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Suspected drunk driver crashes into Manatee County business
Security footage from the store shows the moment the vehicle slammed through the glass doors.
Supreme Court hands Trump victory in fight over Texas congressional map
The decision marks the latest development in a battle between Republican and Democratic states that seek partisan advantage ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Arts and Entertainment Agenda, Dec. 5-12
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet ‘The Nutcracker,’ Dec. 5 Aspen Santa Fe Ballet returns in its 35th anniversary year to perform “The Nutcracker” between Dec. 5-7 at Aspen District Theater. The highly-anticipated performances will take place...
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.
Issa will run for reelection in California rather than move to Texas
Rep. Darrell Issa, whose San Diego-area district was redrawn to favor Democrats, said he would run for reelection in California rather than moving to Texas to run in a safe GOP seat.
2026 FIFA World Cup draw storylines: USMNT's path, Yamal's first crack and more
The Americans will hope to avoid the Group of Death and receive a clear path to the knockout stages
The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include. Meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are roiled by debates over vaccines. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani about her project tracking opioid settlement payments.
To counter climate denial, UN scientists must be 'clear' about human role: IPCC chief
With US President Donald Trump and other sceptics calling climate change a hoax, the UN's climate science body must tell the world in a "very clear way" that humans are heating the planet, its chairman told AFP. Jim Skea, a Scottish professor, chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which held a five-day meeting in a skyscraper outside Paris this week to begin drafting the next major UN climate assessment.I mean, we concluded in our last report, very simple conclusion: It is
A US aircraft carrier's hard turn to avoid enemy fire surprised sailors and sent a jet with bad brakes into the sea
The $60 million F/A-18 and a tow tractor slid off the USS Harry S. Truman while it evaded a Houthi missile attack, new documents show.
Cowboys can secure NFC No. 1 overall seed if not-so-crazy scenario plays out
Dallas would have to pull upset over the Lions on Thursday, then win out. After that, things get very interesting.
Andy Kim Battles His Own Party in Fight Against Corruption
The US senator is pushing back against New Jersey Democrats' efforts to undermine government oversight.
‘One of the most troubling things I’ve seen’: lawmakers briefed on double-tap strike
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
NCAA-backed effort to reshape college sport regulations has hit a wall in Congress
House Republicans plans to vote on a bill regulating college sports has been scrapped due to divisions within their caucus
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.
La La Land: the crazy politics of the world’s oldest asset
Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. This week, why land is an asset like no other
Schumer to force Senate GOP to vote on three-year extension of health insurance subsidies
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced Thursday that Democrats will force Republican senators to vote next week on a three-year extension of enhanced health insurance premium subsi…
Schumer says Democrats will bring up bill to extend health care tax credits for 3 years
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that Democrats will offer a clean three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for a vote next week.
Dog Parents, Rejoice: Science Says Your Pup Might Actually Help Your Teen’s Well-Being (Including Their Gut)
Like most parents of teens, you’re probably constantly trying to decode what actually supports your kids’ emotional well-being. Some days it feels like a moving target: school pressure, friendship drama, big emotions, changing hormones—it’s a lot. But one constant in your house could be… your dog. Your family pup can somehow manage to crack open …
14 rules to dance with the systems of business and life
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Watch live: House Democrats target Trump over health care, affordability
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee are holding a hearing Thursday morning on President Trump’s economic agenda: From rising health care pre…
Suspect arrested in January 2021 D.C. pipe bomb case
The bombs were planted outside the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters in Washington, D.C, on the eve of the January 6 siege on the Capitol.
FBI makes arrest in DC pipe bomber investigation
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Latest Windows 11 updates may break the OS's most basic bits
: Microsoft warns Start menu, Explorer, and other XAML apps can crash or vanish on managed devices
Why Trump and Democrats are speaking the same language on health care
President Donald Trump is pushing for an extension of soon-to-expire Obamacare subsidies – a key Democratic proposal that Republicans fought fiercely and that was the basis for the longest-ever government shutdown.
Why Trump and Democrats are speaking the same language on health care
President Donald Trump is pushing for an extension of soon-to-expire Obamacare subsidies – a key Democratic proposal that Republicans fought fiercely and that was the basis for the longest-ever government shutdown.
Meet ESPN’s music man—what brands can learn from the sounds of sports
Inside Kevin Wilson’s 32-year run choosing the songs that shape the network’s identity.
Waynesboro went blue this year. Changing demographics have changed the city’s politics.
The city voted Democratic for the first time in a governor’s race in 40 years. That realignment is being driven by an influx of new residents, many of them working in or around Charlottesvill…
No 10 to delay four England mayoral elections amid accusations of ‘cancelling democracy’
Ministers will argue that four newly created mayoralties need more time to complete reorganisation
Merz in Danger With Business Warning Germany Is in ‘Free Fall’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s unwieldy ruling alliance with the Social Democrats is facing an existential crisis of its own making that could trigger its demise after only seven months in office.
The Tennessee 'waltz': Republicans and Democrats dance around special election results meaning
Tennessee special election results spark debate over 2026 midterms as Republicans maintain House seat despite heavy Democratic spending and efforts.
