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‘I Hope He Never Loses’
The Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya relationship has come a long way. Famously, it was their kickboxing rivalry that led to Pereira’s entire UFC career. The two faced off twice in the ring, with Pereira winning once via knockout and once via controversial decision. When Adesanya left kickboxing and became a UFC champion, he glibly […]
Bishop Verot (Fla.) reveals 2026 football schedule
Yes we know, the 2025 high school football season literally just ended, but when it comes to the prep gridiron, it never sleeps around the nation. One thing that is evident already is teams are getting a head start on putting together and even finalizing their schedules for the 2026 high school football season. It’s […]
Lions’ season ends as offense collapses against Vikings
The Detroit Lions had their season on the line, and when the moment arrived, the offense never showed up.
A Grip on Sports: Whenever you think about those folks who have to work Christmas Day, don't forget the athletes who do so to entertain us
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, yes. Thinking about gifts, Roberto Duran and the weekend’s TV schedule. Eclectic? Sure. Electric? Nope.
Nuggets' Nikola Jokic makes NBA history on Christmas
Jokic had a stat line we've never seen before.
The top 10 Philadelphia sports moments of 2025
This year, the Eagles and Phillies gave Philadelphia fans moments they'll never forget. Let's take a look at the 10 most memorable ones.
Hidden Gems 2025: The Best New Games You Might Never Have Heard Of
With more games than ever being released, it's easy for terrific games to slip past many people. Here are a bunch of our favorites from 2025.
Republicans must hold the line: No Hyde Amendment, no deal on health care
Any plan that does not include Hyde can never be viewed as “clean.”
James Cameron Slams Amy Poehler For 'Ignorant Dig' From ... 12 Years Ago
Twelve years ago, Poehler said something the director will never forget.
Oklahoma City, fans across the state will never forget the year of sports in 2025
KOCO 5 Sports Director Bryan Keating replays some of the many major and championship sports moments from 2025 in Oklahoma City
Opening of three new businesses in one week is a step in the right direction
The opening of three businesses with Santa Fe ties this week was a small victory, but it was a victory nevertheless.
What explains the perpetual need for political enemies?
Politics today is driven by grievances that can never be assuaged. For democracy’s survival, we must grapple with this dynamic
Surviving the family dinner: Why you should never discuss politics or holes in jeans
Writer Kymberly Foster Seabolt explores the beauty of "last" holidays, passing down family recipes, and the simple rules for a joyful, drama-free Christmas.
JD Vance tries to have it both ways on Nick Fuentes and antisemitism
Vice President JD Vance has never looked more like the presumptive 2028 Republican presidential nominee.
Indiana twins bridge political divide with kindness: ‘You have one family’
Indiana twins Nick and Nathan Roberts prioritize kindness and civility, and say ‘we never argue about politics’
Sunday Science: Why do bridges freeze first?
Whether precipitating or not, it's always important to have a sense of road conditions whenever the temperature heads below freezing. You've likely seen the sig
‘The anxiety never disappears’: Monmouth businesses recover from severe flooding
Restaurants, bars and shops are happy to be back after Storm Claudia – but there are fears for the future
Never pay for cloud storage again with this lifetime 20TB deal
Finally, a cloud storage plan you don’t have to upgrade.
The Epstein files release did nothing to clear up the scandal’s biggest question
Some questions will never be answered. But there’s one that DOJ officials really can clear up — if they want to.
Confidence is soaring in Broncos Country
We survey Denver Broncos fans each week and confidence in this team has never been higher this season!
Where to watch Arkansas vs. Houston: TV channel, stream, odds, spread, pick
No. 14 Arkansas takes on No. 8 Houston in the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark on CBS
This Windows feature secretly eats up RAM and slows your PC over time
If you never take advantage of Delivery Optimization, it might be a good idea to turn it off.
Your DNA Might Say 'Viking' but Science Says Genetic Ancestry Tests Never Tell the Whole Story
If you’re looking for your genetic origin story, your DNA will only take you so far.
