How often do you check your phone? Do you feel addicted to it? According to former Google product philosopher Tristan Harris, we check our phones 150 times per day, on average, and yes, we’re addicted. He explains why and proposes a solution in this July 2016 essay in Spiegel Online. Read it here: Harris, "Smartphone addiction: …
Continue reading Your personal slot machine: Tristan Harris on smartphone addiction
Health complications, environmental problems, ethical challenges—all these and more can be results of a diet rich in meat, dairy, and eggs. What to do? Free-lance journalist Brian Kateman recommends reducing consumption, and he explains his proposal in this July 2016 Washington Post article. Read it here: Kateman, “’We can save the earth without giving up bacon. Here’s …
Continue reading Not cold turkey: Brian Kateman on meat “reducetarianism”
There may be as many reasons to not go to college as there are to go. In this 2016 commercial from San Joaquin Valley College, a jug of laundry detergent tries to convey a serious message to a potential future student. Would you be persuaded? Have a look and decide. Read it here: San Joaquin Valley …
Continue reading “What are you afraid of?”: San Joaquin Valley College on going back to school
Are granola bars good for you? If you said “yes,” you are in agreement with more than two-thirds of the general public, but with only 28% of professional nutritionists. New York Times writers Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz conducted a survey among nutritionists and ordinary eaters about their perceptions of the healthfulness of several dozen …
Do you remember the sex scandal a few years ago about the counterterrorism expert and her lover? No? How about the affair between the decorated general and his mistress? That one might ring a bell. In fact, in both cases, we’re talking about the same two people—Gen. David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell. New York Times …
Continue reading The ‘mistress’: Jessica Bennett on the persistence of a demeaning word
If you have seen Twitter, you know that tweets can be brilliant, hilarious, informative, helpful, entertaining, and also very vulgar, threatening, and abusive. Women sports journalists are among the targets of the most vile and violent harassment. Ms. Magazine and editorial intern Jumana Bambot call attention to the situation and suggest a strategy for improving …
Continue reading #MoreThanMean: Jumana Bambot on women journalists and online harassment
There is a bill right now in the US House of Representatives that would require women to register for the military draft upon reaching the age of 18, just as men are currently required to do. This proposal is sure to ignite a firestorm of debate, and DePaul University student Danielle Harris is among the …
Continue reading Draft on tap: Danielle Harris on women and the military draft
True crime programs—whether they’re podcasts, Netflix miniseries, or regular television shows—are wildly popular these days. In addition, such programs have inspired the development of interactive fan resources on social media. New Republic editor and writer Laura Marsh explores the phenomenon in this Spring 2016 article in Dissent. Read it here: Marsh, “Murder, they wrote” Although Marsh is …
Continue reading Murder, they wrote: Laura Marsh on true crime dramas and amateur sleuthing
We tend to think of engineering as a world very distant from the arts; and indeed, designing a highway and writing a poem are very different activities. Or are they? Might the skills required for one be useful in accomplishing the other? Professors Julio M. Ottino and Gary Saul Morson propose bridging engineering and the …
Continue reading The structural properties of being human: Ottino & Morson dare to dream a bridge
Harvard University, now that’s a real college. You know what? So are Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, Harold Washington College in Chicago, and every community college throughout the United States—over a thousand in all. In this February 2015 New York Times essay, writer Kristin O’Keefe argues that community colleges and their students merit more respect …
Continue reading Real people, real college: Kristin O’Keefe on academic snobbery
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