Rocking the Spectrum
A gym for kids who are neurodivergent--and kids who are not. When you make room for difference, it softens.
Science & Nature
Just for a Minute, This Country Feels Like Itself Again
The new citizens’ faces suggest every other part of the world, yet as they recite, all the accents blend into a single voice—that sounds American. Which feels almost eerie until I remember the unity this nation was supposed to make possible.
Empathy, It Seems, Is Overrated
(Shutterstock) https://commonreader.washu.edu/app/uploads/2024/04/empathy.mp3 A heart willing to welcome someone else’s pain inside. A brain with the superpower of unlocking other psyches. Skin so tender, anybody’s mood will brush against yours—then penetrate. Empathy seems a noble trait, potent and generous, an instant cure for injustice and xenophobia. I watch…
Solar Eclipse 2024: the Band of Totality Tour!
Strong feelings shaded yesterday’s total solar eclipse in North America, ranging from worries about terrorism against big crowds gathered in rural areas, where first-responders would be overwhelmed, to fervent hopes for the rapture.
How Color Left Nature Behind
Our sensual imagination has gone abstract, need-based, overclever, and devoid of substance.
Daniel Kahneman Set the World Right by Showing How We Get It All Wrong
Thinking, Fast and Slow is, in part, an extended lesson in humility. It should humble us all to understand how limited we are. Kahneman’s book is also, fortunately for us, a potent antidote.
Surveillance at the Compost Dump
Professional landscapers haul in huge loads. And a shrugging “More compost for us!” is not fair to the folks who have to wrangle all that detritus, grinding a tangle of branches into mulch for our gardens. Still, the taped loop feels eerie.
Breakthrough Research Connects Genes, Personality, and Health
Only now is it clear that genes network like busybodies, responding to every possible influence and turning one another on and off as the situation demands.
Why Are We Still So Confused About COVID?
Our healthcare system runs on profit. It could use some fortification. Also, a few towers, so we can see farther into the future. And maybe a moat, to keep out the misinformation.
Moths Are Not Romantics
The moth-to-flame metaphor lasted for good reason. It colors our attitudes toward saintly masochism, heroic idiocy, great and stupid loves, magnificent obsessions that sop up people’s money and leave their families starved for affection and bread. And it leaves us as confused as the insects.