Psychologists John and Julie Gottman are famous for being able to predict with 94% accuracy whether a couple will break up, stay together unhappily, or stay together happily. In their Love Lab, they've identified hidden patterns of behavior that can strengthen or weaken relationships. If we'd known the secret to a good marriage was non-linear differential equations, we might have paid more attention in math class.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Novelist Colin McAdam conjures a fictional world of a childless couple who adopt a rambunctious chimp. We hear excerpts of his novel "A Beautiful Truth."
Ellen Ruppel Shell talks with Anne Strainchamps about the effects of our obsession with low prices.
Barry Unsworth says that the layers of history are tangible on Crete, and talks about some of the island’s mythic figures.
What does it mean to be free? And what does it mean to live a personally authentic, honest life with ourselves and with others? These are the questions that Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their existential friends wrestled with in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sarah Bakewell makes the case that their late-night conversations are especially relevant today. She's the author of "At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails."
"Religion always starts with mysticism," says David Steindl-Rast. Now 89, he's been a Benedictine monk since 1953. Brother David was one of the first Roman Catholics to engage in dialogues between Christians and Buddhists. He tells Steve Paulson about the joys of life in the monastery.
He sounded the alarm about global warming over 20 years ago. Now he has a model of how to survive on our changed planet.
A cancer patient took some psilocybin to help with the fear and panic about dying. A single dose created a life-changing experience in her final months.
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