Selects: What are think tanks all about?

Have you noticed a shift in American politics throughout your lifetime? Over the past four decades, ideas like libertarianism and free market capitalism have gone from fringe beliefs held mostly by the elite to ideas with significant popular support and impact on our political sphere. In Dark Money, award-winning journalist and author Jane Mayer explores how a small group of extremely wealthy individuals, led largely by Charles and David Koch, have effectively legitimized far-right beliefs in America using their massive wealth.

In our guide, we’ll look at how the Kochs developed their political beliefs, the tactics they used to create their political movement, and how those tactics have affected American society and politics over recent decades. We’ll also examine the historical, social, and political contexts of the book’s events and how they have impacted society today.

A third to a half of Americans are introverts, according to author Susan Cain, but they’re often marginalized. In Quiet, Cain contends that Western society is designed around an “extrovert ideal” that celebrates those who are bold and charismatic. However, unbridled extroversion can lead to disasters, such as the fall of Enron and the 2008 financial crisis.

By overvaluing extroverts and treating introverts as misfits, society loses out on introverts’ unique strengths—for instance, they’re highly creative, astute observers, and adept at solving complex problems. Cain argues for a balance in society, school, and work that lets introverts be true to themselves and where the two personality types complement each other.

Thinking is the key to improvement in all areas of your life—but what if it’s your thinking that needs to be improved? In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, award-winning educators Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird provide a guide for maximizing your thought process to achieve the greatest success possible in the classroom, the workplace, and your personal life.

In our guide, we’ll explore the five principles Burger and Starbird recommend for learning to think effectively, which they structure around five elements: earth, fire, air, water, and change. We’ll also examine how these principles relate to established theories of learning and educational psychology, and we’ll compare them to works from other authors on how to change your thinking and mindset to improve your life and achieve your goals.

Have you noticed a shift in American politics throughout your lifetime? Over the past four decades, ideas like libertarianism and free market capitalism have gone from fringe beliefs held mostly by the elite to ideas with significant popular support and impact on our political sphere. In Dark Money, award-winning journalist and author Jane Mayer explores how a small group of extremely wealthy individuals, led largely by Charles and David Koch, have effectively legitimized far-right beliefs in America using their massive wealth.

In our guide, we’ll look at how the Kochs developed their political beliefs, the tactics they used to create their political movement, and how those tactics have affected American society and politics over recent decades. We’ll also examine the historical, social, and political contexts of the book’s events and how they have impacted society today.

Do you donate to charity because you care? Or are you lying to yourself and others about the true reason? In The Elephant in the Brain, software engineer Kevin Simler and economics professor Robin Hanson controversially argue that human behavior is driven by selfish motives—and that your own brain is hiding them from you. These hidden motives shape everything from our conversations and purchasing decisions to our schools and health care systems. The authors say if we learn to recognize these “elephants,” we can improve our individual behaviors and our social institutions.

As we explore Simler and Hanson’s theories, we’ll cover topics like why we’re constantly deceiving each other, why charitable giving is actually selfish, and why the purpose of education is to certify future employees. Along the way, we’ll challenge some of the authors’ arguments by providing alternative explanations, and we’ll explain how you can put their insights to work in your own life.

A third to a half of Americans are introverts, according to author Susan Cain, but they’re often marginalized. In Quiet, Cain contends that Western society is designed around an “extrovert ideal” that celebrates those who are bold and charismatic. However, unbridled extroversion can lead to disasters, such as the fall of Enron and the 2008 financial crisis.

By overvaluing extroverts and treating introverts as misfits, society loses out on introverts’ unique strengths—for instance, they’re highly creative, astute observers, and adept at solving complex problems. Cain argues for a balance in society, school, and work that lets introverts be true to themselves and where the two personality types complement each other.

Have you noticed a shift in American politics throughout your lifetime? Over the past four decades, ideas like libertarianism and free market capitalism have gone from fringe beliefs held mostly by the elite to ideas with significant popular support and impact on our political sphere. In Dark Money, award-winning journalist and author Jane Mayer explores how a small group of extremely wealthy individuals, led largely by Charles and David Koch, have effectively legitimized far-right beliefs in America using their massive wealth.

In our guide, we’ll look at how the Kochs developed their political beliefs, the tactics they used to create their political movement, and how those tactics have affected American society and politics over recent decades. We’ll also examine the historical, social, and political contexts of the book’s events and how they have impacted society today.

Since the 2016 election, America has witnessed college campus protests against “controversial” or “dangerous” speakers. The Coddling of the American Mind explores this phenomenon, showing how a set of dangerous and false beliefs have taken root in the minds of today’s college students, convincing these young people that they are inherently fragile and must be protected from the allegedly harmful impacts of speech with which they disagree. This attitude threatens academic freedom, undermines democracy, and is ultimately harmful to the social and emotional development of today’s youth.

Americans might be the heaviest, sickest people in the world. The China Study suggests that we can lose weight and lower disease rates by removing animal foods from our diets.

What sets the whole foods, plant-based diet apart from the fads is the extensive research behind it, detailed and distilled in this book. The evidence is compelling and the message clear: Animal foods lead to disease; plant foods prevent and treat it.

Learn how a plant-based diet can give you more energy, reverse your heart disease, decrease your cancer risk, outsmart your genes, and make your life longer and healthier.

Have you noticed a shift in American politics throughout your lifetime? Over the past four decades, ideas like libertarianism and free market capitalism have gone from fringe beliefs held mostly by the elite to ideas with significant popular support and impact on our political sphere. In Dark Money, award-winning journalist and author Jane Mayer explores how a small group of extremely wealthy individuals, led largely by Charles and David Koch, have effectively legitimized far-right beliefs in America using their massive wealth.

In our guide, we’ll look at how the Kochs developed their political beliefs, the tactics they used to create their political movement, and how those tactics have affected American society and politics over recent decades. We’ll also examine the historical, social, and political contexts of the book’s events and how they have impacted society today.

In Manufacturing Consent, authors Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman explore how the American media frames events and creates narratives that serve the interests of the nation’s political, economic, and social elite. They argue that control of the media in the United States does not take the form of direct state censorship or a formal conspiracy to manage the news. Rather, there is a powerful set of informal restrictions and controls that limit what journalists cover—and how they cover it.

In this guide, we’ve streamlined and updated the authors’ 1988 analysis of the mainstream media to incorporate themes, topics, and examples that are more relevant for today’s audience, including the internet, social media, and the rise of “fake news.”

Americans might be the heaviest, sickest people in the world. The China Study suggests that we can lose weight and lower disease rates by removing animal foods from our diets.

What sets the whole foods, plant-based diet apart from the fads is the extensive research behind it, detailed and distilled in this book. The evidence is compelling and the message clear: Animal foods lead to disease; plant foods prevent and treat it.

Learn how a plant-based diet can give you more energy, reverse your heart disease, decrease your cancer risk, outsmart your genes, and make your life longer and healthier.