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BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES: BerkShares Business of the Month is Hilltown Restaurant
"Food has been in my blood and in my soul and in my family. Providing hospitality and connecting people through food just feels natural to me. At Hilltown we aim to practice a 'joyful hospitality,'" said Hilltown chef and owner Rafi Bildner.
MrBeast's former manager says the age of social-media superstars is fading
MrBeast's former manager Reed Duchscher said we're unlikely to see mega stars break out as algorithms favor smaller creators who make niche content.
I've traveled to 16 countries with my guide dog. He gives me freedom, but sometimes strangers make me want to stay home.
My guide dog helps me travel the world as a fully blind person. I don't take it for granted, but the hardest part is dealing with people's ignorance.
USDA imposes sanctions on Reedley produce business
USDA imposed sanctions against Integral Fresh LLC, which operates out of Reedley, along with four other produce businesses in California,
A Christmas message
Jonathan Freedland and the Politics Weekly America team are taking a break this week, but will be back with a new episode in the new year
Gov Sanders rejects demand from legal group to undo Christmas closure: 'I will do no such thing'
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders fires back at religious freedom group over new Christmas proclamation controversy, defending state office closures.
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, partners with global digital skills platform Simplilearn to launch five AI-focused professional programmes for business leaders
Simplilearn, which has more than eight million learners in 150+ countries, has agreed a strategic partnership with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, to deliver five cutting-edge programmes to professionals worldwide. Focused on AI-driven business and technology education, the programmes bring together the academic excellence of Oxford Saïd, as part of the world's #1-ranked university (Times Higher Education World University Rankings), with Simplilearn's international platform.
BUSINESS MONDAY: Spotlight on Core Kitchen—Heating things up with a winter residency at Gateways Inn in Lenox
Launched in October 2024, the couple-owned business has been offering private dinners, pop-ups, supper clubs, special events, micro-catering, and take-home heat-and-eat meals.
Orange Beach unanimously approves one-year extension on entertainment districts
The City of Orange Beach unanimously approved one-year extensions for two of its entertainment districts, maintaining current regulations surrounding alcohol consumption within these districts. …
See how players have qualified for the Masters
Players expected to compete in the 90th Masters on April 9-12 and how they qualified for their invitations. Players listed only in the first category for which they are eligible (a-amateur): Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Zach Johnson, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Jose Maria Olazabal, Fred Couples. Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas.
German business welcomes pending return of UK to Erasmus Programme
German business has welcomed the United Kingdom's re-entry into the European Union's Erasmus youth education programme from 2027 and hopes that it will lead to an easing of visa requirements. Ulrich Hoppe, head of the German-British Chamber of Commerce (AHK) described the decision as "a very significant step" in remarks made to dpa days after Brussels and London agreed on the step.
Fresno City Council selects business park alternative for SEDA, directs further analysis
KMPH Fox 26 is the Central Valley's news leader, covering Fresno, California and the surrounding area, including Clovis, Madera, Hanford, Visalia, Biola, Kerman, Tranquillity, San Joaquin, Reedley, Coalinga, Avenal, Lemoore, Tulare, Selma, Caruthers, Tollhouse, Three Rivers, Porterville, and Merced.
I'm 87 and earn $12 an hour working two jobs. I wish I were retired, but I have no choice but to work.
Rebecca Reed, 87, is still working out of necessity. She earns $12 an hour as a church secretary and an editorial assistant in New Orleans.
Trump in the White House: is it time to call it corruption?
Jonathan Freedland is joined by the anthropologist Prof Janine Wedel, as they wade through the most egregious allegations of corruption from Trump’s first year in office
Trump Media to Combine With TAE to Build Nuclear Fusion Business
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. and TAE Technologies Inc. agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction valued at more than $6 billion.
Sources: FSG to sell Penguins to Hoffman family
Fenway Sports Group has agreed in principle to sell the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Chicago-based Hoffmann family, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Amid extremist attacks, Senate must stop playing politics with Walker nomination
Each delay sends a message — not only to victims, but to their persecutors — that religious freedom is negotiable.
