Pre-Modern hunter and gatherer cultures believed that dying was a kind of trial which didn't begin until you left your physical body and entered the supernatural world, according to sociologist Allan Kellehear. In these cultures, death is not the destruction of the body, but the annihilation of the personality and its transformation into something new.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Karen Armstrong is the author of nearly 20 books on religion. She tells Steve Paulson that traditions from Confucianism to Judaism emerged as responses to the rampant violence of their time. And she says our own time has a lot in common with that age.
Bennett Alan Weinberg walks Anne Strainchamps through the science of caffeine. Sure it’s an addictive drug, but it has its good points!
The 13th century Sufi mystic is one of America’s bestselling poets, thanks largely to the translations of Coleman Barks. A Muslim born in Afghanistan, he celebrated the underlying unity of all religions
E. Fuller Torrey is a research psychiatrist who believes there has been a five fold increase in the incidence of insanity in the last 250 years, and that some infectious agent is to blame.
Author of "Crazy Like Us" argues that American versions of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders are spreading around the world.
Danny Wallace is the author of “Join Me.” He’s also the leader of a cult of the same name.
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