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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
More than 20 per cent of America’s water treatment systems have violated provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act in the last five years, according to federal data.
The philandering activities of golfer Tiger Woods reveal a deep-rooted insecurity because the women all look like Barbie dolls, writes Eugene Robinson.
At the Copenhagen Summit the US government declared that greenhouse gases threaten human health - a move that could allow a bypassing of Congress in order to enforce emission cuts
Psychologists often joke that their insights into human nature come from experiments with American university students, on duty for required credit or beer money. "So we see that human beings--or […]
After blogger Andrew Sullivan announced last week that he was "leaving the right," I argued that there is no longer much room on the political right for conservatives in the […]
As our name implies, Big Think asks experts to ponder large questions—but we rarely make them this large. Topics covered in our interview with comparative religion scholar Karen Armstrong included: […]
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Avenue Capital chairman Marc Lasry sees leverage as the main culprit of the economic downturn. The secret to recovery: a cap on leverage.
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Prior to the crisis, regulators were more concerned with hedge funds than with banks. Why didn’t the government bailout hedge funds? Avenue Capital chairman Marc Lasry explains.
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Hedge fund founder Marc Lasry evaluates the government’s handling of the Chrysler bankruptcy and compares this financial crisis to previous ones.
"The Most Failed State," a piece in The New Yorker's December 14 issue, scrutinizes Somalia and offers glimpses of the mix of nose-holding and open-mindedness U.S. leaders will need in […]
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The fate of the newspaper critic is closely tied to the fate of print media. Can either survive?
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Everyone knows the staples of the Broadway repertoire; they get recycled every decade or so. Which masterpieces are we overlooking?
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Music and drama critic Terry Teachout recently wrote his first libretto; the opera became a hit. What would he advise others attempting this daunting form?
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Critic Terry Teachout describes the unrestrained, abstract magic of his favorite Louis Armstrong recording.
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Jazz is still exciting, says critic Terry Teachout, but its inability to connect with young audiences is "anxiety-making" for lovers of the art.
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How should actors strive to play Shakespeare? What should audiences watch for when they attend a production? The drama critic shares his views.
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"Pops" author Terry Teachout runs through his personal checklist of what makes a biography worth writing (hint: it’s the inner life that counts).
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As the first biographer to hear Louis Armstrong’s private tape recordings, the author of "Pops" discovered a side of the jazz genius the public never suspected.
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Critic Terry Teachout reveals the drama and music that moved him the most as a young man, and which is the more personal art form for him.
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Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout doesn’t worry that blogs will kill professional criticism. But through his own blog ("About Last Night"), he’s learned how much they can help the […]