Interview Office hours with Kimberly Kay Hoang March 14, 2023 This month, I am delighted to bring you Office Hours with Kimberly Kay Hoang, author of Spiderweb Capitalism. She has some excellent book recommendations, she offers valuable career advice for graduate students and junior faculty alike, and she shares a story that illuminates how a single conversation can completely change the trajectory of one鈥檚 research. Read More
Essay On spiny ants and the rising tide March 11, 2023 In the mangrove forest mudflats Down Under, a worker ant cautiously extends her antennae. What is the expansive substance before her? Tap, tap, tap. Water! Read More
Interview Laurence Packer on Bees of the World March 09, 2023 The archetypal bee is the western domesticated honey bee (Apis mellifera)鈥攚hich is just one among over 20,500 different species of bees.聽Few realize there are so many species or that our honey bee is such an unusual one. Read More
Podcast The Influencer Industry March 07, 2023 Before there were Instagram likes, Twitter hashtags, or TikTok trends, there were bloggers who seemed to have the passion and authenticity that traditional media lacked. Read More
Interview What your publisher wishes you knew March 02, 2023 One of the scariest parts of the publishing process, at least for some people, is promotion, i.e., all the things that you and your press will do to make sure people are aware of your book when it鈥檚 published and hopefully read it. Read More
Essay Marion Turner on The Wife of Bath March 01, 2023 Medieval women led varied, interesting, risky lives. They worked in a wide variety of jobs, were economically active, and were often independent. This is the world in which Chaucer鈥檚 Wife of Bath鈥搊ne of the most famous and enduring female characters in English literature鈥搘as born. Read More
Interview In Dialogue: What is misunderstood about Blackness? February 27, 2023 For decades, 鈥楤lackness鈥� has been a crucial political and cultural category that grounds a public discourse on cherishing a robust historical tradition and systemically uprooting white supremacy. Read More
Essay Why democracy belongs in artificial intelligence February 21, 2023 Most of the real harms AI systems can cause鈥攂ut also the opportunities they can afford鈥攁re nothing to do with robots taking over the world or self-generating AI systems. They are to do with what, how, when, and why we should use powerful predictive tools in the decision-making systems of our political, social, and economic organizations. Read More
Essay Meaning and the hard problem of life February 21, 2023 In the middle of the twentieth century something happened to the meaning of 鈥渕eaning.鈥� Until then meaning had been associated with concepts, definitions, and language鈥攁nd so associated strongly with the human animals who hold concepts, define things, and speak. But now it came to be connected to a term, information, that was sponsoring revolutions in areas from computation to biology. Read More
Essay Ukraine鈥檚 memorials February 20, 2023 One of the curiosities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is how, even amid the deprivations of a savage war, Ukrainians have turned their attention to destroying or de-Russifying Soviet monuments and protecting their own. Read More
Podcast Pandemic Politics February 20, 2023 COVID-19 has killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history, but the scale and grim human toll of the pandemic were not inevitable.聽 Read More
Podcast The Sounds of Life February 16, 2023 The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life. Read More
Essay Medea, again February 16, 2023 Although she is surrounded by the accoutrements of a magical spell that she is performing, which gestures to her mastery of an arcane science, the predominant impression is of a woman who is being victimized by a love-charm that the gods have cast upon her, compelling her to use her special knowledge to help the hero Jason. Read More
Interview James B. Nardi on The Hidden Company That Trees Keep February 15, 2023 You can tell a lot about a tree from the company it keeps. James Nardi guides you through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a wondrous array of creatures. Read More
Podcast Data Driven February 15, 2023 Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the day-to-day independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Read More
