Culture & Religion

There are many strange instances of marketing and holiday traditions coming together. Let’s be more alert in 2017.

The UK sees Sealand as nothing more than a platform in its waters. The Bates Family disagrees.   

Author David Shenk explains how we frequently misinterpret the meaning of IQ scores.

More than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) limits. It gets even worse if you look at low and middle-income countries, where 98% of cities don’t meet WHO guidelines. 

It seems difficult to explain why evangelical Christians swung their vote toward Donald J. Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election.

Here’s what the roots of both ends of the word Christmas mean.  

Daryl Davis has made a point of meeting Ku Klux Klan members and 200 members have quit the racist organization after getting to know him.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Philosopher of mind Peter Godfrey-Smith on octopus consciousness, free will, and an extinct sea-worm he’d like to resurrect. 

Silicon Valley engineers and financiers make up the lion’s share of the movement.   

Will actors have to compete against dead celebrities for roles? Given the advance in CGI (Computer Generated Images) and VFX (Special Effects), Hollywood’s desire for bankable stars, and estates looking for additional revenue, it is all possible.      

Louis Menand discusses the downright weird way we care about fictional characters we know perfectly well aren’t really real.

One radical notion is that the story of Jesus was a type of psychological warfare to pacify the Jews.   

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. “Vampire Chronicles” author Anne Rice on superstition, science, and why she thinks Freddie Mercury was a vampire.  

Two things really ruin the holiday season: bon bon jokes and egocentrism. This study helps take the latter out of the gift-giving equation. 

A recent study in neurotheology states religious experiences might have helped our brain evolve. 

10 million prime age men have checked out of the workforce. Let’s improve their prospects.   

HINT: Don’t just learn the opposite view. Argue it.

In spite of rumors, billionaire Corona beer founder Antonino Fernández’s estate will not be distributed among the residents of his home town.

Geneticists found certain gene variants were more influential than personality traits, such as grit.  

Using technology to make democracy more dynamic hearkens back decades. But today, we have the means to make it work.   

SoHo based Thompson Chemists is using a provocative campaign to raise awareness about the gender price gap.

A new study looks at our comfort in being around other people as a byproduct of evolution.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Fiction writer and environmentalist T.C. Boyle on the crazy, contested world we might not be able to inhabit much longer, and what we’ll do after that. 

Looking for new ways to teach the intellectual capital of humanity to its students, Glasgow University is offering a philosophy course based on the character of Homer Simpson.

If anyone can convince Donald J. Trump to take climate change seriously, it might be the US military.

In a recent CBS News interview, Jon Stewart lays out some fascinating thinking about Trump, how we got here, and what we all need to do to keep the country working as best it can.

Women have the right to decide when to get pregnant. To exercise that right, they need access to contraception and information about family planning. 

Every day, somewhere between 60 and 70 million girls are not in school. More than half a billion females worldwide are illiterate—about twice the number of illiterate males.

This was a large-scale study, including 55,000 students from eight different countries.   

Donald Trump directly contradicts the biblical notion of charity. Yet Evangelicals, Mormons, Protestants, and White Catholics overwhelmingly voted for him.