Society

A collage featuring the text "Forgotten Hardships," with images of distressed people, a graph with a declining trend, and various historical imagery in red and black tones.

Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed

9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.

Jason Crawford

Global Development

A new vision for the advancement of humanity

The world needs a moral defense of progress based in humanism and agency.

Jason Crawford

A person holds up a cardboard sign with the message "psychedelics are not a crime" in a crowded room.

Drugs

Psychedelic drugs and the law: What’s next?

The push to legalize magic mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, and other hallucinogens is likely to heighten tensions between state and federal law.

Ben Seal | Knowable Magazine

A person demonstrating how to tie shoes.

DIY

The mathematically correct way to tie your shoes

One of the great accomplishments of childhood comes when we successfully learn how to tie our own shoes: making a "bow" for the first time.

Ethan Siegel

a small cabin in the woods with a blue roof.

Urban Living

How building more backyard homes, granny flats, and in-law suites can help alleviate the housing crisis

Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are sometimes called “granny flats,” “backyard homes,” “in-law suites,” or “backyard cottages.”

Murali Paranandi and Jeff Kruth

Death

Sooner or later we all face death. Will a sense of meaning help us?

An awareness of our mortality can, paradoxically, move us to seek – and, if necessary, create – the meaning that we so desperately crave.

Warren Ward

Neuroscience

Eastern philosophy says there is no “self.” Science agrees

Neuroscience aligns with Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, that argue the self is an illusion, a byproduct of our thought processes.

Chris Niebauer

Art

Viewing abstract art causes notable cognitive changes

Abstract art causes the viewer to place more psychological distance between themselves and the art than with more typical works.

Scotty Hendricks

Psychology

Generate brilliant ideas by relaxing your cognitive filters

Theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow offers three strategies for relaxing your cognitive filters to give your brilliant ideas time to shine.

Kevin Dickinson

Archaeology

Ancient technology that was centuries ahead of its time

These forward-thinking inventions are often called "ahead of their time." They are reflections of the ingenuity of their civilizations.

Tim Brinkhof

Building Community

More Americans than ever have no friends. Here are 5 steps to make more friends.

The last decade has seen a steep drop in adult friendships and a worrying increase in loneliness. Is this the cost of our modern life?

Elizabeth Gilbert

Psychology

The secrets of cooperation

Most people care what others think of them. In many situations, that can be leveraged for the common good — cooperation.

Bob Holmes | Knowable Magazine

History

Today, people fear Twitter. In the 1850s, they feared telegrams

Telegrams elicited the exact same concerns, including the spread of misinformation, “addiction” among youth, censorship, and impersonation.

Louis Anslow

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