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Weekend Entertainment | ‘Brier Hill’ Film Hits the Mark
It has been a long time since a locally made movie attracted audiences as powerfully as “Brier Hill,” directed by Jimmy Taaffe of Struthers.
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.
'Not the time to lose our heads'
Burnley forward Lyle Foster says the team must draw confidence from their performance against Crystal Palace, despite slipping to a fifth consecutive Premier League defeat. Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Foster stressed the importance of staying calm and maintaining belief during a difficult run. "After last night, we can take a lot of confidence and strength from the performance we have given," Foster said.
Medieval volcanoes may have ignited the Black Death
More than just rats and fleas added to the 'perfect storm' plague.
Volcanic eruption triggered 'butterfly effect' that led to the Black Death, researchers find
A volcanic eruption in 1345 may have kicked off a series of events that led to the Black Death sweeping through medieval Europe.
AMC Entertainment CEO remains in charge of world's largest theater chain after stroke
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron suffered a minor stroke last month but is recovering rapidly and will continue to lead the world’s biggest movie theater chain, the company said Thursday. Aron, 71, suffered the stroke while on a business trip in London, where he immediately received emergency medical care, the company said. “Given his mental acuity and physical resilience, Mr. Aron remains in full command at the helm of AMC and continues to perform his duties as chairman, chief executive officer and president,” AMC said in a release.
Women’s Health Is Chronically Understudied and Underfunded. It’s Time for a Change
For millions of women, TikTok has become a doctor's office: Scroll through the app and you'll see endless videos about menopause, joint pain, hormone therapy – featuring no small amount of pseudoscience. Though misguided, this digital quest for medical knowledge is only a symptom of a larger issue:
States Tighten Oversight of Private Equity in Health Care
Private equity’s footprint in health care has expanded rapidly over the past decade, and in response states have begun to retool long‑standing doctrines
iPhone Air's Resale Value Has Dropped Dramatically, Data Shows
The iPhone Air has recorded the steepest early resale value drop of any iPhone model in years, with new data showing that several configurations have lost almost 50% of their value within ten weeks of launch. According to a ten-week analysis published by SellCell, Apple's latest lineup is showing a pronounced split in resale performance between the iPhone 17 models and the iPhone Air. SellCell examined real-time trade-in pricing from more than 40 U.S.
Isaac TeSlaa start or sit: Week 14 fantasy football advice
We break down the fantasy football outlook of Isaac TeSlaa ahead of the Lions’ Week 14 matchup vs. the Cowboys.
Gruber: Apple employees 'giddy' about Alan Dye’s departure
Yesterday, Bloomberg broke the surprise news that Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design since 2015, is departing...
Affordable Care Act premiums are set to spike. A new poll shows enrollees are already struggling
A new survey of Affordable Care Act health insurance enrollees finds that many are already struggling with the high cost of health care
The shifting responses of Hegseth, Trump and others on the lethal boat strikes
The Trump administration is facing increased scrutiny about its Sept. 2 military strikes on a boat it says was smuggling drugs to the U.S.
Amazon explores cutting ties with USPS, building its own delivery network
Amazon looks into expanding its nationwide delivery network and giving up its longstanding partnership with the U.S. Postal Service.
Fitterfly (a division of PB Health) Secures Patent for PGR Technology to Drive Better Diabetes Outcomes
Fitterfly by PB Health has secured the patent for its proprietary Personalised Glycemic Response (PGR) technology. This AI-led engine powers its Diabetes Care Programs and enables personalised, data-driven care at scale.
The Tragedy of Christian Power Politics
“There is a time for war,” says the preacher in Ecclesiastes, “and a time for peace.” Let the present time point toward the time of perfect and ultimate peace, when the swords of nations shall be beaten into plowshares.
Wake County Public Health awarded reaccreditation with honors status
The Wake County Public Health Department has been recognized as accredited with honors by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board, achieving a perfect score by meeting 147 of 147 accreditation standards. This distinction highlights the department's unwavering commitment to excellence in public health service and community well-being.
Through the lens: Four decades of arts & entertainment with photojournalist Roger Mastroianni
For more than 40 years, photojournalist Roger Mastroianni has chronicled Cleveland's arts, healthcare, and corporate landscapes—capturing everything from Cleveland Orchestra performances to hospital operating rooms.
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.
Meta poaches Apple design exec Alan Dye
Dye led Apple's user interface team for the last decade.
Meta poaches Apple design exec Alan Dye to lead new creative studio in Reality Labs
Dye led Apple's user interface team for the last decade.
