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Discord launches ‘Checkpoint 2025’: A full-year recap feature for users; here’s how to see your Discord wrapped
Discord Checkpoint 2025: Discord has released its first yearly activity summary, Discord Checkpoint 2025. Users can now see their message counts, voice channel hours, top emojis, most active servers, and frequent DM friends. Exclusive avatar decorations are also available. The feature is rolling out gradually and requires the latest app version.
Gavin Newsom wants Democrats to be more ‘culturally normal.’ Huh?
OPINION: Gov. Gavin Newsom often brags about California’s diversity. But his latest remarks sound like a slap at the proudly non-normal state he’s led for seven years, Joe Garofoli writes.
Tennessee special election shows the power of partisan gerrymandering as Trump pushes for more of it
A special congressional election in Tennessee this week highlights the power and consequences of partisan gerrymandering
Football season leads to 21% increase in sports betting in North Carolina
North Carolina bettors have wagered more than $12 billion in legal online sports betting since it launched in the state in March 2024.
Public Trust in Government: 1958-2025
While trust in government has been low for decades, the current measure is one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked by the National Election Study, and it is lower than it was last year (22%).
Winter high school sports start this week
The winter high school sports season officially begins this week, with contests scheduled in basketball, wrestling and swimming. The winter season runs through late February to early March. Boys basketball For boys basketball, the Crook County Invitational will be held at Crook County High School and Crook County Middle School in Prineville Thursday through Saturday. […]
Turtle Shell: Maryland Conceals Terms of Blueprint Sports Deal
The Terrapins led the way in bringing the now-controversial NIL company on campus, but is keeping almost all of its deal under wraps.
Senate Democrats set up last-ditch vote to extend Obamacare subsidies
The measure would keep Affordable Care Act subsidies in place for three years. But it’s not expected to get enough Republican support to pass.
Marc Benioff is writing Salesforce's annual strategy document. He shared the key details early with Business Insider.
The CEO is a few weeks into drafting the company's annual strategy plan. He shared the vision so far.
Contest Casts UMW Business Students as ‘Reel’-World Problem-Solvers
Five teams laid out plans to save a cinema giant, but only one could claim top billing. University of Mary Washington seniors Karla Bonilla Lizama and Evelyn Centellas won the Fall 2025 College of Business Case Competition – titled “Reel Choices: The Crossroads of a Movie Studio’s Destiny” – for their ideas, presentation and polish. […]
Wreckreation maker Three Fields Entertainment puts whole studio on redundancy notice
"Without the enthusiasm or financial support from our publisher to continue development, we simply cannot sustain the studio in its current form"
Wreckreation maker Three Fields Entertainment puts whole studio on redundancy notice
"Without the enthusiasm or financial support from our publisher to continue development, we simply cannot sustain the studio in its current form"
More PSD sporting events coming to CSU in new 'Canvas Campus Series'
More PSD high school sports are coming to CSU, including 'Moby Mat Madness' wrestling as part of the new 'Canvas Campus Series.'
Metroid Prime 4 Has Optional Music Locked Behind $30 Paywall
Want to choose the music you listen to in the desert of Viewros while riding your Vi-O-La? Then you'd better buy a Samus Aran Amiibo.
The overdiagnosis debate in mental health misses the point
“Focusing on who ‘counts’ as mentally ill will ultimately send us down the wrong path,” Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at Wellcome, writes.
Why YouTube Recap flopped and Spotify Wrapped is buzzing
YouTube launched its first Recap, but users say it's inaccurate and barebones. Spotify Wrapped, meanwhile, dominated with new features.
How TheWrap’s Power Women Summit Helped Entertainment Leaders Speak Up For Real Change
On December 2nd, hundreds of women from across the entertainment industry came together at The Maybourne Beverly Hills for a day filled with empowerment, thoughtful panels, and genuine connection for TheWrap's Power Women Summit, presented by STARZ.
A dozen former FDA commissioners condemn plan to tighten vaccine approvals
In a New England Journal of Medicine article, the former FDA commissioners wrote they were “deeply concerned” by the top vaccine regulator’s approach to raising the bar for approvals.
Why American Health Care Is Still a Mess
Jonathan Gruber on the broken American health-care system, Obamacare, the Trump administration’s war on vaccines and science, and being on the wrong end of Republican outrage. Plus: David on Donald Trump’s Ukraine “peace plan,” recent scandals, and They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer.
Exclusive | Lawrence Taylor delivers message to Abdul Carter
When Lawrence Taylor speaks, Giants fans listen. And so should Abdul Carter.
