Robert Mankoff was always funny, but that doesn’t mean that his path to the New Yorker was an easy one - he submitted 2,000 cartoons to the magazine before being […]

Do men and woman have different senses of humor? Cartoonist Robert Mankoff explains how each gender tends to use humor differently: women use it to share something about themselves, and […]

Where does comedy go from here? According to the cartoon editor of the New Yorker, it can only journey inward or towards ever-increasing depths of absurdity.

Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker, explains how humor "works," what it can explain about human nature, and considers the limits of bad comedic taste.

Jokes as we know them today are a relatively recent invention, says New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff. In fact, modern humor draws its roots to back only to the […]

Cartoonist Robert Mankoff has dedicated his career to understanding humor. He talks to Big Think about the science behind laughter and its importance to both humans and other animals.

Journalist Hooman Majd has followed up on our last post on Iran's nuclear revelation with his latest thoughts on how the news will affect Ahmadinejad.  He writes that  "although the […]

Over the past months, Big Think has talked to several of the leading experts on the Middle East about the potential political implications of Iran going nuclear:  Iranian insiders, veteran […]

The G20 is in Pittsburg, but the world economy seems to have skipped town.  Nobody can find it anywhere—just some old clothes and pieces of straw. The U.S. Dollar is […]

Dr. Marc Bessler calls Atkins "extreme" and explains the difference between "good carbs" and "bad carbs."

According to Dr. Marc Bessler, maintaining good nutrition depends on learning healthy eating habits as a child.

Reducing calorie intake is more important than sticking to a strict diet, says Dr. Marc Bessler.

First we had to witness the egotistical tug-of-war over who took credit for coining the phrase “axis of evil” (David Frum’s wife leaked her husband as the author, which I’m […]

Bladder Infection Medical science originally gave us antibiotics to remove bacteria by killing bacteria. But let's pause for a moment and remember that our goal is not to neccessarily kill them, but to remove them, right ? ClearTract works smarter, not harder, and takes it easy on your body

As part of the lead up to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, President Obama told the United Nations on Tuesday that the if world does not move […]

Did Men and Women Evolve to Have Different Approaches to Sex? Maybe Not . . .

New York Times reported today that new technology and generous investments in the early part of the decade have been fueling a good year for the oil industry. Jim Hackett, CEO […]

Valerie Steele, fashion historian and chief curator of The Museum at FIT came in this afternoon for an interview. She looked stylish in her black Isabel Toledo suit. (The museum […]

One idea proposed to help keep news organizations afloat amidst the stormy seas of free online content has been micropayments. Imagine an iTunes for the news world: you pay between […]

To singer-songwriter David Gray, his latest album, Draw the Line, marks his coming to terms with the spiral of fame that started with the international success of his 1998 release […]