Beyond the Known Territory
"When I was in my twenties, I would let myself go and when an image came up, I'd paint it. I'd have a piece of paper and ideas would come to me, and I'd try to depict them. Looking at these later, I'd see things revealed -- childhood memories or hidden things going on in my life -- these things would be there. But when I did the painting, I wouldn't see any of this." Rue Harrison talks about the m... posted on Jun 15 2016, 7,935 reads

India's Youngest Single Parent to Adopt a Special Needs Child
On January 1, 2016, software engineer Aditya Tiwari made history by becoming the youngest single adoptive parent in India. He won a long struggle against the system to bring home Binny, a special needs child who was abandoned by his family. This is their story.... posted on Jun 14 2016, 17,691 reads

The DNA Journey
Travel search site Momondo conducted a DNA experiment with 67 people from around the world and asked: do you dare question who you really are? Participants were asked what they thought the test would uncover, and were also encouraged to share some of their views and prejudices about people from different parts of the world. Some weeks later they were invited back. Watch the surprising results.... posted on Jun 13 2016, 6,934 reads

Optimism in the Dark Night
"In the process of writing this song I was made to look deeply into the nature of optimism in the face of dire facts. Is optimism naiive, simplistic? Does it require living behind rose-colored glasses in denial of the truth? After all, how can any of us feel hopeful about our earth's ecosystem and how it is trending?" Singer and song-writer Gayan Macher offers up his new song, "Earth on Fire,... posted on Jun 12 2016, 14,506 reads

The Great Unknown Is Me, Myself
"Jacob Needleman's voice has been prominent in the conversation about man's inner possibilities for some forty years. Turning away from a career in medicine toward philosophy while at Harvard, he went on to Yale, and then moved west when a position opened up at San Francisco State University. While teaching there, he found himself more and more drawn toward man's perennial questions. Making a deci... posted on Jun 11 2016, 17,707 reads

Olympians Without Nations: Refugees Head to Summer Games
In August of 2015, Yusra Mardini and her sister, Sarah, fled Syria after their home was destroyed in the countrys civil war. The sisters traveled on land through Lebanon and Turkey, eventually boarding a boat with 18 other refugees. When that boat's motor failed in the Aegean Sea, Mardini, her sister, and another woman jumped out and pushed the boat for three hours to the island of Lesbos. "These ... posted on Jun 10 2016, 12,525 reads

The Science of the Story
Stories are told in the body. It doesn't seem that way. We tend to think of stories as emerging from consciousness -- from dreams or fantasies -- and traveling through words or images to other minds. We see them outside of us, on paper or on screen, never under the skin. But we do feel stories. We know in our gut when we're hearing a good one -- and science is starting to explain why.... posted on Jun 09 2016, 19,763 reads

Whitefoot: Wendell Berry Tells the Story of a Mouse
"Her name was Peromyscus leucopus, but she did not know it. I think it had been a long time since the mice around Port William spoke English, let alone Latin. Her language was a dialect of Mouse, a tongue for which we humans have never developed a vocabulary or a grammar. Because I dont know her name in Mouse, I will call her Whitefoot. The name fits because her four small feet and all the undersi... posted on Jun 08 2016, 7,355 reads

New Trail of Hope
"Walking into the park to get a better look, I was shocked to see how many pieces of art I saw. It was hard to believe. This was a city park, after all. Sure, one might see a piece of public art here and there in a park, but nothing like this. And this work was alive. Across the language barrier I made out something like this: "Whatever this creative ability is that has been given to me, it's not ... posted on Jun 07 2016, 5,168 reads

Rising to the Occasion: Unleashing Our True Potential
"I remember a dream of long ago -- we all have this kind of dream, I think -- in which I came onto the stage to play a solo organ recital. The audience applauded and quieted down, I took my seat on the organ bench, placed the music just so, my fingers on the keyboard, and then realized I'd never played the organ before. I was a flute player, for God's sake! I had no ideas what to do next, but it w... posted on Jun 06 2016, 12,093 reads