How to Restore the Art of Conversation

“We are at our most stupid in our self-hatred.”

The Ideological Brain

The best explanation yet for the maddening rigidity on the far right—and the far left.

Take This Sugar Pill and Call Me in the Morning

How much of a placebo's efficacy is in the brain, and how much in the heart?

What Makes Abraham Verghese Such a Great Storyteller?

Is it his cosmopolitan background? His stint at the Iowa Writers Workshop? His knowledge of human suffering?

The Spanish I Lost in Translation

La persona, a person, is feminine even if referring to a man. El vestido, the dress, is masculine, though la falda, the skirt, is feminine. Why do this to us?

Should AI Flatter or Play Devil’s Advocate?

The AI with the calm, reflective voice, encouraging us to think? They scrapped it for a fast-paced sycophant.

How We Learn the World

Why are we humans so impatient with any way of learning the world that is not our own?

The Rage over “Adolescence”

What disgusted a handful of people about one of the best recent shows on television—and what that reveals about us

How a Propaganda Campaign Killed Our Trust in Science and Government

Market fundamentalism’s propaganda gave us climate destruction, a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, a lousy pandemic response...and, ironically, Trump.

Entering Other People’s Churches

A Dickensian outing with the ghost of Easters past.

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