The Present

From communication to intimacy, this data visual has it all covered.

The genius investor hits an optimistic note in a time of dire fiscal predictions.

Nissan is developing technology that controls the car by reading the driver’s brain waves.

Poachers trade on a black market estimated to total $40 billion. It’s impossible to stop every poacher, but new technology could bolster the efforts of conservationists by putting a set of eyes in the sky.  

While it can often be tempting to unfollow friends who have differing political views than you, one philosopher tells us why we should embrace, rather than shun, such challenges to our worldviews. 

Want to tax corporations without scaring them off, outsmart a calculating kid, or get rid of the world’s nuclear warheads? Think like a game theorist.

The winner of the Royal Statistical Society’s first “International Statistic of the Year” award provides a shocking insight into the real threats Americans face.

Many great minds have plenty of bad things to say about democracy, but what about the people who think it is great?

Norway’s decision to push drug felons through treatment is a huge step forward.

In 2017, conflict was stronger between red and blue than it was between black and white.

Student loan debt is exploding in the U.S. That’s at least how New York Governor Andrew Cuomo characterized it while recently unveiling a set of measures to alleviate the burdens of debt in New York.

In this brave new world, innovative synthetic beverages will be able to deliver all the desirable and none of the negative effects of booze.

How Nelson Mandela, quantum mechanics, and the Internet combined to provide evidence of parallel universes. 

Bullshit greases the wheels of sociability. Questioning bullshit can be a sure way to lose friends and alienate people. 

Did Elon Musk invent Bitcoin? The mystery surrounding the creator of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency deepens.

Why do you check your phone 150 times a day? Is it a conscious choice, or have the attention merchants gotten into your head?

This holiday season, ask the questions you don’t know the answer to.

History shows us why we can’t trust centralized power. So what can we trust?

The Industrial Revolution brought along the second agricultural revolution, the unthinkable transformations of entire ecosystems, the collapse of the family and community, and the ethics of consumerism. 

The agricultural revolution was one of the best things to happen to the human species, right? Wrong.

Rather than one layer at a time, this method creates an entire object all at once, using lasers.

A new study found that listening to other people speak—as opposed to just write—tends to make us think they’re more mentally capable.

China’s expanding middle class is changing the world. The results are a global recycling dilemma.

How did Lego survive a near-total financial ruin? Why is Lyft way more popular that Uber amongst drivers? And how did Marvel gain a second wind some 60 years after it was founded?

There are a lot of tough conversations that stand between where America is now and “liberty and justice for all,” says Van Jones.

Stereotyping isn’t about “bad people doing bad things.” It’s about our subconscious biases, and how they sneak into organizational structures.

The Brazilian government has been trying to answer this very question in its ever-growing prison population, which has doubled since the year 2000. 

What’s really involved in snuffing out a country’s nuclear capabilities—and is that the right war to be waging?

Do we really need to spend such a mind-bogglingly huge amount of money on surveilling the world (and the American taxpayers) to find a terrorist-needle in a global-haystack?

So, how do you make something popular? Simple! You just update something old. This applies to storytelling, design, and even tech gadgets.