Nov 26, 2016

Cycle racer Evelyn Stevens is a rational person, but during the one race when she did not wear her "lucky" sunglasses, she was in a horrible crash. We spoke at Rapha New York about the psychological benefits to world-class athletes of superstition: Calming ritual? The useful illusion of control? The placebo effect?...

Nov 19, 2016

What do we make of a person who acts dubiously for much of his life and then, after a transformative event (or retirement), does unambiguous good? Andrew Carnegie? St. Paul? The green developer Jonthan Rose examines this question in regard to his boyhood hero and fellow developer, James Rouse, challenging both my...

Nov 12, 2016

If an artist begins a work not with an abundance of ideas or an outpouring of emotion but only in pursuit of a paycheck, is the work doomed? Painter Katherine Bradford took up this question at Planthouse Gallery with sharp analysis and grim personal experience - my favorite combination. Plus astute remarks about Philip...

Nov 5, 2016

The founder and executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a non-profit that assists immigrant women fleeing violence, she notes that while we are influenced by people we admire, we are also shaped by those who "test" us, as she tactfully puts it. She means jerks. And she's right: we're shaped by jerks. Our...