Reads by Maria Popova
Seashells and the Spiral of Wonder at the Intersection of Art and Science
“Seashells were money before coin, jewelry before gems, art before canvas… To stare into the spiral top of a whelk or cone shell is to see the swirl of the Milky Way.”
Cloud Chambers and Cosmic Rays: The Quest to Unravel One of the Most Dazzling Mysteries of the Universe
Silk, vapor, and the substance of life.
What We Keep in Loss: William Blake’s Stirring Letter to a Bereaved Father
“Our deceased friends are more really with us than when they were apparent to our mortal part.”
Chance, Choice, and the Avocado: The Strange Evolutionary and Creative History of Earth’s Most Nutritious Fruit
How a confused romancer that survived the Ice Age became a tropical sensation and took over the world.
The Bittersweet Story of the Real-Life Peaceful Bull Who Inspired Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson’s Ferdinand
A journey to the abyss between the real world and the ideal world, and a romp across our mightiest bridge between the two.
Bruce Springsteen on Surviving Depression and His Strategy for Living Through the Visitations of the Darkness
“If you can acknowledge it and you can relax with it a little bit, very often it shortens its duration.”
Carrots and the Roots of Kindness, from Leo and Sophia Tolstoy to Ross Gay
A lovely reminder that “kindness and kin have the same mother.”
The Third Thing: Poet Donald Hall on the Secret to Lasting Love
“Third things are essential to marriages, objects or practices or habits or arts or institutions or games or human beings that provide a site of joint rapture or contentment.”
Games People Play: The Revolutionary 1964 Model of Human Relationships That Changed How We (Mis)Understand Ourselves and Each Other
“Because there is so little opportunity for intimacy in daily life, and because some forms of intimacy (especially if intense) are psychologically impossible for most people, the bulk of the time in serious social life is taken up with playing games.”
ABOUT
CONTACT
SUPPORT
SUBSCRIBE
Newsletter
RSS
CONNECT
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr