Brandon McMurtrie

Mar 21, 2024 | quillette.com | Kevin Mims |Mathias Sundin |Brandon McMurtrie |Larissa Phillips

I. William Shatner, who turns 93 today, will always be best remembered for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series. Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry deserves a lot of credit for the enduring popularity and influence of the program, but it was Shatner who made the main character indelible. By the 1990s, a lot of people had begun to think of Shatner as a shameless ham—the TV actor who overplayed every role.

Mar 21, 2024 | quillette.com | Mathias Sundin |Kevin Mims |Brandon McMurtrie |Larissa Phillips

The Swedish radio program Summer is listened to by more than 20 percent of the population, many of whom still tune in live via the radio. Sitting in blossoming gardens, listeners may have choked on their lemonade when Tegmark decided to announce the end of humanity:I’ve been thinking a lot about life and death lately. Now, it’s probably my turn next in my family. But I guess the rest of humanity will perish about the same time—after over a hundred thousand years on our planet.

Mar 21, 2024 | quillette.com | Brandon McMurtrie |Robert Zubrin |Maarten Boudry |Meghan Daum

In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche devotes a short chapter to the so-called “improvers of mankind.” A favored tactic of these people, Nietzsche writes, is that of “pia fraus,” or pious fraud. In Nietzsche’s time, this was a kind of lie often told by religious men, prophets, priests, or shamans—ostensibly moral people averse to deceit—in the service of some supposed larger truth or higher good.

Mar 11, 2024 | quillette.com | Zoe Booth |Claire Lehmann |Jay Sophalkalyan |Brandon McMurtrie

In this episode, Claire and I discuss the concept of confected radicalism, which refers to young activists who seek out radical causes despite the success of past movements. VIDEOListen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Apple.

Mar 11, 2024 | quillette.com | Michael Bernstein |Brandon McMurtrie |Brian Stewart

The term “nocebo effect” derives from the Latin word nocere, which translates roughly as “to harm” (as in the Hippocratic injunction, primum non nocere—first, do no harm). Whereas the better-known placebo effect is typically positive (the alleviation of pain or malaise through treatments that otherwise have no inherent therapeutic value); the nocebo effect is negative, often manifesting as headache, skin irritation, or nausea.