There's something fabulous about 14th C Italian painting. It's not quite Renaissance yet. There's still a two-dimensionality, an overlayering of allegory. But people are starting to become true people - real individuals, recognizable. There are *huge* things bubbling up, almost ready to burst forth.

Woot! @stephenressler.bsky.social and The Great Courses are nominated for a WCSFP Buzzies Award in Innovative Programming for Understanding the Marvels of Medieval Technology!! Going up against 3 Nat Geo titles incl Ocean with David Attenborough 👀

Lecture 8, Dutch Masters: The Age of Rembrandt, 8:45-9:35, may be the greatest 50 seconds in Great Courses professor history. His commentary is pure discursive genius. Go listen. Now.

Of 17th c Dutch painter Frans Hals, William Kloss said, “His portraits sometimes flatter. They always reveal.” So much is said there in so few words. Eloquent and economical 👏 👏

A couple days late for Halloween, but I am psyched to read this. What a genius idea for an anthology by @coyhall.bsky.social

I just remembered that The Great Courses used to play our own lectures as our hold “music” and I think that should be mandated by law everywhere for every company.

My series w/ The Great Courses, "Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events that Changed the Nation," is on Audible. I noticed this review & had to laugh. Still got 3 stars out of them! For super cool histories of inoculations, the Capitol Crawl, or the Hayes Code, check it out! 🗃️ adbl.co/3HEk4q6

Must I always cry at the end of a good book? I feel manipulated… but I still love it.

Today’s running shirt is my new favorite running shirt.

“…panicked high schoolers were cramming about Julius Caesar’s exploits as a Roman general and statesman.” apnews.com/article/aust...

Psh… Netlfix? I binge-watch the Great Courses.

Happy birthday to this good boy!

Tech malfunctions prevented me from listening to anything during Marine Corps Marathon today. As a result, I did get to hear incredible crowd support and an incredible camaraderie among 40k runners. A rare and special thing these days.

While running Marine Corps Marathon this Sunday I was going to listen to a WWII course, but I don’t want to give war any more oxygen. I’ll listen to Art in the Age of Rembrandt. Let beauty reign in the shadow of the Pentagon.

There is an outstanding alt history novel to be written about a contrite Henry VIII praying in the Sistine Chapel with Pope Paul III as Michelangelo paints The Last Judgment www.bbc.com/news/live/ce...

Love that my modernism lecture featured an extended profile of Janet Sobel, who was not only a Ukrainian emigre but her method of drip painting influenced Jackson Pollock (among others). www.moma.org/collection/w...

Just finished this book last night. What an utterly bizarre story, from the access Booth had to the Presidential Box to the Jack Ruby-esque death of Booth himself by the gun of all-time weirdo Boston Corbett.

Amazing detective work by Great Courses Prof Steven Tuck finding survivors who fled Pompeii and Herculaneum. www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

RELEASE DAY! This World of Vile Wonder: Horror Tales of the Scientific Revolution is out now. Nine tales! Appreciate any help spreading the word. Mybook.to/vilewonder

Heard an outstanding and surprising lecture on the rise of auction houses in the modern history of Western art. Nice points on the difference between worth and worthiness, demand and demanding attention.

I IMPLORE YOU! IF YOU DO *NOTHING* ELSE THIS WEEKEND! *Please* sign up for the free trial of Great Courses and watch this course on Constitutional Law (or as we in the biz call it, ConLaw). The link below should take you directly to it.

Listening to Noah Charney’s new idiosyncratic but soooo enjoyable history of Western art, I’m realizing how our library of art history Great Courses are insanely good given how few of them we have.

Found north of the Alps generations before Constantine’s ‘conversion’? 🤯 www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...

HS daughter asked for some help on what made King Alfred’s reign important. I apparently went too far. “Dad, stop. I only need to write one paragraph.” 🙄

The John Candy documentary “I Like Me “on Prime is a must watch for fans. He was so special ♥️

Why cant i find Roman tombstones in my back yard? www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

I had zero idea just how much was encoded in Hesiod’s telling of the Rape of Persephone until listening to a classical mythology course. It also completely eluded me that Hades was her uncle.

Today you’ll hear a lot about an author you may not be super familiar with. Don’t worry, this series just dropped today, so I have you covered. www.audible.com/pd/B0FSTGX47...

Hearing a Jeopardy contestant say “Pih-tolemy” for Ptolemy XIII just hurt my soul.

Then, the best keeps getting better since Prof Wysession is in studio this week filming his newest geology course 👍

So, actress Laura Keene saw the scene of a dying President Lincoln from the stage and decided to climb up to the box and ask to cradle his bleeding head in her lap? And the doctor let her? Creepy and weird.

Most surprising in my Knights Templar course was Prof Armstrong’s lecture on Oak Island. Gives it a full and fair hearing, actually finding several weird anomalies while debunking many theories.

It’s like Law & Order: Silicon Valley

Time to restore Aethelstan to his rightful place in history www.bbc.com/future/artic...

The tangent Dorrie Armstrong took in her new Knights Templar course to go off on the historicity of Kingdom of Heaven ❤️

Why did I sit down on the floor and cry when I was done recording my Inklings lectures for @TheGreatCourses? buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina/the-sorrows-success

No way I make it thru a 3-hr marathon-training run without the wit and insight of Dorrie Armstrong on the Knights Templar as my soundtrack.

Another one I can’t wait for.

Raise your hand if you’re excited by Dorrie Armstrong’s new Great Course on the Knights Templar debuting tomorrow. 🙋‍♂️

Just finished. Absolutely 5 stars. Informative, inspiring, provocative, hilarious, self-effacing, tragic. Unlike anything I’ve read before.

Replaying this song over and over. The way he changes the chorus at the end is perfect and heartbreaking at once. youtu.be/Tqwhj4Sm8UM?...

I literally still dream about attending class and studying in this space in college. Every college kid should have a stained glass reading room.

Teen daughter: Are you going to the office today? Me: Yeah, why? Daughter: Your shirt is tucked in for once. (Yes, she was grounded after that truth outburst.)

NGL spending the morning with, introducing to our company, and then interviewing and having lunch with authorized Orwell biographer (and Twain and Churchill and Graham Greene biographer) Michael Sheldon is a career highlight.

I’ve been bingeing history and ancient philosophy courses the past several months like never before. The more I learn about the past, the less I understand the present.

And if you want to dive in more to how the Lost Cause influences how we celebrate & remember Thanksgiving, check out lecture 12 of "Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events that Changed the Nation" on The Great Courses Plus or Audible. #HATM bit.ly/4omm0oi

Never thought I’d say this: Zach Helfand’s new article on the history and nature fact checking at New Yorker is laugh-out-loud funny. Do yourself a favor and read it.

Good news everyone ✨ If you have a library card, you can access documentaries, films, & other educational resources like from the Great Courses, all for free. Yay ✨ (I use the Kanopy app, but there are others such as Hoopla, etc. who also stream the free library content.) Enjoy ✨ ~C. #life #PSA

Amazing to be back on campus at Ohio Wesleyan with my daughter. I was literally overwhelmed by so many wonderful memories of my history classes here.