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It’s time we talked about working less. While some argue that we shorten the working week, others favor cutting out pointless, time-filler jobs altogether.     

As more details about the Petraeus Affair leak out, it’s becoming increasingly clear that marriage infidelity is no longer what it used to be. The digital trail of a cheating […]

Be careful if you get involved; it’s not as important as it’s made out to be.

“Like real dreams, it does not explain, does not complete its sequences,” film critic Roger Ebert once wrote about “Mulholland Drive.”

That’s not frankincense you smell at the “holy of the holies.”

Tardigrades – commonly called “water bears” – were among the payload of an Israeli lunar lander that crashed into the moon in April.

Picking up the thread of a conversation they started two decades ago in Jerusalem, with some help from Lenny Bruce, philosopher Martha Nussbaum, and other influences along the way, host Jason Gots and Williams College professor Jeffrey Israel go deep on private grievances, public life, and where the two overlap.

Human beings have long been engaged in dramatic struggles. We want to honor our better angels, yet our demons wait on the corner, smirking. They know we’ll crack. Evolution has […]

Once again I find inspiration from one of my former students for a post.  Here’s his FACEBOOK request:  “I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the ‘Palestinian Chicken’ episode of […]

“Troops, money and a plan were long lacking in the battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a SPIEGEL interview, Commander David Petraeus, discusses these failures with unusual frankness.”

“It’s obvious to anybody that the mind does much more than solve problems,” Yale computer scientist David Gelernter says in his Big Think interview. “But in a more fundamental way, […]

The New Yorker’s David Remnick remarks that Israel seems to view Barack Obama rather suspiciously and says the President’s customary cool has not warmed the countries’ relations.

Oxford professor of ethics, John Tasioulas, thinks we should consider the loss of opportunity for “striving and succeeding” that AI is likely to bring.

Fifteen human space oddities.

Slowing growth and limiting development isn’t living in harmony with nature—it is surrendering in a battle.

In “Moral Ambition,” Dutch historian Rutger Bregman argues that all would benefit from a collective redefinition of success.

Or are cults the religions we find distasteful?

The most celebrated genius in human history didn’t just revolutionize physics, but taught many valuable lessons about living a better life.

Discover how the threads of myth, legend, and artistry have been woven together by storytellers to craft history.

Once at the pinnacle of Amsterdam’s art scene, Rembrandt van Rijn eventually found himself outcompeted by his own students.

It’s early days, but if the efforts can be efficiently scaled-up, such biological recycling could put a dent in the plastic waste problem.

Giambattista della Porta’s contributions to codebreaking changed the course of communication.

One hypothesis: “gossip traps.”

If life is common in the Universe, then where is everybody? Known as the Fermi Paradox, a new project may help solve the riddle.

Studying the display of personal wealth across time can help us better understand the history of socioeconomic inequality.

Solving difficult visual puzzles seems to help the brain “rewire” itself by forming new neural pathways.

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy.

When the great American tradition of the road trip meets the great Jewish tradition of the deli, we get the Great American Deli Schlep.

From politics to culture, we blame “tribalism” for humanity’s problems. This explanation is entirely wrong.

We asked our experts where they see the biggest blockers right now for more progress. Essentially, from their various areas of focus, what did they see as the largest impediments to driving progress forward around the world and how they would prioritize the necessary interventions? The answers were appropriately varied from the philosophical to the political to the technological.