Great art is among the most sublime, meaningful, and redeeming creations of all civilization. Few endeavors can equal the power of great artwork to capture aesthetic beauty, to move and inspire, to change your perceptions, and to communicate the nature of human experience.

Taught By Professor Richard Restak, M.D., Georgetown University School of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Physics in Your Life is more than a course in physics and more than a laundry list of "how things work." In fact, it combines the two, offering a back-and-forth interplay between everyday applications of physics and the concepts needed to understand them. This amazing lecture set from the esteemed Teaching Company demystifies physical science. Professor Wolfson teaches Physics conceptually, so that the listener can understand the amazing science without being overwhelmed by the mathematics.

The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal is designed to fill this information gap. In 24 half-hour lectures, you will explore the many ways the body meets the challenges of disease and injury with remarkable defenses and restorative powers, and how, in some cases, it may either fail or overreact.

Interpreting the 20th Century: The Struggle Over Democracy is a comprehensive 48-lecture examination of this extraordinary time.It is a course designed around history's ideas as much as its events, revealing how those ideas both influenced events and were in turn influenced by them to shape today's world. It is a unique opportunity to gain a multidisciplinary understanding of how the modern world came to be and how democracy has emerged as a political ideal, although the parameters of a truly democratic world order are still being vigorously contested.

As explorers and traders, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of Western Europe. In this course, you will study the Vikings not only as warriors, but also in other roles for which they were equally extraordinary: merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas.

Ready to exercise those brain cells? Humans have been having fun with mathematics for thousands of years. Along the way, they've discovered the amazing utility of this field—in science, engineering, finance, games of chance, and many other aspects of life. This course of 24 half-hour lectures celebrates the sheer joy of mathematics, taught by a mathematician who is literally a magician with numbers. Professor Arthur T. Benjamin of Harvey Mudd College is renowned for his feats of mental calculation performed before audiences at schools, theaters, museums, conferences, and other venues.

Mathematics from the Visual World, taught by veteran Teaching Company Professor Michael Starbird of The University of Texas at Austin, takes Plato's dictum to heart and introduces you to the terms, concepts, and astonishing power of geometry. In 24 richly illustrated lectures, you learn that geometry is everywhere. It is the key to scientific disciplines from cosmology to chemistry. It is central to art and architecture. It provides deep insights into algebra, calculus, and other mathematical fields. And it is stunning to contemplate in its beauty.