Columbia University spring semester started this week How lovely and hopeful that the semester that starts in the dead of winter, is called spring semester I started teaching the course "Priorities... Read More

This week started with a circus of tabloid coverage about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex deciding to "step back" from their roles as senior members of the royal family YouTube video promotional... Read More

The Treaty of Versailles took force exactly one hundred years ago today on January 10, 1920 The Allied and Associated Powers, the victors of WWI, imposed the Treaty on the Central Powers and codified... Read More

With the start of the new year and new decade, the color company Pantone has named classic blue (Pantone 19-4052) as its 2020 color of the year With 1867 colors to choose from, Pantone says that... Read More

Dear Readers   Another year of musings on mental health We have covered a lot of ground From grief to burnout to the benefits of boredom From psilocybin to what the American Founding Fathers... Read More

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! And today, Happy Birthday to my son, Brendan! Happy is good But this time of year can be emotionally intense Sometimes overwhelming And it is common for us to... Read More

This week, legendary puppeteer Carroll Spinney died at the age of 85 Spinney was the artist who brought Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life on Sesame Street for fifty years! Launched in... Read More

That's the first part of the title of Michael Pollan's most recent best-selling book The rest of the title is, What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction,... Read More