Einstein in all formats March 12, 2026 Eric Crahan, Editor in Chief for the Humanities and Social Sciences, reflects on the relationship between the scientific titan and PUP and how some of the technological changes of the last century have helped us steward his work. Read More
Essay The war conundrum March 11, 2026 Read or listen to the news and the world seems like a violent place. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the razing of Gaza, and the ongoing US-Israel assault on Iran may garner the most attention in the Western press, but they鈥檙e merely the most prominent in a depressingly long list of current conflicts. Read More
Interview Barry Eichengreen on Money Beyond Borders March 11, 2026 In Money Beyond Borders, the leading authority on international currencies, Barry Eichengreen, puts the dollar鈥檚 prospects in deep historical perspective by chronicling the entire history of cross-border currencies, from the invention of coins in the seventh century BCE to the cryptocurrencies of today and the central bank digital currencies of tomorrow. Read More
Essay Pursuits of happiness March 05, 2026 鈥淥f course we all want to be happy,鈥� wrote the Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in 46 BCE.聽 In doing so, he was echoing not only centuries of popular sentiment but also the teaching of Greek philosophers. Read More
Essay Hereditary (2018): The monstrous bitch bites back March 04, 2026 It would be difficult to find a 21st century horror film that was more critically acclaimed and more genuinely terrifying than Hereditary. The underlying reason, I think, is that the film does something extraordinary in its thinking about women in relation to patriarchy. Read More
Essay Clash of Titians February 24, 2026 Titian and Michelangelo were already famous by the time they first met in 1529, and they were extravagantly famous by the time they met again in Rome in 1546. They did not need to compete, but they did鈥攕ometimes admiring and emulating, sometimes criticizing and correcting. Read More
Interview Ian Stewart on Reaching for the Extreme February 24, 2026 Many of the deepest and most important areas of mathematics have emerged from questions about extremes鈥攖he shortest path between two points on a curved surface, the smallest area spanning a wire, or the fewest colors needed to make a map. Read More
Interview Cornelia Woll on Corporate Crime and Punishment February 20, 2026 Markets are often seen as systems guided by economic incentives and protected by the rule of law. In Corporate Crime and Punishment, Cornelia Woll provides a different perspective on the interaction of law and the economy across boundaries. Read More
Essay Embracing Addiction February 20, 2026 What if we didn鈥檛 shame others and ourselves for our dependencies? And, instead of trying to banish it, might we embrace addiction as a binding force, profoundly worthy of our devotion? Read More
Interview Steven Weitzman on Disasters of Biblical Proportions February 10, 2026 Steven Weitzman explores how people of later ages鈥攁rtists, writers, activists, philosophers, believers and unbelievers alike鈥攈ave reshaped the story of the ten plagues to give expression to their own trauma, outrage, guilt, humor, and hope. Read More
Interview Virginia Dignum on The AI Paradox February 09, 2026 Drawing on her decades of experience in AI research and governance, Virginia Dignum cuts through the hype and sensationalism that often surround AI and reveals why the most profound questions it raises are not about technology but ourselves. Read More
Essay Carrying the Olympic flame February 06, 2026 My application to carry the Olympic torch in my adopted home of Sicily had been accepted. Along with 10,000 others from every walk of life鈥攆rom famous celebrities to those who battle crippling disease鈥擨 would be part of the team that transports the flame from its origin in Ancient Olympia to the Games. I knew it would be a wonderful experience, but the strongest impression it left on me is not one that I expected. Read More
Interview Melissa Burch on The Criminal Record Complex February 04, 2026 The Criminal Record Complex chronicles the daily interactions of hiring managers, workforce development professionals, and job-seekers with felony convictions in Southern California, and Melissa Burch shows that this discrimination is not simply a matter of employer bias. Read More
Essay How I let go of gentrification February 03, 2026 While scholars argue over how to define and measure gentrification, the word has found a new home for itself. A broad range of people deploy the term, many of whom are less concerned with parsing its meaning than scholars like me. Read More
Interview Hrvoje Tkal膷i膰 on When Worlds Quake January 27, 2026 When Worlds Quake by Hrvoje Tkal膷i膰 is a fascinating account of how scientists around the globe seek to use quakes to answer tantalizing questions about the structure and inner dynamics of our planet and to discover the deepest secrets of our nearest neighbors in the solar system. Read More
