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Friday March 31, 2017

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Do We Really Need To Speed Up Baseball?

March 31, 2017 • Major League Baseball is considering ways to shorten the game. But the problem baseball faces isn't the speed of the game: Players and spectators alike need to slow down, says blogger Alva Noë.

Thursday March 30, 2017

Could 'No Kill' For Shelter Cats And Dogs Be Policy By 2025?

Neonatal kittens at Best Friends Animal Society's kitten nursery. Best Friends Animal Society hide caption

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Best Friends Animal Society

Could 'No Kill' For Shelter Cats And Dogs Be Policy By 2025?

March 30, 2017 • Socializing newborn kittens and reframing the reputation of pit bull dogs is key to a new animal initiative aimed at saving 90 percent of animals in U.S. shelters, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.

Wednesday March 29, 2017

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Life And Mind At Dinner: An Allegory

March 29, 2017 • Blogger Marcelo Gleiser imagines a conversation between a geneticist, a Buddhist, a physicist, a psychologist, and a theologian about life and the future of humanity.

The Tahri That Binds: How A Sweet Rice Dish Connects A Woman To Her History

There are many rituals associated with the Hindu Sindh holiday Cheti Chand, which falls on March 29 this year. One that continues to hold meaning for the author is the consumption of tahri, or sweet rice, during langar, the communal meal at the end of the celebration. Pooja Makhijani for NPR hide caption

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Pooja Makhijani for NPR

The Salt

The Tahri That Binds: How A Sweet Rice Dish Connects A Woman To Her History

March 29, 2017 • Making the traditional foods of home on the holiday of Cheti Chand — which falls on March 29 this year — helps a member of the Hindu Sindhi diaspora feel less disjointed.

Tuesday March 28, 2017

Sci-Fi Show 'The Expanse' Preps Us For The Future

A scene from The Expanse, which takes place 200 years in the future when humanity has settled Mars, the asteroid belt and the moons of the giant planets. NBCUniversal hide caption

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NBCUniversal

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Sci-Fi Show 'The Expanse' Preps Us For The Future

March 28, 2017 • What is most remarkable about The Expanse, even into Season 2, is its realism; more than any other TV space-themed show, it gets the science right, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.

Monday March 27, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

A Day In The Life Of An Academic Mom

March 27, 2017 • Blogger Tania Lombrozo is a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley — and a mom. Here, she gives a window into what that's like day-to-day.

Sunday March 26, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Mind, Matter And Materialism

March 26, 2017 • We all have metaphysical commitments, but when it comes to quantum physics and what it tell us about matter and materialism, we must work to distinguish solid ground from swamp, says Adam Frank.

Saturday March 25, 2017

Keeping Calm In London, In Spite Of Terror

People lay floral tributes to the victims of the March 22 terror attack in Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament in central London. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Simon Says

Keeping Calm In London, In Spite Of Terror

March 25, 2017 • Soon after the terrorist attack in London, the Parliament's Twitter account posted a short message restoring business as usual. NPR's Scott Simon remembers another time Brits met terror with calm.

Keeping Calm In London, In Spite Of Terror

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Thursday March 23, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

A Cultural Moment For Polyamory

March 23, 2017 • Polyamory is sometimes called consensual non-monogamy, but anthropologist Barbara J. King found out it's more complicated than that.

Wednesday March 22, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Would You Become An Immortal Machine?

March 22, 2017 • The prospects can be either beatific or terrifying depending where you come from but, whatever your choice, transhumanism is here to stay, says blogger Marcelo Gleiser.

Tuesday March 21, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Are You Addicted To Your Smartphone?

March 21, 2017 • Behavioral addiction, especially to the new technologies so prevalent today, is the topic of Adam Alter's book Irresistible. Alva Noë proposes two criteria that may determine addiction to technology.

Monday March 20, 2017

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Is Happiness A Universal Human Right?

March 20, 2017 • In celebrating the International Day of Happiness on March 20, we might do well to examine rather than reaffirm our tacit assumptions about happiness and its pursuit, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo,

Saturday March 18, 2017

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Courtesy of WBUR

Dear Sugars

Ashamed, Confused And In The Closet

WBUR

March 18, 2017 • Dear Sugar Radio is a podcast offering "radical empathy" and advice for the lost, lonely and heartsick. Today the hosts hear from a gay man who is married to a woman and doesn't know what to do.

For Years, I've Been A Correspondent In China. This Month, I Became A Viral Star

A video of NPR Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn asking a question about a policy to expand the Beijing region got 5 million views on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. CCTV hide caption

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CCTV

Parallels

For Years, I've Been A Correspondent In China. This Month, I Became A Viral Star

March 18, 2017 • A video of NPR Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn asking a question about a policy to expand the Beijing region got millions of views on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. Here's why.

Living Among the Ruins In Aleppo, A Man Keeps Playing His Songs

Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, or Abu Omar, 70, smokes his pipe as he sits in his destroyed bedroom listening to music on his vinyl player, gramophone, in Aleppo's formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood. Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images

Simon Says

Living Among the Ruins In Aleppo, A Man Keeps Playing His Songs

March 18, 2017 • There is a photograph that's been seen around the world this week. It seems to hold both civilization and destruction in the same frame.

Living Among the Ruins In Aleppo, A Man Keeps Playing His Songs

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