From badass educators to solving homelessness, we cover the people and ideas changing the world in Culture and Society. We believe that together, we can push the human race forward, one remarkable story at a time.
Culture & Society
Entertainment
Freethink Recognized With 11 Telly Awards
Entertainment
Freethink Recognized With 11 Telly Awards
This year, Freethink was honored to receive 11 Telly Awards for excellence and creativity in storytelling.
This year, Freethink was honored to receive 11 Telly Awards for excellence and creativity in storytelling.
Progress Report
The Rise of Virtual Therapy
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Progress Report
The Rise of Virtual Therapy
In a time when the need is great and the future is unknown, virtual mental health services like BetterHelp are bringing relief and hope.
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In a time when the need is great and the future is unknown, virtual mental health services like BetterHelp are bringing relief and hope.
Challengers
Preschool is Broken. Silicon Valley is Fixing the System.
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Challengers
Preschool is Broken. Silicon Valley is Fixing the System.
Wonderschool is empowering educators to offer affordable, private preschool classes from their homes, making early childhood education more accessible to every child.
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Wonderschool is empowering educators to offer affordable, private preschool classes from their homes, making early childhood education more accessible to every child.
Sports
New App Lets Sports Fans Cheer (or Jeer) Athletes Remotely
Sports
New App Lets Sports Fans Cheer (or Jeer) Athletes Remotely
Yamaha’s “Remote Cheerer” system lets sports fans stuck at home during the pandemic use an app to make noise at live sports facilities.
Yamaha’s “Remote Cheerer” system lets sports fans stuck at home during the pandemic use an app to make noise at live sports facilities.
Memorial Day
No Man Left Behind: The Extreme Measures to Bring Missing Soldiers Home
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Memorial Day
No Man Left Behind: The Extreme Measures to Bring Missing Soldiers Home
This team of anthropologists, historians, forensic scientists, and military officers is helping find missing soldiers’ remains and return them to their families.
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This team of anthropologists, historians, forensic scientists, and military officers is helping find missing soldiers’ remains and return them to their families.
Writing History
The Pandemic Time Capsule: Make Your Story a Part of History
Writing History
The Pandemic Time Capsule: Make Your Story a Part of History
The novel coronavirus has changed life as we know it. Submit your story to a pandemic time capsule to help mark history.
The novel coronavirus has changed life as we know it. Submit your story to a pandemic time capsule to help mark history.
Progress Report
The Road to Reopening, According to a Nobel Prize Winner
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Progress Report
The Road to Reopening, According to a Nobel Prize Winner
In this episode of the Freethink Progress Report, we attempt to answer a question on all of our minds: what will it take for routines to return to normal in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns?
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In this episode of the Freethink Progress Report, we attempt to answer a question on all of our minds: what will it take for routines to return to normal in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns?
Tech for Good
Fighting Child Exploitation with Big Data
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Tech for Good
Fighting Child Exploitation with Big Data
Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 18 million reports of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse. Now, they’re using a new technology to confront this issue with the force necessary to eradicate it.
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Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 18 million reports of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse. Now, they’re using a new technology to confront this issue with the force necessary to eradicate it.
Culture of Change
Facing the Fear of Death in Virtual Reality
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Culture of Change
Facing the Fear of Death in Virtual Reality
With a virtual reality death simulator, this immersive experience helps people address the uncomfortable subject of mortality and face their fear of dying.
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With a virtual reality death simulator, this immersive experience helps people address the uncomfortable subject of mortality and face their fear of dying.
Favorites in Culture & Society
Relentless
How Hamish Brewer is Changing the Game
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Relentless
How Hamish Brewer is Changing the Game
The Tattooed, Skater Principal Making Education Fun Again
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To hear Hamish Brewer speak is to be inspired. About education. About life. About the possibilities of it all. And for disadvantaged youths that come from poverty and broken homes, the New Zealander with an infectious energy works hard to encourage them to excel, not only in school, but in life. About Hamish Brewer With a shaved head, tattoos, and one of those loud, larger-than-life personalities, Hamish Brewer is hard to...
Wrong
Did the Food Pyramid Make Us Fat?
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Wrong
Did the Food Pyramid Make Us Fat?
To address rising health problems in the 1980s, scientists and policymakers developed the US Food Pyramid to...
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To address rising health problems in the 1980s, scientists and policymakers developed the US Food Pyramid to encourage healthy eating. But despite a massive public education campaign, obesity and diabetes continued to rise. What happened? How did we get it so… wrong?
Steven Pinker Makes the Case for Optimism
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Steven Pinker Makes the Case for Optimism
Are things really worse than ever, or are we missing the bigger picture?
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Author and Harvard professor Steven Pinker lays out what he see as a basic paradox. The news today seems worse than ever - but based on a number of key metrics, Pinker argues the world is better than it’s ever been. Pinker explores the data and makes the case for how can we tackle the world’s problems while not drowning in negativity. That’s the focus of his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science,...
