Dan Hurley

Dan Hurley is one of the most famous head coaches in America today--in any sport. He returned the UConn Huskies men's basketball team to their rightful place among the nation's elite, winning back-to-back NCAA Championships, and he did it with uncommon passion. His on-court eruptions, his face-offs with refs and even fans, are legendary. But behind all the winning and swagger is a story of intense, harrowing struggle. Son of a revered high school coach, younger brother of a college basketball icon, Hurley spent years fearing that he'd just never measure up. He suffered through several bouts of anxiety, deep depressions, at one point contemplating suicide. As a young player he was ridiculed, as a young coach he came up short. Many people would have given up. But through relentless will, and Jersey City grit, he reached the summit, becoming such a shining success that the Los Angeles Lakers of LeBron James came calling. For anyone needing a boost or a blast of inspiration, for anyone leading a team or wanting to up their game, for anyone chasing greatness, Hurley's story, told in his unique no-BS voice, is a must-read.

Can you make yourself smarter? Scientists have always believed that the one thing that couldn't improve was intelligence. But now science journalist Dan Hurley investigates the new field of 'intelligence training', showing that intelligence can be flexible and trainable. With vivid stories of lives transformed, insight into the latest groundbreaking scientific discoveries and narrating his experiences as a human guinea pig, Hurley delivers practical findings for people of every age and ability.

"A riveting look at the birth of a new science." --Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive When he was eight years old, Dan Hurley was labeled a "slow learner" because he still couldn't read. Three years later, he had become a straight A student. Until the publication of a major study in 2008, psychologists believed that intelligence is fixed at birth, that IQ is like a number tattooed on the soul. The new study showed that people can increase their "fluid" intelligence through training. Hurley, who grew up to become an award-winning science journalist, first explored the topic in The New York Times Magazine. In Smarter, he digs deeper by meeting with the field's leading researchers--and becoming a human guinea pig. After just three months of playing computer brain-training games, joining a boot-camp exercise program, learning to play the Renaissance lute, practicing mindfulness meditation and and even getting his brain zapped in the name of science, Hurley improved his fluid intelligence by sixteen percent. With humor and heart, Smarter chronicles the roiling field of intelligence research and delivers practical findings to sharpen the minds of children, young adults, seniors, and those with cognitive challenges.

A riveting work of investigative journalism that charts the rise of the dietary supplement craze and reveals the dangerous--and sometimes deadly--side of these highly popular and completely unregulated products. Over 60 percent of Americans buy and take herbal and dietary supplements for all sorts of reasons--to prevent illness (vitamin C), to ease depression (St. John's wort), to aid weight loss (ephedra), to boost the memory (ginkgo biloba), and even to cure cancer (shark cartilage, bloodroot)--despite the fact that few of these "natural" supplements have been proven to be safe or effective. The vitamin and herbal supplement industry generates over $20 billion a year by selling products that promise to cure or fix, but are produced and marketed essentially without oversight. And while the media has been quick to sensationalize the benefits of supplements, few have taken a hard look at the dangers posed by many of the remedies flooding the market today. Award-winning journalist Dan Hurley breaks the silence for the first time in "Natural Causes. "From the snake-oil salesmen of the early twentieth century, to rise of the health food movement in the sixties and seventies, Hurley charts the remarkable growth of an industry built largely on fraud, and reveals the backroom politics that led to the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which effectively freed the industry from FDA oversight. In unprecedented detail, he shows how supplement manufacturers have concealed the truth about dozens of untested treatments and the shocking rise in deaths, disfigurements, and life-threatening injuries caused by products deceptively promoted as "safe and natural." Most importantly, he provides a telling look at why, in an age of unprecedented scientific advancement, we continue to buy and believe in remedies for which little evidence exists--and why the supplements we take to promote our health may be doing far more harm than good. As Hurley shows, the dietary supplement craze may be one of the greatest swindles ever perpetrated on the American public--one that feeds billions of dollars each year into the pockets of lobbyists, politicians, and any charlatan who wants to slap a label on a bottle and tout it as the next big "natural cure." Blending hard facts with spellbinding personal stories, "Natural Causes" is a must-read for anyone who has ever popped a multivitamin or an herb, and provides a hard-hitting, frightening look at a cultural trend that is out of control.