Column | Feeling wonder every day improves our health. Here’s how to do it.
Research has established the power of awe. I experienced it myself in a way I never thought I could.
Tom Durkin | The journey: People over politics
“Everyone’s on a journey,” Dianna Hill used to remind me gently whenever I got upset with what someone did or didn’t do. Maybe 5’2” in heels and just barely topping 100 pounds, Dianna had the look and soft voice of the perfect kindergarten teacher. She taught 8th-grade algebra. Dianna was empathy personified. She could feel […]
What Car Never Lived Up To Its Potential?
Building cars is a very hard thing to do, so making them everything they can be is a nearly impossible task.
Everyone caught up to Oregon’s business model. Can Ducks win it all in a world they pioneered?
Oregon has never been better, but the Ducks are no longer gate-crashers. The transformation that took them decades now takes mere months.
High RAM & SSD Prices Make Larian Optimize Divinity Earlier
"We've never had it like this."
Never mind the S26 Ultra, this eagerly anticipated Ultra phone is launching next week
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra was one of our favorite camera phones, and Xiaomi has now confirmed that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is launching next week.
Tariffs take a bit out of mom-and-pop stores as small business profit growth turns negative for first time in 18 months, BofA says
The NFIB survey never saw such a big jump in small businesses raising prices as it did between October and November.
A new era for sports communication at UNC Hussman | UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
As director of UNC Hussman’s Sports Communication Focus Program, Distinguished Associate Professor of Sports Communication Livis Freeman is building on the work of the school’s legendary Distinguished Professor for Sports Communication John Sweeney. Sweeney, who retired last year, developed one of the most respected sports communication programs in the country. Freeman, now in his 12th year at the school, is launching an ambitious expansion of the program that is transforming how UNC prepares students for careers in sports media. The most visible change came this fall with a reimagining of “MEJO 377: Sports Communication.” Previously offered as two sections with 30 students each, the course expanded to 96 students and welcomed former UNC basketball star and NBA veteran Tyler Hansbrough as the co-instructor with Freeman, bringing real world professional experience directly into the classroom every week. The course has been a huge success. Students have participated in recording a podcast with Hansbrough and learned from an impressive lineup of guest speakers. Steve Kirschner, UNC’s senior associate director of athletics for communications, was the first in the course’s guest speaker series, followed by UNC Hussman alumni including Kaitlyn Schmidt ’23 from Bleacher Report, Deaton Bell ’90 from Turner Sports and Becca Royer ’19 from the Philadelphia 76ers. Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also shared his insights with the class. The highlight of the semester came when Roy Williams, who coached Hansbrough and the Tar Heels to a national championship in 2009, visited the classroom. Former UNC men’s basketball players Luke Maye and Marcus Ginyard showed up to support their former coach and Hansbrough, creating an unforgettable experience as Williams entertained students with stories and insights that captivated the room. Student demand has been overwhelming. The course reached capacity within two days of registration opening, with more than 40 students on the waitlist. “Students want to learn from people who have actually lived these experiences,” Freeman said. “Tyler shares insights into media relations, broadcast production and athlete communications that you simply can’t get from a textbook.” The model proved so successful that the school secured funding to continue it for the next five years, with a different former professional athlete co-teaching each fall. The school’s curriculum committee approved a proposal to expand the course to 150 to 200 students starting in fall 2026. This change will make it an introductory course accessible to students from across the University, transforming it into a showcase course for the entire campus. The course redesign represents just one piece of a broader sports communication program overhaul. This fall, the curriculum committee approved “MEJO 390: Sports Play by Play,” the first course of its kind at UNC. Limited to 10 advanced students, the course will be taught by Matt Krause, the current voice of UNC women’s basketball and an ACC Network broadcaster. Students will call actual games across multiple sports including women’s softball, soccer, volleyball, field hockey and lacrosse, as well as men’s soccer and lacrosse. They will also shadow broadcasts of men’s and women’s basketball games. “The sports broadcasting industry is exploding with streaming platforms and conference networks creating unprecedented demand,” Freeman said. The course emerged directly from student advocacy, led by Anna Laible ’26 and others who pushed for hands-on broadcasting