Identity

How a missing inner monologue affects the sense of self.

I have two children, and they are a study in contrasts: My son works at a gym designing and building rock-climbing walls; In his spare time, he climbs them. My daughter is a Ph.D. student in immunology; In her spare time, she writes novels. My son is the sort of person you want around in […]

Whether it’s our country or our football team, we need to belong.

Lee Berger has a knack for finding fossils his own way.

Why you laugh with your friends.

Epigenetics and behaviorism suggest the ancient Greeks were right.

The staple fish is having an identity crisis.

When Arne Hendriks, a 6” 4’ Dutchman, faced audience members at TEDxBrainport in 2012, he smiled apologetically. “I have some bad news for you,” he said. “You’re not short enough.” Hendriks believes that the planet’s growing population—currently at 7 billion—is unsustainable. His solution? We should shrink ourselves to 50 cm, around the height of a […]

Our cultural history is crumbling. Not because of bad education—though one might make that argument—but because of chemistry. Between the late 60s and the late 80s, much of our culture—from the Nixon trials on television to unreleased music from famous artists like the Beatles—was recorded on magnetic tape, and this tape is starting to disintegrate. […]

Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch describes the surprising idiosyncrasies of film scoring.