Susan Blackmore is a British psychologist who's written books on consciousness, memes and parapsychology. She's also fascinated by what Zen Buddhism can tell us about the mind. In this EXTENDED interview, she says her daily practice of meditation has revealed truths that have eluded the scientific study of consciousness.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Rudolph Bell tells Jim Fleming that Italian parents of 500 years ago had some very modern ideas about child rearing. And a few wacky ones about pre-determining the sex of your baby.
Sara Gruen tells Anne Strainchamps why she chose an elephant as a main character for her story of love, avarice and power.
Philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco wrote a history of beauty. A few years later, he followed it up with a study of ugliness. Here’s what he found
It’s hard to wrap your head around climate change. How do you really take in the concept of planetary change over decades or even centuries? Visual artist Kambui Olujimi explores different ideas about time in his one-man show “Zulu Time.”
In her book, "Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep?: A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation," Seo-Young Chu argues that science fiction is a kind of "high-intensity realism." She spoke with Jim Fleming.
Stephen Thompson is an editor at The Onion newspaper, and editor of “The Onion A.V. Club: The Tenacity of the Cockroach.”
Jules Pretty spent a year circumnavigating England's southeastern coast on foot. He discovered tidal paths, secret roads, and beaches covered in tiny fragments of 18th century human bones.
Pages
