The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
In John Hunter's 4th grade classroom, kids don't just do arithmetic and spelling. They save the world. John's epic "World Peace Game" is the subject of a book and documentary.
Filmmaker Marina Lutz had little privacy growing up, Her father captured every piece of her life, from the mundane to the intimate, on film. Later, she rediscovered the footage and assembled it into her award-winning documentary “The Marina Experiment."
How do you get an atheist neuroscientist interested in spirituality? For Sam Harris, it started with LSD and other psychedelic drugs. They got him interested in mindfulness, meditation and consciousness. With a new book out called Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, he talked with TTBOOK about atheism and mystery. Here are some of the interview highlights, and the audio of the complete conversation.
Terry Ryan tells Jim Fleming that her mother loved crafting contest entries and matched her efforts to the tastes of specific judges. And we hear some of her winning verses.
Susannah Cahalan talks about her book, "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness."
Ron Powers tells Jim Fleming that today’s teens may turn to violence to express their individuality since all the traditional means for signaling coolness have been co-opted by corporate consumer culture.
There was a time when others bagged your groceries, planned your trips and pumped your gas, but now they're just another part of our daily routines. Craig Lambert says these are a few examples of the "shadow work" we've unwittingly taken on in service of companies and other organizations. He warns that it's chipping away at our leisure time, and turning us all into middle class serfs.
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