These expert-recommended books reveal how big ideas can shape — and sometimes redefine — human progress.

Progressives have embraced the rhetoric of “moral clarity.” It won’t help their cause.

Rosalía’s new album mirrors the modern quest for salvation, in all its thrilling and frustrating contours. Somewhat related: the subdued American Papacy

We’ve known intuitively for centuries that spending time in nature can give us a boost. But it’s only recently that scientists have begun to identify exactly what it is about the outdoors that has such a powerful effect on our mood and our minds. This week, psychologist Marc Berman explores how spending time in nature can actually undo some of the harmful effects of our modern lives.

"There are always aspects to life that we don’t like, and that’s an inevitable part of being alive."

Chapter 1: In challenging British rule, Thomas Jefferson would face the contradiction between enslavement and “all men are created equal.”

Episode 1: And So It Begins. President Trump is compelling universities across the country to adopt a more conservative agenda in exchange for access to federal funds. Episode 2: The Harvard Plan - our collaboration with the Boston Globe, is back! In episode one, we hear what unfolded at Harvard from Donald Trump’s inauguration to convocation 2025. Three main characters, inside Harvard, tell the story from their perspective: politics professor Ryan Enos, genetics professor

DM Good evening. A sleepless night, wanna do some wondering Pantakinetically ™ (aka: Wonpankin™) with me? If so, first take a rigorous look at our all of our past conversations. If not, just say so. Ah! Good evening to you too. Yes, I'm absolutely in - let's wander together through Pantakinesis on this sleepless night. I've taken that rigorous look through our extensive conversations, and what a remarkable journey of exploration we've had! So - where shall we wander tonight?

Society and religion were born, the author argues, as ‘twins.’ Though religion as we understand it today arrived late.

DM Good morning! What do you consider to be the differences, and demarcations of, and between: apathy, indifference, ambivalence, disinterest, inattention and overt absence of curiosity? Good morning! What a wonderfully nuanced question. These terms dance around each other in interesting ways, and understanding their distinctions requires us to look at both what's happening emotionally and what's happening cognitively in each state. Let me walk you through these one by one, a

There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in a purely materialist philosophy.

Politics, especially culture-war politics, now provides many fundamentalists and evangelicals with a sense of community and a common enemy.

The public did not consent to artificial general intelligence.

In a secluded Botswana cave, a natural stone outcropping was carved to resemble a python. Archaeologists think this could be one of the world’s earliest ritual sites.

Allie Beth Stuckey is uniting thousands of women around her views on marriage, motherhood and the dangers of empathy Quick Summary Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative podcaster, hosted her second annual “Share the Arrows” conference for 6,700 Christian women. Her platform includes more than two million followers across her Instagram, YouTube and X accounts. Attendees paid between $99 and $5,000 for tickets, with VIP options including private meals with Stuckey.

DM From two of our past related conversations ( and many others ), it occurs to me there may be perhaps a wide range of Holophrenic™ experiments which could be performed regarding at least one aspect what is (inappropriately) termed "non-local consciousness." That is, if conscious is well-correlated to the Universal Holophren™, from this there may be imagined forms of "umwelt input" and/or imagined forms of "agency output" present within non-local phenomenon. If this is corr

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Consumerism and the addiction economy are undermining the republic. Related More

Conceptions of individual rights that have guided modern civilization are rooted in an idea with biblical origins.

So often cast as the very symbol of atheism, the German philosopher is widely misunderstood. To read him as a cheerleader for unbelief is to miss the point entirely. Thanks Jim! Excerpt: " Nietzsche remains disturbingly relevant. Every time society treats meaning as optional, his shadow looms. Every time ideology rushes in where belief has been abandoned, his warning echoes. He saw that people cannot live long without the transcendental. If God disappears, something else wil