Chris Stedman's Blog, page 5
March 10, 2015
Endangered Tuna and Tomato Sushi at The Daily Beast
My latest for The Daily Beast went up this morning. I had the pleasure to meet James Corwell, a certified master chef and founder of Tomato Sushi, at a recent vegan conference I spoke at. I interviewed him and discussed some of the issues that lead him to seek a plant-based alternative to delicious staples in Japanese [Read More...]
March 4, 2015
Help support “Scalawag,” a new magazine for Southern politics and culture
If you had to make a list of “things I care about right now,” near the top would definitely be “good writing” and “the American South.” I’ve been living in Durham, NC and working at Duke University for almost three years, and it’s been a fantastic place to make my home. I have a steady [Read More...]
February 27, 2015
Robert Wright: Is ISIS Islamic, and does it matter?
The New Yorker published a fantastic essay this morning by Robert Wright, a journalist and author of “The Evolution of God,” on a recent trend to emphasize ISIS’s Islamic roots. He begins: Last week, the New York Times columnist Roger Cohen published a piece under the headline “Islam and the West at War.” Something seemed amiss here. Surely [Read More...]
February 26, 2015
Humanism at Yale Week
The Yale Humanist Community, directed by NPS founder Chris Stedman, just announced a week of panels, trainings, discussions, and service projects to spark conversation and engagement with Humanism in and around the Yale community–and beyond. The second annual Humanism at Yale week will be from April 5 – 12 in New Haven, CT, and will explore [Read More...]
February 25, 2015
Daniel Loxton on the future of skepticism
Daniel Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic and friend of the blog, recently spoke to io9 about the future of the skeptic movement. I personally don’t associate much with the skeptic movement, but am glad to have people like Daniel involved. I feel like many people might not realize that a person can be a skeptic and have a sense of [Read More...]
February 18, 2015
The three marks of secular Lent
There are three marks to the traditional Catholic Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. When we think of Lent, we typically tend to focus on the fasting—giving up sweets, coffee, animal products, or whatever else. Leah Libresco at the Catholic Channel explains: Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent — the season of preparation for [Read More...]
Atheist lent, why it matters, and also what should I (and maybe you, if you’d like) give up?
It wasn’t until I started studying psychology that I began to see religion from less of a partisan stance and more from a scientific one. It’s too easy to be stuck in an “atheism good, religion bad” mentality, but I started to see religion in functional terms once I was out. Why do religions promote the beliefs they do? [Read More...]
February 17, 2015
Vox’s primer on microaggressions
Microaggressions have been getting more attention lately, and Vox, modern home of explanatory journalism, has put together a helpful primer on the topic. Jenée Desmond-Harris writes: Microaggressions are more than just insults, insensitive comments, or generalized jerky behavior. They’re something very specific: the kinds of remarks, questions, or actions that are painful because they have to do [Read More...]
February 16, 2015
Sufjan Stevens releases new single, “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”
The first single from Carrie & Lowell, Sufjan Steven’s forthcoming album and his first non-Christmas release since 2010, was released this morning. You can listen to it below: Stevens has never been shy about the Christian influences in his music, and “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross” follows clearly in that tradition. Carrie & [Read More...]
The hidden wisdom of anxiety
Charlie Kurth, an assistant professor in philosophy at Washington University in St Louis, has a great essay at Aeon about the benefits of anxiety. He starts with some background: [J]ust how bad is anxiety, really? Is it just an unpleasant feeling to work through, or something worse? According to a very distinguished tradition, one that stretches [Read More...]
