The Eighth Sense

Western scientists conveniently overlooked emotion for decades, dismissing it as irrational and female, a source of bias and hysteria best avoided altogether. Now they are forced to acknowledge that simply by paying attention to internal sensations, you can head off hysteria, angst, or dejection.

What the Metaverse Is and How It Will Seduce Us

Writing for The Atlantic, game designer and Washington University media prof Ian Bogost calls “metaverse” “a sexy, aspirational name for some kind of virtual or augmented reality play.” Also: “a fantasy of power and control.” Which seems to be the key.

Earning the Faith

I was so stunned the first time I heard “And the Glory of the Lord” that I thought I would faint. My heart pounded like a runaway train. It was for me at that young age the most beautiful thing I ever heard in my life. And I heard it that day and thought, “If I could be a Christian as beautiful as that music; if I could, as a Christian, help make the world as beautiful as that music, that would be something!”

Goldfinger and How James Bond Becomes a Cultural Behemoth

As all the commentators have noted, "Goldfinger" provided the template for future Bond movies. First, a title song played over the opening credits. Second, a pre-credits action sequence which has become the sine qua non of the Bond movie. Third, "Goldfinger" made technological and mechanical gadgets a permanent aspect of the Bond film effect.

How AR Could Explode Traditional Teaching

For centuries, the humanities have been taught with texts and lectures; art history with slideshows and lectures; the sciences with experiments and lectures. Then came VR and AR. And now, professors who have never felt the slightest desire to play a video game are downloading VR software, begging for I.T. help, and teaching their students—and themselves—how to construct worlds within worlds.

America’s Hair Is Falling Out

We lose our hair (and supposedly, our libido) with age, so that was my first suspect. I stood in front of the mirror, my wet hair combed and parting itself all over the place, lines of pink parceling out my head as though platting it for a subdivision.

How Latin Became Right-Wing

There is magic in ancient, little-used languages. Like rusty gates to a secret garden, they invite you into an extraordinary experience. Why do so many beautiful traditions become tainted by the flaws and confusions of the next era?

Remembering bell hooks, and How Intros Can Really Hang You Up the Most

I was not conversant with bell hooks’s works and I thought, as hooks was such an important feminist, that probably a woman should do this. But I was pressed into service despite my misgivings.

The Moondog DJ and His Empire of Rhythm and Blues

Alan Freed became one of a handful of White DJs who pushed rhythm and blues on his show, becoming such a force in the industry that he could almost make or break records with his airplay and he could influence how the independent record companies who produced R & B, rockabilly, and rock and roll, dealt with their artists by recommending performers to certain labels. His influence was monumental.

Telling the Homer G. Phillips Story at Last

Before Homer G. Phillips existed, Black St. Louisans often had to climb on a bus, feverish or in pain, and ride halfway across town, not knowing what attitude a White doctor might take toward them. Many had recovered from surgery in Ward 0400, a segregated surgical ward for Blacks in the basement of Barnes Hospital.

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