How to Befriend the Universe
With unbridled exuberance and a zest for life, philosopher and comedian Emily Levine shares how she learned to love reality and death while facing her own injuries and terminal illness. Part quantum physics, part nature, some philosophy, and lots of laughs come together in this TED talk brilliantly presented by Maria Popova. In it Levine shares the revelation, "You have to understand that we don't... posted on Jun 10 2018, 10,475 reads

Where Do Camels Really Come From?
When you think of camels you probably picture sand and heat. You imagine nomadic herders and traders crossing the hot, dry desert, leading camels piled high with blankets and jugs of water. In this TED talk, Latif Nasser, the director of research at WNYCs Radiolab, gives us a different view of the camel. His story starts when paleobiologist Natalia Rybczynski discovers a 3.5 million year old bone.... posted on Jun 09 2018, 3,192 reads

Unu Spiro: One Breath Meditation Paintings
In 2016, artist Filiz Emma Soyak became a mother: "My heart expanded, my life changed, and I changed. But as I transitioned into motherhood, I felt more chaos than clarity as the days and nights blurred by with dizzying speed. I observed myself handling everything with less grace and more discomfort than I had anticipated. Intuition had always been my guide, but I couldn't hear my own thoughts cle... posted on Jun 08 2018, 11,242 reads

The Moment I Knew Gratitude is the Answer to Every Question
A month before her husband died, Kristin Meekhof drove her husband to cancer treatment as usual. It was a month after his diagnosis. While it was painful for her husband, it was also difficult for her. She tried to put on a brave face and hide her tears, but the sight of a sick child made her lose it. She ran to the bathroom to cry. The floodgates opened and she felt as if her "heart was literally... posted on Jun 07 2018, 22,649 reads

My Song to Nature
Can you remember being a child, lost in the wonders of the natural world around you? Revisit that wonder and joy. Lang Elliot provides the biography to his on-going work celebrating nature. Then, he treats you to a recording of his spoken-word and soundscape creation.... posted on Jun 06 2018, 8,119 reads

How I Moved My Cat from Israel to Pakistan
"I recently hunched over my desk lunch and typed: How to get a cat from Israel to Pakistan. This is not a question that Google easily answers. There are no holiday packages from Israel to Pakistan -- no direct flights, and no diplomatic relations. But here I was, asking the Internet weird questions at NPR's Washington, D.C., headquarters in June. I was being trained there before I was to be dispat... posted on Jun 05 2018, 3,497 reads

Are You Walking Through Life in an Underslept State?
Why should you get the World Health Organization's recommended 8 hours of sleep? Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the new book, "Why We Sleep", answers that question and more in this NPR interview. Read on to find out why sleep is important, how our environment affects our sleeping patterns, and tips for improvi... posted on Jun 04 2018, 14,955 reads

Fear Not the Narcotraficantes
Ann Sieben, better known as the Winter Pilgrim, has journeyed on foot across 44 countries over 40,000 kilometers along paths walked by seekers from years ago, and she doesn't carry any money, camera, or phone during her journeys. This particular moving account shares Sieben's pilgrimage in 2010 from Denver, USA to Our Lady of Guadalupe's church in Mexico City, via the treacherous Chihuahua Desert,... posted on Jun 03 2018, 14,470 reads

When Rivers Hold Legal Rights
In the beautiful land of New Zealand flows a river that now has a voice to protect it. The voice is not like ours, but in every other way the Whanganui River has been given the same legal protections accorded to any person living in New Zealand. The river now "owns itself" and has the law to speak up for it when the river's rights are being violated. This growing global movement for Rights of Natu... posted on Jun 02 2018, 6,944 reads

The Rejuvenating Power of Rest
Rest, especially sleep, is a powerful and necessary process of our lives. It is also one of the least honored activities of our days, lives and societies. Matthew Edlund explains both the why and the musical how of resting in this piece.... posted on Jun 01 2018, 12,988 reads