The other day I went for a walk in the park near my apartment in Brooklyn, Prospect Park. It's a great, wild park and a blessing in the midst of the concrete and brownstone. About a half mile into the woods, I was just starting to sink into nature when...

How would things be different if people actually believed there was enough to go around? Until recently, it was a concept too profound -- and too far from our constant state of anxiety -- to imagine. So ingrained is the 'psychology of lack' in our consumerist culture that the idea...

What a relief: we're not in love with New anymore.

Several years ago, pre-recession, I started writing about a condition I was observing in the homes of Americans. A condition I saw reflected in pop culture, high culture, and the advertising that hawks it: Neophilia.

Neophilia is in...

Six years ago I went to hear a Cherokee man speak. At one point he described the sacred use of tobacco by Native Americans. Before first contact the plant was considered a medicine, and the way it was harvested reflected the reverence people had for its powers.

A medicine...

Last Monday I exited the subway at Hunter College in Manhattan. It was orientation day for the new students and the plaza outside the administrative office was packed with fresh-faced kids. In the middle of the action--geographically, if not topically--was an ugly, flimsy, synthetic blue tent emblazoned with the Chase...

On my way to work this morning I pulled up on my bike beside a man wearing a t-shirt displaying a quote. The strap of his messenger bag fell across the first word leaving me with this: "________ (strap) is more abstract than reality." For the duration of the light...

In March 2006, New York magazine published a story called "Up With Grups." The term "grup," borrowed from a Star Trek episode, was used in the article to describe grownups (Gen X leading the charge) stuck on the precipice of adulthood. Having actively rejected the version of adulthood demonstrated by...

I've been noticing a trend in conversations with consumers. There's a growing awareness that our media diets are killing us, and an accompanying resistance to do anything about it.

Young people complain about the pressure to post, "Do I really have to expose my entire adolescence to the public?"...