June 2012
57 posts
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WatchMadness Redefined: Creativity, Intelligence and the Dark Side of the Mind (live video)
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
What’s the line between utter brilliance and incalculable madness? Maybe it’s not a line but a shifting spectrum. Live from the World Science Festival (8pm Eastern), leading researchers discuss new studies showing that people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia...
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“A smug atheist reading of [Richard] Florida’s number-crunching would be that...”
– —Timothy Noah, from his post “Religion and Mobility” on The New Republic site.
You might want to read Richard Florida’s piece on The Atlantic Cities first and then follow it up with Noah’s reaction. Both are well worth reading and may lead you down all types of paths...
May 2012
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Students with Depression Use the Internet...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Photo by Pedro Figueiredo/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Moving beyond the debate of whether Facebook or other Internet use causes depression, researchers at Missouri University Institute of Science and Technology found that students who show signs of depression clearly have different patterns of Internet use. These students are more likely to share large files, send...
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On Being at the World Science Festival
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Today the 2012 World Science Festival kicks off in venues across New York City. Two memories that jump out at me from past events are Bobby McFerrin’s demonstration of the universality of the pentatonic scale and string theorist Jim Gates’ story about encountering “God” on an Icelandic mountaintop.
And, in attendance will be our former...
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Can Turkey Inspire Egypt as a Religious Role...
by Mustafa Abdelhalim, guest contributor
Last week, Egyptians went to the polls to participate in the first presidential election since Mubarak’s downfall in February 2011. Going forward, the new president, who will be elected in the second phase of elections in June, should look to examples from other countries that have undergone successful democratic transitions.
When asked what...
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Muslim Sportswomen on the Rise
by Marium Sattar, guest conributor
At the first ceremony of its kind, fencer and Olympic hopeful Ibtihaj Muhammad was recognized for her achievements as a Muslim sportswoman at the Ambassador Awards. The awards were hosted by the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation the first week of May to recognize Muslim women in this field. They are a reminder that Muslim sportswomen have broken new ground in the...
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Anonymous asked: When does On Being broadcasted in Gallup, New Mexico
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“For the marketer, the freelancer and the entrepreneur, the challenge is to level...”
– —Seth Godin, from his blog entry “Dancing on the edge of finished”
~Krista Tippett, host
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WatchWendell Berry Says ‘It All Turns on Affection’
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
There are few people in the U.S. more beloved than Wendell E. Berry. The poet and essayist, farmer and conservationist delivered the prestigious 41st Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts nearly a month ago — and it’s been bombarding my social...
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In The Sixth Month (A Poem About Pregnancy and...
by Sarah McKinstry-Brown, guest contributor
Your inner ear has fully formed. You can hear now. I’ve heard of mothers playing their unborn babies Bach and Mozart because classical music makes the brain’s spatial connections arc towards one another like the fingertips of Adam and God in the Sistine.
I’ve played no such music for you, and maybe, some day, when the boy you pine for is majoring in...
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Counting the Omer in the Modern Day
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Photo by Kwan C./Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
“From the day after the day of rest — that is, from the day you bring the sheaf for waving — you are to count seven full weeks, until the day after the seventh week; you are to count fifty days; and then you are to present a new grain offering to Adonai.” —Leviticus 23:15-16
The same evening that 40,000...
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“The preference for symmetry was the product of non-differential conditioning.”
– Photo by Mark Round/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Researchers at the University of Ottawa discovered that bumblebees don’t have a natural preference for symmetry in nature. In the journal Learning and Motivation, the Canadian scientists’ found that once bees learn to distinguish bilateral...
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When a Jain Marries a Bengali: An Indian Love...
by Benjamin Gottlieb, guest contributor
Ashok Jain, his wife Neena, and family at their home in New Delhi. (Photo by Benjamin Gottlieb)
On the day of his wedding, Ashok Jain’s parents beat him mercilessly after he told them he married a Hindu woman.
“They didn’t accept my marriage,” said Mr. Jain, whose family practices Jainism, an ancient Indian religion that emphasizes non-violence. “They...
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The End of Racial and Religious Profiling in...
by Nadia S. Mohammad, guest conributor
Police keep watch as Muslims rally in Foley Square during a protest of ethnic profiling by law enforcement in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
As the American public reads of yet another report released on governmental surveillance of Muslim American communities, it is refreshing to know that for the first time since the 9/11 attacks, the...
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Sounds of Silence
by Gordon Hempton
Uluru Sunset (photo by Martin Fisher/Flickr)
The day will come when man will have to fight noise as inexorably as cholera and the plague.” So said the Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist Robert Koch in 1905. A century later, that day has drawn much nearer. Today silence has become an endangered species. Our cities, our suburbs, our farm communities, even our most expansive...
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Nurture Wherever It Is Cold, Nurture Wherever It...
by Preeti Kaur, guest contributor
Preeti Kaur, her mother, her brothers (one wearing a patka) and sister.
In the Sikh faith, the role of the nurturer is one, among many, of the celebrated roles of all Sikhs, regardless of gender. My own father often reminisces to me of how his mother would nurture his growth and curiosity by imparting Sikh teachings to him while he was growing up in Dharamsala,...
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What’s the best song that you heard this week? →
A wonderful way of connecting from NPR Music:
I feel like a lot happened in the music world this week. Or maybe I was just more aware of what was going on due to my obsessive #musicdiary2012 cataloging. In any case, I want to know the absolute best song that you heard this week. The song can be brand new to the Internet, an old song…
Would love to hear your suggestions.
~Trent Gilliss,...
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