Say Wow: A Conversation with Poet Chelan Harkin
At the age of 21, on a pilgrimage to Israel, Chelan Harkin found herself sitting alone in the same cell that some 140 years earlier had confined the founder of the Baha'i faith. The quietude was suddenly broken by a voice she took to be the Persian prophet's spirit saying, "Let us dance." This unexpected invitation cracked her heart wide open and spontaneously led her to fill the resonant chamber ... posted on Apr 01 2023, 4,204 reads

A Concerto is a Conversation
When we achieve anything in life, "we" is the operative word. We are supported by the life choices and dreams of others. Kris Bowers, a virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer, recounts the collective story of his family. His 91-year-old grandfather traces their shared choices and dreams from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.... posted on Mar 31 2023, 1,151 reads

Our Tenuous Boundaries: A Life in 10 Sea Creatures
"When Sabrina Imbler was in college, they enrolled in a class they thought was about whales, but which turned out to be about whaling. In one of 10 brilliant essays in their new book, Imbler recalls the class, which focused on "the systematic hunting and harvesting of the animals that brought human populations to the verge of unimaginable prosperity and whale populations to the brink of extinction... posted on Mar 30 2023, 1,701 reads

How Much Silence is Too Much?
"As much as anyone else, I fantasize about checking out. I would love to remove the pinging notifications from my days, for my mind to wander without being thrown askew by each incoming tweet. But visions of total unplugging also seem a bit grotesque. Even if we can still shut our eyes and cover our ears, become details of the landscape, should we? Is it morally acceptable at this moment? How much... posted on Mar 29 2023, 1,713 reads

A Thousand Words for Weather
"In June 2022, ArtAngel's installation, A Thousand Words for Weather opened at London's Senate House Library. Created by author Jessica J. Lee and sound artist Claudia Molitor, the piece invites listeners to consider the ways in which our experiences of weatherand climate change--are at once intimate, shared, yet untranslatable. Lee began by working with a group of UKbased poets and translators in... posted on Mar 28 2023, 1,416 reads

An Introvert's Field Guide To Friendship
"'Whatever our degree of friends may be, we come more under their influence than we are aware,' the trailblazing astronomer Maria Mitchell observed as she contemplated how we co-create each other and recreate ourselves in friendship. Her friend Ralph Waldo Emerson -- whom she taught to look through a telescope -- believed that all true friendship rests on two pillars. In his own life, he put the t... posted on Mar 27 2023, 5,309 reads

Caring for the Vulnerable: A Gateway to Our Deepest Brain States
"Humans often fancy themselves quite extraordinary specimens in the animal kingdom. But while most recent research undermines our centuries-long claims of human exceptionalism, there are some ways in which we are quite unique -- especially when it comes to childhood and childcare. Indeed, even when compared with our closest primate relatives, humans spend a truly inordinate amount of time -- rough... posted on Mar 26 2023, 2,743 reads

Remote Wonders : A Conversation with Elaine Ling
"Ling explained, I love photography and medicine. Each led her in unexpected directions. She relates that, as a young doctor, one day in the waiting room a man was sitting there with a hawk on his arm and little curved knife in his belt. She said, "I have to take your picture before you come in." Not so many years later, she was in Mongolia bombing along the steppes in a jeep full of singing docto... posted on Mar 25 2023, 1,614 reads

There Are Angels
What if you knew that the way to access the very best in yourself - the light side of your humanity - was by facing your darkness?...One of the most powerful turning points in life comes when we begin to understand the shadow as a great teacher.... posted on Mar 24 2023, 4,041 reads

Marie Howe: On Matters of Life and Death
"Marie is the kind of poet whose accomplishments are too many to mention, so I'll keep it short and say that she's the author of four collections of poetry, the recipient of a Guggenheim, and a former poet laureate of New York. While in that role, she made it her mission to make poetry as ubiquitous as a Gap ad, and she succeeded in bringing poetry to the streets and the subways of New York. And s... posted on Mar 23 2023, 1,845 reads