Kristin What makes a good life? This 12-minute TED talk from a 75-year study (which originally only included men, but in the past decade they finally started studying those men’s wives, too), explains it. Patriotism and national pride can lead to ugliness, but they can also lead to good stuff! National identities can encourage solidarity … Read more
Eric ICYMI, reporters with the New York Times tracked down a number of instances when false rumors on Facebook led to horrifying violence and hate crimes. There’s little reason to believe the company’s assurances that it’s working to correct its algorithms and monitor its content. Not only do the same things keep happening, but consider … Read more
Kristin An excellent, enraging, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking long read about why black mothers and babies are dying in America. Highlights: “Black infants in America are now more than twice as likely to die as white infants — 11.3 per 1,000 black babies, compared with 4.9 per 1,000 white babies, according to the most recent government data … Read more
Eric Here’s a poem for spring. Anna I heard a thing on the radio about how humans have a terribly designed sinus (among other physiological flaws) that makes us more susceptible than other animals to illness. Ever notice that dogs don’t get colds? Their sinus drains from the bottom, not the top like us humans. … Read more
Kristin Ancient Stoic tips for the Modern workplace: don’t make things harder than they need to be, don’t blame others for your emotions, protect your peace of mind, and others. The workplace is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. The author of Dying for a Paycheck says: It’s worse than I … Read more
Kristin This was in Sightline’s daily news round-up, but worth reading over and over: America’s two-party system is the problem. Support for democracy is declining in two-party countries like the US (also called majoritarian countries, they are almost exclusively former British colonies), which are caught in bitter partisan battles and unable to address the pressing … Read more
Kristin This week is a Hidden Brain podcast marathon. First up, an episode on racial bias. No surprise here—Americans are unconsciously biased against Black people: gun-wielders are more likely to shoot Black people, doctors are less likely to prescribe them needed heart medication, and judges are more likely to overturn opinions by Black judges. But … Read more
Eric Is any place on the web as awful at YouTube? At the NYT, Zeynep Tufekci  explores how YouTube fosters extremism, political radicalism, and conspiracy theories. Or maybe Reddit is the most awful place on the internet. At the New Yorker, Andrew Marantz explores the ongoing struggle (and failure) to detoxify Reddit. At Slate, an … Read more
Kristin I thought the Black Panther movie was awesome. And such a great thing for my son and his friends to be able to grow up with. It made me wonder how much movies could change culture–if every other movie featured Black protaganists and an African utopia, and discussion of how Black people were brought … Read more
Margaret This week one of my favorite reads was this New York Times op-ed. It so well encapsulates the astonishing blend of worldviews rubbing together via the folks in my own life. Douthat writes about the communities where he has found people to be “the most personally empirical, least inclined to meekly submit to authority, … Read more
