Thursday, May 2, 2013

Humanity Beyond Our Differences

›
Suppose we found out that most of what we know about history and what shapes it, is wrong. That the traditional manichean world view, that ...

Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East

›
There is an old saying that says that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat every problem as if it is a nail. So too for...
Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Manhunt

›
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, would set off the ten year search for Osama bin Laden. That manhunt would end exactly two years ago today, on...
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Life After Prison

›
One of the consequences of the vast numbers of men we incarcerate in America, is that over 700,000 people each year are being released from ...

One Photo. Endless Possibility.

›
When we look at a photograph or a piece of art there are usually two imaginations at work. The artist or photographer, and the viewer whose...
Monday, April 29, 2013

The Rebirth of a Great American School System

›
There is an apocryphal story about the state of education, which tells the tale of a man who falls asleep, ala Rip Van Winkle, 100 years ago...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Death on the Border

›
In the world of extreme right wing rhetoric, particularly on the subject of immigration, it often seems that the practitioners are always up...

We are all citizens of Hollywood

›
Wherever we live, we all, to some extent live in Hollywood. We are shaped and influenced by its messages, its ideas and by connection, to i...
Monday, April 22, 2013

Overcoming Addiction

›
Back in 2008, David Sheff wrote a memoir that has become became a landmark in our understanding of addiction. Beautiful Boy was his power...

The Age of the Image

›
Every hour, 72 more hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube. The moving image has become the literature of our time. Perhaps not since the...
Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Long Walk

›
Some of our soldiers have come back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan missing arms and legs. We’ve heard about the phantom pain that of...
Thursday, April 18, 2013

Children Having Children

›
We baby boomers are aging. With all the talk about health care and retirement and 401k's and endless mail from the AARP, the one subjec...
Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Central Park Five

›
1989 New York was a time in which social systems were breaking down. The crime rate was peaking, crack was a serious epidemic, racial animu...
Saturday, April 13, 2013

Jacob Barnett explains it all to us.

›
One of all the many problems with education today is its relentless focus on what kids can’t do, as opposed to what they do well. This is p...

What 4th Graders Teach Us About World Peace

›
Amidst all the talk about the importance of education, and all the endless debates about public policy, we often forget that at the heart of...
Friday, April 12, 2013

Nice Guys who Give and Take, Finish First..

›
T he legendary Baseball player and coach Leo Durocher said that “nice guys finish last.” In our often cynical age, that’s become a kind o...
Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright

›
Today the digital revolution has ushered in a whole new set of concerns with respect to piracy, copying and the very definition of who own...
Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Murder, Money and Mystery in China

›
In November of 2011, a British businessman by the name of Neil Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in China. The reverberations of that ...