Storytelling has been with us as long as language itself. The desire to both entertain and explain has resulted in the flowering of language to describe every aspect of the human condition. In this program, Stephen Fry discovers what makes a good story, and why some writers are better at conveying joy or horror than others. Topics include the Odyssey and the Iliad; James Joyce's Ulysses; the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and Stephen King (with Lord of...

No study of the Iranian capital has ever demonstrated more energy or depth of feeling than this street-level journey by BBC journalist Rageh Omaar. With astonishing access to everyday citizens as well as public figures-at one point Omaar is invited to pray next to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-the film reveals a nation full of anomalies and bizarre contradictions, beards and burqas set against BMW showrooms and mobile phone ads. A through-line...

Ranging from the everyday to the esoteric, this program rounds out the study of punctuation by investigating the many functions of hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and ellipses. Topics presented include the following: using hyphens to create compound nouns and adjectives, spell out numbers, and break lines of text; using apostrophes to form contractions, possessives, and plurals; using slashes to separate lines of poetry, offer a choice between words,...

In this video discussion, Dr. B. F. Skinner talks about a variety of topics, including treatment of the mentally ill, social values, aversive versus positive control, and the limitations of the educational system. He discusses his utopian novel Walden Two, gives his opinions of statistical methods, and considers Freudian defense mechanisms. He also considers his contributions and criticisms of them.