The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

Steve Jobs on Working with Legendary Designer Paul Rand
Steve Jobs on Working with Legendary Designer Paul Rand

A brave assault on the paradox of choice, or why the best option is the only option.

read article

Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009
Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009

A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation from culture’s collective brain.

read article

The Happiness Project: Gretchen Rubin Spends a Year in Pursuit
The Happiness Project: Gretchen Rubin Spends a Year in Pursuit

A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation from culture’s collective brain.

read article

Music Meets Philosophy: The Happiness Project
Music Meets Philosophy: The Happiness Project

Neighborly wisdom, music innovation, and the extraordinariness of ordinary human speech.

read article

Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought
Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought

Dusty phones, giant chandeliers, and a post-modern Christmas tree that tweets.

read article

Actions Speak Loudest
Actions Speak Loudest

What Jimmy Carter and Mia Hamm have in common, or how to kick-start a decade of betterment.

read article

Tom Waits Reads “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski
Tom Waits Reads “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski

On finding light in darkness, knowing chances and the ownership of life.

read article

The Moment Jars
The Moment Jars

A timecapsule of human existence, or what childbirth and a moose have in common.

read article

Gift Guide Part 3: Free
Gift Guide Part 3: Free

DIY goodness, intellectual enrichment, and how to go cheap without being cheap.

read article

A Stop-Motion Treat from BBC Radio 1
A Stop-Motion Treat from BBC Radio 1

42,000 antidotes to anonymity, or how to close the feedback loop by opening up the silo.

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)