Podcast Listen in: When the Sahara Was Green October 28, 2021 The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed by rivers and lakes. Read More
Essay Roger Luckhurst on Gothic: An Illustrated History October 28, 2021 How can you hope to navigate a genre that starts with a bunch of gloomy British poets brooding in crepuscular graveyards in the 1740s and ended up recently delivering us the sixth film in the Sharknado franchise (where killer sharks get hurled around by tornados, obviously)? Read More
Essay Edgar Allan Poe’s suburban dream October 27, 2021 If there were ever an American writer you would not associate with the suburbs, it’s Edgar Allan Poe. His popular image tends to be that of an isolated figure, oblivious to his surroundings. Read More
Interview Judith Barringer on Olympia: A Cultural History October 26, 2021 The memory of ancient Olympia lives on in the form of the modern Olympic Games. But in the ancient era, Olympia was renowned for far more than its athletic contests. Read More
Interview Shannon Lee Dawdy on American Afterlives October 25, 2021 Death in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Read More
Essay Up close and circular October 22, 2021 Over the past year, if you were a bird in the habit of soaring over the suburban neighborhood in which I live, you would have seen me walking. Read More
Podcast Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity October 21, 2021 Renowned economic historian, Claudia Goldin traces women’s journey to close the gender wage gap and sheds new light on the continued struggle to achieve equity between couples at home. Read More
Essay Conspiracy theories and the value of philosophy October 20, 2021 When you hear a claim that runs counter to mainstream thinking, like that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, or that close contact with a person who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 can make you sterile, or that the Holocaust never occurred, what should you think about in order to evaluate the claim? Read More
Essay Plant-based dietetics in Plato’s city for pigs October 20, 2021 The first thing to know about pigs is that they are not vegetarians. They are omnivores and their food choices pose no ethical dilemmas for them. Read More
Interview Claudia Goldin on Career and Family October 15, 2021 A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. Read More
Essay Poverty, pandemic, and peace of mind October 14, 2021 When COVID-19 spread around the world, I was living in the south of France, but my mind was in the U.S. south. Read More
Essay A social democratic surprise: The results of the German elections October 12, 2021 The first election after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s retirement was eagerly awaited, since it would show the direction of Germany’s and Europe’s future. Read More
Video PUP Speaks: Rachel Gable on The Hidden Curriculum October 11, 2021 Rachel Gable, PUP Speaks author of The Hidden Curriculum, presents the results of her investigation into the difficulties first generation students must overcome to succeed. Read More
Podcast What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic of Human Cognition October 08, 2021 At the heart of human intelligence rests a fundamental puzzle: How are we incredibly smart and stupid at the same time? No existing machine can match the power and flexibility of human perception, language, and reasoning. Read More
Video Hosts and Guests: Readings by poet Nate Klug October 07, 2021 Nate Klug has been hailed by the Threepenny Review as a poet who is “an original in Eliot’s sense of the word.” In Hosts and Guests, his exciting second collection, Klug revels in slippery roles and shifting environments. Read More
