Podcast Leonardo da Vinci: An Untraceable Life April 30, 2025 Stephen J. Campbell examines the strangeness of Leonardo鈥檚 words and works, and the distinctive premodern world of artisans and thinkers from which he emerged. Far from being a solitary genius living ahead of his time, Leonardo inhabited a vibrant network of artistic, technological, and literary exchange. Read More
Essay Personal advice columns, then and now April 30, 2025 Mary Beth Norton's research into "The Athenian Mercury" reveals what has changed鈥攁nd stayed the same鈥攐ver the long history of advice columns. Read More
Essay Why linguistic diversity matters April 29, 2025 Over 7,000 languages are spoken today, but nearly half could vanish by the end of the century. Read More
Video PUP Speaks: R. Jisung Park on the hidden health impacts of wildfires April 29, 2025 It鈥檚 hard not to feel anxious about the problem of climate change, especially if we think of it as an impending planetary catastrophe. R. Jisung Park encourages us to view climate change through a different lens. Read More
Essay Bookstores are arsenals of democracy April 25, 2025 As long as there have been bookstores, booksellers have been threatened, arrested, jailed, fined, and prosecuted. Read More
Podcast Attention, Shoppers! April 24, 2025 Attention, Shoppers! traces the origins and evolution of American retail capitalism from the late nineteenth century to today, uncovering the roots of a bitter equilibrium where large low-cost retailers dominate and vast numbers of low-income families now rely on them to make ends meet. Read More
Podcast In Covid鈥檚 Wake, Part II April 22, 2025 With In Covid鈥檚 Wake, Macedo and Lee offer the first comprehensive鈥攁nd candid鈥攑olitical assessment of how our institutions fared during the pandemic. They describe how, influenced by Wuhan鈥檚 lockdown, governments departed from their existing pandemic plans. Read More
Interview Brian Bruya on A Cure for Chaos April 21, 2025 C. C. Tsai is one of Asia鈥檚 most popular cartoonists, and his graphic editions of the Chinese classics have sold more than 40 million copies in over twenty languages. In A Cure for Chaos, he uses his virtuosic artistic skill and sly humor to create an entertaining and enlightening illustrated version of key selections from the Mencius, a profoundly influential work of Chinese philosophy. Read More
Essay Fire sermons: Seneca and Thoreau on climate trauma April 21, 2025 鈥淐limate trauma鈥� is a phrase that has now entered the global lexicon. As global temperatures rise and population densifies in settled areas, the effects of catastrophic weather events like floods, hurricanes, and fires, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, are proving ever more destructive to human lives and livelihoods. Read More
Essay When darkness still prevails: The authoritarian attack on truth April 17, 2025 鈥淎t no time in history have words meant so little as they do today,鈥� declared the philosopher John Dewey in 1941. Dewey, who at the time was one of America鈥檚 preeminent public intellectuals, was worried about what he called 鈥渃omplete inversions of truth鈥� by authoritarians and their sympathizers at home. Read More
Podcast In Covid鈥檚 Wake, Part I April 17, 2025 The Covid pandemic quickly led to the greatest mobilization of emergency powers in human history. By early April 2020, half the world鈥檚 population鈥�3.9 billion people鈥攚ere living under quarantine. Read More
Reading List On the freedom to read, speak, and exchange ideas April 14, 2025 The free and open exchange of ideas underlies intellectual inquiry and is the bedrock of a democratic society. Through engaged dialogue we refine our thinking, test our assumptions, and move closer to shared human truths. Read More
Interview Ruth Braunstein on My Tax Dollars April 13, 2025 Ruth Braunstein maps the contested moral landscape in which Americans experience and make sense of the tax system. Read More
Interview Laurence D. Hurst on The Evolution of Imperfection April 08, 2025 Laurence D. Hurst, author of The Evolution of Imperfection talks about how understanding our genetic imperfections can change our view of evolution and enrich what it means to be human. Read More
Interview Maria LaMonaca Wisdom on How to Mentor Anyone in Academia April 07, 2025 Mentoring is integral to how academics are formed and what trajectories their careers will take. Yet until recently, no one was trained to do it, and many academics have ingrained assumptions about mentorship that no longer fit the lives, needs, and aspirations of mentees. Read More
