Psychology
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On reading Bruce Weigl’s “Song of Napalm” in jail.
People recovering through PTSD often need our quiet understanding in the moments when their stories seem to fail them.
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By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.
By building confidence, we become better able to choose nonviolence, since we’ll be that much more likely to feel safe.
Abdelfattah Kilito, aggression in animals, ahimsa, baboons, Babylonian mythology, Bible, biology, black belt test, black best essay, broadcast song, caretaking, Daddy Wake Up, death gods, Determined, divine aggression, dominance, dominance hierarchy, Dr. Strangelove, elephant seals, game theory, Gilgamesh, God, history, incarceration, jail poetry, John von Neumann, Joshua Rathkamp, Karate, kihap, Kilito, Korean mythology, linguistics, martial arts, mythology, nonviolence, observational biology, Origin Myth of the House God, peace, Popol Vuh, psychology, Ramayana, religion, Robert Sapolsky, Single Father, soft song, sparrow territory, sparrows, Taekwondo, tamarins, teaching in jail, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tongue of Adam, Tower of Babel, Travis Combs, Vishnu, Whorf hypothesis, Xibalban, Yahweh, YHWH
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Who are you going to trust, this stack of research papers or your deeply ingrained experience of the world?
The particles composing your brain should follow the laws of physics, but can you choose to believe that you can make no choices?
Ambrose Bierce, artificial intelligence, atheism, biology of choice, biology of free will, Blaise Pascal, choice, crime and punishment, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, Determined, determinism, free action, free choice, free will, magical thinking, moral agency, neurobiology of free will, neurology, philosophy, philosophy of free will, punishing a faulty algorithm, punishment, quantum computer, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, random action, random choice, reform, Robert Sapolsky, Sapolsky, science, science of free will, science of moral choice, superposition, who has free will, will
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Teaching meditation in two minutes or less (while walking through a jail).
With a repeated phrase to focus on, any of us might calm our wandering minds.
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On learning about polyamory from Elephant & Piggie.
Despite the recent surge of art & literature about polyamory, the best depiction is still in a book for elementary schoolers …
Alex Dimitrov, American Poly, babysitting cooperative, Bill de Blasio, Bonnie Garmus, Brian Watson, capitalism, capitalist critique, Charlotte Cowles, childcare, Chirlane McCray, Choosing the Right Pond, Christopher Gleason, consensual nonmonogamy, consumerism, cooperation, cooperative childcare, Cunning Minx, Elephant & Piggie, Elephant and Piggie, Elizabeth Doerr, free love, Geraldo Rivera, group marriage, human sexuality, I’ll Be Lovin’ You, Jennifer Wilson, joy, Kamauu, Lessons in Chemistry, love, Maitland Ward, Mango, Miranda Lambert, Mo Willems, multiple marriage, My New Friend Is So Fun, nontraditional marriage, Notes for My Funeral, Olivia Goldhill, open marriage, open relationship, parenting, partible paternity, poly, poly music, poly songs, polyamorists, polyamorous, polyamorous music, polyamorous parenting, Polyamorous Sex as Political Weapon, polyamorous songs, polyamory, polygamy, raising children, Rated X, relationships, Robert Frank, romance, Ryam Nearing, Sarah Stein Lubrano, sex-positive, social justice, Storming then Performing, wealth inequality, work spouse, work wife
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On disillusionment and knock knock jokes.
Children’s trust is fragile, yet we often treat kids so cavalierly.
belief, belief in science, bullying, Celeste Kidd, child psychology, children, children as research subjects, children as scientific subjects, children as study subjects, delayed gratification, devious licks, experimentation on children, Facebook, faith in science, Holly Palmeri, Insta, jokes, kids, kids' jokes, knock knock joke, knock-knock jokes, marshmallow task, marshmallow test, parenting, patience, psychology, Rational Snacking, remote schooling, Richard Aslin, science, scientific experimentation, soap, social, social media, telling jokes, Tik Tok, trust
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On human babies and adult octopuses.
For a short time, as infants, we felt the world as octopuses do.
animal minds, babies, baby, baby cognition, baby perception, bat, bats, cephalopod, childhood, Christina MacSweeney, cognition, consciousness, decentralized minds, distributed minds, Gluck, how do babies experience the world, how do babies see the world, human babies, infant, infant cognition, infant experience, infant mind, infant perception, infants, Jazmina Barrera, Katie Schmid, Leslie Jamison, Linea Nigra, Louise Gluck, Marigold and Rose, medieval art, Megan O'Rouke, mental perception, mind, perception, The Bear's Kiss, The Boatman, the experience of babies, the lives of babies, the lives of infants, Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
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On ‘Existential Physics’ and free will.
If a physicist says you can’t have free will, but you can lift your arm when you want, who should you believe?
brain chemistry, computability, consciousness, continuous space, digital mathematics, discontinuous space, Existential Physics, free will, Hossenfelder, is our universe pixelated, physics, physics of consciousness, physics of free will, physics of thought, pixelated space, Sabine, Sabine Hossenfelder
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On kink, advertising, and climate change.
To save our planet, we need to buy fewer things; how might we still be happy?
ad culture, adventure, advertising, advertising culture, affirmative consent, anti-capitalism, Aronowitz, Bad Sex, Bartolomeo Manfredi, BDSM, buy fewer things, buy less, capitalism, Catherine M Roach, Catherine Roach, Clayton Cubitt, climate change, climate crisis, climate destabilization, climate justice, commercial advertising, connection, consent, consumerism, culture, Cupid Chastised, environmentalism, erotic, erotic art, erotic massage, erotica, Escape Into Meaning, ethical nonmonogamy, ethical polyamory, ethics, Evan Puschak, exploration, fulfillment, global warming, Good Sex, happiness, hedonism, human connection, human sexuality, Hysterical Literature, I'll Read What She's Reading, If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal, Jerry Seinfeld, joy, Justin Gregg, kink, kinky, materialism, morality, Nona Willis Aronowitz, nonmonogamy, normal, normalize, pleasure, Pleasure Activism, polyamory, purchasing, reduce consumerism, reduce consumption, relationships, responsible hedonism, romance, sex, sexual desire, sexual exploration, sexual fulfillment, sexual relationships, sexuality, subverted sexual desire, Toni Bentley
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On urgency and gender-affirming medical care.
Sometimes, young people are right to be infuriated by our lack of urgency.
access to medical care, age discrimination, Emily Bazelon, estrogen, gatekeepers, gatekeeping, gender, gender transition, gender-affirming medical care, hormone blockers, hormone therapy, LGBTIA+, medical care, medical transition, medicine, nonbinary, patience, psychology, puberty, puberty blockers, queer youth, restricting medical care, testosterone, The Battle Over Gender Therapy, transgender, transition, transitioning, urgency
Frank Brown Cloud 