Alex Karp says Palantir is 'highly ethical' but doesn't need you to believe him
Alex Karp says his data analytics company is "highly ethical" and that Trump has "performed" on immigration policies.
Wolfe Mountain Entertainment presents holiday radio play in Pomeroy
Wolfe Mountain Entertainment will present “It’s a Wonderful Life, a live radio play” next weekend at New Beginnings United Methodist Church.
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.
Google shares 10 of its favorite Chrome extensions from 2025.
The list is heavy on extensions that use AI like Monica and Sider that can summarize web pages and videos, Quillbot for proofing or generating text, and eJOY that can expand your vocabulary while surfing the web. But Google also gives a shoutout to the simple but powerful image editing tools in Adobe’s Photoshop extension. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/google_chrome.jpg?quality=90&strip=all]
All weapon buffs & nerfs in Warzone & Black Ops 7 Season 1
Here are all of the weapon buffs and nerfs in Warzone and Black Ops 7’s Season 1 update, which are set to completely change the meta.
Key Trump ally attacks Speaker Johnson as GOP holds House narrowly
Elise Stefanik, a GOP candidate for New York governor, told the Wall Street Journal that House Republicans have underperformed under Mike Johnson.
Quin Hillyer: Louisiana should think twice before cutting from Safe Havens for mental health
The St. Tammany Parish Council seems poised to eliminate funding for its Safe Haven mental health campus. That would be a major mistake, this columnist argues, adding that the underfunding of mental health care is a statewide problem.
In unexpected moment of candor, Shapiro says Harris told ‘blatant lies’ about him
Shapiro appeared to also dismiss some of Harris’s accounts about him in her memoir, “107 Days,” by telling the Atlantic, “She’s trying to sell books.”
Trump says he will pardon Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar
Cuellar was charged last year with bribery, money laundering and conspiracy. His wife, Imelda, also will receive a pardon, according to Trump.
I think the Galaxy Z TriFold is a wonderful laptop – you can kiss your tablet goodbye, too
Media junkies, professionals, creators: the Galaxy Z TriFold is for every power user under the sun.
Microsoft warns latest Windows 11 updates might break the Start menu, Taskbar, and other integral UI bits — here's what you need to know
Windows 11 PCs that are targeting enterprise use may experience an issue where system-level UI surfaces and apps such as the Taskbar, Start Menu, and Settings app will fail to load or crash.
It’s not just vaccines. How RFK Jr. is reshaping public health messaging
Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services uses its social media channels to promote Kennedy himself and his agenda.
The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment 2025
After another wild year for the industry, the women making the biggest impact across film and television reveal their predictions for Hollywood 2026, discuss the perks and pains of AI and even pitch their dream storylines for The Studio.
VA staff flag dangerous errors ahead of new health records expansion
A multibillion-dollar electronic system seeks to boost medical care for veterans across VA’s network. Some users say glitches and errors put patients at risk.
Big Four promotions hinge less on performance and more on office politics, researchers say
Promotion reviews often end up as "political arenas" where managers lobby, trade favors, and defend their protégés, a multi-university study found.
Big Four promotions hinge less on performance and more on office politics, researchers say
Promotion reviews often end up as "political arenas" where managers lobby, trade favors, and defend their protégés, a multi-university study found.
Time running out for Trump, lawmakers to fix soaring health care costs
Millions of Americans will see a big jump in prices after year's end - if a bipartisan agreement remains elusive to keep costs down
Time running out for Trump, lawmakers to fix soaring health care costs
Millions of Americans will see a big jump in prices after year's end - if a bipartisan agreement remains elusive to keep costs down
How George Soros changed criminal justice in America
The liberal funder has spent tens of millions of dollars swinging dozens of district attorney races, drawing a backlash from the right.
Health insurance costs could spike, as bipartisan ACA deal looks less likely
With a ticking clock and no clear bipartisan path forward, extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies is becoming more challenging.
Doctors warn delaying hepatitis B shot for newborns could revive a deadly threat
As RFK Jr.'s new vaccine panel ponders changing the hepatitis B vaccination schedule, some doctors recall past patients, including children, who died painful deaths before there was a vaccine.
Delaware State hosts Navy following Benigni's 24-point performance
Navy Midshipmen (4-5) at Delaware State Hornets (2-7) Dover, Delaware; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Midshipmen -11.5; over/under is 134.5 BOTTOM LINE: Navy visits Delaware State after Austin Benigni scored 24 points in Navy's 69-65 loss to the SE Louisiana Lions. The Hornets have gone 2-0 in home games.
