Big Ideas
Here you will discover a showcase of contemporary intellectual articles and subjects that shape overarching themes facing our world and challenge our individual perceptions and preconceived notions. Keep reading to discover topics ranging across all fields of human experiential existence and beyond.



What’s a Manuel Ferreira? Book Excerpt from The Prison Lady
Phyllis Taylor is the author of The Prison Lady, a memoir of her journey alongside prisoners. The following is an excerpt from her book. By 45, Manny, a great-looking Portuguese career criminal, had spent two dimes (ten year sentences) in the Kingston Pen. He was fond of boasting that

What’s a Manuel Ferreira? Book Excerpt from The Prison Lady
Phyllis Taylor is the author of The Prison Lady, a memoir of her journey alongside prisoners. The following is an excerpt from her book. By 45, Manny, a great-looking Portuguese career criminal, had spent two dimes (ten year sentences) in the Kingston Pen. He was fond of boasting that

I Wish my Doll had Been Made of Metal: The Heartbreak of the Lahaina Inferno (Essay)
By Bruce Farrell Rosen, One of my favorite places in all the world was Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. I first travelled there in the summer of

The Synagogue at the End of the World (Memoir)
(Note to reader: the following is taken from a work in progress, a blended memoir about contemporary Jewish identity and the legacy of the Holocaust.

Simon Wiesenthal, meet Henry Morgentaler (Column)
By Leah Eichler, I can’t recall exactly what inspired me, in the late 1990s, to send that fax (a fax!) to Simon Weisenthal’s office in

Shell Game
By Jacob Austin, The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is hosting a traveling exhibit called Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art.

I Loved Milan Kundera in Part Because His Pain was Familiar (Column)
By Leah Eichler, Milan Kundera died this week at age 94 and the free flow of obituaries reminded me of how enamoured I was with

The Lottery Taught Us That the World Can Be a Scary Place (Column)
By Leah Eichler, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery first appeared in print in The New Yorker in the June 26, 1948 issue and according to legend,

The Titan and the Audacity of an Instagrammable Life (Column)
By Leah Eichler, It’s been almost a week since the wreckage from the Titan, the doomed submersible bent on giving its wealthy passengers a close-up

What Would Jane Do? My Sister Talks to Dogs — A Lot
Dear Jane, My sister finds something wrong with everything, complaining constantly. She also expects me to visit her at home and tolerate her dogs barking at

The Village at the End of the World (Column)
By Leah Eichler, I just finished the searing book of short stories by Mikołaj Grynberg called “I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One
Here you will discover a showcase of contemporary intellectual articles and subjects that shape overarching themes facing our world and challenge our individual perceptions and preconceived notions. Keep reading to discover topics ranging across all fields of human experiential existence and beyond.