Weed & TGC

I review weed strains and The Great Courses lectures. About

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Cake Crasher (The Solid)

Pretty mid. Smells pleasant, a little fruity, mostly herbal, almost floral. Not particularly strong.

5.5/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

The African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela (Professor Kenneth P. Vickery)

Gonna be honest... I did not find this professor's style to be particularly engaging. Some of these lectures I had to listen to twice or more because I kept losing focus. That's why it took me *five weeks* to get through these lectures.

I was hoping for this course about the African "experience" to have more culture and philosophy, less straight history. That said, the history is certainly fascinating.

6/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Cinderella 99 (The Solid)

I really liked this strain when I had it from the dispensary in Massachusetts. Here, it was just OK. Whether the Massachusetts flower was actually better or I just didn't have enough to compare it to, this time it was disappointing.

The flower was what I would describe as leggy, not dense, lots of leaves and I found a seed. Lower quality than I expected. Nothing unusual about the effects. Good flavor. But probably won't buy again.

4/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Blisterine (hilight)

Flower is dense, a little drier and crumblier than I like, but pretty — covered in trichomes, sparkling. I wasn't able to capture this very well in the picture. Flavor is OK. A little bit rough on the throat. Strong uplifting/sativa effects. I will probably buy this again.

8/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Chemsicle (Black Sheep)

Dense, moist buds. Not very pretty looking but smells good—typical "weed" smell, mainly sweet and fruity/herbal. Smooth vapor without too much coughing. Even distribution of vapor at different vape temperatures. The high was nice, seemed mellow for a sativa, but in a good way.

7/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Tart Pop (Tryke)

Beautiful dense buds. A delicious lemony/fruity scent with a little bit of herbal undertones. The high was calm and happy - this strain made me feel appreciative if the good things in my life and affectionate toward other people.

9/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Grease Gun (Riverside Farm)

Somewhat bigger, looser buds. Lovely smell, sort of fruity/citrussy. Seems to give more of a "couchlock" than other sativa-dominant strains I've tried.

6/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Professor Robert Garland)

I would recommend these lectures for: anyone who imagines they would like to live in ancient or medieval history; writers or daydreamers with settings in ancient or medieval history.

The title is a little bit of a misnomer as the course also covers the medieval period.

This course is extremely thorough. The professor devotes hours to most of the cultures he mentions, exploring daily life in multiple aspects and for multiple subgroups of the population.

Professor Garland also doesn't shy away from discussing slavery, the mistreatment of women, and other forms of abuse that were historically very common. So much of this stuff is omitted from the way we teach history. I knew there were slaves in Ancient Greece and Rome, but I didn't know how many slaves there were, or the extent to which these societies depended on it.

Like most work produced by Western historians, this largely focuses on what Western culture has considered civilization—Egypt and Mesopotamia up through the Greeks and Romans to the Middle Ages. The professor at least acknowleges in the second lecture that this course is of limited scope, but I think it would have been nice to have that disclaimer at the beginning. A few more comments reveal this Western-centric view—"Nomads can create nothing, they can remember nothing..."

The course left me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, I look back at western civilization's long history of slavery and subjugation of women, and I feel immensely greatful that I was born in this moment in history, where I have human rights, and immensely proud of our civilization for coming this far. Universal equality of all humans would have been *unthinkable* in the Ancient world. On the other hand, I look at those long years of darkness compared to this recent tiny sliver of daylight and I feel distressed: have we truly overcome what was seen for so long as human nature? Or is this light just a flash in the pan? I look at what's happened in my country this week, and I fear the worst.

8/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Fatso (Dragonfly)

Buds medium density, good moisture. Aesthetically pretty. Smells like the garden after it rains, quite pleasant and herbal. Seems to make me a little anxious though.

5/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

About

- My purchase, possession, and consumption of marijuana is all legal in my jurisdiction.

- I'm not affiliated with The Teaching Company, the weed brands, or any other brand or company.

- I primarily use cannabis by vaporizing raw flower in a dry herb vaporizer. I highly recommend this method of consumption.

- I listen to The Great Courses for free from the library using the Libby app. Please support your local library!

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Golden Hour Flower (The Standard)

Tbh I was not particularly impressed with this strain. It vaporized very quickly and at a highish temperature, and it seemed less potent than it should have been for the THC percentage.

2/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science (Professor Steven Gimbel)

What a joy this series was!

The professor tells the history of human understanding like a narrative story, and it's one that's worth listening to.

The basic thesis is fairly simple—that we've gone from thinking of things as "things" to thinking of things as "systems"—and in the process of explaining that point, he gives a brief history of the sciences, starting with physics. But he doesn't just say "people believed x until someone discovered y," he explains what x and y mean and why people believed them.

This lecture series got me interested in physics and in the history of science, which have been two great love affairs in my life.

10/10

[weedandthegreatcourses]

Cosmic Berry (The Standard)

The flavor is wonderfully sweet and fruity but with a surprising amount of complexity. The vapor is very smooth, good for baby lungs. The high is nice with an even blend of calming and energizing effects. A pleasant strain.

8/10