A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader – a collection of original letters to children about why we read and how books shape our character by 121 of the most interesting people in our world, each illustrated by a great children’s book artist. Contributions by Jane Goodall, Yo-Yo Ma, Jacqueline Woodson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mary Oliver, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth Gilbert, Shonda Rhimes, Richard Branson, Anne Lamott, David Byrne, Marina Abramović, Judy Blume, and other remarkable humans living inspired and inspiring lives.
Our world, and the worlds around and within it, is aflame with shades of brilliance we cannot fathom — and is far more vibrant, far more holy, than we could ever imagine.
How to Be a Good Creature — naturalist Sy Montgomery, one of the most poetic science writers of our time, on what 13 animals taught her about love, forgiveness, and the heart of our humanity.
“Science cannot belong only to scientists — it’s part of how we understand ourselves and the world. It’s for everybody.”
Astrophysicist Janna Levin, Director of Science at Pioneer Works, reflects on four years of the wildly popular free series Scientific Controversiesand Pioneer Works’ broader mission to change the world by bringing people together around the arts and sciences, into a crucible for new ideas.
Ideas, written ideas, are special. They are the way we transmit our stories … from one generation to the next. If we lose them, we lose our shared history. We lose much of what makes us human.
Did you know that all six basic tea types come from a single plant, Camellia sinensis? Or that the tea bag was invented by accident? Or that tea is both a mental stimulant and an anxiety reducer, and the calculus of caffeine in it is quite complex? All this and more in the lovely Little Tea Book – an illustrated field guide to the art, science, and joy of tea. (Art by, of course, Wendy MacNaughton.)
Everything belonging to the tree is in this: its form and structure, its colours and chemical composition, its intercourse with the elements and with the stars, are all present in a single whole.
The tree is no impression, no play of my imagination, no value depending on my mood; but it is bodied over against me and has to do with me, as I with it — only in a different way.
Let no attempt be made to sap the strength from the meaning of the relation: relation is mutual.
Consider the Tree — philosopher Martin Buber on the discipline of not objectifying and the difficult art of seeing others as they are, not as they are to us.
Scientists convert plasma waves into sound to record the “auroral hiss” of Saturn. Best thing since the landmark recording of two black holes colliding to produce a gravitational wave.
Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads Maya Angelou’s prescient humanist poem, which flew to space. Find the poem text and the story of how Carl Sagan inspired it here.
The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself… Most people remain all of their lives in a stupor. The point of being an artist is that you may live.
After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines…
“A Brave and Startling Truth” – Maya Angelou’s stunning humanist poem inspired by Carl Sagan and the Voyager, inverting the telescope to mirror humanity back to itself with a beautiful message so very timely today.
Hear astrophysicist Janna Levin’s sublime reading of the poem here.
