How many people do you engage with every day? If you don’t count your ‘friends’ on Facebook, it’s likely to be a small number of real and direct human interactions. As a result most of us are not ‘socially integrated’. Having done a number of podcasts about the effects iof social isolation, in …
In its heyday, the Miss America pageant could attract nearly three quarters of those watching television at that time. It was considered the first reality show and had become the focal point of community life for many young girls entering competitions in places far and wide in hopes of having a chance to compete …
Is war the locomotive of history? While that is a hard question to answer we seem never to escape its grip, whether we are talking about minor skirmishes, infra-state disputes, ethnic purges and major cataclysms. And while the latter category has not touched the world in most of our lifetimes, it’s not hard to …
The days of having to find a bookie to make a bet are long over. Today, many states will oblige with a host of state lottery options, relationships with Native American casinos and legalized sports book in person and on-line. In addition to the range of choices, greater proximity and ability to gamble on …
America’s public lands encompass more than 600 million acres of forests, plains, mountains, wetlands, deserts and shorelines, comprising about thirty percent of the nation’s land mass. In a country built on the concept of private property rights it is remarkable that for the last century and half there has been so little …
While much of what’s been written recently about housing in America are the exploding costs and great value of ownership, between 2010 and 2019, the number of renters in the country grew twice as fast as the homeowner population. In fact, renters now make up a majority of residents in large American cities. The …
The last two years has demonstrated that unanticipated events, like a pandemic, can force drastic changes in the way that we live. Climate science has been warning for decades now that we are on an unsustainable path and yet we seem incapable, or unwilling, to confront this reality. More intense storms, raging wildfires, climate …
When you think about police reform and where the greatest responsibility for it rests, the institutions that come to mind are local governments, state governments and Congress. Rarely does the U.S. Supreme Court and its role get much mention or discussion. The legal justification for things like stop and frisk, …
Money talks in Washington DC and China and Russia sure have their attention. not the voters There exists a powerful lever the West can use to weaken authoritarian governments and stop the global backslide of democracy. Why we choose not to use it speaks powerfully to the forces at play in our …
Death in America is undergoing a quiet revolution. You now can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved or tanned. Your family can incorporate your remains into jewelry, shotgun shells, paperweights and artwork. Cremations have more than doubled and will reach nearly 70 percent by 2030. As the grip of traditional religion is …