Paul Koudounaris has spent the past decade traveling around the world, climbing into church crypts and bone chambers and taking photos at over 250 burial sites in 30 countries. He's discovered chapels decorared with skeletons and underground caves filled with skulls—among other things. In this interview, he tells us how he began his obsession with displays of death.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
For three decades, MIT professor Sherry Turkle's been looking at the ways we interact with machines. She believes our digital devices are taking a toll on our personal relationships.
Salman Ahmad is a Pakistani rock star. His group is Junoon, and they're the most popular rock group in South Asia.
Sue Halpern spent five years subjecting herself to every memory test and brain imaging technique she could find.
If you've spent any time playing Tetris, you've probably spent a lot of time playing it. Tetris is simple yet addictive. Your job is to fit falling geometric blocks together so that there are no spaces between them. Box Brown has spent alot of time playing and thinking about Tetris. He's written and illustrated a graphic history of the world's most popular video game. It turns out that Tetris has a fascinating backstory.
Before the Internet, a good memory wasn't just useful; it was prized as a sign of intelligence. And there were memory geniuses who developed mental tricks for storing information. Philosopher and novelist Simon Critchley delves into the fascinating history of the memory palace, which once promised almost God-like wisdom.
William Dean teaches theology. His book is “The American Spiritual Culture, and the Invention of Jazz, Football, and the Movies.”
Rupert Isaacson made a journey with his family to seek out shamans in horse-centered cultures to treat his autistic son.
Pages
