If climate change is the most urgent problem facing humanity, why are there so few novels about it? Acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh believes that’s a big problem. He says climate change is less a science problem than a crisis of imagination.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
For writer and educator Parker Palmer, solitude is essential to recharging and gaining new perspective on life. He's just returned from a week-long retreat in the winter woods of Wisconsin, and stopped by our studio to talk about what what he gains from being alone.
Rebecca Dopart was working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland, in the mid-90s. While there, she fell in love and got married. Just three weeks after her wedding, her father-in-law died. In this story, Dopart recalls how her husband tended to his father’s body.
The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.
White Americans of European descent will make up less than half the population by 2042, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In other words, white people will soon become a demographic minority. Philosopher Linda Martin Alcoff says that shift represents a sea change in how we'll think about American identity. She’s the author of the new book “The Future of Whiteness.” Alcoff told Steve Paulson that before we contemplate the future, we need to grapple with what it means to be white today.
Falling in love is easy. Staying in love for 30 or 40 years takes some skill. Social psychologist Arthur Aron identifies some of the techniques devoted couples use to keep the spark alive. Aron's the psychologist who figured out how to build intimacy in just 36 questions. He gives us some more lab-tested tips for keeping the love you find.
Susannah Cahalan talks about her book, "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness."
Have you got a nose for the new? Do you make fast decisions, based on incomplete information? Do you lose your temper quickly? Are you bored a lot? Do you thrive in chaotic situations? You might be a born seeker… what Winifred Gallagher calls a neophiliac.
Take the quiz. Are you a neophiliac?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/the-well-quiz-how-adventurous-are-you/
Pages
