Donald Trump’s other goal: To make America gasp again

Many people voted for Donald Trump because they believed his promises that he would restore what they imagine were the good old days – the days when America had lots of traditional jobs mini...

How social media warps our world

Those who’ve been raising alarms about Facebook are right: Almost every minute that we spend on our smartphones and tablets and laptops, thumbing through favorite websites and scrolling thro...

Do not try to dance around topic of radical Islam

I’ve never been a fan of global conferences to solve problems, but when I read that the Obama administration is organizing a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism for Feb. 18, in response t...

Suffering, more than happiness, can connect people

During the past few weeks, I’ve found myself in a bunch of conversations in which the unspoken assumption was that the main goal of life is to maximize happiness. That’s normal. When people ...

Science, humanities mixed together makes for good reading

The highly prestigious Sidney Awards go out to some of the best magazine essays of the year. This year, many of these essays probed the intersection between science and the humanities. ...

Obama blindsided from two directions on Syrian response

I was at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, last week and struggling with my column. News of Russia’s proposal for Syria to surrender its poison gas was just breaking and changing every hour...