We might think that perfect harmony is the goal for healthy relationships – early ones between parents and children, and later in life between lovers, partners, friends, and siblings. But we all know that human interactions are messy, complicated, and confusing. According to psychologist Ed Tronick and pediatrician Claudia Gold, that is not only ok, […]
In 1999, Robin Chase cofounded Zipcar, now the world’s largest car sharing company. Recognizing that cars that sit idle are an untapped resource, she set out to enable people to own a part of a car, rather than a whole one. Zipcar then invited its customers to be collaborators, rather than just consumers. The Internet […]
Over the last three decades, millions of people have slipped through a loophole in the American dream and become downwardly mobile as a result of downsizing, plant closings, mergers, and divorce: the middle-aged computer executive laid off during an industry crisis, blue-collar workers phased out of the post-industrial economy, middle managers whose positions have been […]
The world of welfare has changed radically. Poor families have traded welfare checks for low-wage jobs, but for most of them the new status brings neither freedom from financial worry nor independence from government support. Although many get a windfall at tax time – a combination of the Earned Income Tax Credit and other refunds […]
Alex Rosenblat is a technology ethnographer and the author of Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work, forthcoming with the University of California Press in October 2018. A researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute, she holds a master’s degree in sociology from Queen’s University and a bachelor of arts degree in […]
Pamela Greenberg has an M.F.A. from Syracuse University and a Masters in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College. She has received several writing awards, including a University Fellows award at Syracuse, a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts, and a residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has been published […]
Asaf Siniver is Associate Professor in International Security at the University of Birmingham, UK. He has published widely on the politics, diplomacy and history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with particular emphasis on the role of external actors in the conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Patricia Brady is a social and cultural historian, who served as director of publications at the Historic New Orleans Collection for twenty years. She is the author of A Being So Gentle, published by Palgrave, which tells the story of the marriage of Rachel and Andrew Jackson. Her previous book, Martha Washington: An American Life was published by Viking. […]
Whether you are faced with decisions momentous or trivial, how you go about resolving everyday dilemmas will definitely affect your level of satisfaction in life. In this engrossing and entertaining guide, David Welch, who has studied the decision-making process at the highest levels, shows how both the science and the art of decision-making are essential […]
Atul Gawande uses the term “positive deviant” to describe unusually effective performers in the field of medicine. To Gawande it is natural that we should study these outliers in order to learn from them and improve performance. Surprisingly, however, in business the best are not studied as closely as in other fields. The Outsiders is an attempt […]
The second world war would see an unlikely band of librarians, archivists, and scholars travel abroad to aid the Allies’ cause. Galvanized by the events of the war into acquiring and preserving the written word, as well as provide critical information for intelligence purposes, they set off on missions to collect foreign publications and information […]
Heather Richardson has long been fascinated by the history of the Republican Party. Her last book, To Make Men Free, was hailed as essential reading for understanding American politics after the 2016 election and she is a frequent resource for the media, for the historical context she brings to the current political churning. In How […]
Claudio Saunt is the Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and the associate director of the Institute of Native American Studies at the University of Georgia, A native of San Francisco, he has long been interested in exploring the early history of all parts of the continent and all the peoples living there, and his scholarship has been widely recognized for its innovative approach to the early American past.
His most recent book, West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 was published by W.W. Norton. It invites readers to extend their bounds and discover the continent beyond the British colonies, by looking at nine American places, stretching from the Aleutian Islands to San Diego, and from the Florida Gulf Coast to the Saskatchewan River in 1776. His next book, Aboriginia, also will be published by W. W. Norton.
Amir Alexander is a writer, historian, and mathematician living in Los Angeles. He teaches history at UCLA. He is the author, most recently, of Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World, published by Scientific American Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Named a Wall Street Journal Best Science Book to Give for the Holidays and a Library Journal Best Science Book of 2014, it was called “a triumph” by Nature. Amir’s next book, The Science of Certainty also will be published by Scientific American Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
A consultant and educator, Bill Welter helps organizations succeed by helping managers excel and prepare for their tomorrows. He connects Louis Pasteur’s quote of “Chance favors the prepared mind” with today’s business realities. His workshops have been conducted for McDonaldâs, Walgreenâs, Starbucks, the Institute for Management Studies, DraftFCB and others. He is the lead co-author […]
After almost getting expelled for exposing his prep school’s outrages in the Boston press, David Williams spent 1968 crossing the Pacific in the merchant marine and fighting the Vietnam War in the peace movement. Wanted in Oregon for jaywalking, be hitchhiked home to enjoy the mayhem of the Sixties at Harvard where he occasionally attended […]