Language |
| Jun 21: | 15. Clarity as the Logic of Language | and 16. 20th-Century Fashions from Strunk & White |
| Jun 28: | 17. The Kinds of Grammar You Don’t Hear About | and 18. Linguists Uncovering Grammar We All Use |
| Jul 5: | 19. Speech versus Writing–Different Languages | and 20. Speechmaking–From Oratory to Plain Speaking |
| Jul 12: | 21. The Old and New Styles of Writing | and 22. Got Poetry? Language with Spice |
| Jul 19: | 23. Why Texting Is Misunderstood | and 24. The Living Past and Future of English |
Previous Series
| Timespan | Series title | Lecturer or host | Medium |
| 2012 Mar – 2012 Apr | Experiencing Hubble: Great Images of the Universe | David M Meyer | 12 DVD |
| 2012 Feb – 2012 Mar | Thinking like an Economist: Rational Decision Making | Randall Bartlett | 12 DVD |
| 2011 Oct – 2012 Jan | Argumentation | David Zarefsky | 24 DVD |
| 2011 Aug – 2011 Oct | Great Thinkers, Great Theorems | William Dunham | 24 DVD |
| 2011 May – 2011 Aug | No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life | Robert Solomon | 24 DVD |
| 2011 Feb – 2011 May | The Will to Power: The Philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche | Robert Solomon & Kathleen Higgins | 24 DVD |
| 2010 Dec – 2011 Feb | Origins of Life | Robert M Hazen | 24 DVD |
| 2010 Sep – 2010 Nov | Buddhism | Malcolm David Eckel | 24 DVD |
| 2010 Apr – 2010 Aug | Mathematics, Philosophy, and the “Real World” | Judith V Grabiner | 36 DVD |
| 2010 Mar – 2010 Apr | Science and Religion | Lawrence M Principe | 12 DVD |
| 2010 Feb – 2010 Mar | Consciousness and its Implications | Daniel N Robinson | 12 DVD |
| 2009 Oct – 2010 Jan | Understanding Genetics: DNA,Genes, and their Real-World Apps | David Sadava | 24 DVD |
| 2009 Jun – 2009 Oct | The History of the Supreme Court | Peter Irons | 36 DVD |
| 2009 Apr – 2009 Jun | Understanding the Fundamentals of Music | Robert Greenberg | 16 DVD, 45 min |
| 2008 Nov – 2009 May | Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language | John McWhorter | 36 DVD |
| 2008 May – 2008 Nov | The Great Ideas of Philosophy | Daniel N Robinson | 50 tape |
| 2008 Jan – 2008 May | Psychology of Human Behavior | David W Martin | 36 DVD |
| 2007 Sep – 2008 Jan | Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World | Steven L Goldman | 36 DVD |
| 2007 August (3 wks) | A Brief History of Disbelief | Jonathan Miller | 3 tape |
| 2007 May – 2007 Aug | Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions | Robert C Solomon | 24 DVD |
| 2007 Jan – 2007 May | The Story of Human Language | John McWhorter | 36 DVD |
| 2006 Sep – 2006 Nov | Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It | Steven L Goldman | 24 DVD |