Last week, science did what science does best: it resisted the story that’s most exciting, or most comforting, in favor of the one that’s true. In late 2017, an interstellar object — dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “scout” — passed through our solar system and left the scientific community baffled by…

The folly of trying to schedule a spiritual epiphany — As I write this, I’m living — but barely breathing — under the tyranny of a stranger’s farts. I’m trapped in a plane, at cruising altitude, typing on my phone with angry, bewildered little thumbs as I fly home from a trip I hoped would yield a more elegant essay…

In simplicity, you may find salvation. — When a baby is born, on average, its mother is three-and-a-half times its height. If that ratio were to hold as we grow up, many of our mothers would now be over two stories tall, with hands two feet long. Perhaps you’re wondering why this is relevant. I believe a…

Will you or won’t you? The answer says a lot. — Say I bring you to a room and point to a door called the Door to Everlasting Bliss. You have the option to walk through the door or decline. If you walk through the door, your body and consciousness will collapse into a hot pink string of energy and go…

Have we ceded more ground to phones than we think? — I’ve snowboarded a few dozen times in my life. I can stay up, that’s about it. The last time I went, I got a zap of courage and decided to try a jump. …

A call to knowledge workers, blink twice if you’re alive. — Think of a rock god, flung backward under his guitar as it points to the sky. Think of a basketball star, chin hammered outward, flying over opponents toward the rim. Think of a ballerina, her lithe limbs like fireworks bursting in air. Three bodies rapturously expressed, these are the shapes…

Without question, the tone in Reddit’s infamous WallStreetBets community is juvenile and offensive. Users refer to themselves as “retards” and “autists,” call anyone who doesn’t share their blind optimism a “gay bear,” and hardly go a minute without referring to their dicks and balls. When a stock price rises, their…

A case for spirituality that’s less intimidating and more accessible. — I want to make spirituality more accessible. Specifically, I want to help people adopt spiritual perspectives and spiritual practices that are practical and rational. Everything you can think of — every cultural mechanism, every primal impulse, every profundity, every mundanity, every birth and death, every breath and blink, plays out…