Writer Scott Topper provides a commentary on the power of films on the minds of film-goers.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
How do we mind our mortality without being overwhelmed with morbid thoughts?
Stoically, says philosopher William Irvine. But he says Stoicism doesn't require us to be unemotional about death and loss. Irvine says the Stoics used thoughts about mortality to make our lives more joyful.
Sometimes a great movie forces you to see the world in a completely different way. That’s the case with Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary, "The Act of Killing." The film follows a former Indonesian death squad leader as he remembers and even re-enacts the atrocities he committed.
Psychologist Alison Gopnik is changing the way we think about babies. Her lab at UC-Berkeley has found evidence of empathy and scientific thinking in children as young as 14 months.
Renowned British paleontologist Simon Conway Morris believes human-like intelligence was the inevitable outcome of the appearance of life on earth.
We hear a round-up of some of the latest research into happiness, from economist Richard Layard, and psychologists Robert Biswas-Diener and Sonja Lyubomirsky.
Steve Paulson prepared this report on the life of Edward Abbey, who's book changed the way people thought about the earth.
Journalist Samuel Freedman says that American Jews are free to assimilate to whatever extent they choose, but this very freedom has caused new tensions and divisions within the Tribe.
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