If you let emotion guide your decisions, are you setting yourself up to fail? The answer depends largely on one key thing. A great leader makes great decisions, and for much of human history, great ...

So much of the structure and animating ideals of Western democracy are based on the idea of reason and rationality––the enlightenment ideal that man is rational and thus capable of self-governance. We ...

I wrote this essay with Anthony Evans and Gideon Goldin. It is common to think that emotions interfere with rational thinking. Plato described emotion and reason as two horses pulling us in opposite ...

Adolf Hitler loved books—that nasty bent for book burning notwithstanding—and the book industry loves him back. Type his name into Amazon, and while he doesn’t trigger the English-language numbers of ...

Seven Ways Seven Days Gets You Through the Week: Trustworthy local reporting. Piping‑hot food news. Thoughtful obituaries. Must‑do events. Stuck in Vermont videos. Eye‑opening personals. All the fun ...

You may have heard the story of Caroline Sparks, the 2-year-old Kentucky girl who was killed this week when her brother, all of 5 years old himself, took the rifle he got for his birthday and shot her ...

Earlier this March, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors David Hogg and Cameron Kasky appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Kasky used the opportunity to respond to those like ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. A couple weeks ago at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Evan Thomas, the ...

I wrote this essay with Anthony Evans and Gideon Goldin. It is common to think that emotions interfere with rational thinking. Plato described emotion and reason as two horses pulling us in opposite ...