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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Fear and Loathing in Mosquito-Land

We hate mosquitoes.

But why?  I mean, yes --- West Nile, dengue, malaria, Zika…not to mention ruined picnics, sleepless nights, and bites you scratch until they bleed … Those are logical reasons to dislike mosquitoes.  But admit it – they also just creep you out.

Jeffrey Lockwood gets at the psychology in his book “The Infested Mind.” He’s an entomologist who once had a truly horrific encounter with a swarm of grasshoppers.   He was left traumatized. Afterwards he wondered why we all fear and loathe insects so much.

Lockwood told Rehman Tungekar the answer is deep deep in our psyches.

 

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Clayton Eshleman on "Juniper Fuse"

Clayton Eshleman is a poet who’s turned his poetic sensibility loose on the paleolithic cave drawings at Lascaux in France.  He talks about these drawings represent shamanic spirit journeys and rituals.

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Dilshad Ali on Narnia & Islam

Dilshad Ali talks about reading the Christian-influenced Narnia tales to her children.

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From the Sabertooth to the Grizzly

Doug Peacock is a legend in wilderness circles. A friend of Edward Abbey, Peacock was a Vietnam vet so traumatized by the war that he escaped into the wilderness once he returned to America. He says grizzlies saved his life.

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Drew Gilpin Faust on "This Republic of Suffering"

Historian and president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust tells Steve Paulson that Civil War deaths consumed the entire nation with grief and transformed America in many ways.

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BookMark: Vikram Chandra reviews “The King Must Die” by Mary Renault

BookMark: Vikram Chandra reviews “The King Must Die” by Mary Renault.

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Elaine Scarry on Beauty - Extended Interview

Elaine Scarry's a defender of beauty. She says not only does beauty thrill and compel us, it also inspires us to make the world more just. Here's our extended interview with her.

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Best of 2016: Elif Şafak on the Pain of Living in a Polarized Culture

Anne here. My conversation with Turkish writer Elif Şafak back in April still sticks with me as the year comes to a close. In many parts of the world, 2016 was the year of the populist leader—especially in Turkey, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a crackdown on free speech and all forms of opposition. 120 journalists have been jailed, more than 2,000 academics have been dismissed from universities, and more than 100,000 public workers have been fired. How did Turkey—once a model of new democratic nations—become such a different place? Not only did Şafak see this coming, she warned that the West should not consider itself immune. 

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