experience. Professional equipment has been acquired, partnerships with UNC Athletics are in place and a soft launch began this semester with three experienced students calling games to test the system. The program’s growth extends into other specialized areas as well. Last spring, Stembler Professor Charlie Tuggle launched a new sports event management and hospitality course in partnership with On Location, a company that manages major sporting event experiences. The course provided students with opportunities to travel to the Super Bowl and NFL Draft, and Tuggle plans to take a group to the 2026 Milan Olympics this spring. Looking ahead to spring 2026, Associate Professor Ryan Thornburg will debut a sports data visualization course, adding another dimension to the program’s skill-building offerings. The curriculum expansion reflects the increasingly diverse career paths available in sports media, from traditional journalism and broadcasting to digital analytics and strategic communication. The program is also diving into one of college athletics’ most transformative developments: Name, Image and Likeness rights. Freeman’s “MEJO 466: Sports Marketing” class collaborated last spring with Associate Professor Gary Kayye’s “MEJO 371: Advertising Creative” class on a project with UNC’s Carolina NIL group to help rebrand their organization. That same semester, Kayye’s class envisioned Chapel Thrill, UNC football’s new pregame concert and entertainment experience. And Shaun Anderson, the school’s Knight Chair in Sports, Race and Media, continues to explore the broader implications of NIL through his research and teaching. These NIL-focused initiatives give students direct exposure to the business side of college athletics at a moment when the landscape is rapidly evolving. “Our students aren’t just learning about these changes,” Freeman said. “They’re actively helping shape how schools and athletes navigate them.” The transformation of UNC Hussman’s sports communication program reflects a broader philosophy about how to prepare students for careers in a rapidly changing industry. By bringing in professional practitioners like Hansbrough and Krause, partnering with industry leaders like On Location and ACC Network, and engaging with current issues like NIL, the program ensures students graduate with both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. For alumni who remember the foundations John Sweeney built, the expansion represents an evolution rather than a departure. The program still emphasizes strong reporting, strategic communication, ethical communication and critical thinking. But now it also offers students the chance to call live games, work on real NIL campaigns and learn directly from former professional athletes. “We’re not just teaching students about sports media,” Freeman said. “We’re giving them the tools, experiences and connections to actually build careers in it.” With new courses launching, professional partnerships deepening and enrollment expanding, UNC Hussman’s sports communication program is positioning itself as a national leader in preparing the next generation of sports media professionals. For current students, the message is clear: if you’re interested in sports communication, there’s never been a better time to be at UNC Hussman. And for the hundreds of students trying to get off waitlists and into these new courses, the school is working to create more opportunities. The program John Sweeney built is growing in ways that honor his legacy while meeting the demands of a new era in sports media.
A small but crucial detail provides a clue on iPhone Fold pricing
There’s never been any doubt that next year’s iPhone Fold is going to be an extremely expensive device, but a...
‘Bo Schembechler would never stop throwing up’: How Michigan’s scandal reveals college sports’ transformation
Legendary Michigan-based columnist Mitch Albom says Bo Schembechler would be sickened by today's college sports landscape where player poaching and money have replaced loyalty in an era unrecognizable to the iconic coach.
iPhone 18 Pro Features Leaked in New Report, Including Under-Screen Face ID
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu. As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen. Nevertheless, the devices will look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro models, the report said.
The war on saturated fat, never based on good science, can now end
As people cut more saturated fat, the nation grew heavier and sicker — not healthier.
‘Landman’ star ‘never leaves’ set, even when he’s not working
A 'Landman' star enjoys hanging around set and watching his costars perform
Repairs needed after business hit-and-run
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A family-owned business in Scranton is reeling after a hit-and-run crash that badly damaged their property. The owners are now looking for answers, hoping someone will come forward. The family told 28/22 News while there have been instances when someone sideswiped their fence, they’ve never seen anything quite like this […]
I'll never forget my roots, says Angry Ginge
The content creator is back coaching at his football club after being crowned King of the Jungle.
