In The Meaning of Your Life, social scientist and happiness expert Arthur Brooks examines why modern life can feel empty despite material progress and argues that cultural and technological shifts have made meaning harder to access. Drawing on science, philosophy, and faith traditions, Brooks outlines practical ways to cultivate purpose, deepen relationships, and orient one’s

El Paso is an extraordinary, can’t-look-away reported history; it uses deep research and dozens of new interviews to blow away the myth of this place, where Mexico’s Juarez and America’s El Paso intertwine. It charts the history of El Paso through five families. From the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Repatriation, to the shifting immigration laws

Attensity! is a rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention, with the tools we need to reclaim our humanity, by a group of writers, artists, and activists in the vanguard of the movement.   Chapter 1 Something is seriously wrong. It has to do with our ATTENTION, our essential ability to give our

Through magnetic storytelling and pop-culture deep dives, Lachi challenges mainstream views on disability and neurodivergence with humor and heart. Because visionaries with disabilities have always driven progress. The book features trailblazing figures like Senator Tammy Duckworth, Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte, Microsoft executive Jenny Lay-Flurrie, and so many more. Lachi even takes readers behind the

A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America.   Longlisted for the National Book Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award   5:00 You will surely forgive me if I begin

“To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth,” Rolling Stone has advised, “you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert.” From her National Magazine Award-winning series The Climate of Man to her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert’s work has shaped the way we think about the environment in the twenty-first century. Collected in Life on a Little-Known Planet are her most

A Harvard student from China discovers the fraught, hidden history of the Tiananmen Square massacre in this powerful novel of protest and suppression from the National Book Award–winning author.   1 In the fall of 2008, my sophomore year at Harvard, China’s premier came to visit and gave a speech. Urged by the officials of

From the celebrated writer J. Malcolm Garcia, a narrative nonfiction account of a forgotten Alabama neighborhood through intimate, tender, and gritty profiles of its people as they navigate immense loss and an unassailable determination to overcome their circumstances.   Overture December 2020. A friend calls and tells me about a feature story he saw on PBS about

The bestselling author of American Nations reveals how centuries-old regional differences have brought American democracy to the brink of collapse and presents a powerful story that can bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic.   Introduction Democratic collapses, like bankruptcies, happen gradually and then all at once. So do collapses of countries. Americans are experienc­ing what

From the national bestselling author of The Food Explorer comes the untold story of Alice Hamilton, a trailblazing doctor and public health activist who took on the booming auto industry—and the deadly invention of leaded gasoline, which would poison millions of people across America.   1 Alice Hamilton in 1915. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1919 For as long as

From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity—not just as a rallying cry, but as potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change. A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist   Introduction In 1969, an ambitious and zealous political operative named Kevin Phillips published a book

From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding America’s social fabric, her most personal and powerful work: a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown.   It was June 2023, and Silas James had just graduated from Urbana High School, forty-one years after I wore that