Once the Party of Business, Republicans Have Gone Rogue
The Republicans have always been enemies of labor. Now, freed from the shackles of their business patrons, Paul Heideman argues in his new book, the GOP may be more dangerous than ever.
Tipitina's Unveils Entertainment Schedule for Mardi Gras 2026: Galactic, The Rumble, Big Freedia, Dumpstaphunk and More
New Orleans beloved music venue, Tipitina’s, has unveiled its nightly schedule for Mardi Gras 2026. Festivities at the location will begin on Friday,
Tipitina's Unveils Entertainment Schedule for Mardi Gras 2026: Galactic, The Rumble, Big Freedia, Dumpstaphunk and More
New Orleans beloved music venue, Tipitina’s, has unveiled its nightly schedule for Mardi Gras 2026. Festivities at the location will begin on Friday,
Goblins and Gifts Galore in Goblin Greedings
Goblin Greedings descends on Sanctuary as Treasure Goblin variants roam in increased numbers and bountiful spoils. Earn bonus Whisper Caches and claim free holiday cosmetics.
Minister orders probe into foreign financial interference in UK politics
Communities Secretary Steve Reed says the country "must learn the lessons" from a recent court case.
WHO highlights health risks and opportunities in the global waste crisis
A new World Health Organization (WHO) report, Throwing away our health: the impacts of solid waste on human health – evidence, knowledge gaps and health sector responses, warns that poorly managed solid waste is driving a public health crisis and calls for urgent action to protect people and the environments they live in.Globally, the volume of municipal solid waste is growing at an unprecedented rate. Yet, many countries still lack the systems and resources to manage this waste safely. “Solid waste reflects how our societies produce and consume, and how we treat people and the environment in the process,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director a.i., Department of Environment, Climate Change, One Health & Migration at the World Health Organization. “If we continue to treat waste as an afterthought, we will lock in avoidable disease, climate pollution and deep social inequities. This report is a clear call to put health and equity at the centre of how we design, manage and ultimately reduce waste.”The report summarizes evidence on how solid waste – especially municipal solid waste – affects health through polluted air, water, soil and food. When waste is not collected, or is dumped, burned or not poorly treated, it can release hazardous chemicals, contaminate drinking-water sources and create breeding grounds for insects and rodents.Communities underserved by waste management services, those living near dumpsites and poorly managed landfills and incinerators, children and pregnant women, as well as waste workers – particularly those working informally – face the greatest risks. For the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) community, the report underlines that safe management of municipal and health care waste is integral to safely managed, climate-resilient systems.A large share of municipal solid waste is still not collected or is disposed of in uncontrolled conditions, including open dumpsites and open burning. These practices damage ecosystems, contribute to climate change and undermine efforts to build healthy cities. When waste is properly managed, however, it can become a resource – generating energy and creating green jobs. The report calls for a coordinated, multisectoral response grounded in the waste hierarchy: preventing waste where possible, then reducing, reusing and recycling, with safe recovery and disposal.Key actions for governments and partners include reducing waste generation at source; expanding affordable and reliable waste collection services, especially in underserved communities; improving control at recovery and disposal facilities; and eliminating open dumping and burning, including hazardous waste. The new report identifies a central role for the health sector in addressing solid waste as a public health threat. The health sector can prevent and minimize health-care waste at source, improve segregation and safe treatment, invest in cleaner climate-resilient technologies, and advocate for health-protective policies and standards. The report also encourages more surveillance, research and biomonitoring to strengthen the evidence base, and promotes social protection and inclusion of informal waste workers.“This report gives countries and health authorities a very practical agenda,” said Mr Bruce Gordon, Head, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, WHO. “Health ministries can start now by ensuring safe management of health-care waste, developing strong occupational health programmes for waste workers, and working with municipalities to reduce health risks from solid waste by closing open dumps and burn sites and gradually improving towards safe services. These concrete steps save lives today and will make cities cleaner and healthier in the future.
Jimmy Lai's daughter says he'd focus on family, not activism, if he's freed in Hong Kong
Pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai would devote himself to God and his family rather than political activism if he were released
Trump's religious freedom nominee is being held up by a former political foe, his allies say
Eight months after being nominated for an ambassadorship, former Rep. Mark Walker hasn’t had a hearing because of a senator he once ran against, sources say. Now, Trump is involved.
