What a Secular Monument Looks Like
What do war memorials look like and what do they symbolize? What shapes do they take, and whom do they represent? AS PHYSICAL STRUCTURES erected to celebrate armed conflicts, war memorials in the modern era... Read More
What Are We Doing about Climate Change? Obstacles, Opportunities, and Legislative Action
The Threat OVER SEVEN BILLION human beings are dumping more than thirty gigatons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere every year. Despite being a small fraction of the gasses that compose Earth’s atmosphere,... Read More
From the Slaughter Vonnegut on War and the Book That Made Him Famous
KURT VONNEGUT, age twenty-two, was in a meat locker deep underground with several dozen fellow American prisoners of war, a few guards, and scores of dressed animal cadavers. Above, a beautiful German city was destroyed... Read More
Lots of Love: Exploring Polyamory in Portland
FROM HBO’s popular polygamist drama Big Love to Showtime’s two-season reality show Polyamory: Married & Dating, tales of copulating outside of coupledom offer a titillating yet often forbidden universe—an apple left unbitten on the tree... Read More
BOOK EXCERPT | Nick Meets Earl
The following is an adapted excerpt from The Church of Exemptions: A Farce with Footnotes by Luis Granados (Humanist Press, February 25, 2019). The story follows Nick Fratelli, a young, underachieving government lawyer with an... Read More
If Social Media Is Making Us Worse, Can We Make It Better?
SOCIAL MEDIA IS BAD. It takes your worst parts—your vanity, your ignorance, your credulity—and makes them even worse. It weakens your ability to focus. It distracts you while you drive. It makes you hate people... Read More
Can Humanism Overcome Hate?
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, a city once known for steel mills, bootlegging, and brawls, has earned the right to feel proud again. Among its points of pride has been a declining homicide rate: in 2017 the number... Read More