Essays Health

A former CIA analyst draws on his experience combatting jihadi terror movements and the history of totalitarian regimes to show how citizens lose touch with reality. Some of history’s greatest empires have devolved into genocidal lunacy—often with shocking compliance from their own people...

U.G. Krishnamurti famously described enlightenment as a neurobiological state of being with no religious, psychological or mystical implications. He did not lecture, did not set up organizations, held no gatherings and professed to have no message for mankind. Known as the ‘anti-guru’, the...

A beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absence "[Flyn] captures the dread, sadness, and wonder of beholding the results of humanity's destructive impulse, and she arrives at a new appreciation of life, 'all the stranger and more valuable for its...

Acclaimed across the world, prescribed in over 100 universities and colleges, and included in part in The Century's Greatest Reportage (Ordfront, 2000), alongside the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Studs Terkel and John Reed, Everybody Loves a Good Drought is the established classic on rural...

“Both timeless and timely, this is a book of wisdom and wonder” (Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March), a deeply personal exploration of what can sustain us through our darkest moments. “What has fascinated and sustained me over these last few years has been the...

Learn how to leverage dark psychology and emotional manipulation techniques to get what you want out of people. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Dark Psychology and Manipulation, and learn about psychology and the mind.

Susan Orlean has a full-on phobia of flying - an epic inconvenience for an author on a national book tour. With her trademark curiosity, she decides to rewire her thinking through hypnosis. Along the way, Susan discovers a lot about the unconscious mind, suggestibility, Mesmer, Freud, today’s cutting-edge treatments, and the dulling power of a sonorous voice. Most of all, she learns what it takes to close her eyes, open them again at thirty thousand feet, and finally be able to exhale. And you can too.

Are you a Christian man looking to be free from your regular use of pornography? Shame and self-hatred are terrible motivators for transformation. There must be a better way to outgrow our unhealthy dependence on pornography. Religious communities often fall short engaging pornography in a meaningful way, quality resources are scarce. We must strip away the sexuality of our porn use, face the complexity of our own sexual development and stories head-on. We must get beneath to what is driving our hunger to use women as objects of our pleasure, and learn how to honor not objectify.

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A lively exploration of animal behavior in all its glorious complexity, whether in tiny wasps, lumbering elephants, or ourselves. For centuries, people have been returning to the same tired nature-versus-nurture debate...

Writer (and sometime housecleaner) Jennifer is twenty-three when her beloved father, Wallace, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. This catastrophic discovery sets off Anne Lamott's unexpectedly sweet and funny first novel, which is made dramatic not so much by Wallace's illness as by the emotional...

A richly-detailed real-life account of ancient tribal life and the fascinating role of Ayahuasca in the heart of the Amazon. Wizard of the Upper Amazon provides an insightful depiction of a South American tribal society at the turn of the 20th century. It delves into the captivating world of the...

From one of America's most celebrated psychiatrists, the book that has taught generations of healers why healing the sick is about more than just diagnosing their illness. Modern medicine treats sick patients like broken machines -- figure out what is physically wrong, fix it, and send the...

With stories that entertain as much as they inform, renowned evolutionist David Sloan Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution and shows how, when properly understood, they can illuminate the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to the nature of religion. What is...

Illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good,” from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies. People love what’s natural: it’s the best way to eat, the best way to parent, even the best way to...

"Powerfully insightful reading." —Kirkus Reviews How would you like to be judged for the rest of your life by the worst thing you’ve ever done? We all think we are compassionate just like we all think we are honest. But true compassion is not innate. Compassion for others, especially those...

A book to sweep you away from the shore, into a wild world of water, whale, storm, and starlight ― to experience what it’s like to sail for weeks at a time with life set to a new rhythm. As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales...

'A wonderful take on the chaos of the modern word' Louise O'Neill 'Carl has the rare gift of combining analytical clarity with maniacal vulnerability' Blindboy Boatclub In At Least It Looks Good From Space, journalist Carl Kinsella attempts to solve the great human mystery of why we are the way...

"The Greatest Story Ever ToldDispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins-the Pandavas and the Kouravas-but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters...

These essays are ultimately designed for long term members of 12 step fellowships to help them be better sponsors and to help them be of service to others without allowing it to become their whole identity. In recovery, we get a chance to help others, but, in attempting to do so, we end up making mistakes, and coming face to face with our own characters defects. Service to other is a chance for us to exercise our own personal demons.

From the co-author of Three Cups of Tea comes the inspiring story of two very different doctors—one from the United States, the other from Nepal—united in a common mission: to rid the world of preventable blindness. In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work...