David

Many things that we think are beyond our reach are actually within our grasp. Many things that we think we can’t control—such as our health, or that nagging ache in our lower back, or our general outlook on life—are actually controllable. Many of the limitations in our lives exist only in our heads.

The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health considers what happens when we learn how to take control of our health and wellbeing. Psychologist Ellen Langer, who has written widely on the illusion of control, mindful aging, stress, decision-making, and health. explores the new psychology of possibility, highlighting new research that shows how the mind can help treat a long list of illnesses and ailments that were previously assumed to be entirely physical. It builds on her groundbreaking work on mindfulness, and shows how simple thinking techniques can become a potent medical tool, reducing our symptoms, increasing our resilience and extending our lives.

The tragic truth is that too many people are depressed, stressed, and living in pain. They accept sickness as the inevitable status quo. They believe that psychological and physical discomfort are simply a part of life. Others are convinced that “this is as good as it gets,” and that they don’t deserve better. They will always be exhausted. Their eyes will always need glasses. They will keep getting weaker.

Ellen Langer’s essential work suggests that much more is possible. If we free ourselves from certain pervasive and constricting mindsets, such as the belief that stress is inescapable, or that being older means being sick, or that there can be no relief from chronic pain, then all sorts of possibilities may present themselves. If we learn to apply these new techniques, the mind can literally heal the body.

Winner of the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice

Although the entrenched racial discrimination in the housing market that Richard Rothstein chronicled in The Color of Law has been declining over the past several decades, one of America’s most enduring systems of housing inequity – economic segregation—largely goes unremarked. From coast to coast, cities—many of them liberal bastions—have imposed laws and regulations that have locked inequality into the urban landscape.

In Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYISM and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See, Richard Kahlenberg calls for us to pay attention to the myriad ways in which government has promoted economic segregation—most of it affecting people of color in urban settings. By implementing laws that ban the construction of less expensive and denser apartment buildings and other multifamily units like duplexes and triplexes, and by setting aside land that is restricted to single family dwellings, housing choice has been socially engineered to the benefit of the affluent.

Economic segregation matters. Where you live affects so much—your access to transportation, employment opportunities, decent health care, and good schools. Yet NIMBYism has meant that even the most moderate plans for building more housing have faced opposition. In response, The Walls We Don’t See proposes a new “economic fair housing act” to prohibit or discourage laws and practices that bar access to entire neighborhoods.

Rick also chronicles how, in cities like Minneapolis, things are beginning to shift. Writing in the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo has ventured to hope that support for different housing practices might be growing. Partly in response to the housing crisis revealed by the pandemic, he suggested that “a pragmatic, humane and rational view toward housing, homelessness, inequality and other pressing urban problems may be dawning.”

In Excluded, Rick Kahlenberg brings economic segregation to light and in so doing offers a view of how things can and must change.

The essential tool that will enable humanity to find the best way through a forest of looming problems is defined in Framers by internationally renowned authors Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and Francis de Véricourt. From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence.

To frame is to make a mental model that enables us to see patterns, predict how things will unfold, and make sense of new situations. Frames guide the decisions we make and the results we attain. People have long focused on traits like memory and reasoning leaving framing all but ignored. But with computers becoming better at some of those cognitive tasks, framing stands out as a critical function—and only humans can do it. This book is the first guide to mastering this innate human ability.

Framing is not just a way to improve how we make decisions in the era of algorithms—rather, it will be a matter of survival for humanity in a time of societal upheaval and machine prosperity.

A neurobiologist reexamines the personal nature of perception in this groundbreaking guide to a new model for our senses.

What would it be like to see clearly after a childhood of near blindness? Or to hear for the first time? Since understanding what we see and hear comes so naturally to most of us, we assume that our senses developed spontaneously in infancy—that gaining sight or hearing later in life would be like turning on a light switch or a sound system. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The real story is far more interesting and inspiring, with much to teach us all about the way that we perceive the world.

With her latest book Coming To Our Senses: A Boy Who Learned to See, a Girl Who Learned to Hear, and How We All Discover the World , neurobiologist Susan R. Barry draws on the stories of two remarkable young adults to show how our brains process raw stimuli into meaning, why ‘gaining a new sense’ requires a fundamental reorganization of the brain, and how our past experiences and personal predilections influence our future observations and growth. Her conclusions suggest that while adapting to a new sense after childhood is immensely difficult, it’s not impossible—in the same way that adult athletes continue to train after their brains and bodies are mature, it is possible to become an “athlete of perception.”

Liam McCoy was 15 when a surgical procedure addressed several conditions that had left him nearly blind since early childhood. But instead of seeing his family, friends, and everyday objects within a three-dimensional landscape, he saw a hodgepodge of lines and colors on one flat plane. Zohra Damji was 12 when a cochlear implant enabled her to hear for the first time. But all sounds—voices, a car motor, the rain—merged into one unintelligible cacophony.

Susan Barry, having come to know each of them and their families and having experienced her own sensory awakening, as chronicled in her first book, Fixing My Gaze, is uniquely positioned to tell their amazing stories from both a scientific and personal perspective. As moving as it is illuminating, Coming To Our Senses invites readers to “see” ourselves in a whole new way.