The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal is perhaps best known for Pascal’s Wager which, in the first formal use of decision theory, argued that believing in God is the most pragmatic decision. But it seems the French thinker also had a knack for...

  Al Herpin of Trenton, New Jersey, died on January 3, 1947. He was 94. Herpin spent a large chunk of his adult life making a peculiar claim: that he never slept. It’s unclear whether Herpin had a sleep disorder...

  I have conflicting thoughts about letting go of the past and repressing negative feelings. Does documenting our bad experiences in personal writing, a diary, or poetry actually help us in the long run? ~ Dee, US      ...

  Every time my brother crosses the Sagamore Bridge from mainland Massachusetts to Cape Cod, we all know where he’s headed: a sandy spot off an ocean road on the Nantucket Sound, home to the little beach club my family...

  Eight years ago my husband and I gave away pretty much all that we owned and headed off on a year and a half of travel round the world. This was the third time in my life that I...

I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about a lonely old age. Closing in on my 61st birthday, eight years into a very happy marriage, I’ve got a wife, two teenage stepkids, an older daughter by an ex, a...

It was about three years ago, as I recall, that a fellow called into my radio/TV program to suggest that a great way to slow aging and normalize weight was an intermittent fasting program called the 5:2 diet. It involved...

  Our experience of time is changing. For the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the early 21st century has left us ‘whizzing without a direction’. Our world is shaped by the restless, disorienting rhythms of near-term deliverables, social media impression counts, technological obsolescence, shallow...

  While navigating the treacherous world of dating, the concept of “attachment theory” often crops up. You can identify your own attachment style by taking online quizzes like those used to identify the Enneagram or the Myers-Briggs personality types. Unlike those quizzes, however, the...

  The renowned Polish piano duo Marek and Wacek didn’t use sheet music when playing live concerts. And yet onstage the pair appeared perfectly in sync. On adjacent pianos, they playfully picked up various musical themes, blended classical music with...

  We tend to position work against a series of opposites. Some of these are lauded, or at least tolerated: leisure, play, meditation, contemplation, rest. But one of the antonyms of work is, in most accounts, something of more dubious...

    Many of us watch the swirling colors of rustling autumn leaves without thinking much about listening to its pink noise; gaze at the majestic roll of ocean waves or the cascading beauty of a waterfall without considering a...

  I remember the German toilets. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why they manufactured them the way they did. From the toilets in the trains to the toilets in the older houses to the toilets in many...

  When Amrita Chavan boarded her plane in Mumbai, India, grief was the last thing on her mind. This was a new beginning. She was 19, bound for Canada, the first of her family to go abroad to pursue higher...

  Two ideas feature at the core of all quest stories: these are the Abyss and the World Journey. The Abyss is one of humanity’s oldest and most tenacious ideas that has been used for millennia to describe a place...

  If you’re like most people, you enjoy opening your dryer door and removing clothes, sheets and kitchen towels that have a fresh, clean scent. And on days you forgot to take out the garbage, you’d probably prefer to never...

  Anya Hindmarch launched her first company as a teenager. At 53, she is an award-winning fashion designer with five children, a successful business and a CBE. One of those types. Which is why it is cheering that the secret...

A global mental health crisis is on the horizon — dementia. It is a condition that can be caused by a number of diseases that gradually destroy nerve cells and damage the brain, resulting in a decline in cognitive functions...