Frustrated GOP barrels toward key health insurance vote without a clear plan
Some Senate Republicans are expressing frustration that their conference hasn’t been able to unify behind a health care plan ahead of a vote next week on a Democratic proposal to extend health insu…
Embattled Rep. Henry Cuellar to run for reelection as Democrat after Trump pardon
Trump issued a pardon for Cuellar, who was indicted on counts of bribery, conspiracy and money laundering.
Sacramento Kings at Houston Rockets odds, picks and predictions
The Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets clash Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Mandela Barnes signals support for redrawing Wisconsin congressional maps
Democratic candidate for governor Mandela Barnes is signaling support for redrawing congressional boundaries in Wisconsin.
Is a blue wave headed for Trump, GOP? Tennessee sends 'warning signs'
Democratic party leaders are sounding increasingly optimistic about 2026, while Republicans are the ones expressing concerns of a midterm wipeout.
Woman’s shocking act in public pool leaves people appalled: ‘The world has gone crazy!’
The woman was recorded partaking in the bizarre act in Sydney, Australia.
Trump pardons Democrat Henry Cuellar claiming Biden political attack
Trump claims Biden admin targeted Cuellar for his criticism of US border policy in latest pardon.
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.
Trump says he’s pardoning Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is issuing a “full and unconditional” pardon to Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, using a lengthy social media post to accuse the Biden administration of targeting political opponents, even within its own party.
"Joke's on you," says No Man's Sky lead as rival survival game confirms it's replacing an eerily familiar cosmetic
Once Human has been accused of imitating and adapting a No Man's Sky teleporter to create a decorative item included in its loot crates.
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.
DevvStream and Southern Energy Renewables Announce Business Combination Targeting Low-Cost Production of Carbon-Negative SAF and Green Methanol
SACRAMENTO, Calif. & NEW ORLEANS, December 03, 2025--DevvStream Corp. (Nasdaq: DEVS) ("DevvStream"), a leading carbon management and environmental-asset monetization firm, and Southern Energy Renewables Inc. ("Southern"), a U.S.-based producer of low-cost fuels made from biomass, with a flagship Louisiana project that plans to utilize regional wood-waste biomass to deliver green methanol and carbon-negative sustainable aviation fuel ("SAF") at scale, today announced that they have entered into a
Democrats Just Lost an Election by 9 Points. Why Are They Celebrating?
It's a loss that suggests much bigger wins could be ahead.
Republicans barely won in a Trump-friendly Tennessee district. Here’s what it means for Pennsylvania and 2026.
The fact Democrats turned a special election in a deep-red district into a nail-bitter is a bad sign for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Modelo and Corona are unexpected casualties of Trump’s immigration crackdown
Constellation Brands, the US owner of Modelo Especial and Corona, bet big on Latino customers for growth. But that strategy is unraveling under the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.
Athens area voters to decide new state representative in special election
With a state House seat in Athens open, Republicans are looking to preserve the seat while Democrats are hoping to flip it.
New York lawmakers aim to move 2028 primaries up to Super Tuesday
The voters who chose Zohran Mamdani might be about to get a bigger voice in picking Democrats’ next presidential nominee.
Pittsburgh’s People of Year 2025
Whatever may be happening at the national level, progressives in Pittsburgh are undeterred. The local Democratic Party has shored up and built on its base. Prominent left-leaning candidates now hold office everywhere from the county to Congress. Following November’s blue wave election, high off-year turnout propelled even more local progressives into office. Among their number […]
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.
Republican Matt Van Epps holds deep-red House district in Tennessee special election
Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn, NBC News projects, after an expensive campaign to replace former Rep. Mark Green.
Republicans want a health care plan. They don’t know what will go in it.
House and Senate Republicans need to build consensus around a health care proposal by the end of next week if they want to compete with a Democratic plan.
More Americans Say Political Rhetoric Has Gone Too Far
Larger majorities than in 2011 say Republicans (69%) and Democrats (60%) go too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their opponents.
Space is filling with junk and scientists have a fix
Earth’s orbit is getting crowded with broken satellites and leftover rocket parts. Researchers say the solution is to build spacecraft that can be repaired, reused, or recycled instead of abandoned. They also want new tools to collect old debris and new data systems that help prevent collisions. The goal is to make space exploration cleaner and more sustainable.
Gutfeld: Democrats only care about victims for ‘politics’
‘The Five’ co-hosts discuss the Trump administration’s drug crackdown and alleged ‘double tap’ of suspected drug boats in Venezuela.
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.
Tennessee election updates: Voters hit polls in tighter-than-expected race
Tennessee's House District 7 was supposed to be Democrat-proof, but a progressive state representative is looking for an upset over her GOP rival.
Politician Ayachi Hammami latest arrest in Tunisia opposition crackdown
Tunisia opposition says charges are fabricated, as police enforce a five-year prison sentence.
Top Democratic senator on boat strike: I’m ‘very suspicious’ that administration is trying to ‘cover up what took place’
Broadway Box Office: ‘Hamilton’ Hits Record $4.9 Million
'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' also brought in a massive $3.1 million over the lucrative Thanksgiving week.
