The Secret of Comedy Really Is Timing
Did you hear the one about Hurricane Sandy? Did you find it hilarious? Tasteless? Or just lame? Newly published research concludes the answer depends in part on exactly when the joke reached your ear,...
View ArticleMasochism at the Movies: Historical Horrors With Alfred Hitchcock and Steve...
In 1904, at the age of five, Alfred Hitchcock found himself locked in an Essex prison cell. There is speculation that a bad report card was involved; all we know for sure is that the future master of...
View ArticleFacebook in the Face of Tragedy
Last week, the world watched the horror of the most recent terror attack at Charlie Hebdo unfold on social media. The attack, which aimed to spread fear and perhaps anti-Muslim prejudice across Europe,...
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A New Way to Commemorate Atrocity
In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera wrote that the constant flow of news about atrocity serves to erase itself: “Ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten.” How can memories of...
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Rebuilding After Tragedy
San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. (Photo: Public Domain)In the wake of natural disasters, an abundance of homes, buildings, communities, and cities are left in ruins, a crumbled version of their...
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My Brother Was Killed by al-Shabaab
Searching for reflection after a personal tragedy brought about by terrorism.By Brynne MorrisA Somali soldier stands guard next to the site where al-Shabaab militants carried out a suicide attack...
View ArticleEarthquakes Rock Central Italy
Dozens of people are dead, while buildings shook as far south as Rome. By Max Ufberg Editor’s Note — August 24, 2016: As of Wednesday morning, the death toll being reported by Italian media has climbed...
View ArticleContrary to Cliché, Misery May Inhibit Creativity
The tortured artist is a familiar archetype. But does misery really produce masterpieces? A 2016 study that examined the lives of three major classical composers suggests as much. But a new paper that...
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‘We Are Desperately in Need of Seeing Ourselves’: A Conversation With Nicola...
So Lucky, the new novel from Nicola Griffith, opens as a story about disability, identity, and discrimination. Then the murders begin. The protagonist Mara is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis right at...
View ArticleViewfinder: FBI Agents Respond to a Mass Shooting
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents monitor the scene near the Borderline Bar & Grill, where a mass shooting occurred, on November 8th, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, California. The post Viewfinder:...
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