In our tense era of deep divisions, talking to each other is more important than ever before. Radio host Celeste Headlee’s rules include showing respect and knowing your own biases.
Ideas
Weekend Confidential
Gretchen Rubin’s Great Expectations
The self-help author on how she responds to expectations, keeps up habits and follows obsessions.
A two-month trip to Italy spurred a crucial change in style of Picasso, a century ago in 1917. A new exhibition in Rome documents the trip.
Al Qaeda has regrouped even as the battered Islamic State remains lethal.
Their toxic wars over history have become caught up in both countries’ domestic politics.
The Saturday Essay
Why American Students Need Chinese Schools
After putting her son in an elite state-run school in Shanghai, an American mother finds that the U.S. education system could learn a few things from China—most of all that teacher knows best.
Word on the Street
OMG! It Started in 1917 With a Letter to Churchill
Ben Zimmer celebrates the centenary of the abbreviation OMG—Yes, the centenary, via a letter to Winston Churchill. Text that.
Moving Targets
We Need Polls and Stats for Friends and Family
Why does the polling spotlight fall only on politicians? Why can’t we, our friends and our families order up polls and stats for each other?
Historically Speaking
The Psychology and History of Snipers
Snipers helped turn the course of World War II at the Battle of Stalingrad, which began 75 years ago. Amanda Foreman looks at the psychology and history of the sniper.
Everyday Math
Everyday Math: When Bright Lines Give Bad Guidance
In life, the need for cutoff points can confuse us. Math has tools for helping us to make better sense of gray areas.
How singer Loudon Wainwright III heard a song by The Band and found the courage to perform on the road.
Americans don’t like being forced to buy flood coverage, but it may be the best way to protect the booming economies most at risk.
All about opera: London’s Victoria and Albert Museum plans to recall seven eventful productions in a large-scale exhibition that opens Sept. 30.
Critics of the new generation of autonomous weapons fail to see that they will make war less likely and less destructive.
The Saturday Essay
The Romance of the American Road Trip
No other travel experience, especially today, can beat the sense of freedom it brings. As summer winds down, the renowned travel author Paul Theroux explains the lasting allure of the open road.
Weekend Confidential
Michael Shermer’s Skeptical Eye
The founder of the Skeptics Society has devoted his career to questioning orthodoxies, from religious belief and self-help movements to the anti-scientific claims of left and right.
Word on the Street
Where the Word ‘Bayou,’ a Key Factor in Harvey’s Flooding, Comes From
Ben Zimmer on the history of the bayous of Houston, which played a role in the havoc of Harvey’s flooding.
Moving Targets
The Joys of Having Them Back in School
Yes, it’s sad that they are going back to school. Yet every misfortune has its upside, in this case cracking open a cold one, listening to ZZ Top and reminiscing over zany adult weekends.
Controversial speakers are being shut down on campus because today’s college students are obsessed with psychological safety and have little experience with negotiating conflicts.
In a new exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery through Nov. 12, the pieces range from small Egyptian cosmetic containers to ornate Roman vessels.
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