The therapist and the gadfly May 24, 2023 If you want to improve yourself—be happier, for example—you shouldn’t consult society’s ideas of a good life, as portrayed in magazines, pillows, and posters. Instead, you should find the equivalent of a horse trainer. Read More
Can bankers ever be virtuous? May 24, 2023 There are few today who link banking with virtue. The common view is of an industry greedy for profits and far too willing to take risks that, when they go wrong, lead to expensive bail outs using tax-payers’ money while the perpetrators walk away with their bonuses intact. Read More
Rabbis in the Roman public bathhouse: Ancient perspectives on modern sensibilities May 03, 2023 The figure of the rabbi, whether modern or ancient, seems far removed from the corporeal reality of a Roman public bathhouse—or at least that’s what we would assume. Yet, the vast body of writings, known collectively as Rabbinic Literature, paints an entirely different picture. Read More
Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi on The Individualists May 01, 2023 Libertarianism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century with an unwavering commitment to progressive causes, from women’s rights and the fight against slavery to anti-colonialism and Irish emancipation. Read More
In dialogue: How does poetry help? April 30, 2023 Across the world, poems have existed for millennia, asking questions and telling stories that affirm, interrogate, celebrate, or simply sit with the mysteries of human life. As more and more of our lives become carved away by forces of consumerism, these mysteries may become buried deeper still, perhaps prompting us to wonder, how does poetry help? Read More
Declaration of independents April 26, 2023 While there are many miles to go, booksellers deserve a day of celebration; a day to show the world the good they have done and the power a community bookstore can have. Read More
Truth matters: Why we should fight disinformation at all costs April 25, 2023 Why can some social insects carry out what nonhuman primates can’t? The answer lies in large-scale collaboration. Read More
Honoring fairy tales April 14, 2023 Fairy tales are not medicine for the sick world in which we live, they are indications and traces of what we were and can become. Read More
David Edmonds on Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality April 14, 2023 Derek Parfit was an obsessive. For much of his adult life he had two obsessions. Philosophy was one, photography another. Every year, for many years, he would travel to Venice and St. Petersburg and photograph the same buildings, trying to take the perfect shot. Read More
Why economists—and everyone else—should care about hope April 13, 2023 The U.S. is experiencing a nationwide crisis of despair. Despair is not only linked with premature mortality, but with the vulnerability to misinformation that is plaguing our society, our health systems, and our democracy. Read More
Tracing the global travels of Isabella Stewart Gardner April 12, 2023 To describe the fairy-tale effect of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s spellbinding interior is to verge upon the cliché—and yet, the historical bridge between its enchanting atmosphere and the global travels of the museum’s founder and namesake is a complicated one that needs restoration. Read More
Reproductive justice includes the right to stop contraception April 04, 2023 Contraception rebellion is all over social media these days. Many people are going off of hormonal contraception, digging out their implants, foregoing injections… and pulling on that little IUD string dangling from their cervix. Read More
The origins and importance of talk March 29, 2023 I come from a family of talkers. The household in which I grew up was always noisy. My parents were loud and opinionated, and interrupted and quarreled boisterously with each other. Read More
In dialogue: Writing women’s history March 27, 2023 We asked four of our authors the following question: What do we find when we read ‘women’ into histories that often exclude them? Read More
Arthur V. Evans on The Lives of Beetles March 20, 2023 With some 400,000 species, beetles are among the largest and most successful groups of organisms on earth, making up one-fifth of all plant and animal species. Read More