UMW Announces Master of Science in Nursing Degree Program
The University of Mary Washington will add a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, with enrollment beginning in 2026-27. The new program gained approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) at its October 2025 meeting and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in November. It […]
Spotify’s Top 10 Sports Podcasts and Audiobooks of 2025
A few familiar names appear in this year’s most popular podcasts, as well as one about the “darker side of national parks.”
School Specialty's New Edition of Its Phenomena-Based Science Curriculum--FOSS Pathways™--Wins Parent and Teacher Choice Award
School Specialty, a leading provider of supplies, furniture and curriculum for the education marketplace, today announced that its newly released FOSS Pathways™ Edition for PreK–5 has been named a Parent and Teacher Choice Award winner. The new edition of the highly-respected Full Option Science System™ (FOSS®) curriculum, developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, introduces a next-generation, phenomena-based, hands-on science program designed to meet rigorou
How to find your Spotify Wrapped 2025 and see all the music you loved this year
New features in this year's Spotify Wrapped recap include the ability to see your "Listening Age" and compete in a "Wrapped Party."
The "all politics" healthcare project in Hoover that's rewriting state regulations
The man who wrote Alabama's certificate of need regulations is concerned that decisions made over a Hoover project could place the regs in jeopardy.
Delayed care to 2 Black pregnant women highlights maternal health disparities
Two pregnant Black women nearly 1,000 miles apart were ready to do what many do every day: welcome new bundles of joy, and just before the start of the holiday season. Instead, the health of both women and their babies was put at risk after hospital staff did not immediately provide the needed care.
Your health has a ‘check engine’ light. Let’s start using it (Guest Opinion by Dr. Sarah Matt)
Wearable devices give us the power to see inside our own bodies and take action before health problems become impossible to fix, writes CNY surgeon and tech strategist.
How does your Spotify Wrapped get made? 3 Spotify leaders break down the yearlong process.
Spotify Wrapped is "the thing that's most looked forward to," said one Spotify leader. "It's also the thing that gets the most scrutiny."
Packers WR Christian Watson Makes Bold Proclamation About NFC North
Christian Watson declares, "We're coming for that spot," as the Green Bay Packers target the NFC North lead and top NFC seeding against a surging Chicago Bears team.
Mirumi the furry companion robot is now available on Kickstarter
More robots need to come wrapped in fur.
Empathy Health raises $7.6M for Sober Sidekick
While most addiction care kicks in after relapse, this tool's algorithms spot early signs.
Doctor and author turned social media creator: Former Colorado public official on posting science-based health content
After working as one of Colorado's top public health officials, Dr. Tista Ghosh advised Fortune 500 companies during the pandemic. Now, after writing a book, she's turned to spreading health information online.
Full-length Replay: First Things First: OT
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes and OT anchor Danny Parkins offer their opinions on the day’s biggest sports stories.
Full-length Replay: First Things First
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard and Kevin Wildes offer their opinions on the day's sports stories.
UNC Health-Cigna contract expires: Check other health care contracts in NC
More than 4,000 UNC Health patients with Cigna insurance are facing uncertainty after the insurer’s contract with the health system expired this week.
Simon Cowell says he and Ryan Seacrest 'rarely talk now'
The two worked together for years on "American Idol."
Verticals Platform DramaBox Courts Up-and-Coming Writers With Stage 32 Partnership (Exclusive)
The companies are launching a writer development program and competition as DramaBox looks to expand the pool of storytellers schooled in the fast-moving, addictive format.
Is Claude really writing 90% of the code inside the company? Anthropic's own research suggests otherwise
The company releases a study that shows its own engineers use Claude more to debug code than to write new software.
Is postmodernism wrecking science? In a provocative book, scientists weigh the evidence
War on Science takes aim at science’s global culture wars. Edited by controversial physicist Lawrence Krauss, it argues evidence-based science is under threat.
David Letterman to Interview Michael B. Jordan, MrBeast and Jason Bateman on Netflix Show
The three-episode sixth season returns on Dec. 16.
Letters to the Editor: Politics, policy and law are the very things that make up the world we live in
'Wake up, buddy — politics, policy and law will determine the world you and your family will live in, a world that is heading for catastrophe under the current lawless regime,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Madison Kozak Signs With Warner Chappell Music Nashville & The Core Entertainment
Singer-songwriter Madison Kozak has inked a co-publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music [...]
YouTube 'Recap' is like Spotify Wrapped for videos, starts rolling out today
YouTube is listening to feedback and officially launching “Recap,” its own take on Spotify’s popular Wrapped, which will walk you...