Ex-U.S. House candidate Adem Bunkeddeko running for N.Y. state comptroller
He joins a field of Democrats challenging longtime incumbent Tom DiNapoli.
Al Gore urges Democrats to send a 'shock wave' in Tennessee race
The former vice president made a rare return to the campaign trail as he delivered an impassioned plea to Tennesseans to vote for Democrat Aftyn Behn.
'Affordability is a con job by the Democrats': Trump tells Cabinet.
Trump promoted lower inflation and tariffs at a Cabinet meeting where he called Democratic complaints about 'affordability' a 'scam.'
NASA's PUNCH Tracks Comet Discovered by SOHO Spacecraft
From August to October, NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission tracked comet 2025 R2 (SWAN) — one of the thousands of comets
Minecraft’s new version numbering system
We’re making changes to version numbering in Minecraft. Now the version number will be based on calendar year, e.g. “26” for 2026, followed by the release number. We hope this'll make it easier to distinguish major releases from patches or hotfixes. Find out more in this article!
GOP Iowa state Treasurer Roby Smith is running for reelection in 2026
Smith narrowly defeated longtime Democratic Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald in 2022, becoming the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years.
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.
Meet Amar Subramanya, the 46-year-old Google and Microsoft veteran who will now steer Apple's supremely important AI strategy
“We are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple," CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
One month after Melissa, Jamaica scrambles to get back to business
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Antony Anderson had been on the job for exactly five months as Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States when his country suffered its worst natural disaster in history.
Curiosity Cracked Open a Rock on Mars And Revealed a Big Surprise
A first on the red planet!
Library offers custom ornaments for children’s holiday reading program
The Old Forge Library has begun a holiday reading incentive for children, offering personalized wooden ornaments crafted by Dennis Kenny for completing 10 books.
Opinion | Democrats won an opening on health care. Here’s how they can use it.
Five reforms can cut costs across the system.
Tennessee special election stirs Democratic hopes and Republican fears of an upset
Tennessee’s 7th congressional district is usually an easy win for Republicans. But Tuesday’s special election gives Democrats hope for an upset as they test just how far their recently successful message of affordability can take them.
Democrats and Republicans are pouring money into a special election in Tennessee. Here's why
Tuesday's special election for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District between Democrat Aftyn Behn and Republican Matt Van Epps has attracted outsize attention and spending from both parties.
Lammy to address ‘court emergency’ but expected to safeguard jury system
Justice secretary appears to have pulled back from plans to scrap juries for all but the most serious cases
Go behind the scenes at a successful Marin County estate sale business
From modest items to billionaires’ collections, this nearly 29-year-old San Rafael company has evolved from auctions to consignment with a model that seeks to help families find new homes for…
Samsung fully unveils its Galaxy Z TriFold phone, and it'll be available in Korea in a few days
The Galaxy Z TriFold will be available in Korea later this month, but no price has been revealed yet.
'Keep your mouth shut.' Mark Kelly hits back at Trump, Pentagon investigation
Mark Kelly alleged Donald Trump has “no regard for the rule of law" after the Pentagon announced investigation into the Democratic senator.
Does Congress see war crimes in Venezuela?
Amid reports Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan boat, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine about how Congress is handling oversight of the Pentagon.
The issue that's scrambling both parties: From the Politics Desk
Plus, Indiana lawmakers return to take up redistricting, even with the outcome uncertain.
6 big questions about the Trump administration’s boat strikes controversy
For days, President Donald Trump and his allies pilloried half a dozen Democrats for their video that urged troops to disobey any potential illegal orders from the administration
An extra solar system planet once orbited next to Earth — and it may be the reason we have a moon
Earth may have a moon today because a nearby neighbor once crashed into us, a new analysis of Apollo samples and terrestrial rocks reveals.
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.”
Proposed redistricting map shakes up congressional races as candidates are drawn out
Several challengers, both Republicans and Democrats, face new political battles in their races for Congress.
Think the viral meme of that legislator is funny?
Political philosopher says rampant schadenfreude among electorate poses risk to democracy.
Jeffries seeks to raise pressure on GOP centrists over expiring health care subsidies
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is pressing centrist Republicans to help Democrats extend ObamaCare tax credits before they expire at the end of the month. Jeffries has offered…
Buddy Dyer says Bale Dalton is the best Democrat to take on Cory Mills
'I’m honored to support him, and I encourage others who want a steady, principled voice in Congress to join me.'
Ratio Beerworks earns RiNo Art District’s Creative Business Award
Ratio Beerworks has received the RiNo Art District’s inaugural Creative Business Award, a new honor recognizing Denver’s creative economy.
CA migrant workers delay medical care during Trump’s immigration crackdown
Fewer immigrant farmworkers in California are showing up at pop-up medical clinics since Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Lane Kiffin picks LSU to highlight college football coaching carousel chaos
It was a crazy weekend in sports from Lane Kiffin taking the LSU job to all of the NFL upsets
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
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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