What is a family? The answer might have been easy a generation ago, but today a much wider range of possibilities exists. This program offers a thought-provoking look at the changing roles, structures, and functions of the family unit. Societal expectations, technological advancements, and changes in cultural and sexual diversity are explored. A range of emotional, environmental, economic, and health-related considerations are presented as further reasons for evolving family characteristics. The video presents four Australian case studies of family forms, including interviews with family members, as well as discussions of the future of the family. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. (25 minutes)

Encourage students to explore biases and stereotypes with this group of ABC News segments. Each scenario puts actors into exchanges with unwitting bystanders, generating a wide range of responses—from overt hostility towards other races and cultures to acts of genuine compassion. Scenes include a bakery clerk’s refusal to serve a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf; cruelty towards an overweight woman seated on a boardwalk; a very public argument that threatens to become violent; and a purse-snatching in a crowded square, after which witnesses are asked to view a suspect lineup. Repeating the two latter situations, producers achieve varying reactions among onlookers by switching the races of the actors. (37 minutes)

Why do boys underachieve? How does celebrity culture influence the self-esteem of young girls? In an atmosphere dominated by sex and consumerism, are children growing up too quickly? This program addresses those issues, reporting on a group of 25 eight-year-olds as they adjust to gender roles and expectations. Nathan’s parents have gone all out to make sure he grows up without stereotypes—but real life isn’t that simple. Rhianna’s mother is the breadwinner and childcare provider in the family, while her father spends most of his time drinking. Meanwhile, tomboy Megan has taken an interest in the opposite sex, Helena has embraced her femininity, and Tyrese is displaying male aggression. A BBC/Open University Co-production. Original broadcast title: Divide of the Sexes. Part of the series Child of Our Time 2008. (60 minutes)

Now more than ever, career issues, family crises, and health problems can add up to an emotional overload. This collection of 25 video clips offers guidance, reassurance, and useful facts for busy women. With an average clip length of 90 seconds, the collection incorporates mini-case studies and commentary from experts—providing visual support for instructors and counselors who want to reach overworked, overscheduled learners.

Video clips include…

• What’s Causing Your Headache? Not all headaches are created equal. This clip describes various factors behind headaches, which many people often spend an entire lifetime battling. Causes include rheumatoid arthritis, sinus problems, high blood pressure, lung disorders, and even Lyme disease.

• Extreme PMS: Despite the trials of PMS, some women live through something even worse: PMDD, or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. This clip features a psychiatrist who works with women who suffer from PMDD and wants them to know that it’s not in their heads.

• Stress and Diabetes: New research finds major stress in a mother’s life can make her children more prone to Type One diabetes. This clip features a doctor who studies insulin resistance and stress hormone production during pregnancy.

• Burned Out to Fired Up! Burnout: it’s a real threat to working women and can quickly end promising careers. This clip highlights women who, facing job burnout, made life-changing transitions into successful, fulfilling livelihoods.

• Depressed at Work: Mentally and physically debilitating, depression has a huge impact on business and the workforce. This clip looks at ways to combat it, from setting work limits to the use of a vagus nerve stimulator—a pacemaker-like device implanted near the collarbone.

• The Quest for Rest: Tired of Being Tired? Millions of  Americans have a sleep disorder and don’t even know it. This clip looks at four women in four different stages of life to find out what’s keeping them up—and what can help them sleep.

• Is Your Commute Killing You? Drivers in Los Angeles spend an average of 90 minutes sucking in diesel fumes and “ultra-fine particles” every day. This clip highlights the dangers of UFPs and their link to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

• Blood Pressure: Lower Yours: About 70 million Americans have high blood pressure—but many don’t realize it because the symptoms are so subtle. This clip studies the problem and suggests ways to lower blood pressure by losing weight, reducing stress, quitting smoking, and limiting alcohol.

• Care for Caregivers: Unpaid home caregivers—the unsung heroes of medicine. This clip focuses on support and guidance for caregivers. Featured tips include taking time to rest, maintaining dialog with the patient, watching for signs of depression, and letting the sick make decisions.