Josh O'Connor felt 'punked' filming 'Knives Out': Always 'raining on me, never on Daniel Craig'
Josh O'Connor says he felt 'punked' while filming 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' totally soaked and covered in mud for most of production: 'Always seemed to be raining on me and never on Daniel Craig.'
I work in AI security at Google. There are some things I would never tell chatbots.
Harsh Varshney, who works on Chrome AI security at Google, shares four tips for protecting your data and identity when you talk to AI chatbots.
Unlike Taylor Swift, I argue with my partner every day. We've been together for 30 years.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's claim they never argue. I've been married for 30 years and I fight daily with my partner. It's healthier this way.
New Epstein photos released showing Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, and more
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released never-before-seen images from the estate of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
The greatest Tyne-Wear derby moments?
When you have a rivalry as fierce and as storied as the Tyne-Wear derby, you are never short of memorable moments. With Sunderland and Newcastle set to face each other for the first time in the Premier League since 2016 on Sunday, we have taken a trip down Memory Lane to find some of the standout moments. Neither team came into the match in great form, but there was particular pressure on Newcastle boss Ruud Gullit after three defeats in the opening four games.
Theater Review: "Stereophonic" Tour Offers Sharp Music, Uneven Storytelling
Kevin Taft reviews the theatrical production of the Tony-nominated Stereophonic, which he nevertheless feels never comes together in a dramatically satisfying way.
The Game Awards’ grand finale reveal was a game you’ve never heard of coming out in a month
Highguard comes from the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall
How Sports Fans are Streaming ESPN Content Like Never Before | The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific
Hear from five ESPN employees who made history for how sports fans stream content in Australia and New Zealand.
SC minority business leaders say paperwork 'quotas' in state law never met their goal
SC business groups don’t see the governor's pause of minority set asides as much of a loss since many agencies weren’t meeting quotas.
Meet the 77-year-old Vietnam pilot still in love with lacrosse — and scoring on opponents 50 years younger (photos)
Jon Ryan was awarded a Purple Heart in Vietnam, has kept bees for nearly 50 years and never misses a week in a lacrosse league where many of the players are young enough to be his grandchildren.
From classroom to community: Student’s journey exemplifies ‘public health in action’
When Waveney Brooks transferred to the University of Kentucky as a sophomore, she never imagined that a classroom experience would open the door to real-world public heath practice across Kentucky. What started as a broad introduction to the many disciplines of well-being soon grew into a purposeful public health career path defined by mentorship, community engagement and purpose.
The Never-Seen-Before First Stars In The Universe Might Have Finally Been Spotted
They’re the very definition of live fast and die young!
Small Business of the Year: Hercules Express Wash, Pinnacle Building Services win big
Hank Keller never dreamed of owning a car wash, but the unexpected path led him to what he now calls “the things we cherish most.”
The U.S. Needs a Better Strategy for Sports Diplomacy
The U.S. has never had a cohesive approach to sports diplomacy — which could be a problem while hosting the World Cup and the Olympics over the next decade.
Walmart's outgoing CEO on stepping down: 'I've never had a blank calendar' and it's 'kind of exciting'
Walmart's outgoing CEO Doug McMillon reflects on a career leading over 2 million employees and the thrill of an upcoming break.
Jalen Hurts had an unprecedented two turnovers on one play
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts did something on Monday night that may never have happened before in the NFL: He turned the ball over twice on one play.
Analysis: Trump’s answer for everything: Blame Biden
It feels like a lifetime since Joe Biden was in the Oval Office, such is the turmoil and transformation unleashed since he went home to Delaware. But one person in Washington never stops obsessing about the 46th president — his predecessor and successor.
Springfield bathroom remodeler charged with deceiving customers
The Springfield businessman is accused of collecting deposits and never completing the promised work.
Barry Bonds will never make the Hall of Fame. Here’s why I’m now OK with that
OPINION: After former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds came up short again on a Hall of Fame ballot, here’s how one of his former voters reconciled himself to how this won’t ever change.
Violent threats pile up as Indiana Republicans confront pressure from Trump on redistricting
Republicans in the Indiana Senate are facing threats as Trump pushes to redraw the state's congressional map. It's a bewildering experience for lawmakers who consider themselves loyal party members and never imagined they would be doing their jobs under the same shadow of violence that has darkened American political life in recent years.
NBCU’s Frances Berwick On Peacock’s ‘Reality Hot Seat’ Being The Manifestation Of Entertainment & Sports Coming Together
Peacock is bringing two of the most passionate fandoms together for Sunday Night Football with Reality Hot Seat, an alternative cast like never before.
Investors lost at least $40 million on a Florida business that never had a client
His guilty plea says among his purchases with the fraudulently gained money were a 2011 54-foot Cruiser Yacht 540 Sports Coupe.
How Moss Is Solving Mysteries Scientists Never Expected
A new study looks at how microscopic plants have been used as evidence in forensic investigations. Tiny plants such as moss are easy to miss. Many are no larger than an eyelash, and they usually grow low to the ground in damp, shaded environments. Despite their size, these plants can provide impo
Xbox did so badly on US Black Friday sales it was beaten by a console you've never heard of
An unexpected motion gaming device beat Xbox and placed among the US best sellers, raising questions about missed opportunities and Microsoft’s approach to future hardware.
Trump is immune from accountability for boat strikes. What about everyone under him?
There is one person who can never face any accountability for the killing of people clinging to an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September.
Letter: Random thoughts about politics from a tree stand
My deer rifle holds only four shells. I have never needed all four...But I guess the Grand Old Party’s congressmen think owning a 50-shot clip is important.
For five figures, you can own a piece of Kanye West's unfinished Malibu house
A Tadao Ando-built home in Malibu once owned by rapper Kanye West was never finished. The current owner hopes to turn it into a social space.
I hired a travel advisor to coordinate my family's Paris vacation — I might never plan my own trips again
I enjoyed working with a travel advisor to plan a family trip to Paris. The hotel, restaurants, and experiences were amazing, and I was more present.
I’ll never forget the look of hatred Nigel Farage had for me at school, simply because of how I looked
Farage doubts people can remember their abuse from years ago. I’ve never forgotten his – it felt malicious to me
Shop Local: Black Mountain welcomes local business traffic this holiday season
The holidays have never been more important to Black Mountain than perhaps this year.
Our pick of the 33 best science books, films, games and TV of all time
Boredom setting in after the festive chaos? Never fear: our writers and contributors have chosen their favourite ever science-y books, films, TV shows, music, video games, board games and more to carry you into the New Year
No. 1 Nail Health Red Flag Never to Ignore, According to a Dermatologist
In TODAY.com's Expert Tip of the Day, a dermatologist shares an often overlooked nail symptom that can be a sign of a serious underlying issue.
Planet Earth has never had so many billionaires
The number of billionaires worldwide – and their combined wealth – reached record highs this year, buoyed in particular by gains in tech stocks, Swiss bank UBS has found.
The surprising reason you should never skip your morning orange juice
Orange juice every day could help your cholesterol.
Scientists capture flu viruses surfing into human cells in real time
Scientists have captured a never-before-seen, high-resolution look at influenza’s stealthy invasion of human cells, revealing that the cells aren’t just helpless victims. Using a groundbreaking imaging technique, researchers discovered that our cells actually reach out and “grab” the virus as it searches for the perfect entry point, surfing along the membrane.
Guitar amp sims have gotten astonishingly good
There has never been a better time to be a guitarist.
9 mistakes to avoid making at a work event, according to etiquette experts
According to etiquette experts, avoiding leadership and hiding behind your phone are things you should never do at a work event or holiday party.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
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