According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Journalist Jon Ronson recounts his memorable night out with a real life superhero named Phoenix Jones.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Music critic Bill Friskics-Warren is the author of “I’ll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence.” He talks with Anne Strainchamps about the spiritual aide of popular music.
Writer David Morris explains why "Solo Faces" by James Salter is one of his favorite books.
Physicist Leonard Mlodinow and spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra debate their conflicting worldviews on science and the origins of consciousness.
In 1969, Frederic Whitehurst was in Viet Nam, burning captured enemy documents. He saved the diary of a young woman, and many years later returned it to her mother.
Apocalyptic stories are more than just entertaining. Millions of Americans believe the world will soon end. Cultural critic Barry Vacker unpacks this end-of-world meme.
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