• State of Mind: Are You Happy? In the 1970s, women reported being happier than men. Today, the roles are reversing. This clip looks at the happiness gap and features a doctor who promotes four “rational values” that lead to happiness: romance, career, family, and self.

• State of Mind: Health and Happiness: Is a bad mood bad for the body? This clip points to research linking state-of-mind with state-of-health. The study found that happy people exposed to cold and flu viruses were one-third less likely to develop a cold than their more negative counterparts.

• State of Mind: Path to True Happiness: Research suggests that Americans are among the most depressed people in the world—but a town 70 miles north of Manhattan is clearly an exception. This clip visits Pawling, New York, home of the Norman Vincent Peale Center—a bastion of positive thinking.

• Can Your Friends Make You Fat? The dangers of secondhand smoke are clear, but what about second-hand fat? This clip highlights a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that says friends and acquaintances may exert a powerful influence on weight gain or loss.

• Job Promotions: From Stressed to Best: A recent study ranks job promotion as a top source of stress. This clip points out the dangers of taking a sink-or-swim approach to career advancement. Upwardly mobile viewers are encouraged to build an open and honest dialog with their employers.

• Eco-Anxiety: Food, water, and energy shortages aren’t just geopolitical issues—they have a psychological impact. This clip examines a disturbing mental health issue: fear and panic over the environment. A therapist who deals with eco-anxiety is featured.

• Healthy Workplaces: Workout at Work: Keeping employees healthy and productive is a priority for well-run businesses. This clip looks at companies that have implemented health initiatives, such as fitness centers and workout classes offered on-site, during business hours.

• Quit Smoking Diet: Could what you eat actually help you stop smoking? This clip emphasizes the role of diet for those who want to give up tobacco. Viewers meet a psychologist who believes smoking and eating go hand-in-hand.

• Women and Hair Loss: It’s a problem many women don’t talk about. This clip introduces a variety of therapies to help women rebuild hair volume, including laser stimulation that causes hair to grow. A physician who treats the problem is featured.

• Postpartum Depression: Thousands of women suffer from postpartum depression without even realizing it. This clip presents doctors who say it’s time for the government to step in—citing a need for mandatory postpartum depression screening.

• Stressed Out! Hurried Woman Syndrome: Can a hectic lifestyle lead to a dangerous illness? This clip looks at what’s being called Hurried Woman Syndrome. Viewers are reminded of the right ways (prioritizing, focusing on health) and wrong ways (alcohol, smoking, overeating, denial) to deal with stress.

• Stressed Out! Top 10 Stress Busters: To build a stress-beating strategy, this clip suggests yoga and meditation; diaphragmatic breathing; supplements like kava, valerian, and St. John’s wort; taking a vacation; leisure activities; a strong social network; focusing on one’s own needs; and more.

• Birthdays Without Pressure: No more birthday parties that max out credit cards—and stress levels. This clip highlights a growing movement aimed at stopping extravagant birthday bashes for kids. Viewers are given suggestions for keeping celebrations low-key and low-pressure.

• Moms: Expect the Unexpected: Child injuries of one kind or another are inevitable, but they can be minimized. This clip shows smart methods of accident prevention. For effective childproofing, viewers are encouraged to view surroundings from a child’s point of view.

• Clutter Control: Bills, credit card offers, magazines, junk mail—without vigilance and organization, it all leads to clutter. This clip presents the story of one mother who decided to take control, making good use of closets, storage boxes, cabinets, and the recycling bin.

• 6 Mistakes in the Gym: Can a workout actually do harm? This clip points out six gym mistakes and how to fix them. Errors include poor stretching, refusing to take a break, leaning on the treadmill, too much intensity, gorging on energy bars and sports drinks, and working out seven days a week.

