The Link Between Startups and Privilege
Self-made? The most successful independent ventures are often backed by legacy money or networks.
Questions for the Age of Automation
Back in the 1960s, scholars were making predictions about what the Age of Automation would look like. Where they right?
People Who Can’t Feel Pain
While exceptionally rare, congenital analgesia, or a total insensitivity to pain, is a real condition that can be quite dangerous.
The New Meaning of Monuments
Huge monuments to national pride are regaining popularity. One scholar suggests this might also indicate a larger cultural shift.
Pathologizing Distress
One bioethics scholar wonders if modern medicine is in danger of pathologizing what are painful, but normal, human experiences.
Can the U.S. and China Avoid the Thucydides Trap?
The "Thucydides trap" refers to the theory that when a rising power threatens a ruling power, the result is often war. Are the U.S. and China headed there?
Do Sister Cities Matter?
Sister cities may seem like mere symbolic pairings, but many actually share meaningful ties that are deliberately instituted and sustained.
The Anthropology of the Office Email
Researchers learn a lot from studying office workers' email. But the question remains: do they learn more about the people, or about the medium itself?
Epidemics as Entertainment
Plagues capture the public imagination in ways that other less terrifying--but more deadly--diseases don't.
What Sports Reveal about Society
Sociologists find that sports are inextricably intertwined with the people, countries, and politics surrounding them.