GAL BECKERMAN

While the brazen and riotous actions that hallmark revolutionary change seem to get the most attention from the voice of history, their more subtle and pensive precursors are largely neglected. Gal Beckerman’s The Quiet Before documents the seemingly less significant environments and conditions that incubate the ideas underpinning revolutionary movements while arguing that these important spaces may be starting to atrophy.

JED PERL

Although primarily focused on art and politics, Jed Perl’s Authority and Freedom reveals something fundamental about the human project. Perl’s book demonstrates how the tension between opposites—the understood and the unrecognized, the stable and the evolving, the simple and the complex—is the beating heart behind artistic expression and civilization itself.

MATTHEW COBB

It’s easy to underestimate just how much metaphors shape the way we think. Metaphors can push our understanding forward by bridging the known and unknown, but can also limit our perspective if the analogy is flawed. In The Idea of the Brain, Matthew Cobb walks us through the history of Neuroscience comparing the shifting analogies we’ve used to conceptualize the organ in our heads. It’s both an enjoyable disciplinary history and a creative meditation on a usually unremarked aspect of our cognition.

ON SCRIPT

Garrick Allen, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism (Theology & Religious Studies) at the University of Glasgow, discusses the concept of “paratext” in biblical manuscripts and the larger paleographic tradition. This was my first introduction to the concept of paratextuality—how layouts, titles, footnotes, etc., color the primary text. Allen does a great job making the topic accessible to laypersons throughout the interview.

ASPEN IDEAS TO GO

Beau Lotto discusses the power of beauty in design and everyday experience. As a neuroscientist, his lab tries to assess both the biology and the psychology behind moments of awe, arguing for its importance in both work and personal transformation. It’s easy to dismiss beauty as an indulgence or luxury; Lotto tries to convince us of its practical utility in the moments we might not expect it to matter.

AESTHETICS MASTERY

Dr.Tim Pearce, a practicing plastic surgeon, along with his wife, Melinda, discuss the odd grey area between customer preference and medical standards in their field. The topic is a good example of the ethical tension often found in aesthetics (and other areas) between wants and needs. Is a plastic surgeon closer to a tattoo artist who gives a customer what they want or to a physician bound to give a patient what they need?

RALSTON COLLEGE

Gregg Hurwitz gives an interview for a group of students at Ralston College, responding to questions at the intersection of story, psychoanalysis, artistic praxis, and self-actualization. Hurwitz’s impressively ranged professional experience and eclectic interests contribute greatly to the value of his perspectives and his advice will resonate with anyone pursuing work in the arts.

LERA BORODITSKY

Those who’ve seen the 2016 film Arrival may already be familiar with this concept. Linguistic Relativity (sometimes referred to as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) proposes a connection between our cultural lexicon and our process of thought. Linguist Lera Boroditsky presents some of her team’s research from different cultures and languages around the world exploring this connection.

JOHNATHAN BI

Today, scientists and philosophers seem a world away from the business or political elite. The caricature of the specialist intellectual is now almost in stark contrast with those in high political positions. Johnathan Bi and classicist Katharina Volk discuss the period of Greco-Roman history when the stereotype of political ruler and pensive scholar were fused, focusing primarily on the lives of Caesar and Cicero.