Essay Welcome to Armageddon July 19, 2022 Each day throughout the year, the tour buses begin arriving at Megiddo soon after 9:00 a.m., disgorging fifty tourists at a time. By the time the site closes at 5:00 p.m., several dozen buses will have deposited hundreds of visitors. 鈥淲elcome to Armageddon,鈥� the tour guides say, as they march their flocks up the steep incline and through the ancient city gate. Read More
Podcast Listen in: Sonorous Desert July 19, 2022 For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God. But these monks discovered something surprising in their harsh desert surroundings: far from empty and silent, the desert is richly reverberant.聽 Read More
Essay Why Europe? Y. Pestis July 18, 2022 During the Middle Ages, two formidable species pervaded West Eurasia: homo sapiens (humans) and rattus rattus (black rats). The two disliked each other, but literally lived in each other鈥檚 homes. In 1345, the Black Death reached them. Read More
Essay The bold experiment July 18, 2022 On May 9, 1994 the Parliament convened, governed by the new Speaker, an Indian woman and human rights lawyer named Frene Ginwala. Their one order of business was to elect the new state president, Nelson Mandela, and they did so without dissent. Read More
Interview Adrienne Mayor on Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws July 14, 2022 Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights鈥攇limmering, long-buried nuggets of truth鈥攅mbedded in myth, legends, and folklore. Read More
Interview Evan Lieberman on Until We Have Won Our Liberty July 14, 2022 At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world,聽Until We Have Won Our Liberty聽shines new light on the signal achievements of one of the contemporary era鈥檚 most closely watched transitions away from minority rule. Read More
Essay Conservatism as a political practice July 13, 2022 Before the story goes on, some ground needs to be cleared. What is conservatism? What is this a story of? There are no knockdown facts here. Read More
Podcast Listen in: The Sky Is for Everyone July 07, 2022 The Sky Is for Everyone聽is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. Start listening to Chapter 1 of the audiobook. Read More
Video PUP Speaks: Jennifer Carlson on the racialization of gun policing July 07, 2022 When asked their policy preference on guns, police prioritize gun rights over gun control on a ratio of 3:1. The application of the law is therefore governed by the same biases found in all areas of American society鈥攁nd particularly by racial disparity. Read More
Essay A new way of life July 06, 2022 Every day billions of people devote a significant amount of time to worshiping an imaginary being. More precisely, they praise, exalt, and pray to the God of the major Abrahamic religions. They put their hopes in鈥攁nd they fear鈥攁 transcendent, supernatural deity that, they believe, created the world and now exercises providence over it. Read More
Podcast Until We Have Won Our Liberty July 06, 2022 In this podcast, Evan Lieberman discusses his new book, Until We Have Won Our Liberty, a compelling account of South Africa鈥檚 post-Apartheid democracy. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: The Slow Moon Climbs July 05, 2022 Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Susan Mattern says yes and, in聽The Slow Moon Climbs, reveals just how wrong we have been. Read More
Podcast Listen in: What Makes an Apple? July 05, 2022 In the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel,聽Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw.聽 Read More
Video PUP Speaks: Eddie Cole on town and campus conflict June 30, 2022 锘匡豢In recent months the media have closely followed the issues of student housing at Berkeley, highlighting the tensions that frequently arise between university campuses and those living around them. Here, PUP Speaks speaker Eddie R. Cole explores the racialized history of campus expansion and community conflict, and the role that university leadership has played鈥攆or better and worse鈥攊n the battle for racial equity on campus. Read More
Essay Acquiring a horizon June 27, 2022 Expectations about the environment and how it should act are being undone. In an idealized world, scientific projections hold; natural disasters can be contained; and knowledge, assumed to be cumulative, can be relied upon to maintain some semblance of predictability. Read More
