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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
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The 2.2 million men and women who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 are a heterogeneous bunch, from different backgrounds both economically and politically.
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A conversation with the Iraq war veteran and IAVA founder.
The opening weekend of Eat, Pray, Love is being billed as a success, earning $23 million and second only to Sly Stallone's action ensemble The Expendables at $35 million. Not […]
The economic recession of the past few years has had a real effect on the way fiction writers are writing, says novelist Rick Moody. Writers are more "desperate" than they […]
Research suggests that promiscuity is not associated with increased happiness and, in fact, that the number of sexual partners needed to maximize happiness is exactly one.
“Painting is a battlefield… about what is, what is not, what ought to be, what I like, what I hate, what I love,” says Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca, subject of […]
Imagine watching the sun go down on October 24, and living in complete darkness straight through to when it finally rises again on the 8th of March. Imagine 40 below […]
If you look up "Obama Accomplishments" on Google right now, you will see my blog, Brown Man Thinking Hard, pop up on the first page of results. This is normally […]
One of the topics I will be covering at Age of Engagement is the growth and impact of what has been called the New Atheist movement, a collection of authors […]
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Writing courses and MFA programs make it easy to talk about a story if it proceeds in a way that is demonstrably similar to stories past. This means the really […]
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"The unhappier parts of my career enabled me to say the more trenchant things," says the novelist. But "if I’m not happy enough to finish the book ... it doesn’t […]
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Fiction writers are more desperate than ever, says the novelist. Scared that they’re not going to get published, they’re trying to shoehorn themselves into rigid—"sellable"—formats.
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The novelist relies on improvisation as his fiction develops. "The fictional characters have their own volition ... and are capable of proposing new ideas about how they want to live […]
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Digital culture is about getting to the meat of a subject as quickly as possible and then moving onto the next thing. Literature, on the other hand, is about doing […]
The New Yorker chronicles the artistic development of Bob Dylan parallel to his run-ins with The Beat writers in Greenwich Village, and particularly his lasting friendship with Allen Ginsberg.
"Are we making fewer discoveries than in the past? Can war make us cleverer? The answers lie in scientometrics, the field of research that puts scientists under the microscope."
"To put it bluntly, the bean counters are out of their depth." David Rieff says insistence on strict accountability in foreign aid programs means losing hearts and minds in Afghanistan.
America's ability to sap its intellectuals, from Twain to King, of their true revolutionary fervor reaches an apex with Jack London. The beloved author lived a dark and revolutionary life.
Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower differed in their view of the military. Kennedy advocated American dominance; Eisenhower, a more limited force. In which direction are we headed?