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Select a Category Monthly Roundup Series: Habits Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018

November 2020

November 08, 2020

My Latest Heavenly Patron

The month of November begins with the celebration of All Saints. Indeed, before the liturgical...

October 2020

October 23, 2020

Your Life Should Cause Cognitive Dissonance

"You will know the truth, and the truth will make you odd." This quip –...

September 2020

September 25, 2020

The End of Education

Is a college education worth it? Between rising costs of tuition and dubious outcomes of...

August 2020

August 15, 2020

Does Your Mind Extend Into the World?

“Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” You may never...

July 2020

July 06, 2020

The Dizzying Smallness of Life

Do you ever burn with a sense of disproportion? A feeling that your desires are...

June 2020

June 19, 2020

The Science of the Sacred Heart: Tender yet Metal

Today's feast is simultaneously the most tender and the most metal of Catholicism: The Solemnity...

June 15, 2020

Love and Longing in the Time of Coronavirus

Today, for the first time in three months, I paid a visit to Our Lord...

June 07, 2020

Weapons Against the Sin of Racism

Racism is evil, a particularly deep-rooted and damaging form of evil that haunts our nation's...

May 2020

May 14, 2020

Answering the Pope with Hidden Love

The Pope has asked us to devote this day to begging God that the pandemic...

May 14, 2020

Let Saint Benedict Lead You

As my regular readers will know, I spent last summer with Benedictine nuns at the...

May 03, 2020

Discerning the Voice of the Good Shepherd

We celebrate on this day both Good Shepherd Sunday and Vocations Sunday. The Church reminds...

April 2020

April 20, 2020

Don’t Waste This Time.

"I can’t wait for this to be over." In the month since the UK entered...

January 2020

January 12, 2020

10 Ways to be a Bad Catholic Neuroscientist

The most common question I am asked is “How do you reconcile your Catholic faith...

December 2019

December 20, 2019

The Science and Spirituality of Good Humor

I have the greatest housemates. Before my arrival I was nervous about housing, because I...

November 2019

November 27, 2019

Four British Gifts for Thanksgiving

I have two problems with how we celebrate Thanksgiving. First, we often treat it as...

November 07, 2019

You Could Die Anytime (When Breath Becomes Air)

Our culture fears anything related to death. We fear ageing, not merely out of distaste...

October 2019

October 31, 2019

You’re Not Made for the City

My daily commute here at Cambridge is glorious. Depending on the day of the week,...

October 29, 2019

Can Children Flourish in our Modern Society?

The news is filled with alarming statistics on child health and well-being. Rates of anxiety...

October 18, 2019

Is Most of Life Emptiness and Pain?

If you know me, you know that I like thinking about death. Not in a...

September 2019

September 30, 2019

Neuroscience Does (not?) Disprove Free Will

The idea that neuroscience disproves the existence of free will is prevalent in popular culture....

September 06, 2019

Does Mental Illness Make You Violent?

We are in the midst of an epidemic of gun violence in America. Every week...

August 2019

August 31, 2019

I’m back… with a speech!

Hello everyone, If you're a regular reader, you noticed that I took a long hiatus...

March 2019

March 25, 2019

Embracing Ascetic Discipline

In this season, many of us are likely practicing some form of asceticism. The word...

March 10, 2019

A Place for Women at the Table: Biomedical Research and Sex

Friday was International Women’s Day, a day that aims to end discrimination against women. This...

February 2019

February 28, 2019

A few recent finds

Here are four things that have challenged, informed, and fascinated me lately. 1. How Neuroscience...

February 19, 2019

Women’s Voices at the Vatican Summit

On Thursday, the Vatican is hosting a summit on preventing clergy sexual abuse. Presidents of...

February 13, 2019

Sam Harris’s Lazy Argument against the Self

“There is no place in the brain for a soul to be hiding.” I recently...

February 10, 2019

Lessons from a Juvenile Prison

I volunteer at a local juvenile detention facility. For several years now, I have run...

February 07, 2019

California Bishops on Healing Mental Illness

Mental illness is incredibly prevalent in the United States, affecting more than one in five...

February 03, 2019

On The Modern Prometheus

I recently re-read Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus for the first time in many years....