The Present

Why do some smart folk spout such bad ideas? Marilynne Robinson says it’s because we teach them “higher twaddle.” She’s right, but the situation is worse than she fears.

Soon, the line that divides the living from the dead might not be so clear.

A growing body of research suggests that students of color perform better in school when they have at least one teacher of the same race.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Robert Bellah’s essay “Civil Religion in America.”

The most influential contemporary scientists and their accomplishments.

‘Buy land – they aren’t making it any more,’ said Mark Twain.  

The idea is to flood the markets and drive prices down. Contrary to what you may think, a rhino horn is not made of bone but of keratin – the material found in nails and hair.

A reappraisal of the Chinese Dali skull suggest a more prominent role for China in early human history.

An Ivy League education without the Ivy League price tag. 

There’s a deep psychological reason that America treats nuclear weapons like a spoiled child hogging all the neighborhood candy. Are we too paranoid to see it?

A new Credit Suisse report shows 27% growth since 2008 in the world’s wealth, with a disproportionately large share going to the already wealthy.

Outraged by something on the internet? Yawn. You may be simply falling for a very old trick… and becoming a run-of-the-mill bully in the process.

The world today is far more complex than it was 200 years ago, but the speeches and writings of the Founding Fathers point to a common general principle.

Why doesn’t America win wars anymore? Because the objectives are so poorly defined. Maybe it’s time to rethink foreign policy.

Sponsored by the Charles Koch Foundation

Recent research shows that suicidal behavior is a social contagion that spreads through families and classrooms. The good news? So does suicide prevention.

Coercion requires justification. How can we justify the invisible walls of our visa policies?  

AI is leaving human needs and democracy behind in its race to accomplish its current profit-generating goals.

Kids say the darndest things. They’re also far more adept at workflow management than adults are. What can we learn from them? 

Two-thirds of the achievement gap for American children is due to the “summer learning loss”. Here’s how we fix that.

We know that body language reveals a lot. But language is an even bigger tell if you know what to look for. 

North Korea has a long history of making bellicose threats that defy global norms. So does that mean the country’s leaders are irrational, and will act irrationally?

Researchers tracked academic achievement, social cognition, executive function, and creativity in a longitudinal study of kids across the socioeconomic spectrum. 

When it comes to ISIS, terrorism, and global and domestic instability, America has been its own worst enemy.

Men are barbarians, while women are civilizing. Or at least, that’s how the stereotype goes.    

A supervised learning algorithm can predict clinical depression much earlier and more accurately than trained health professionals.

Raising money for charity is one thing. Knowing where to give it is another. When some charities are 100 times more effective than others, a world champion poker player knows how to spot who’s bluffing.

The one thing both extremes of Left and Right agree on. 

A study reveals the unexpected financial benefits of joining a fraternity.

The positive effect of bilingualism may be particularly beneficial for kids who grow up in low-income households, an environment that usually has negative effects on cognitive performance.