Other books that might interest you

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  20 Myths about Religion and...

  Ryan P. Burge

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  The way most people think about religion and politics is only loosely linked to empirical reality, argues Ryan P. Burge in 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America. Instead, our thinking is based on anecdotes, a quick scan of news headlines, or worse, flat-out lies told by voices trying to push a religious or political agenda on a distracted public. 
   
   
   
  Burge sees this fundamentally flawed understanding of the world around us and our misperceptions about where we fit into the larger fabric of society as caustic for the future of American politics and religion. Without an accurate picture of our society, when we subscribe to only caricatures of what our country looks like, we never really address the problems facing us. 
   
   
   
  Striving to be an impartial referee, Burge describes with accessible and engaging prose what the data says. Step by step, he debunks twenty myths, using rigorous data analysis and straightforward explanations. He gives listeners the resources to adopt an empirical view of the world that can help all of us, religious and nonreligious alike, get past at least some of the unsupported beliefs that divide us.

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  Composing Capital - Classical...

  Marianna Ritchey

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  The familiar old world of classical music, with its wealthy donors and ornate concert halls, is changing. The patronage of a wealthy few is being replaced by that of corporations, leading to new unions of classical music and contemporary capitalism. In Composing Capital, Marianna Ritchey lays bare the appropriation of classical music by the current neoliberal regime, arguing that artists, critics, and institutions have aligned themselves—and, by extension, classical music itself—with free-market ideology. More specifically, she demonstrates how classical music has lent its cachet to marketing schemes, tech firm-sponsored performances, and global corporate partnerships. As Ritchey shows, the neoliberalization of classical music has put music at the service of contemporary capitalism, blurring the line between creativity and entrepreneurship, and challenging us to imagine how a noncommodified musical practice might be possible in today’s world.

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  Managing Your Crazy Self! -...

  Randy Guttenberger

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  (Second Edition) 
  #1 International Bestseller in FOUR categories. Including Communicative Disorders in Special Ed., Development & Growth Economics, and Anxieties & Phobias in the US and Inner Child in AU. 
  An intriguing, easy-to-read guide on how to manage your thoughts and emotions to gain peace within. 
  This new understanding portrays how your instinctive brain functions through the Ostrich and your conscious mind through the Rhino. The end result connects quickly with the reader, makes you smile, brings healing, and is quite powerful. 
  Once you understand these insights, you will never look at life the same way again! 
  This book is designed to give you insights, in a bit of a humorous way, into how the brain is wired and explores how you can manage the constantly working instinctive brain, which is your greatest challenge.No one comes through unscathed. Most importantly, who is going to fix me when my light doesn’t come on? 
  Welcome to the discovery of the instinctive brain, the conscious mind, and the human spirit. 
  Endorsements 
  “Your approach (on a topic I know well) is unique and easy to read. This would be a vital tool for counselors, coaches, and think tanks.” 
  - Dr. Barbara Baethe, Ph.D., LPC 
  “You get out of the chute fast, and right away you’ve got me looking at things differently. Your talent and humor come through, and you keep the reader thinking and turning the pages to see what’s next.” 
  - Michael Carr, Freelance Editor 
  “Why hasn’t anyone taught this before? I wish I had known this long ago.” 
  -Gregg Sanders, Chief Operating Officer

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  The Anchoring Effect - How...

  William Rands

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  The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias that has significant implications for how people make decisions. It refers to the phenomenon where individuals rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive when making subsequent judgments. This initial information, known as the "anchor," serves as a reference point, influencing how individuals perceive and evaluate all related information. The anchoring effect has been studied extensively in the fields of psychology, economics, and decision science, revealing how it subtly but powerfully shapes human judgment, often without people being aware of its influence. 
  At its core, the anchoring effect occurs because humans have a natural tendency to rely on available information when making decisions, even if that information is arbitrary or irrelevant. Once an anchor is introduced, people tend to adjust their judgments or estimates based on that anchor, but they often do so insufficiently. This means that their final decision or judgment is still heavily influenced by the anchor, regardless of whether it is logically or contextually appropriate. 
  Research on the anchoring effect began in the early 1970s with the groundbreaking work of psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. In one of their most famous experiments, participants were asked to estimate the number of countries in Africa. Before giving their estimates, they were shown a random number (the anchor), such as 10 or 100, and were then asked if the number of African countries was higher or lower than the anchor. The results revealed that participants’ estimates were skewed toward the anchor, even though the number was entirely unrelated to the actual question. This experiment demonstrated the power of anchors in influencing judgments, even when they have no logical relevance to the decision at hand.

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  Democracy Rules

  Jan-Werner Müller

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  A much-anticipated guide to saving democracy, from one of our most essential political thinkers. 
   
   
   
  Everyone knows that democracy is in trouble, but do we know what democracy actually is? Jan-Werner Müller, author of the widely translated and acclaimed What Is Populism?, takes us back to basics in Democracy Rules. In this short, elegant volume, he explains how democracy is founded not just on liberty and equality, but also on uncertainty. The latter will sound unattractive at a time when the pandemic has created unbearable uncertainty for so many. But it is crucial for ensuring democracy's dynamic and creative character, which remains one of its signal advantages over authoritarian alternatives that seek to render politics (and individual citizens) completely predictable. 
   
   
   
  Müller shows that we need to re-invigorate the intermediary institutions that have been deemed essential for democracy's success ever since the nineteenth century: political parties and free media. Contrary to conventional wisdom, these are not spent forces in a supposed age of post-party populist leadership and post-truth. Müller suggests concretely how democracy's critical infrastructure of intermediary institutions could be renovated, re-empowering citizens while also preserving a place for professionals such as journalists and judges.

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  The Guru Bagman and the Sceptic...

  Seamus O'Mahony

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  A brilliantly witty book about the intertwined lives of psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, surgeon Wilfred Trotter and the guru of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. 
   
  Welsh-born psychoanalyst Ernest Jones was Sigmund Freud's closest associate and most fervent disciple. Clever, self-confident and intensely ambitious, Jones promoted psychoanalysis as a kind of secular religion. Meanwhile, his intimate friend Wilfred Trotter - a celebrated surgeon who saved the life of George V, and who took on Freud as a patient during his London exile - refused to yield to the seductions of the new Freudianism. A quintessentially English figure, Trotter was unimpressed by slick medical careerists, distrusted grand theories and lacked pomposity and self-regard. 
   
  From the first psychoanalytic congress in Salzburg in 1908 to the illness of King George in the late 1920s and the meeting of Freud and Trotter in 1939, Seamus O'Mahony tells the story of these three figures and their intertwined lives with his customary wit and erudition. Not only the story of the development of psychoanalysis, this is a book about the sexual obsessions of intellectual and bohemian circles in London, Cambridge and Vienna, of Bloomsbury, of doctors in pursuit of wealth and fame. It covers a pivotal thirty years in European history, and reveals how and why the writings of a failed neurologist from Vienna became so influential.

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