Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro on Minds Wide Shut March 31, 2021 Polarization may be pushing democracy to the breaking point. But few have explored the larger, interconnected forces that have set the stage for this crisis: namely, a rise in styles of thought, across a range of fields, that literary scholar Gary Saul Morson and economist Morton Schapiro call “fundamentalist.” Read More
The dark neuron problem, or mind reading at 90% accuracy March 30, 2021 I’m going to read your mind. Right now. Ready? Don’t get freaked out. Deep breath. Here we go… Read More
Marci Kwon on Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism March 29, 2021 Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) is best known for his exquisite and alluring box constructions, which transform found objects into enchanted worlds that blur the boundaries between fantasy and the commonplace. Read More
A new vocabulary for social life March 27, 2021 What if we lived in a society where women had the power to make the world anew? What would life look like today if women played a definitive part in governance and had the resources to create sustainable lives? Read More
Nabokov: When playfulness is serious March 22, 2021 A rather common response to Nabokov has entailed complaints that he is altogether too cerebral or calculating a writer. Read More
The hidden economic lives of women March 18, 2021 Women are everywhere in economic life, and nowhere very much in economic history. In Joseph Vernet’s great series of paintings of the 1750s and 1760s, the waterfronts of the ports of France are crowded with women pulling carts and selling fish, talking and bargaining. Read More
Madame d’Aulnoy, the mysterious fairy‑tale queen March 17, 2021 For those readers who do not believe that fairies are real, they should think twice, for the extraordinary Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Comtesse d’Aulnoy (1650–1705) did not only invent the term fairy tale (conte de fees) and create tales about fairies, she was a fearless fairy herself. Read More
What’s it like to be a spike?: What we’re learning in the Golden Age of neuroscience March 14, 2021 It began as an idle thought. I stood on a chill dimly-lit platform one early winter morning, waiting on my regular, no-doubt delayed train to emerge from the tunnel and pull up with a screech of brakes, ready to convey me through the snow-topped hills from the grey, snowy city where I live to the dark, damp city where I worked. Read More
Happy 40th, Einstein! March 13, 2021 On March 14th, 1919 Albert Einstein celebrated his 40th birthday. Typically for him the big milestone passed off quietly. Read More
Why plant flowers? March 12, 2021 As someone who derives a great deal of pleasure from growing and studying flowers, I would like to suggest that everyone get involved with planting flowers this spring, whether indoors or out, at home or as part of a community beautification program. Read More
The blind leading the blind March 07, 2021 My mother came here to the United States from her country to help me open my very first brick and mortar business—Harriett’s Bookshop—in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia back in March of 2020. Read More
Sylvana Tomaselli on Wollstonecraft March 03, 2021 Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women’s rights advocacy. However, as Sylvana Tomaselli shows, a full understanding of Wollstonecraft’s thought is possible only through a more comprehensive appreciation of Wollstonecraft herself. Read More
Wasps, and their unsung contributions to the ecosystem February 27, 2021 The sting. Pain is what we associate with the word “wasp,” because our definition of wasp is far too narrow. Read More
Emma Rothschild on An Infinite History February 24, 2021 Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoulême in southwestern France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record. Read More
Ridding ourselves of a demagogue: What the ancient Greeks would have thought of impeachment February 23, 2021 In 471 BCE, the politician and renowned general Themistocles was exiled from Athens for ten years by a vote of some six thousand Athenians. Read More