Crystal Palace XI vs Burnley – Predicted lineup and team news
Crystal Palace travel to Turf Moor on Wednesday looking to get their season back on track. After a promising start to the season, Oliver Glasner’s side recently lost consecutive games against Strasb...
Republican Matt Van Epps will win Tennessee special election, averting Democratic upset, CNN projects
Republican Matt Van Epps will win the special US House election for Tennessee’s 7th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, preventing an upset but emboldening Democrats as they were on track to over-perform in a normally deep-red district.
Scientists Uncover New Evidence of Ancient Airbursts That Ravaged Earth Without Leaving Craters
Scientists are uncovering signs that Earth has been hit by powerful cosmic blasts that leave little trace on the surface yet unleash extraordinary heat and pressure.
Olympic ice surface being built to specs smaller than NHL rinks, per source, sparking new concerns
The Olympic rink will have a shorter length but not substantially greater width, per a source, leaving players with less room to maneuver.
Trump appears to doze off in another meeting
It was the second time in a month Trump has appeared to struggle to stay awake as his advisers have spoken to cameras about the administration’s initiatives.
RFP Electronic Health Records System
The Sonoma County Department of Health Services (Department) is pleased to invite you to respond to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Electronic Health Records System. The Department is seeking a vendor that has experience providing comprehensive EHR systems in a California County Department or Division of Public Health Services. The system should be a single, comprehensive solution to address public health and medication and case management workflows and documentation. Proposals must be received no later than 2:00 P.M. on January 13, 2026.
Oregon’s governor unveils a ‘roadmap’ to business prosperity. Here’s what’s at stake
The blueprint comes as Oregon faces sluggish population growth, high housing costs and other faltering economic indicators.
Trump rails against Somali migrants: ‘I don’t want them in our country’
The president blasted Minnesota’s Somali community as “garbage” in a rant also attacking Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Political Points: Tracking North Central Florida politics, campaigns, and governance
WCJB TV20 provides regular updates on the latest news in politics, campaigns, and governance across North Central Florida.
Opinion | Big business finally joins the fight against Trump’s tariffs
Costco becomes the largest company to sue over the administration’s trade policy.
Former NBA player calls out LeBron James for stat-padding
Los Angeles Lakers star forward LeBron James kept his streak of 10-plus point performances alive against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. The Lakers lost the game, 125-108, but James scored 10 points to push his streak to an impressive 1,297 games. While James’ streak is staggering, not everyone is impressed with how he continued it against Phoenix.
Indiana maps drawn 'purely for political performance' of GOP, bill author says
The author of Indiana's new congressional redistricting bill acknowledged the maps are "politically gerrymandered" but defended them against accusations of illegal racial gerrymandering.
Millie Bobby Brown Has A New Name
During a YouTube interview entitled “Stranger Things Quiz On Me,” Noah Schnapp was asked if he knew his co-star’s real name.
Live Results: Tennessee 7th Congressional District special election
Less than a month after Democrats scored a string of victories over Republicans in the Nov. 4 general election, the next test at the ballot box for both parties heading into the 2026 midterm season will be Tuesday in a Tennessee special congressional election on usually reliable GOP turf.
Christopher Vitullo Promoted to Sports Performance Coach
LOWELL, Mass. – Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Performance Marcus Williams has announced the promotion of Chris Vitullo to Sports Performance Coach.
Intensifying Regulatory Pressures Force Seismic Shift in Health Plan Concerns for 2026 According to HealthEdge Research
BOSTON, December 02, 2025--As healthcare organizations navigate an increasingly complex policy environment, 85% of health plan executives say regulatory pressures are impacting their costs and margins, according to new research published today by HealthEdge®. The report, "The Great Rebalancing: Inside the New Realities Shaping Health Plan Performance," identifies the top challenges in the payer market, how they are evolving, and strategies health plans are deploying to overcome them.
Minnesota Vikings earn rough grade from Week 13 performance
The Vikings did not have a good week against the Seahawks and their grade reflected it from CBS Sports.
Younghoe Koo on botched field goal: The ball was slipping so I pulled up
Giants kicker Younghoe Koo made one of the strangest plays of this NFL season when he kicked the turf in front of the football, not the ball itself, leaving holder Jamie Gillan with nothing to do but pick up the ball and run, which he did for a 13-yard loss.
INSEAD Holds Top Spot In Financial Times European Business School Ranking
A look at how European business schools fare across Full-Time MBA, Executive MBA, MiM, and Executive Education measures
Opinion | Democrats won an opening on health care. Here’s how they can use it.
Five reforms can cut costs across the system.
