Archive - Meaning Lab

Decisions do furnish a life

What Henry James shows us about rationality and its consequences

Dec 13, 2024 •

The Meaning Effect

Nathan Hill rebrands placebos in his novel “Wellness”

Dec 6, 2024 •

November 2024

Bad is stronger than good

Positive emotions don’t drive the plot. Negative ones do.

Nov 29, 2024 •

November 2023

#108: Humanism and the conversation of the ages (feat. Sarah Bakewell)

The latest book from the author of At The Existentialist Café surveys seven hundred years of humanist thought.

Nov 14, 2023 •

29:44

October 2023

In the Land of Happiness

Bhutan has its own national theory of happiness. How cool is that?

Oct 27, 2023 •

The Man Behind the Machine

A review of Benjamín Labatut's historical novel of ideas, The Maniac.

Oct 23, 2023 •

What if science moved faster, not slower?

A lot of researchers think the academic system requires them to work too quickly. Maybe they have it backwards.

Oct 20, 2023 •

Wait! I think Michael Lewis is right.

An author should be judged on whether they deliver on their promise. Contrary to what everyone else claims, Lewis did what he said he would.

Oct 16, 2023 •

Great, AI can write essays. Can we stop asking students to do useless writing assignments?

We were never that good at teaching the fundamentals of writing to begin with. This is an opportunity to rethink them.

Oct 13, 2023 •

Is culture the key to AI's next big breakthrough?

The field of artificial intelligence has often used what we know about human intelligence as a template for designing its systems. But for the most…

Oct 11, 2023 •

April 2023

#107: How a really good travel writer approaches her experiences abroad—and at home (feat. Erika Fatland)

Comfort, discomfort, curiosity, and surprise: Erika Fatland goes through them all in her effort to understand other people and where they live.

Apr 25, 2023 •

1:00:52

The biggest recent improvement I've made for an increased sense of meaning

Apr 21, 2023 •

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