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What a surfer’s story can teach us about the promises we make to ourselves about the future.

Which sayings are true, and which ones just sound nice?   

Driving through Yosemite a few years ago, we came upon a blackened patch of the park still smelling burnt. By the look of this map, it must have been the […]

We are only creating the mansions for the souls that only He can create. 

When London’s Tate Gallery asked the French painter Balthus for some personal details to include in a 1968 retrospective exhibition, Balthus replied via telegram: “No biographical details. Begin: Balthus is […]

There is no circumstance that people could possibly contrive for ourselves which would constitute “having it all”.

Thomas Jefferson’s metaphor of “a wall between church and state” remains as sturdy and impenetrable as ever, even as it is dangerously ignored.

Women must display attributes of care, attributes of femininity, and yet be assertive and independent. 

Well, don’t get excited.  I know it really wasn’t a miracle.  But the strangely persistent summer rain that took out all the other July 4th activities in this part of the […]

Not too long ago I found myself in a red—a very deep red—state, for a research trip. It’s the sort of place where they feel compelled to post on the […]

The Environmental Defense Fund developed a market-based proposal to reduce the omissions of sulfur dioxide, the cause of acid rain. 

The reason Socrates banished laughter or comedy from the poetry of the just city is that comedians, at their best, remind us of what we all know: There’s an inexpressible […]

My points are modest in what they are trying to prove, or they would be if many people weren’t entirely immodest in what they refuse to discuss.

As people in different countries are able to tell their own stories they are responding to the idea of Africa as a place of permanent suffering.

What really matters in an art education? Do we teach every child to paint or sculpt? Do we school them in names and dates and places? Or do we somehow […]

David McRaney, author of You Are Not So Smart, tells us how “humbling epiphanies” can be rewarding, even deeply pleasurable.

Where were you when you first learned that there are plastic landfills the size of continents floating in our oceans? What should have been a wake-up call hasn’t slowed the […]

When you have a very rigid society without social mobility the underachieving kids of overachieving parents get a privileged run and get helped into colleges they shouldn’t really be getting into.

Currently, the technology known as “Active Denial” only operates from a large truck, but a report indicates that Raytheon is developing a version that police officers can use to disperse crowds.

This question touches on one of the most fundamental issues that is addressed by anybody who thinks about mortality, the end of mortality.

When you have a capitalistic society, to the extent that you encourage and nurture these kinds of prosocial, generative, giving attitudes, the more you will have success, not the less. 

One of the reasons Joseph Campbell’s work in comparative mythology continues to resonate—some, myself included, would argue grow—is due to his ability to synthesize religious and spiritual traditions from around […]

Fearing for his marriage, a dentist fired an employee he deemed “irresistible.” The Iowa Supreme Court said that’s perfectly fine.

most accurate cosmological simulation of the evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe yet 

Isn’t this the craziest, twistiest international borderline you’ve ever seen? Unless you’ve studied the hyper-enclaved border zone of Cooch Behar [1], between India and Bangladesh, it probably is. But why […]

Deep mathematical patterns that are commonly found in nature may lie behind what we experience as beauty, which may explain why we have trouble putting beauty into words. 

We’re constantly editing our day with blinking.

So I’ve been criticized for saying that our country is, more than ever, a meritocracy based on productivity. One of the threaders, in fact, said we’re a plutocracy based in […]

Throughout my career I’ve been surprised. Perhaps the most amazing surprise to me was actually one that I ultimately proposed but it defied everything I’d thought before. And that is […]

If I were to give you advice on what to tell your daughter, who say, is a 13-years-old adolescent, I would definitely present all kinds of options to her as really valid.