Search
Cultural Studies
4mins
Americans believe they can outthink suffering. Historian Kate Bowler explains how our obsession with self-help, optimization, and positivity became a kind of secular religion.
3mins
Toxic positivity isn’t optimism. It’s denial. Historian Kate Bowler explains why our obsession with “good vibes only” is making it harder to cope.
Joel Miller, the author of “The Idea Machine,” joins us to explore why books are history’s most successful information technology.
6mins
Free speech can amplify hatred, but it also protects the fight against it. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama explains.
From medieval myths to Shakespeare's plays and modern cinema, British culture kept the Roman Empire alive long after its fall.
In this preview from "The Saucerian," author Gabriel Mckee explains how the combination of fantastical stories and obscure bureaucracy launched the “space age of the imagination.”
As we shape our future we should ask: Which interpretations of classic sci-fi fables hold sway with today’s powerful tech leaders?
Just because you can't experience it doesn't mean it's not real.
Will "Sausage Party" survive the test of time?
Would you be upset if I called you an eggplant?
From Nick Carraway to Charles Marlow, these side characters offered truths their scene-stealing protagonists couldn't.
Joseph Campbell argued that nearly every myth can be boiled down to a hero’s journey. Was he right?
Do grim sci-fi scenarios crush our hopes for real-world growth? Author Michael Harris looks elsewhere to unblock the road to a better future.
Today, the F-word is enjoying a renaissance the likes of which it hasn’t seen since, well, the Renaissance.
You've certainly seen the paintings — but they don't depict what you think they do. Benjamin Moser discusses with Big Think.
In a remarkably similar way, conspiracy theories around the world cast doubt on the existence of real places.
The toilet “is a portal to a mysterious otherworld.”
Just 12% of Americans account for half the country's total beef consumption.
There are issues with Kinsey's data, but his books revolutionized Americans' thinking about sex and sexuality.
Meet the masterful con-men who impressed the great and the good despite the astonishing fiction of their very existence.
The richness and variety of America’s food landscape, in a buffet of maps.
Research suggests there's truth to regional stereotypes in the U.S. — with some caveats.
Take a closer look before judging a book by its title.
A philosophy of birth can offset the prevailing narrative around extinction and mortality.
Rather than sending serial killer art to auctions, it should be sent to abnormal psychologists for research.
The multi-leveled constructions of metaphysics are the collective workings of a fantastical virtuality. Did you get that?
Would you want to live in any of these places?
In many city-states, it was perfectly acceptable for older men to have sexual relationships with young boys.
Today’s scary clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.
Satanic cultists don't even believe the Devil exists. Satanism is largely a religion focused on secular humanism and hedonism.