The Last Word

November 30 – December 4, 2015 Cassie provides a flashback for every parent, remembering the ultra-marathon that is early infancy. Christie marks her birthdays by exercising the privilege of a healthy body and honoring those who didn’t get to live this long. Erik is a father! His birth story involves bribing a cop and rushing through […]

The Last Word

November 16-20, 2015 Guest Ramin Skibba predicts a rise of Persian science that will parallel sanctions relief. Helen takes a tour of a DC wastewater plant that has a new biosolids processing system. Craig sees “The Martian” and traces its story through a continuum of intellectual striving that was alive in the Paleolithic development of […]

In extremis

In April 2001, my cousin and I hitchhiked to Quebec City to register our dissent. Tens of thousands were gathered to protest the Free Trade Areas of the Americas Summit and we wanted to play our part for global social justice. Like many politically active young people before and since, I experienced what can happen […]

The Last Word

November 2 – 6, 2015 Our identities include our birth dates, says Sally. So what if you don’t have one? Helen walked the Cotswold Way and entered the liminal state of all pilgrims. How happy are clams, really, asks Cameron. Guest Nicholas Suntzeff reminisces about the old tensions between Chile and Bolivia, and how losses […]

30 seconds in the UAE

I let the children have a go first and then reach out a recently hennaed hand, palm up, to accept the flannel armband from Mounir. The whole thing suddenly seems a little flimsy. Are birds supposed to wobble? I’m a lot taller than those children, and my arm is accordingly further from the ground than the […]

The Last Word

October 19-23, 2015 Doctors think in narratives, not computerized drop down menus, says Ann. Let them be truly present in the examination room. On Helen’s morning walking commute, all kinds of stories are possible – growth, recovery, even a shared moment between a gourd and an ape. Craig’s quest for a portal to the Pleistocene […]

The Last Word

October 5 – 9, 2015 We look for water on Mars not just for scientific evidence of life, Craig says, but because our species is predisposed to look for water everywhere. Helen revisits her experience eating whale meat and exploring culinary taboos. Ann loves everything about her local restaurants but the cacophony that fills them. […]

The Last Word

September 21 – 25, 2015 According to John Locke, a man’s labor is his own, and so when it is embedded in the land he works, that land becomes his own. Guest Julie Rehmeyer contends the connection goes both ways – we belong to the land we tend. Abstruce Goose demonstrates the correct response to […]