Markets have long been acknowledged to be a superior mechanism for managing resources but until the age of big data, they largely functioned better in theory than in practice. Now, as ideal markets are within reach because of vastly easier access to enormous amounts of information, we are on the verge of a major disruption. […]
Christopher Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he bought the bankrupt St Louis Browns in 1882. Von der Ahe picked up the team for one simple reason—to sell more beer. Then, convinced that the preeminent National League was missing an opportunity, he and a band of saloonkeepers, brewers and distillers created […]
The idiosyncrasies of human decision-making have confounded economists and social theorists for years. If each person makes choices for personal (and often irrational) reasons, how can people’s choices be predicted by a single theory? How can any economic, social, or political theory be valid? The truth is, none of them really are. Mark Buchanan makes […]
America faces a new culture war. It is not a war about guns, abortions, or gays—rather it is a war against the creeping changes to our entrepreneurial culture, the true bedrock of who we are as a people. The new culture war is a battle between free enterprise and social democracy. The Battle by Arthur C. […]
Jeanette Keith is the author of Fever Season: The Story of a Terrifying Epidemic and the People Who Saved a City. Published by Bloomsbury USA, it was praised as “Fascinating—and potentially instructive—to today’s reader … an unqualified success” by the Boston Globe. Originally trained as a journalist, Jeanette Keith obtained her PhD in history from […]
Judith Donath is a Faculty Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the former director of the Sociable Media Group at MIT’s Media Lab. She has created many pioneering online social applications and her work, and the work of the Sociable Media Group, has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide. She […]
Joshua D. Rothman is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama, where he has taught since receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 2000 and where he served as Director of the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South from 2010-2016. A […]
Jonathan S. Adams is a conservation biologist, writer, and former program director of the Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Knowledge and Communities Program. His latest book, Nature’s Fortune, written in collaboration with Mark R. Tercek, was published by Basic Books and was the winner of the 2014 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award in the category of […]
Ten years after Cluetrain’s original publication, too many companies still ignore the idea that markets are really made up of people. In our rapidly changing world, this book’s message is more vital than ever. Companies may be wired for business, but they still struggle with how to talk to their customers like human beings.The 10th […]
While the American South had grown to expect a yellow fever breakout almost annually in the 1800s, the 1878 epidemic was without question the worst ever. Moving up the Mississippi in the late summer, in the span of just a few months the fever killed more than 18,000 people. The city of Memphis was particularly […]
Patrick Carr is the Program Director of the Program in Criminal Justice, and Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. He is also an Associate Member of the MacArthur Foundationâs Research Network on the Transitions to Adulthood and Public Policy. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago and his research interests […]
Andrew Whitby is an economist with interests in econometrics and data science; and the economics of technology, creativity, innovation and growth. He has been a Data Scientist at the World Bank, working in the Development Data Group of the Chief Economist on all kinds of data questions He holds a PhD in economics from Balliol […]
Ellen Langer is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Her work focuses on the illusion of control, aging, decision-making, and mindfulness theory. Ellen’s books include Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, Mindfulness, The Power of Mindful Learning, and On Becoming an Artist. She also is the author of over 200 research articles and six academic books, work […]
Anna Rubino is a scholar and a journalist with an extensive background in covering the international oil industry from New York and Brussels. She has reported for over two decades for international publications and news services such as Business Week, McGraw-Hill World News, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, and the International Herald Tribune. She is the author of Queen of the Oil Club, published by Beacon Press. The Financial Times called it “an entertaining glimpse into a competitive, secretive world whose too little-known past still profoundly influences our lives.”