The Optimalist

Health, science, and creativity

by Max Lugavere

Evolution in Schools, Asteroid Mining, and the Neuroscience of Republicans

What do asteroids, republicans, and the education system all have in common? Not much, but they WERE all discussed on this recent show. Read More

An Oasis of Ideas at TEDActive

Seventy years ago, Abraham Maslow proposed the idea that human beings have a set of fundamental needs which must be met in order to unlock the full spectrum of one's intellectual abilities. The most basic of which are what you'd expect: food, water, safety, security, non-celibacy. Read More

How To Be Emotionally Stable Without Getting Bored

I was recently introduced to the writing of Nick Cox and became so overwhelmed by one particular piece of his, called "How To Be Emotionally Stable Without Getting Bored," that I took a little creative liberty and turned it into a song. At once beautiful and bleak, the goal was to articulate the hero's journey on a cosmic scale. Read More

Turn Any Museum Into the World's Grandest Cathedral

How can one possibly worship at the altar of arguably humanity's greatest contribution to the Universe—art—in a space filled with fluorescent lights and a cacophony of tour guides, bustling crowds, loud school groups? Read More