How the Desire for Status Explains (Pretty Much) Everything
Being famous. Knowing someone famous. Getting a laugh after telling a joke. Getting a good grade. Getting likes on a social media post. Winning a video game. Cooking a tasty meal. Being good looking. ...
15 Nov 202150min
Why Do the Navy’s Frogmen Fight on Land?
When you think of the Navy SEALs, you think of elite special operators who have been tasked with commando-type missions in conflict zones from Central Africa to Afghanistan. Which raises a question yo...
10 Nov 202147min
A Surprising Theory on Why We Get Fat
There are two dominant theories as to why Westerners have gotten increasingly obese in the last fifty years. One is that we're eating too many carbs and carbs make us fat. Another is that our primitiv...
8 Nov 20211h 9min
Take Back the Weekend
Do you ever get to feeling kind of down, dejected, and anxious come Sunday evening? People refer to this phenomenon as the "Sunday Night Blues," and it's a common experience. You may have chalked it u...
3 Nov 202143min
The Metaphysical Club
In 1872, a group of men that included future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., father of modern psychology William James, and eccentric polymath Charles Sanders Peirce, formed a philos...
1 Nov 202150min
The Rise of the Religious "Nones" (And What It Means for Society)
In 1972, the number of Americans who described themselves as religiously unaffiliated was 5%. In 2018, it was almost 24%. Why has the number of people answering "none of the above" to the question of ...
27 Okt 202150min
The Surprising Benefits of Forgetting
Whenever Dr. Scott Small is at a social event and tells people what he does for a living — that he's a memory scientist — they inevitably tell him how much they bemoan their own lapses in memory and f...
25 Okt 202143min
Let the Children Play!
In Finland, children don't start formal schooling until age seven, aren't subject to standardized testing, and always get at least one hour of physical activity a day, broken into 15-minute free-play ...
20 Okt 202145min
