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.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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The power of big data—why so many corporations and government agencies and political pollsters and baseball teams are after it—is that it can reveal things we might otherwise not see. But statistics alone can't do that. We need to transform those statistics into stories. One artist doing that is Brian Foo, aka the Data Driven DJ. He takes large data sets and turns them into music. His first song, "Two Trains," amplifies a dire but often ignored truth about our country: income inequality.
Biologist Elisabet Sahtouris left her teaching job to go live on a Greek island and re-think her life as a scientist.
Writer Barbara Fischer tells us the story of how starting a garden saved her life.
Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard recommends a chilling read: "The Flame Alphabet" by Ben Marcus.
Ersi Arvizu tells Jim Fleming about growing up longing to get involved in the sport of boxing. Her dad ran a boxing gym for boys in their backyard.
Producer Cynthia Woodland introduces us to "The Bid Whist Ladies" - a small group of African American women in Madison, Wisconsin who've been meeting once a week to play cards for over 25 years.
Even when there's no one else in the room, we're never really alone, argues Joshua Wolf Schenk. We're in constant creative dialogue with the voices in our heads. But we need solitude to hear them. So this Valentine's Day, go spend some time alone!
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