7/1/15 7/1/15

The visual sociologist

Samsara speaks to Terence Heng, a visual sociologist who studies Chinese Christian wedding rituals, spirit mediums, grave exhumation rituals and other exciting stuff.

6/30/15 6/30/15

A map of Asia that doesn't include Utopia isn't worth glancing at*

Like hypochondriac dads in their quest for perfect health, there isn't a social experiment that we haven't tried in the quest for Utopia.

6/29/15 6/29/15

Trop picks: Lotus

A floral arrangement and a philosophy lesson.

6/26/15 6/26/15

The open hand

The inspiration behind Moshe Safdie's design for the Art Science Museum in Singapore: Le Corbusier's "Open Hand" in Chandigarh?

6/26/15 6/26/15

Conspicuous consumption

An appreciation of the Mughal wine cup.

6/25/15 6/25/15

If you want to save the planet, don't buy so much stuff

Recycling doesn’t let us off the hook for our consumption choices.

6/24/15 6/24/15

One man's trash is another's treasure

The global scrap trade conjures up ugly images of ragpickers and mountains of trash, but it's actually one of globalisation's great green successes.

6/17/15 6/17/15

Janice Nimura on the importance of being amphibious

Janice Nimura on her book, "Daughters of the Samurai," a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, and on living a three-dimensional life.

6/16/15 6/16/15

Trop picks: Spanish Moss

Rootless plants need water too.

6/12/15 6/12/15

Did the early Buddhists pioneer the art of mass communication?

The Buddha's teachings were not easy to understand. And yet, millions of people adopted these teachings as their own. All without a single religious war.

6/11/15 6/11/15

The dilemma of an American education

6/5/15 6/5/15

Trop picks: Monstera

Here's a clever tweak on the ancient custom of eating off banana leaves.

6/4/15 6/4/15

The daredevil aviatrixes of China

The phenomenal feats of the world's most glamorous aviatrixes.

6/3/15 6/3/15

A moral creativity

Why, as a society, we need to move beyond current paradigms of creativity to a moral creativity.

6/2/15 6/2/15

The true cost of gold

Gold is priced at more than thousand dollars per ounce, but this does not begin to capture its true cost, most of which is not borne not by consumers.