The Great Courses catalog covers hundreds of subjects, from history to how-to. (Image: The Great Courses) By Amy Panos You’ve probably heard of Master Class, where you can have Kim Kardashian teach you about branding or learn cooking from Thomas Keller. But do you know about its bookish older cous in, The Great Courses? Very few people do. I’m not a paid representative of this company, but I have gotten so much out of this under-the-radar streamer that I’ll tell anybody who will listen. So here goes. What is it? In a nutshell, The Great Courses is a streaming service through which college professors and other subject matter experts present in-depth courses about any topic you can think of. They offer classes on everything from art history (my particular jam) to philosophy, science, math (hard pass), literature, etc. If you’re curious about it, there’s probably a class. I call it Netflix for Nerds. Courses are usually made up of about 20 to 30 individual lectures each lasting 30-45 minutes. You can commit to a full course or dip in and out of topics as the mood strikes you using the robust search feature. Some courses come with a PDF download of notes and sources, and there’s an audio-only feature for listening in the car or on a walk. That’s all there is to it — just really good, college-level lectures on whatever you’re into. No quizzes, no tests, no papers. Just active listening and, if you’re a super nerd like me, taking notes. How much does it cost? A yearlong subscription costs about $120, or you can pay monthly for about $12 per month. That gets you access to all 20,000 (!) lectures. They run promotions frequently so you might be able to get a better price. They also offer a free one-week trial. What makes the courses so great? Want to learn a little about oceanography instead of worrying yourself sick about the state of the world? Want a little meat-and-potatoes learning amid all the fluff and drivel on social media? If you’re a curious person who wonders about a lot of stuff, the online courses might become your new favorite thing. I find so much of the content out there not worth my time. (Don’t get me wrong, I love a good binge, but a steady diet of fluff feels mentally yucky after a while.) I like that when a topic sparks my curiosity, or I just want to relax and kill some time, I can search for a course or lecture that explores it in a rigorous, in-depth way, not just a surface gloss, so I come away feeling like I’ve spent my time in a productive way. And since the lecturers are mostly college professors, I figure they and the information they present are vetted, compared to what you might find just Googling around. One caveat   The production values are, to be blunt, crap. You won’t get the pretty backdrops or inspiring visuals of Master Class. Instead, the set looks like “Married with Children” meets 1980s church basement, with a clunky two-camera set-up to match. Your teachers won’t be people you’ve heard of. It’s not the least bit slick or polished. But none of that matters because the content is absolute gold in terms of learning from real experts and professional thinkers. There’s no Captain Obvious stuff passed off like an earth-shattering revelation (looking at you, Master Class). The teachers are Ph.D.s and college professors who not only know their stuff but also know how to command a lecture room (or an iPad screen). If you’re a person who just loves to know things, either for personal enrichment or to dominate trivia night, I think you’ll find that The Great Courses is well worth your time. Nerds, unite! Contributor Amy Panos of Urbandale was a long-time home editor at Better Homes Gardens, organizes her belongings for fun and considers herself a Diet Coke connoisseur. ...read more read less