Future of Cities
Urban Sustainability is at the Heart of Copenhagen Culture
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Future of Cities
Urban Sustainability is at the Heart of Copenhagen Culture
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas (up from 50% now). With the climate crisis worsening, how can we support this urban trend in a sustainable way?
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By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas (up from 50% now). With the climate crisis worsening, how can we support this urban trend in a sustainable way?
What It Takes
The Snake Milk King
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What It Takes
The Snake Milk King
Enter the Kentucky Reptile Zoo—one of the largest collections of venomous reptiles in the world—and meet Jim Harrison, the man that spent his 42-year career milking King Cobras for anti-venom and saving lives across the globe. What drives a man like this to risk his life each and every day?
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Enter the Kentucky Reptile Zoo—one of the largest collections of venomous reptiles in the world—and meet Jim Harrison, the man that spent his 42-year career milking King Cobras for anti-venom and saving lives across the globe. He’s a former cop, bounty hunter, and professional kickboxer - but for decades now his main focus has been extracting venom from snakes, or “snake milking.” He and his wife, Kristen Wiley, run the...
Culture of Change
Drone Racers Are A Thing and They’re Amazing
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Culture of Change
Drone Racers Are A Thing and They’re Amazing
Blistering speed. Big money. 11-year-old world champions. Is drone racing the next big sport?
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Yes, drone racers are a thing and they’re amazing. The Drone Racing League has gone from a dream to ESPN in a few short years. We met world champion Paul Nurkalla, aka Nurk FPV, and got an inside look at how the DRL is striving to be the next big sports league. Somewhere between esports, NASCAR and Star Wars sits drone racing, also known as FPV racing. It’s a breathtakingly fast spectacle where drone pilots fly quadcopters...
Thinking Differently
The Joy of Being Wrong
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Thinking Differently
The Joy of Being Wrong
Can practicing intellectual humility make us smarter and happier? Science says yes.
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Arguments on social media are notorious. People often naturally form an echo chamber of people with similar beliefs, and when people outside it start arguments, the discussion often becomes antagonistic. Is there a better way? Science suggests that a good starting point is by practicing intellectual humility. By admitting the possibility that we ourselves could be wrong, we’re able to better evaluate arguments and construct...
Criminal Justice
24 Years For a Crime He Didn’t Commit
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Criminal Justice
24 Years For a Crime He Didn’t Commit
When a prisoner serving a life sentence is suddenly found to be innocent, it often makes national news. But what happens after the cameras go away?
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There are around 2,200 exonerees in the U.S.—people who were convicted of a crime and then later proven innocent by their own doggedness or new evidence in a case. When they are freed from prison, their lives are often saddled by the same issues that hold back people who actually committed a crime—lack of education, no job skills or employment history, and the stigma of having spent years in prison. While their release is...
Criminal Justice
Why the 6th Most Dangerous City is Turning to Community Policing
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Criminal Justice
Why the 6th Most Dangerous City is Turning to Community Policing
Police departments around the country are increasingly looking at community policing programs as a tool to help reestablish trust in the communities they serve.
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While community policing programs are nothing new, they fell out of popularity after a big push in the early 90s due to shifting priorities and budget crunches of the Great Recession. But with growing scrutiny of police and their often strained relationships with minority communities, police departments are increasingly looking to community policing programs to bridge the gap and rebuild trust. The Rockford Police...
Stand Together
This Restaurant Gives At-Risk Youth a Second Chance
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Stand Together
This Restaurant Gives At-Risk Youth a Second Chance
Cafe Momentum offers an alternative to the revolving doors at Texas jails.
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Chef Chad Houser was a rising star in the Dallas restaurant scene, but after volunteering with kids in the criminal justice system, he felt a calling to do more. He gave up his job to start Cafe Momentum, a restaurant staffed by kids from the criminal justice system. They’re given year-long paid internships where they are taught the skills to succeed in restaurants and society. It’s his way of trying to fix the problems...
The Dad Changing How We Investigate Police Shootings
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The Dad Changing How We Investigate Police Shootings
After his son was killed by police, Michael Bell fought for over a decade to change how we investigate police shootings.
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For over a decade, ever since police killed his son, Michael Bell has been trying to get an independent investigation into the shooting — and he's fighting to make sure that every family is entitled to one, whenever police use lethal force. In November 2004, his son, Michael Bell, Jr., was pulled over in front of his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for an alleged traffic violation. Although a dashcam video captures the initial...
Crossing The Divide
LGBT Rights: The Power of a Single Conversation
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Crossing The Divide
LGBT Rights: The Power of a Single Conversation
Why a gay rights activist started a movement to talk to thousands who voted against gay marriage.
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After Californians voted against gay marriage in 2008, Dave Fleischer, head of the Leadership LAB at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, knew he had to do something different to reach people. Dave and his team embarked on an ambitious task to talk to as many people who who disagreed with them as they could. They used a technique called “deep canvassing” where activists connect with people using personal stories to a make deeper...