Up For Discussion

If You’re Happy and You Know It, Take A Survey

How Can We Most Effectively Measure Happiness?

John Stuart Mill famously wrote, “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” Ask yourself to put a metric on it, and it’s even worse. And yet we do need measurements of happiness, for all sorts of reasons. If nothing else, we need to fend off social policies that promote misery instead of well-being. So then it’s just about finding a way to put some numbers on it. In advance of “Does Happiness Keep the Doctor Away?”, a Zócalo event, we asked several people in the …

Read More

More In: Up For Discussion

Was that an FDR-Sized Stimulus?

Obama’s $800 Billion Bill Was Big, But It May Not Have Been a New Deal

Few people know that the federal stimulus legislation of 2009, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was twice as big as the Louisiana Purchase and Marshall Plan …

Woman, You Make Me Laugh

When It Comes to Humor, What’s the Difference Between Males and Females?

If we’ve widely accepted that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, we shouldn’t be surprised when what’s funny on one planet is considered crass or corny on …

If You Can’t Stand the Giants, Take a Walk

A Few Ways that L.A. Can Learn From San Francisco’s Example

San Francisco and Los Angeles are longtime rivals. They are very different places, but they also are both globally oriented cities in the very same state. And while the idea …

Is It Too Late To Not Be a Jerk?

A Discussion Of the Teachability Of Kindness

We can all point to some dreadful people who seem to live forever, but in general the numbers favor the good guys. According to researchers, being charitable in behavior—being kind—promotes …

Oops, We Put the Watchdog To Sleep

Can Anything Take the Place Of Hard-Hitting Newspapers?

In America, vigilance is a virtue. We are told that we must keep watch over our government. But we also have busy lives. For much of our history, vigilance has …


By continuing to use our website, you agree to our privacy and cookie policy.

✕

Get More Zócalo

No paywall. No ads. No partisan hacks. Ideas journalism with a head and a heart.

You may opt out or contact us anytime.

×