Intellectual Wellness Resources

intellectual wellness solid square with a person's head and brain

An intellectually well person strives to pursue lifelong learning and to share this knowledge with others. Intellectual Wellness enables a person to feel empowered to enhance critical thinking skills, engage in mentally stimulating activities, expand one’s worldview and communicate ideas, beliefs and values.

Boost Your Brain, Learn About Others and Make Better Decisions

Use the toggles below to explore resources related to Intellectual Wellness through a variety of lenses.

Critical Thinking, Decision Making and Lifelong Learning

LessWrong: Harry Potter – this website teaches you how to “1) develop and train rationality, and 2) apply one’s rationality to real-world problems” by improving reasoning and decision-making skills through the world of Harry Potter.
5 Tools to Search for Online Learning Courses and Study Partners – this list of websites and apps can make it easier for you to learn something new by finding someone else to go with you on your quest for knowledge
Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions – this website introduces you to various mental models, explains what they are, how to use them and when to use them as well as how using mental models can improve learning.
The Tiny Habits That Change Everything – this podcast explores the relationship between motivation and behavior so you can set habits that will lead to more substantial life changes with less overall effort.
Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Outsourced Expertise – this podcast highlights the importance of using critical thinking when consuming information instead of relying on “experts” to tell you what to think and how to think.
How to ACTUALLY Break Your Bad Habits – this articles explores strategies to get rid of bad habits and put better behaviors into place so you have more control over your actions, your time and the fulfillment you get out of life.

Expanding and Sharing Worldview, Ideas, Beliefs and Values

Blue Hen Minds – this video series of talks and lectures explores topics presented by fellow Blue Hens about robots, storytelling, photography and more.
National Agenda – this podcast is hosted by UD’s Center for Political Communication and explores election outcomes, social discourse and more by interviewing politicians, journalists and scholars.
TEDx UD – watch recorded presentations from past speakers at UD TEDx events on topics such as: mental health, careers, the environment, technology, politics and more.
9 Virtual Field Trips That Make History Come Alive – explore these virtual walking tours of museums, national parks, ancient buildings and more, including: the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Canada, the Tomb Of Queen Meresankh III in Egypt, and Machu Picchu in Peru.
Wyzant Famous Speeches – listen to recordings of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and others.
Kanopy – a collection of FREE documentaries and movies from around the world about topics such as ethnicity and identity, politics and current affairs, media and pop culture, women and society, LGBTQ studies, art, science and technology, the environment, health and wellness, and history.

Brain Teasers, Puzzles and other Mental Games

FREE eBooks to Download

The Canterbury Puzzles by Henry E. Dudeney – a book of logic puzzles.
The Santa Claus’ Book of Games and Puzzles by John H. Tingley – a book for solo or group use featuring riddles, charades, enigmas, rebuses, anagrams, labyrinths, acrostics, and more.
Conundrums, Riddles and Puzzles by Dean Rivers – one thousand logic puzzles collected from throughout history and from around the world.
Minute Mysteries (Detectograms) by H. A. Ripley – a collection of short detective mysteries for the reader to solve.
536 Puzzles and Curious Problems by Henry E. Dudeney – this collection features arithmetical and algebraical problems, geometrical problems, combinatorial and topological problems and othe games.

FREE Games to Download

Mandagon – a free to play (on Windows and Mac) 2D side-scrolling platformer game where the player explores “a world inspired by Tibetan theology and philosophy. With a focus on life and death, discover what it means to make a true sacrifice.”
Backbone: Prologue – a free to play (on Windows, Mac and Linux) point-and-click mystery-detective game with stealth elements where the player “must traverse the different districts of a now walled-off Vancouver, sniff out clues, collect evidence, interrogate witnesses, and choose which leads to follow.”
Sprout – a free to play (on Windows and Mac) “botanical-puzzle-adventure” game with hand-drawn graphics and point-and-click mechanics where you start life out as an acorn seeking to travel from an island to the mainland.

Additional Resources

5 Best Puzzle Sites for Logic Riddles and Lateral Thinking Brain Teasers – a list of websites with different collections free puzzles, riddles, and brain-teasers for use online or printable activities.
15 Awesome Puzzle and Brain Teaser Games for Chrome – a list of puzzles, games and brain teasers you can play right in Chrome.
Math for Fun and Glory: Puzzles – a FREE collection from Khan Academy of puzzles, logic games, riddles and brain teasers featuring mathematical principles.
Classic PC Puzzle Games – browse through 2,000+ games hosted by Archive.org that you can play in your web browser for FREE.