Mind Field VOICES
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
The book, the writer & the free speech debate: Charged afterlife of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses
August 20, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
In the first scene of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, two men fall out of the sky, from a terrorist-bombed airplane – Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha. One of them acquires a halo, and the…
August 20, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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Neoliberals & our troubled world: As a big idea fractures, what’s coming next?
August 13, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
The success of any political and economic order depends on how natural and common-sensical it seems. In today’s turbulent world, we see the cracks in a three-decade-old system – neoliberalism – that took shape in…
August 13, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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How you feel hinges on where you belong: Emotions depend on the culture that shapes us
August 6, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and anger are hardwired in all humans, the social psychologist Batja Mesquita used to think. She no longer believes this. Her book, Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions, shows how our culture and language…
August 6, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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Why most of us believe in god(s): People are neurally predisposed to mysticism
July 30, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Religion is difficult to formally define, but it’s something humans believe and recognise, says anthropologist Robin Dunbar in How Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures. It is universal. There’s barely a culture that doesn’t have…
July 30, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Rules promise order but do they deliver?: Perfect orderliness is a mirage
July 23, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Daily living is a mesh of rules. From playing a game to following a recipe, from the state’s regulations, mathematical principles to natural laws, these codes structure almost every human interaction. Rules: A Short History of…
July 23, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
A photo from 13 billion years ago: Telescopes help us know ourselves better
July 16, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Are they stars? Actually, they are galaxies! After Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope’s first deep-field image (see photo) was unveiled at a White House event on Monday, it wasn’t easy to wrap our heads around…
July 16, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
When women spoke the plane truth and won: Stewardesses and airlines’ sexism
July 9, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
As India’s newest airline Akasa gets set to soar, its gender-neutral uniforms have created much buzz; all flight attendants will wear pants and comfortable shoes. But this gender equality is not a simple fact anywhere…
July 9, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
How the American right targeted liberalism: A story of money, power and religion
July 2, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Roe vs Wade judgment is overturned in the US and Republicans are delighted. But when the judgment came in 1973, Republicans did not rise up in outrage. In mid-century America, a greater percentage of Republican…
July 2, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
It’s not bad being sad, it makes us better: Wellbeing is not perfect happiness
June 25, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Why is ‘loser’ one of the most contemptuous things we can say to each other, even though loss is universal and inevitable? Melancholy is seen as ‘negativity’, it is suppressed and pushed away. Vigour, cheer…
June 25, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Crack a joke and make work better: Why offices need a lot more humour
June 18, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Whether or not you’ve heard of the humour cliff, you’ve probably experienced it: The frequency with which we laugh or smile plummets around age 23. Children laugh all the time, but being an adult involves…
June 18, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
In giving, what are the rich taking?: How philanthropy’s billions can also do harm
June 11, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Kindness makes the world go round; every year, billions of dollars flow to non-profit organisations, foundations, government agencies and individuals. This makes the world a better place, we think. Not so fast, says political theorist…
June 11, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
You are a cultist, everybody is: A podcast about knowing when it’s time to break free
June 4, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Group affiliations make up the scaffolding upon which we build our lives, writes linguist Amanda Montell in her 2021 book Cultish. She also co-hosts the Sounds Like A Cult podcast with Isabela Medina, a stand-up…
June 4, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
More is more, but less is better
May 28, 2022, 2:21 PM IST
Humans are wired by biology, psychology and culture to seek and do more, but it can be more rewarding to go in the other direction, argues a book called by . Why is it that we make…
May 28, 2022, 2:21 PM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
More is more, but less is better: Subtraction will allow us to improve our lives and societies
May 28, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Humans are wired by biology, psychology and culture to seek and do more, but it can be more rewarding to go in the other direction, argues a book called Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less…
May 28, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Did one Cook spoil Jobs’s creative broth? Apple’s m-cap is $3 trillion, but where is its soul?
May 21, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
When Steve Jobs died in 2011, Apple without him seemed impossible to imagine. But a decade on, under Tim Cook, Apple’s market value has risen more than eightfold to around $3 trillion. But this success…
May 21, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Aren’t our many pasts enchanting?: Chatting about history like it was never taught in school
May 14, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Christmas. Pompeii. Aztecs. The East India Company. Ancient Olympics. Sparta. Nuclear Weapons. 9/11. Dinosaurs. Rasputin. Cricket. Oil: Making of the Modern World. Birth of the Railways. Disease vs the rise of civilisation. Vikings and the…
May 14, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
How high can our cities go? Why we crave skyscrapers, what it takes to build them
May 7, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
“The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it” – so said the American architect Louis Sullivan in the late 19th century, when skyscrapers…
May 7, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Radical ideas for a less unequal world: Piketty’s new thesis is on democratic socialism
April 30, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
No matter how unjust the world seems, economist Thomas Piketty shows us how much better it is than 1950 or 1900, which were in turn better than 1850 or 1790. A Brief History of Equality…
April 30, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
How shame works is a real shame: Internet & the industry of scapegoating
April 23, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
Shame is a terribly effective emotion. All societies use it to draw lines, to reinforce norms and taboos. But in today’s digitally connected world, shame has gone off the rails, says The Shame Machine: Who…
April 23, 2022, 2:10 AM IST
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FROM TOI PRINT EDITION
Britain’s evil empire & whitewashed history: Liberalism was a myth, imperial project was brutal
April 16, 2022, 2:05 AM IST
What was the British empire? To the majority of Britons even today, it is something to be proud of, a force of progress, decency and rule of law around the world, despite the occasional excesses…
April 16, 2022, 2:05 AM IST
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