Category Archives: Books
The Ends of the World
You might think a 290-page deep dive into mass extinction would be the most depressing book ever. But The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen is … Continue reading
Under a White Sky
Whether you believe that God gave man dominion “over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” or that humans have spent the last two hundred thousand years or so winning the Darwinian race, there’s … Continue reading
The Climate Book
Climate change is happening now. Record-setting heatwaves, devastating forest fires, intense tropical storms and extreme flooding are no longer distant predictions, they’re daily events. In The Climate Book, Swedish environmental activist Geta Thunberg has gathered the expertise of over 100 … Continue reading
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again
Do you have trouble focusing these days? Are you getting interrupted by so many notifications, beeps and pings that you can’t concentrate on anything? Are you reaching for your phone every two minutes to check for the latest updates, likes … Continue reading
The Reading Crisis
Book bans in the US have sunk to new depths of stupidity. In May, Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb, which she read aloud to the whole country at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, was banned from a Florida … Continue reading
Introduction to Modern Climate Change
Introduction to Modern Climate Change is a college level textbook aimed at both science and non-science majors. Don’t let that put you off. Anyone with basic high school algebra and chemistry can read this book and learn an incredible amount. … Continue reading
Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction
The centuries-long rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge Universities isn’t limited to just boat races and rugby matches. Both esteemed universities have recently published updated versions of their introductory books on climate change. I’ve read and reviewed a number of … Continue reading
God, Human, Animal, Machine
A chatbot called ChatGPT, released last year by OpenAI, has brought new intensity to the controversy about artificial intelligence. If you haven’t used ChatGPT yet, I encourage you to try it. I’ve included some helpful links at the end of … Continue reading
Hidden Figures
I heard about the movie Hidden Figures a few years ago but never saw it. Recently, the inscrutable algorithms at Instagram started dropping clips from the movie in my feed. I’ve no idea why but I’m grateful. They got me … Continue reading
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