Joan Didion's 1975 commencement speech at UCR encouraged graduates to think outside of themselves

Joan Didion's 1967 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' laid the hippie counterculture bare

Didion wrote a detailed account of living alongside hippies in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury area in the 1960s. Beyond their style and politics, Didion uncovered chaos, with one particularly shocking interview of a 5-year-old on LSD. Her stories challenged the movement's message of freedom and utopia in California.

David Foster Wallace's iconic commencement speech

David Foster Wallace’s remarkable 2005 commencement speech, This is Water, is a timeless trove of wisdom for living a meaningful life. Here is a full transcript along with audio.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Joan Didion's Friendsgivings had famous guests and massive home-cooked meals

The influential writer enjoyed cooking for large groups, which included novelists Philip Roth, Edna O'Brien, and Nora Ephron.

Ten writers and thinkers on what growing older actually requires of us

The Marginalian's Maria Popova curates a collection arguing our culture has learned to dread aging while forgetting it is a privilege, and that the antidote is sustaining passions strong enough to keep us from turning inward. Voices include Simone de Beauvoir, Joan Didion, Pablo Casals, and Kahlil Gibran.

John Steinbeck's philosophical ideas, which he often explored in his novels, wrestled with the role of the individual and the power of community.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

One teacher's lesson on existentialism and social media use

During a unit on existentialist literature and philosophy, one teacher at Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy asked students to surrender their cell phones to test Kierkegaard’s thoughts on the danger of conformity and Sartre’s belief that humans are “condemned to be free.” Many of them were surprised to find how liberated they felt once they left behind social media.

'I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.'

- Comedian Joan Rivers (1933-2014)

On the role of 'Citizenship In A Republic'

After finishing a Smithsonian-sponsored expedition to East Africa, US President Theodore Roosevelt stopped by Paris and gave a speech about the responsibilities an ordinary citizen has to their republic. Citizens must know there is no effort without error, knowing they "fail while daring greatly" in pursuit of a truly democratic republic. This podcast series on powerful speeches across history is written and narrated by historian and author Jon Meacham.

A Yale student wrote a critical essay about the consulting industry's influence on college students

Marina Keegan was a recent Yale graduate set to start her career writing for The New Yorker when she died in a car accident. But before her death, she wrote an essay criticizing the consulting industry's impact on not only her classmates' lives but also their ability to impact the world at large.

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

- Musician and activist Joan Baez (1941-present)

A Quote by Sandra Day O'Connor

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time."

Social work pioneer Jane Addams (1860 - 1935) on civilization

"Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men."

'I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.'

- American novelist Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

1975: Betty Ford, remarks at the International Women's Year Conference

"Change, by its very nature, is threatening but it is also often productive."

Some educators argue society's obsession with colleges at the top of rankings has hurt the US higher education ecosystem

Why are "good colleges" often the ones that accept the fewest students? Speaker Cecilia Orphan argues that society's obsession with colleges that are often private, expensive, and that reject applicants with high frequency has done harm. Instead, she argues, we should focus on regional public universities that meet the needs of students in a cost-achievable manner.

One journalist argued New Journalism writers prioritized ego over public service

Michael J. Arlen wrote a critique of the then-fashionable and popular form for The Atlantic in 1972, warning about the risk of emphasizing a writer’s perspective over facts. While Arlen applauded the innovation of the style, he believed focusing on voice and perspective could be irresponsible.

Listen to 3 scholars discuss the work of Emily Dickinson

Fiona Green, Linda Freedman, and Paraic Finnerty—three British academics who study Dickinson—discuss the poet's life, distinctive writing style, and impact on the generations who followed, illustrating that part of Dickinson's appeal lies in her open-ended verse, which invites readers' many interpretations.

Watch a Yale professor’s take on O’Connor’s ‘Wise Blood’

O’Connor’s first novel is about Hazel Motes, a World War II veteran who returns home and sets out to form an anti-religious congregation. It’s a striking debut and one that Yale professor Amy Hungerford taught in her course “The American Novel Since 1945.”

Ursula K. Le Guin worked to dismantle fantasy's clichés

The author is one of the genre’s most legendary names, constructing high fantasies like “The Earthsea Cycle” that detail intricate new worlds. In 2004, she delivered a lecture criticizing books and movies that rely on a simple formula: white characters, Medieval settings, and a battle between good and evil. “Whenever I find a fantasy that is set in a genuinely imagined society and culture instead of this lazy-minded, recycled hokum,” she said, “I feel like setting off fireworks.”

'Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity.'

- Pope Francis (1936 - 2025)

Maya Angelou's 1993 recitation of 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Bill Clinton's inauguration was a historic event

After Robert Frost in 1961, Angelou became the second poet in history to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. She was also the first African American and woman. The poem includes themes of change, inclusion, and the responsibility of both the President and citizens to create success in a country.

'The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety—it's human connection'

This thought-provoking TED talk from journalist Johann Hari challenges conventional wisdom about addiction, with a special focus on his global research investigating its root causes. Through personal stories and scientific evidence, Hari debunks some of the most common myths around addiction.

Listen to why Ray Dalio seeks out disagreement

One of Ray Dalio's principles is to constantly be challenged by smart people. He says thoughtful disagreement is key to becoming smarter and making better, more thorough decisions.

A part-time teacher in Maryland kickstarted Title IX

When applying for a fill-time position at the University of Maryland, Bernice Sandler was told she "came on too strong" for a woman, leading her to research legal protections against gender discrimination. She found a 1967 Executive Order prohibiting federally funded institutions from discrimination and used it as the basis for a class action lawsuit that would eventually lead to Title IX.

A 1992 personal finance book helped inspire the FIRE movement

"Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence" by Vicki Robin and Joseph Dominguez argued that people should prioritize consuming less and living better.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography