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Brandi Carlisle and blue men: Best entertainment bets in the Twin Cities for February
How New York’s Court System Intertwines With Party Politics
A foreclosure case in Brooklyn highlights ties between the courts and political party clubhouses.
Opinion | How sports are defying secularization
The Super Bowl shows how football and faith have become intertwined.
Break Up Rival Couples in the New Deadline Duet Mode for Triple Rewards
Spark explosive breakups in Deadline Duet, the new Adversary Mode that puts the “power up” in “power couple” as you and your partner use twin Shotaro beam trails to destroy opponents in pursuit of Triple Rewards for the next two weeks.
Science at the Winter Olympics
Three University of Minnesota experts reveal hidden scientific aspects of winter Olympic sports—and the art of staying warm.
Hollywood and Washington converge as celebrities, lawmakers speak out on grievances
This last week has demonstrated, once again, that politics and pop culture are deeply intertwined.
Elon Musk is betting the future of his business empire on AI
The fates of xAI, SpaceX and Tesla are increasingly intertwined
Trump admin. attorney leaves Minnesota after telling judge her job ‘sucks’ amid crush of immigration cases
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney detailed to Minnesota to help handle the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities has been removed from her post after telling a judge that the job “sucks” because of the crushing workload and the government’s apparent inability to comply with court orders.
These Twin Brothers Turned One Beach-Themed Trailer Into a $250M Brand With Over 80 Stores: ‘It’s a Beast’
Mike and Alex Faherty combined complementary skillsets to launch their company.
Opinion | We’ve been shoved down. Small business shows how we get back up.
Staring down an existential threat, small Twin Cities businesses like Modern Times and Pho 79 are meeting the moment, Adair Mosley writes.
Vikings fire GM, Twins executive departs. What's up with Minnesota sports?
To talk about what this means for two of the state’s biggest sports franchises, Ten Thousand Takes host Wally Langfellow joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition Monday.
Scientists are hunting for a forbidden antimatter transformation
MACE is a next-generation experiment designed to catch muonium transforming into its antimatter twin, a process that would rewrite the rules of particle physics. The last search for this effect ended more than two decades ago, and MACE plans to leap far beyond it using cutting-edge beams, targets, and detectors. A discovery would point to entirely new forces or particles operating at extreme energy scales.
Target’s New C.E.O. Faces Hometown Crisis as He Begins Turnaround Effort
Michael Fiddelke takes the top job at the struggling retailer amid continued unrest in the Twin Cities. A new boss also steps in at Walmart, where things are quieter.
All the ways Elon Inc. is already intertwined
The five companies led by Elon Musk have increasingly become intertwined, even before Tesla's $2 billion investment in xAI or merger chatter.
Reusse: Latest generation of Pohlads has made it clear Twins are a business
An organization that was thick with camaraderie for decades appears to be a different entity with Derek Falvey’s departure.
Owners of Twin Peaks restaurant file for bankruptcy
Officials with TWNP said in a news release that they will use the filings to strengthen their capital structure through reducing their debt to keep the corporation successful for years to come.
Tear gas causes health concerns for Twin Cities residents
Federal agents are regularly using chemical irritants like tear gas in attempts to disperse protesters and observers in the Twin Cities. Medical experts say there’s a lot of uncertainty about the health impacts of those chemicals.
A digital twin for real-time biodiversity forecasting with citizen science data
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science data are increasingly used in biodiversity monitoring. This study applies a digital twin approach to biodiversity monitoring using a large citizen...
The nuclear power station at the centre of the political divide in Scotland
The twin reactors of Hinkley Point C in Somerset will form the first nuclear power plant built in the UK for 30 years.
Why Minnesota’s CEOs finally broke their silence
Minnesota’s corporate giants have remained silent publicly for more than a month as their businesses and the local economy suffered from massive federal immigration operations in the Twin Cities.
Business jet with 8 on board crashes during takeoff in Maine
The condition of the eight was unavailable. The twin-engine jet took off from Bangor airport when it went down, according to the FAA.
Business people: James Lawrence to chair Metropolitan Airports Commission board
AIRPORTS The Metropolitan Airports Commission announced that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has appointed James Lawrence as chair of the MAC board, which oversees Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airpor…
ICE in Minnesota: Business closures, downtown march mark ICE protest in Twin Cities
A general strike protesting ICE is unfolding across the Twin Cities on Friday, with business closures and a planned march and rally in downtown Minneapolis.
‘We have a clear agenda’: the teenager who broke news of Tory MP’s defection to Reform
Charlie Simpson, 15, is part of new generation of self-styled rightwing ‘independent journalists’ and ‘has sources in the [Reform] party’
Trump’s ‘pay-to-play’ politics fuel a ‘new gilded age’, experts say
Major donors reap influence and material benefits, ethics experts argue, as money and governance intertwine
Mets acquire Vidal Brujan from Twins for cash considerations
The Mets made a trade with the Twins on Thursday night, acquiring utilityman Vidal Brujan for cash considerations.
Businesses close, Minnesotans to stay home Friday in protest of ICE
From restaurants to schools and more, hundreds of locals plan to participate in the “Ice Out! Statewide shutdown” on Jan. 23 to show community unity against federal immigration action in the Twin Cities.
MLB rumors: Cardinals eye veteran outfielder; Twins trade for Red Sox infielder
Here are Wednesday's most notable MLB moves and murmurs
Educational background key indicator of immigration views in UK, study finds
Research comparing UK and US finds people with fewer qualifications more likely to support rightwing movements
ICE presence chills business, cancels events in Twin Cities
ICE operations and protests have led to event cancellations and business closures in the Twin Cities, affecting the local economy and daily life.
How two acclaimed US films reveal the failures of leftwing revolutionary politics
It seems apt then that two films concerned with the failures of leftwing revolutionary politics should emerge almost simultaneously with Donald Trump’s resurgence.
Inside Minnesota Hospitals, ICE Agents Unnerve Staff
As federal agents swarm the Twin Cities, their presence has also grown in medical centers. Health care workers are pushing back.
Inside Minnesota Hospitals, ICE Agents Unnerve Staff
As federal agents swarm the Twin Cities, their presence has also grown in medical centers. Health care workers are pushing back.
Twin Cities small business owners say Amazon’s AI lists their products without consent
Minnesota jewelry designer Emily Johnson is among those upset with Amazon over its new AI feature, which uses product images and descriptions from their websites.
Twin Cities transportation business eyes possible weekend service between the cities and Grand Forks
Dave Brown, owner of Transportation Service Plus, said he has seen interest in a weekend service between Grand Forks and the Twin Cities, but price is something he's still figuring out.
Health needs, insurance woes compound fears for Minnesota families amid ICE operations
Health care providers say the Twin Cities immigration enforcement surge is leading people to cancel doctor’s appointments and delay treatments even if they’re U.S. citizens or have other legal status in the country. Fears of losing health insurance are also mounting.
Jesuit twin brothers, one who overcame rare brain condition, choose different sporting passions
Jesuit High School
Little T’s Mini Golf & More named 2025 Entertainment Venue of the Year
What started as a dream inspired by a coffee shop in North Carolina has become one of the Twin Lakes area's favorite family destinations. The Mountain Home Observer has named Little T's Mini Golf & More the 2025 Entertainment Venue of the Year for its commitment to affordable family fun, community fundraising and inclusive employment. Scott
‘Lots of people don’t want to do it’: Paul Nurse on his controversial second term as Royal Society president
The Nobel prize winner discusses claims of a ‘boys’ club’, Elon Musk’s fellowship and rightwing attacks on science
List of Twin Cities events canceled and businesses closed in response to ongoing ICE presence
Twin Cities businesses have been put in a difficult position by the massive federal presence.
Twin(s) brothers throwback: The Cliburn coaches
With the Twins adding the second in a set of brothers, here’s a lookback at another set of brothers in the organization.
Manchester United: Who are Darren Fletcher's son's Tyler and Jack?
BBC Sport profiles twin brothers Tyler and Jack Fletcher, who will hope to get minutes at Manchester United under interim head coach and father Darren
2025 Year in Review: Twin Ports industries make headlines
From transportation to tourism and new businesses opening their doors, Duluth saw several changes throughout 2025.
Milky Way’s Twin Causes Rethink of Galactic Evolution
Discovery of Milky Way’s Twin Causes Rethink of Galactic Evolution: The precocious young galaxy appears to have formed in record time
‘A silent majority’: MPs underestimate support for green policies, study reveals
Exclusive: From solar subsidies to meat taxes, minority rightwing voices appear to drown out the consensus
Can the Lynx retain star players? Can the Twins hang onto fans? These and other Minnesota sports questions for 2026
Among the Twins, Lynx, Frost, Wolves, Vikings and more, here’s a look at some Minnesota sports storylines we’ll be talking about in 2026.
Zack Polanski offering voters fantasy solutions, says head of Fabian Society
Joe Dromey, head of the Labour thinktank, urges his party to take on the ‘twin populisms’ of Reform UK and the Greens
Digital twins for self-driving chemistry laboratories
Nature Computational Science - Digital twins of self-driving chemistry laboratories may help reduce reliance on costly real-world experimentation and enable the testing of hypothetical automated...
2025: Inside President Trump's escalating culture war with the entertainment industry
As Trump nears the end of his first year back in office, celebrities remain deeply entwined in politics while he expands his influence over Hollywood.
Twin Cities snowplow operator helps man navigating health struggles
The Earth Observer: Offering Perspectives from Space through Time
An Intertwined History: The Earth Observer and EOS
George Clooney and his family are now citizens of France. Good luck with that!
George Clooney, his wife Amal and their 8-year-old twins are French citizens as of last week, reports say. The Clooneys bought property in France in 2021.
Mexicans Valeria Páez and the Cueva twins claim Panam Sports Junior Awards
Mexico’s Mía and Lía Cueva and Valeria Páez collected major honors at the Panam Sports Junior Awards this week.
Twin Cities exercise business mogul Dick Enrico dies at 85
Dick Enrico, the man behind 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment, died earlier this month. He was 85 years old.
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’
Caltech pulls off a trick that scientists thought was impossible
Engineers manage to intertwine several qubits at once, taking the biggest leap yet toward a functional quantum internet.
SeaWorld Parks Light Up the Season with Dazzling Displays, New Holiday Entertainment, and the Best Savings of the Year
/PRNewswire/ -- SeaWorld parks across Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio are celebrating the holiday season with millions of twinkling lights, new...
Meet the Identical Twins on Opposite Sides of the Political Divide
One is a Democratic city councillor, the other is an anti-immigration activist. Things got confusing when they appeared at the same public debate.
Poll: The affordability crisis is disrupting politics in 1 country after another
The international poll illustrates the uphill battle many leaders face in trying to contain the intertwined economic and political backlash.
A new hunt for an Earth analog begins
The Terra Hunting Experiment will track the wobbles of dozens of stars nightly for years in the most focused hunt yet for an Earth twin.
When business and democracy don’t mix
Liberals were wrong to assume the two ideas are natural twins
Ramanujan’s 100-year-old pi formula is still revealing the Universe
Ramanujan’s elegant formulas for calculating pi, developed more than a century ago, have unexpectedly resurfaced at the heart of modern physics. Researchers at IISc discovered that the same mathematical structures behind these formulas also describe real-world phenomena like turbulence, percolation, and even black holes. What once seemed like pure mathematics now appears deeply intertwined with the physical laws governing the universe.
People and planet: How human and planetary health are deeply connected
The health of people and the planet are inextricably intertwined, with time spent in nature positively improving our lives and inspiring us to help keep Earth healthy.
With new tech and science roadmap, New Mexico looks to turn research strength into economic growth
Nora Meyers Sackett says New Mexico’s small, intertwined tech ecosystem can sometimes suffer from si ...
Twins Must Move Quickly to Address Bullpen in Free Agency
Twin Cities Latino, Somali businesses struggling amid ICE's Operation Metro Surge: "What did we do?"
Person shot at Collier County sports complex, one arrested
A Shooter at Collier County sports complex is in custody after a shooting.
More Fore: The Rise of Indoor Golf Entertainment in Minneapolis
The Twin Cities have always been regarded as avid golf towns—but downtown?
Unrivaled Sports Announces Long-Term Investment in Twin Creeks Sports Complex
/PRNewswire/ -- Unrivaled Sports, the nation's leader in youth sports experiences, today announced the acquisition of Twin Creeks Sports Complex, a...
Battle over future of Warner Bros. Discovery captures Trump’s attention
The mounting battle to purchase one of Hollywood’s biggest prizes — Warner Bros. Discovery — has captured President Donald Trump’s attention as he sees his own interests entwined in the transaction and appears poised to try to influence its outcome.
Ethereal structure in the sky rivals 'Pillars of Creation' — Space photo of the week
The twin telescopes of the Gemini Observatory mark 25 years of discovery as students name distant nebula Ua ʻŌhiʻa Lan.
MINNEAPOLIMEDIA ENTERTAINMENT: “Blood on the Turntables”: Exclusive Interview with DJ Pat Boom (BoomBeatz) on Loss, Legacy, and Building a Creative Empire
Across the Twin Cities, DJ Pat Boom, BoomBeatz, has built a creative empire through BoomzBeatz Multimedia, producing music, film, TV, and his own movie Blood on the Turntables.
Winter Meetings will show if Twins are serious about competing
Minnesota must choose a real direction and stop drifting through another season.
Ducks' Cutter Gauthier: Finds twine in shootout win
Ducks' Cutter Gauthier: Finds twine in shootout win
National Science Foundation renews support for ecological powerhouse Cedar Creek
With its eighth funding renewal, the world-renowned Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is primed for six more years on the forefront of ecosystem research.
Exploring Denmark’s Tardigrade Fauna through Citizen Science
In a groundbreaking study that intertwines the realms of citizen science and systematic biology, researchers have successfully unveiled an intricate tapestry of tardigrade fauna residing in Danish cryptogams. Tardigrades, or “water bears,” are microscopic, water-dwelling ani
New Editorial Leadership for Twin Cities Business
MSP Communications announces appointment of Platt and Rybak to new roles.
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.
As a twin dad, I try to prioritize alone time with each of my sons. I spent $1000 to take one to his first concert, and it was money well spent.
I didn't expect an Oasis concert with my twin son to mean so much, but that night brought us closer and was worth every cent.
Holiday arts and entertainment: Classics get reimagined for the holidays
From Andean folk celebrations to circus-infused classics, local stages are offering a diverse slate of classical and traditional music performances that reimagine and re-enliven familiar tunes and …