(53 minutes)

By 2015, homelessness may be a thing of the past in Portland, Oregon. Taking a “housing first” stance, Portland has reversed the cause-and-effect approach to urban renewal by first securing homes for its homeless residents and then helping them solve the problems that made them homeless to begin with. In this program, Victoria, British Columbia, applies Portland’s public policy to its own homeless population. Can the comprehensive and collaborative Portland model be transplanted to this once-quaint seaside city and restore the dignity and stability of its dispossessed? (23 minutes)

Muslims, blacks, gays, people with disabilities, and immigrants of every ethnicity and color: they and many other groups have stood in the spotlight glare of intolerance, easy targets for every sort of discrimination and violence. What makes people prone to irrational hate, and what steps can individuals and society take to eradicate it? In this program, psychology professors Susan Fiske, of Princeton University, and Mahzarin Banaji, of Harvard University; representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other pro-tolerance groups; and victims of prejudice share their insights and experiences. A pro-gay Baptist minister who formerly took a biblical stance against homosexuality and an ex-Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who now speaks out for tolerance also offer their views. Contains inflammatory language and images. Recommended for grades 9-college. A Films for the Humanities & Sciences Production. (35 minutes)

Challenging viewers to look beyond mainstream media treatment of the death penalty, this program portrays capital punishment as a blunt instrument that disproportionately targets racial minorities and the poor. The film highlights several difficult issues, concepts, and social conditions—including statistics on the racial makeup of America’s death row population; questionable convictions resulting from mistaken identification; the emotional and psychological toll on those wrongfully convicted; and the lingering effects of the Jim Crow era—or what many have called America’s 20th-century apartheid system—in which lynching functioned as de facto capital punishment. (26 minutes)

Although hatred of the Jewish people is often found at the margins of society, anti-Semitism appears to be approaching a groundswell in many parts of the world. This program examines the phenomenon at institutional and grassroots levels, focusing primarily on the Middle East and the complex history behind its conflicts. Viewers will encounter several provocative ideas about Islamic anti-Semitism and the attitudes Jews and Muslims have developed concerning each other. Celebrated historian Bernard Lewis, former Israeli Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, Iranian-American author Reza Aslan, Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, and other experts propel this timely discussion. Narrated by veteran TV journalist Judy Woodruff. Bonus material (DVD only) features extended interview footage. (57 minutes + 45 minutes of bonus material)

What is a family? The answer might have been easy a generation ago, but today a much wider range of possibilities exists. This program offers a thought-provoking look at the changing roles, structures, and functions of the family unit. Societal expectations, technological advancements, and changes in cultural and sexual diversity are explored. A range of emotional, environmental, economic, and health-related considerations are presented as further reasons for evolving family characteristics. The video presents four Australian case studies of family forms, including interviews with family members, as well as discussions of the future of the family. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. (25 minutes)

For many Americans, the threat of sudden poverty has less to do with the nation’s overall economy than it does with personal circumstances. This program discusses the hard facts of situational poverty with a focus on the four most common triggers: job loss, the fastest way to become impoverished; health issues, such as severe injury or long-term illness; the loss of a spouse through divorce or death; and natural disasters. The program also talks about where to turn to for help and provides supportive words of hope. People in the grip of situational poverty may be down, but they aren’t out! (55 minutes)

Categorizing others is a part of human nature, and even as infants we divide the world into two groups—male and female—to help organize our reality. But when these stereotypes are used to make assumptions about a person’s character and value, they become gender bias or outright sexism. This program illustrates some of the commercial, cultural, psychological, and sociological forces that have shaped sexual stereotypes in the media, such as demographic segmentation and the selling of gender, the myths of alluring femininity and rugged masculinity, Jungian personality archetypes, consensus reality, stereotype threat, the hegemonic forces of agenda-setting and mainstreaming, body image dysfunctions, and the theory of the male gaze. A Films for the Humanities & Sciences Production. (38 minutes)

Among new HIV cases, heterosexual patients are the majority—and high-risk behavior appears to be on the rise in many young demographic groups. What does this tell us about evolving attitudes towards AIDS? How do factors such as immigration, cultural tradition, economic disparity, and government inaction come into play? Writer and actor Stephen Fry pushes for answers, infusing this program with equal parts curiosity and outrage. Fry surveys carefree London clubbers about condom use and, traversing the U.K., examines the perception of HIV/AIDS among gays and straights alike. After meeting a British woman infected by her Ghanaian partner, Fry journeys to South Africa to confront that nation’s obfuscating AIDS policies. Contains mature themes and occasional explicit language and imagery. (60 minutes)