Can animals act? (Pacific Standard)
by Ben Rowen
Should a dog, or an ape, be able to win an Oscar for acting? The answer depends on what animals can do, but also on what acting means.

The mechanics of kids’ bad jokes (The Atlantic)
by Ashley Fetters
Preschoolers tell jokes that make no sense for more or less the same reason infants babble. But sometimes their humor works better than it has any right to.

The market logic of the pickup artist (Aeon)
by Rachel O’Neill
The pickup industry involves much more than weird dating techniques like “negging.” It also reflects a disturbing view of sex and romance as joyless work that goes beyond the pickup artist subculture.

Don’t be so sure (Vox)
by Brian Resnick
From scientists to casual news readers, no one has an easy time giving up an idea once they’ve latched onto it. How can we get better at intellectual humility?

The snowman at the edge of the solar system (NPR)
by Nell Greenfieldboyce
At the frosty edges of our solar system, NASA’s New Horizons probe has found an object that looks… kind of like Frosty.

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