Prengwyn man admits part in illegal dog breeding business
Thomas John Jones, 27, admits to the charge which dates back to March 2015 when he was 17 years old.
$1.57M Alliance Entertainment and DirectToU class action settlement
DirectToU and Alliance Entertainment have agreed to pay $1.57 million to resolve claims they violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by sharing consumer information.
2025-26 college football bowl picks, predictions: Confidence rankings from proven expert
Thomas Casale revels rankings for college football bowl confidence pools
'Scary' if Foden still to improve
Former England forward Theo Walcott says that if there is "a lot more to come" for Manchester City's Phil Foden then it could be "scary". Boss Pep Guardiola was critical of Foden in his post-match interview with Match of the Day after their 3-0 win over Crystal Palace and Foden agreed with his manager in his own response to the game. "It was constructive criticism I felt," Walcott said.
BUSINESS MONDAY: Spotlight on Half Rats—Great Barrington’s friendly neighborhood wine bar
The name, from a Victorian slang term meaning “tipsy," is in keeping with the unpretentious approach to wine and the communal, convivial vibe. (Nibbles provided, or BYOF.)
Sapphire asks AMD for more freedom in partner GPU designs: “Let us go nuts"
Sapphire wants more control over card designs, TOXIC GPUs may return In an interview with Hardware Unboxed, Ed Crisler (NA PR Manager at Sapphire
‘Say Ja To Germany:’ 3 Top Business Schools Partner To Woo World’s Students
Mannheim Business School campus. Mannheim, along with ESMT Berlin and WHU, is calling international students and faculty to “Say JA to Germany” amid shifting global visa and academic freedom policies. As the U.S. and ... The post ‘Say Ja To Germany:’ 3 Top Business Schools Partner To Woo World’s Students appeared first on Poets&Quants.
Belarus frees prominent political prisoners as U.S. lifts sanctions on country's potash exports
Belarusian authorities on Saturday freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and other prominent political prisoners, a human rights group confirmed.
Amtrak's unionized workers are getting $900 holiday bonuses after their managers gave up half of theirs
Amtrak's unionized workers are getting $900 holiday bonuses after executives agreed to give up half of theirs, the Department of Transportation said.
Google quietly makes a major Play Store change Android users will hate
Google Play Store now gives you less freedom
The real reason behind Trump’s nasty breakup with Europe
Jonathan Freedland speaks to the US military scholar Joseph Stieb about the Trump administration’s national security strategy
Instead of fixing WoW’s new floating house exploit, Blizzard makes it official
“We all kinda immediately agreed this was way too cool to change.”…
Machado’s daughter accepts Nobel Peace Prize for Venezuelan opposition leader
She said Wednesday in a speech written by Machado that Venezuela shows the world “we must be willing to fight for freedom"
US Agrees on $1.7 Billion Health Funding Package With Uganda
The US and Uganda have agreed on a $1.7 billion health financing, part of a program that seeks to wean African nations off aid.
Private equity makes its first college sports play
The University of Utah has agreed to a for-profit deal with Otro Capital.
Pre-budget leaks ‘unacceptable’, Rachel Reeves tells MPs
Chancellor says income tax U-turn was agreed in partnership with Keir Starmer
Bipartisan bill looks to expand internet access in Iran
The FREEDOM Act proposes helping to expand internet freedom in Iran
US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive‘ Trump actions
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ category. Plus, the ‘gay wool’ taking over a New York catwalk
The Most Egregious Double Standard in Sports
For college coaches, greed is just business.
US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive‘ Trump actions
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ category
Oregon leaders pledge to make the state more business-friendly, but offer few specifics
Democrats and Republicans at a business summit agreed on Oregon's declining business appeal but offered minimal concrete plans before the 2026 legislative session.
Striking Legacy Health Workers Make (Slight) Headway
After saying it would only meet again with the union when the strike ended, Legacy agreed to mediation. But the conversation left the union underwhelmed.
