Discover the science of neuroplasticity and learn how acquiring a second language can physically grow your brain, enhance cognitive function, and even delay dementia. An awe-inspiring look at the brain’s power to change.
Lifelong Learning 1 | The Learner’s Mindset: Unlock Your Brain’s Full Potential
Feeling stuck? Discover the difference between a fixed and growth mindset. Learn how to break through learning plateaus and unlock your brain’s true potential.
Unlock Your Potential: 5 Questions to Reveal Your Growth Mindset
Feeling stuck? Discover if a “fixed mindset” is holding you back. Take our interactive quiz to uncover your core beliefs about learning and challenge, and get actionable tips to cultivate a growth mindset for lifelong success.
Hashtag Activism: Is It Changing the World, or Are We Just Clicking ‘Like’?
A deep dive into the complex world of social media activism. We explore its powerful successes, the pitfalls of “slacktivism,” and whether your share is making a real difference.
The Ghost in the Machine: Why We’re Obsessed with Haunted Technology
From cursed video games like Polybius to haunted recordings, we explore the psychology behind our fear of haunted tech and our anxiety that our creations will turn on us.
Urban Legends 3 | Digital Nightmares: The Rise of the Online Legend
From the genesis of Slender Man on a forum to the moral panic of the Momo Challenge, discover how the internet, creepypasta, and collaborative storytelling have created a terrifyingly new breed of urban legend.
Sewer Alligators and Bodies in the Bed: The Shocking Urban Legends That Are Actually True
Think all urban legends are fake? Think again. We investigate the chilling cases, from sewer gators to hotel horrors, where unbelievable folklore has a basis in fact.
Urban Legends 2 | The Global Ghost: How One Urban Legend Changes Across the World
Travel the globe with the “Vanishing Hitchhiker” legend. Discover how this single story transforms into a Hawaiian goddess, a Latin American demon, and a Japanese ghost, reflecting each culture’s unique beliefs and fears.
The Babysitter is Calling from Inside the Patriarchy: A Feminist Guide to Urban Legends
Ever wonder why classic urban legends always star women in peril? We explore how tales like “The Hook” reflect deep societal anxieties about female independence.
The Girl Who Helped Thunder: Inside the Powerful Lenape Legend of Storms and Belonging
Explore the resonant Lenape myth of the Girl Who Helped Thunder. Delve into a timeless story of loneliness, courage, and finding purpose among the gods of the storm.
Recent Posts
Walk a Mile in Their Shoes: Empathy as a Physical Act
It’s one of the oldest invitations to empathy in the English language. But ‘walking a mile in someone’s shoes’ is far more demanding — and far more transformative — than we usually acknowledge. This episode takes a close look at what genuine perspective-taking actually requires of us.
Bread and Circuses 2.0: How Algorithms Became Our Modern Colosseum
From free wheat in ancient Rome to endless scrolling today, discover how the “bread and circuses” strategy never disappeared. It just got an algorithm and a smartphone.
Forestall: The Art of Getting There First
The best move is sometimes the one you make before the problem arrives. Forestall is the word for that — for the wisdom of anticipation, and the power of acting before you have to react.
The Plague of Justinian: When a Pandemic Changed the Ancient World | Close Reading
The Plague of Justinian was the first pandemic in recorded history — and its impact on the Byzantine Empire, the Mediterranean world, and the trajectory of Western civilization was devastating and lasting.
Turn Over a New Leaf: The Permission to Begin Again
Change is hard. Not the wanting of it — we all want it at some point. The doing of it. ‘Turning over a new leaf’ is an old expression with a surprisingly vivid history, and it holds something most of us need to hear: the beginning is always available. No matter when. No matter why.
The Absurd Story of Danny and Avi
Dive into the deeply human story of Danny and Avi—two solopreneurs living on opposite sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. An editorial exploring the daily realities of war, unrequited patriotism, and the tragedy of unlived friendships.