The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from 2015

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: Harvard Physicist Lisa Randall on the Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: Harvard Physicist Lisa Randall on the Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe

A thrilling cosmological detective story of how the universe evolved and what made our very existence possible.

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How the Clouds Got Their Names
How the Clouds Got Their Names

How a boy who spent his schooldays staring out the classroom window shaped the science of the skies.

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The Intelligence of Emotions: Philosopher Martha Nussbaum on How Storytelling Rewires Us and Why Befriending Our Neediness Is Essential for Happiness
The Intelligence of Emotions: Philosopher Martha Nussbaum on How Storytelling Rewires Us and Why Befriending Our Neediness Is Essential for Happiness

“Emotions are not just the fuel that powers the psychological mechanism of a reasoning creature, they are parts, highly complex and messy parts, of this creature’s reasoning itself.”

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The Silent Friends: A Beautiful Short Film Celebrating Our Abiding Bond with Trees
The Silent Friends: A Beautiful Short Film Celebrating Our Abiding Bond with Trees

A cinematic ode to our oldest living companions.

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James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Religion
James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Religion

“If any particular discipline … does not become a matter of your personal honor, your private convictions, then it’s simply a cloak which you can wear or throw off.”

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The Art of Self-Culture and the Crucial Difference Between Being Educated and Being Cultured: John Cowper Powys’s Forgotten Wisdom from 1929
The Art of Self-Culture and the Crucial Difference Between Being Educated and Being Cultured: John Cowper Powys’s Forgotten Wisdom from 1929

“The art of self-culture begins with a deeper awareness … of the marvel of our being alive at all; alive in a world as startling and mysterious, as lovely and horrible, as the one we live in.”

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Oliver Sacks on Gratitude, the Measure of Living, and the Dignity of Dying
Oliver Sacks on Gratitude, the Measure of Living, and the Dignity of Dying

“I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

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We’re Breaking Up: Rebecca Solnit on How Modern Noncommunication Is Changing Our Experience of Time, Solitude, and Communion
We’re Breaking Up: Rebecca Solnit on How Modern Noncommunication Is Changing Our Experience of Time, Solitude, and Communion

“Previous technologies have expanded communication. But the last round may be contracting it.”

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Tchaikovsky on Depression and Finding Beauty Amid the Wreckage of the Soul
Tchaikovsky on Depression and Finding Beauty Amid the Wreckage of the Soul

“Life is beautiful in spite of everything! … There are many thorns, but the roses are there too.”

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Marcus Aurelius on Mortality and the Key to Living Fully
Marcus Aurelius on Mortality and the Key to Living Fully

“The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.”

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