Journalist William Claassen calls himself a nomadic pilgrim. He spent many years traveling to cloistered communities from various religious traditions around the world.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Recently hundreds of Evangelical leaders met with Donald Trump. One prominent Evangelical who did not attend is Michael Gerson, the former speechwriter and top aide to President George W. Bush. Gerson believes it's time to reframe the conservative agenda and he warns his fellow believers to beware “The Mark of Trump.”
The "connectome" is one of the most audacious science projects ever conceived: a detailed map of the human brain, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. In this EXTENDED interview, MIT computational neuroscientist Sebastian Seung explains what we can learn.
In many cultures, people use pain as a means of coming closer to God.
Ariel Glucklich talks with Jim Fleming about the history and psychology behind the practices.
Historian Tariq Ali tells Steve Paulson that the current Indian government is dominated by Hindu fundamentalists.
Everyone thinks The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories and folktales from the Middle East. In fact, some of the most famous were written by Europeans, who fell in love with the tradition and wanted more.
Solar engineer Martha Lenio was the first woman to command a mission on the HI-SEAS — the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. It's a project co-sponsored by NASA and the Univeristy of Hawaii that simulates what it would be like to live on Mars for eight months. To survive in such extremes, they were sequestered into a 1,000 square foot dome, and when they went outside they had to wear space suits. When Lenio got there, she said it didn't feel much like Mars, but she changed her mind after 8 months without the sun and wind on her skin. She spoke with Anne Strainchamps about missing her family — and missing YouTube cat videos.
Several grammy-winning folk musicians have written songs based on the stories in a book called "Wilderness Plots" by Scott Russell Sanders.
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