We Usually Know When the Real Conversation Has Not Started Most of us have been in a conversation where we could tell something else was coming. Somebody walks up asking, “How you doing? Everything good? How’s the family? What do you think about this weather?” We answer politely and go along with the conversation, but
Stop Sugarcoating Difficult Conversations: Why Respectful Directness Builds Trust Read More »
The Question Has Changed For generations, young people were given a pretty simple formula for building a successful life. Go to college, choose a respectable profession, earn your degree, find a stable employer, and build a career until retirement. That advice worked mighty well for many people, and parts of it still make sense today.
Choosing What to Study in an Age of Rapid Technological Change Read More »
A Simple Game With a Surprising Answer Imagine yourself standing on a game show with three closed doors in front of you. Behind one door is a brand-new car, while the other two are hiding goats. You choose Door 1 and hope you got lucky. Before anybody opens your door, the host, who knows exactly
The Monty Hall Problem: Why the Right Answer Can Feel Completely Wrong Read More »
An Ancient Disease in a Modern State Leprosy sounds like something we should be reading about in the Bible or an ancient history book, not something showing up in Florida in 2026. Yet Hansen’s disease, which is the modern medical name for leprosy, has never completely disappeared. Florida has reported 17 cases so far this
Why Is Leprosy Showing Up Again in Florida? Read More »
When the Message and the Reality No Longer Match For months, Americans have heard confident statements about the war with Iran. We were told that important military targets had been destroyed and that Iran’s ability to fight was being seriously weakened. At different points, it sounded as though decisive American military power might bring the
America at War With Iran: Looking Past the Political Messages and Asking How We Got Here Read More »
The Strange Problem of a Product That Works Too Well In ordinary life, we naturally assume companies want to make the best products they possibly can. A good refrigerator should last longer, a good automobile should need fewer repairs, and a good telephone should remain useful for years. But business has always carried a mighty
Planned Obsolescence: When Companies Discover That Products Can Last Too Long Read More »
The Supreme Court Changed the Tariff Story In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give President Donald Trump authority to impose the sweeping tariffs his administration had collected under that law. The decision did not immediately put refund checks in anybody’s hands, but it opened
Tariff Refunds, Corporate Windfalls, and the Question of Who Really Paid Read More »
Science and Spiritual Questions Science occasionally arrives at questions that spiritual traditions have been wrestling with for centuries, and consciousness is one of the biggest. That does not mean science has suddenly proved what ancient spiritual teachers believed, nor does it mean mystical language should be treated as scientific evidence. It simply means human beings
Consciousness, Perception, and the Possibility That Reality Is Larger Than We Experience Read More »
Two Histories of Suffering That Should Not Be Confused Whenever American slavery comes up, sooner or later somebody will say, “The Irish were slaves too.” That statement usually refers to Irish people who endured indentured servitude, forced transportation, brutal labor, poverty, religious persecution, and English colonial oppression. There is no question that many Irish people
A Legal Education System Built on Unequal Terms For a period in South Carolina history, graduating from an approved law school could do more than put a diploma on the wall because that degree could also open the door to practicing law. The system was commonly known as diploma privilege, meaning eligible graduates could be