OU instructor’s suspension fuels debate over politics reshaping universities
For some at OU, the essay debate draws into question the value of an OU degree and the broader impacts to academic freedom.
Oregon nurses rally to support striking specialists, practitioners at Legacy Health
As care providers with Legacy Health hospitals and clinics in the Portland area have been on strike, the healthcare group has agreed to resume mediations on Monday.
Nurses association welcomes mediation as Legacy Health returns to negotiation table
After four days of striking, Legacy Health has agreed to enter mediation with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and return to the bargaining table.
Continuing to Deliver on the America First Global Health Strategy with the Signing of the United States-Rwanda Bilateral Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding - United States Department of State
Today in Washington, Jeremy Lewin, Senior Official, Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom and Olivier Nduhungirehe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation signed the Department of State’s second bilateral health cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, between the United States and Rwanda. The five-year, $228 million arrangement outlines a comprehensive vision to […]
Budget hearings day 4: Business Council in the hot seat, state prisoners and more
The Wyoming Business Council faced scrutiny from state Freedom Caucus lawmakers who were skeptical of the economic development agency and its budget goals.
Supreme Court agrees to decide if Trump may end birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship with an executive order is constitutional, offering the justices an opportunity to revisit what has widely been considered settled law since the 19th Century.
GOP unveils plan for 'Trump Health Freedom Accounts' to replace Obamacare subsidies with state waivers
House GOP Rep. August Pfluger unveils the "More Affordable Care Act" to let states replace Obamacare with "Trump Health Freedom Accounts" and cross-state healthcare shopping options.
Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly $83 billion
Streaming giant Netflix has agreed to acquire film and television studio Warner Bros.The acquisition, which gives Netflix access to a vast film catalog as well as the prestigious streaming service HBO Max, is the largest consolidation deal in the entertainment industry since Disney's $71 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019.
Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion
A deal "could potentially be killing three birds with one stone," argues one Wall Street analyst, while another one touts "iconic franchises that could be exploited for decades to come."
Miami Freedom Park Announces First 125,000 Square Feet of Retail for Entertainment District at the Heart of Transformative New Development
Miami Freedom Park, the under-construction 131-acre hub for world-class sports, entertainment and recreation in the heart of Miami, and home of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF, announced an initial group of experiential businesses coming to its Entertainment District, marking a major milestone of the project’s first phase. The walkable
Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Just Gave Trump A Reality Check He Didn’t Ask For
Speaking at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women In Entertainment breakfast, Molly McNearney reflected on the significance of “freedom of speech.”
Arkansas parents voice concerns over voucher changes affecting homeschool sports funding
Educators and parents are reacting to proposed changes to Arkansas' school voucher program, known as the Educational Freedom Accounts, as lawmakers look to fine
Packers vs. Bears Injury Report
See who's in and who's out for the Week 14 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears on December 7, 2025.
Business concerns stall plan to let Chicagoans flag crosswalk, bus and bike lane parking scofflaws
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) agreed to put a hold on his proposed citizen reporting ordinance in hopes of striking a compromise that could appease the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Opinion | The Free Birth Movement Poses a Threat to Public Health
Having a baby without any medical help is the logical outcome of a centuries-long medical freedom movement.
PacificSource Medicaid patients warned they may lose coverage at Salem Health Jan. 1
As of Tuesday, PacificSource Community Solutions and Salem Health had not reached an agreement for in-network coverage for thousands of Salem Residents on the Oregon Health Plan for 2026. The parties announced earlier this week that they’d agreed on coverage for PacificSource patients with commercial insurance or Medicare.
Top Democratic senator on boat strike: I’m ‘very suspicious’ that administration is trying to ‘cover up what took place’
$3.5 Million Mindpath Health Data Breach Settlement Gets First Nod
A California Superior Court judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement to resolve litigation against Community Psychiatry Management, LLC, Mindpath Health has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit stemming from a 2022 breach of its Microsoft Office email environment that exposed the protected health information of almost 194,000 individuals.
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.
UnitedHealth agrees to sell South American business to private equity firm Patria for $1 billion, sources say
UnitedHealth Group has agreed to sell its South American business Banmedica to a Brazilian private equity group, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.