Reading Time: 6 minutes In American prisons, solitary confinement refers to the practice of keeping people in concrete boxes the size of wheelchair-accessible bathroom stalls, 22 or more hours a day, 7 days a week, for months and years on end. But this practice may be coming to an end.
strange customs learning
Posted inEthics and Morality
The illusion of choice in what we believe
Reading Time: 6 minutes There is a phenomenon that has been taking place, particularly in the US, with greater regularity over the last few decades—the behavior of “church shopping.” The congregant attends a church and listens to the pastor making moral-political statements, and they think to themselves, “This pastor is off the track here. I need to find me […]
Posted inPhilosophy
The rational fanatic: Is there such a thing?
Reading Time: 4 minutes As I watched the baseball playoffs this past season and then pivoted to the NFL, it turns out I’d unknowingly entered a laboratory exploring the human condition. Sports serve as a great catalyst for such explorations and the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cowboys all provided such a spark: in this case, exploring the ongoing battle between […]
Posted inCulture
How stories made us human
Reading Time: 8 minutes One of the very most human parts of the human situation is our love of stories. It’s how early humans formed groups and stuck together, and it’s how we learn even today.