I got laid off from Meta as a 'low performer' and can't find a job
Brittney Ball is struggling to find work nine months after her Meta layoff. She's using this time to start her own tech company and go to college.
How the U.S. let ‘everywhere chemicals’ threaten your health
These chemicals continue to contaminate Americans’ food, decades after scientists recognized their dangers.
Corporations to claim $16B from retroactive GOP tax break, federal report says
The Republican tax law's bonus depreciation provision is expected to cost $362.7 billion over the next ten years, with corporations claiming $16 billion in new tax breaks this year.
Why Republicans are sweating Tuesday’s special election in ‘Trump Country’
The surprisingly competitive race in Tennessee’s ruby-red 7th Congressional District is a high-profile test of voters’ attitudes about the president’s agenda.
21 South Bend area restaurants with priority health violations; 59 get perfect inspection
The health violations occurred during health inspections from Oct. 1-15.
Cal, Utah face off following impressive victories
Cal will aim to stay perfect at home Tuesday when it welcomes Utah to Berkeley, Calif.
Gen Z And AI In The Business World
Gen Z founders surf AI-driven digital waves, prioritizing collaboration, owned platforms, differentiation, and hyper-personalized engagement.
I'm a New Yorker who went to Naples, Florida, for the first time, and 6 things surprised me
My first trip to Naples, Florida, surprised me with waterfront mansions, canals, and a luxurious local airport.
Schumer says three of his New York offices were targeted with bomb threats
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says three of his New York offices were targeted with emailed bomb threats from an email address alleging the “2020 election was rigged.”
Penn State vows it won't 'look ahead' past Campbell
After its lowest-scoring game of the season, Penn State has responded with back-to-back 90-point performances.
How hedge funds like Citadel, Balyasny, ExodusPoint, and more performed in November
Many hedge funds outperformed the modest 0.1% gain in November by the S&P 500 in
The Red Sox are already crying poor
As free agency begins, the Red Sox want you to believe they don’t make money.
White House reveals new details on Donald Trump's MRI
President Trump’s MRI showed perfectly normal cardiovascular and abdominal results, with the White House saying he remains in excellent health.
Mikel Merino - could he be Arsenal's number nine?
Arsenal's draw with Chelsea was not their best performance of the season but the sight of Mikel Merino wheeling away after scoring an important goal has become a familiar welcome sight for the Gunners.
Vikings waive Adam Thielen, who requested to finish NFL career elsewhere before retiring
The Vikings announced on Monday they are waiving Adam Thielen at his request, as he intends to retire after the end of the 2025 season.
College basketball rankings see Michigan soar in USA TODAY Sports coaches poll
A dominant performance in Las Vegas during the week of Thanksgiving has Michigan rising in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll.
Best performances from 49ers' convincing road win vs. Browns
The 49ers stayed hot, winning their third straight. A look at San Francisco's best performers in its win at the Cleveland Browns.
Inside this year’s White House holiday decor
It took 150 volunteers working for one week, with 25,000 feet of ribbon, 120 pounds of gingerbread, more than 10,000 butterflies and a 6,000-piece Lego portrait of President Donald Trump’s likeness to deck the White House halls this year.
Alina Habba, Trump's former lawyer, disqualified as New Jersey prosecutor
The ruling from a panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes amid the push by President Donald Trump's Republican administration to keep Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful post charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.
Science on Tap: The science behind food
Wisconsinites tend to take pride in being the dairy state, encouraging the love of everything from cheese curds to custard to cream puffs.But are you aware of how much research goes into perfecting the products?
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Jersey City’s mayoral runoff election
Voters in New Jersey’s second-largest city will get another chance to elect a new mayor Tuesday in a runoff election
Super Bowl 2026: Pregame performers include Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile
Charlie Puth will sing the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will perform “America the Beautiful,” and Coco Jones will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The most powerful news photos of the year
The most powerful news photos taken by Getty Images photographers in 2025 captured political unrest, natural disasters, and other major news events.
Ebola outbreak in Congo declared over by health officials
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now over, Congolese health officials announced on Monday, after the country went 42 consecutive days without recording a new case.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Tennessee's special congressional election
Less than a month after Democrats scored big victories in the Nov. 4 general election, voters in a heavily Republican Tennessee congressional district will fill a vacant seat Tuesday in the closely divided U.S. House
New Editorial Leadership for Twin Cities Business
MSP Communications announces appointment of Platt and Rybak to new roles.
'Wonderful and kind' TV star stopped by multiple businesses in Peoria
The well-known actor was in town for the 2025 Illinois Comic Con and patronized local businesses.
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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