Letters to the Editor: As production moves overseas, it’s American entertainment workers who suffer
'As with any business that goes to other countries, people here start losing their incomes and life possibilities. This leads to a downward spiral of any household, community, town, city or state now missing spending potential and tax benefits,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
YouTube introduces its own version of Spotify Wrapped for videos
Watch out for what you’ve been watching.
Amazon Music’s 2025 Delivered is now here to compete with Spotify Wrapped
Amazon Music's 2025 Delivered introduced new badges for listeners to show off. For example, the “Headliner” badge recognizes fans who fall in the top percentage of an artist’s listeners.
Cancer. COVID. Strikes. After a 9-year journey, 'A Little Prayer' was still worth the wait
Writer-director Angus MacLachlan explains how his tiny indie surmounted so many hurdles — and why he still feels the 'Movie Gods' smiled upon him.
Ex-Army JAG: Hegseth shifting blame is indication ‘something’s gone terribly wrong’
BREAKING: New historic entertainment district designated in Downtown Madison
🚂 GREEN CUP DISTRICT IN MADISON: Check out the newest entertainment district in North Alabama.
'Tis the season: 'Ron DeSanta' wrapping paper available for holidays
'America's Governor' can be under America's Christmas trees this year.
NBA power rankings: Thunder dominate as Lakers, Pistons chase
The Oklahoma City Thunder are not only the first team to 20 victories, they also lead the NBA in net rating (12.7).
Boston 25 News
“Super Bowl Sunday is the world’s biggest entertainment stage, and we’re proud to spotlight artists who embody the very best of music and culture."
Opinion: Chicago's fiscal crisis demands a pro-growth strategy
Solving Chicago's $1.2 billion budget gap calls for pro-growth policies and real cost reforms to restore stability, writes the Chicagoland Chamber's president.
K&W Cafeterias close all locations after 88 years in business
K&W Cafeterias, a beloved Southern restaurant for 88 years, has closed all its locations.
UNC-Cigna health deal at a standstill
UNC Health and Cigna have not reached an agreement as of Monday morning, leaving Cigna subscribers facing "out of network" costs for UNC providers and hospitals.
GUEST COLUMN: What Washington’s elections say about Oregon politics
Elections in various states in November drew national attention and pundits read them closely for longer-term implications, but not in Oregon, where voters who received ballots (this writer did not) had little more than local ballot issues and other mostly low-key contests.
Wright State’s Raj Soin College of Business ranked among the best for entrepreneurs by Princeton Review
Wright State’s Raj Soin College of Business is the only university in Ohio named to the Princeton Review’s Top 50 Graduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies for 2026. Continue reading →
Hearing in case that could rewrite the rules of religion in politics
A Texas hearing saw pushback to the federal government's recent reversal of a decades-long precedent that banned churches from endorsing politicians.
The Clock Is Ticking for These Cyber Monday Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker Deals From Apple, Garmin, Samsung, and More
Cyber Monday November 2025 smartwatch and fitness tracker deals are ready for your wrist. Score an Apple Watch SE 3 for under $200 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 at 48% off.
'Out of network:' UNC Health-Cigna contract expires
UNC Health and Cigna have not reached an agreement as of Monday morning, leaving Cigna subscribers facing "out of network" costs for UNC providers and hospitals.
Seattle’s younger college grads far more likely to have studied science
Among younger Seattle adults who earned a college degree, 64% majored in a science-related subject, a higher share than older generations, writes FYI Guy.
NC State to open 2026 football season in Brazil vs. ACC opponent
The game will be the first Football Bowl Subdivision game played in Brazil. The NFL has played games in the country the last two seasons.
The New Art of the Peace Deal
The Trump administration’s business-first approach is rewriting the rules of peacemaking, for better or for worse.
WRDW TV and Peachtree Sports Network to Broadcast 10 Augusta Basketball Games
Augusta, Ga. - Augusta University basketball will once again be air on the Peachtree Sports Network. A total of 10 games, including four doubleheaders will be on WRDW-TV's affiliate for the second straight year.
Clinical Research Unit moves environmental health research forward
New medical director Lawrence Kirschner highlights the CRU’s role as a hub for translational studies connecting environmental exposures, genetics, and human health.
Scientists just found a way to tell if quantum computers are wrong
Researchers unveiled a new technique that validates quantum computer results—especially those from GBS devices—in minutes instead of millennia. Their findings expose unexpected errors in a landmark experiment, offering a crucial step toward truly reliable quantum machines.
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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