Cognoscenti

Barbara Moran, 53, has run five marathons, but the last one was 20 years ago. She gave up running regularly when arthritis began eating away at her knees. What if she could run one more? When Bar...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/04/12/running-boston-marathon-barbara-moran

No one understands better than the infertility community that embryos are not children, writes Elizabeth Carr. Success in IVF means bringing home a baby, not solely creating embryos.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/02/26/alabama-supreme-court-ruling-first-ivf-baby-elizabeth-carr

I thought getting in freezing cold water would be miserable and hard, and it was. But after a while, it became a near-daily exercise in redefining myself, writes Libby DeLana. When I got in the w...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/02/09/cold-water-plunging-get-in-the-ice-libby-delana

What are the snapshot moments that make Boston home? Is it navigating a maze of one-way streets from memory? Walking through Forest Hills Cemetery with a giant iced Dunkin’? Memories of your Bo...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/02/14/letters-to-boston-cloe-axelson-sara-shukla

Bill Belichick is a relic of a Patriots era that no longer exists and can no longer be recreated, writes Khari Thompson.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/01/09/bill-belichick-new-england-patriots-khari-thompson

We set out to understand from our readers and contributors what it means to live in Boston and find your place in it. But after reading dozens of submissions, we realized that what we’ve actual...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/11/21/love-letters-to-boston-cloe-axelson-sara-shukla

Climate scientists, in an effort to stave off despair, aren’t telling the truth about our warming planet. In reality, we're incredibly close to the point of no return: when rising seas drown is...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/10/03/1-5-degrees-celcius-un-climate-change-report-barbara-moran

As you spend more time around Boston, the Charles River infuses into your consciousness, writes Fred Hewett, who's lived within a mile of the river for more than 40 years. The Charles can make th...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/10/20/boston-charles-river-head-of-the-charles-fred-hewett

At the heart of being a sports fan is hope, writes Cloe Axelson. When a game begins, we don’t know how it will end – or when it will start to make a new city feel like home.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/09/12/field-guide-to-being-a-boston-sports-fan-cloe-axelson

Geri Denterlein's husband Jack Thomas spent his final days much the same way he spent most days in their 34-year relationship: reading, writing, collecting recipes, gardening and planning ahead. ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/09/22/end-of-life-clarity-change-love-jack-thomas-and-geri-denterlein

There are toys that see us through stages of life, and there are people, writes Sara Shukla. Seeing "Barbie" with an old friend reminded her of all the different versions of herself, and how impo...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/07/27/barbie-movie-greta-gerwig-sara-shukla

When Ethan Maggio’s 10th grade teacher asked him to write a poem, he knew he wanted to explore his feelings about his grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease. He writes, my memories of my grandfa...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/06/08/alzheimers-awareness-family-memory-poem-ethan-maggio

We want to make theater in a way that we're not just replicating the same damaging systems. We’re thinking about whose stories we tell, and whose experience we center in telling those stories, ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/06/19/celebrating-juneteenth-dawn-meredith-simmons-maurice-emmanuel-parent

Theresa Okokon loved "The Little Mermaid" as a child. Thirty-four years after the original, Ariel's face changed, but the story stayed the same, she writes.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/06/02/disney-new-little-mermaid-halle-bailey-theresa-okokon

For the parents of Taylor Swift fans, this concert was more than an event, writes Joanna Weiss. We heard the soundtrack of our kids’ childhoods, a discography that spans nearly two decades, so ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/05/26/taylor-swift-eras-tour-joanna-weiss

Getting a puppy, when you already have a houseful of kids, means voluntarily agreeing to more caretaking, more disciplining, more cleaning, writes Sara Petersen. If only it were as simple as addi...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/05/09/new-puppy-midlife-motherhood-sara-petersen

When Kate Baer got pregnant, unexpectedly, with her fourth child, something shifted. “I had this decision to make,” explains the best-selling author. “Am I going to drown -- lose my life --...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/05/10/motherhood-and-yet-poetry-kate-baer

In the early 1970s, and for years after that, a lot of girls didn’t merely get a kick out of "Margaret" — Judy Blume's book felt like a necessity, writes Sharon Brody. The world was a straigh...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/04/28/judy-blume-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-movie-sharon-brody

I loved running before I knew I was good at it, and I'm glad I was good at it — it completely changed my life, writes American distance-running great Kara Goucher. I still look forward to my ru...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/04/14/boston-marathon-2013-memoir-the-longest-race-kara-goucher

The unthinkable happened when two bombs went off on Boylston Street 10 years ago. But the Boston Marathon has remained an event of human triumph -- that part didn’t change.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/04/14/boston-marathon-2023-bombing-anniversary-cloe-axleson-sara-shukla

I didn’t fit the profile of what a governor should look like, and I paid for it dearly, writes former Massachusetts acting Gov. Jane Swift. I’ve never forgotten that feeling.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/03/09/women-in-politics-jane-swift

Dr. Paul Farmer, a co-founder of Partners In Health and a medical anthropologist affiliated with Harvard University, died, unexpectedly, on February 21, 2022. A year after his death, 10 of his co...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/02/21/one-year-anniversary-of-paul-farmer-death

Maybe once a day in the bookstore I own, someone exclaims, “Oh my god, I loved that book!” writes Hannah Harlow. So I put the question to our community: What’s a book you love with all your...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/02/14/valentines-day-books-we-love-hannah-harlow

It’s because the film doesn’t shy away from the dark places life inevitably takes us that it remains resoundingly joyful, writes Sara Shukla.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/12/23/a-muppet-christmas-carol-30th-anniversary-sara-shukla

“Pray for boring days,” my grandmother used to say. I never really knew what she meant. Now, I think I do, writes Holly Robinson.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/11/22/pray-for-boring-days-holly-robinson

I’m raising my sons to be proud of their Blackness, writes John Vercher. But I also know that they’ll benefit from their lighter skin.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/11/15/race-biracial-blackness-john-vercher

So much becomes possible when we honor doubt, writes Leah Hager Cohen.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/11/08/courage-to-say-i-dont-know-leah-hager-cohen

In the face of discriminatory legislation, racist policies and exploitative practices, waving the American flag can feel dishonest. Other times, writes Kellie Carter Jackson, it can also feel lik...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/11/01/1619-project-slavery-domestic-labor-kellie-carter-jackson

We’d been part of these crowds for years, writes Joanna Weiss. But this time, we were the ones getting ready to step on the porch and play: five suburban moms -- gone electric.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/10/25/milton-porchfest-lazy-susans-moms-rock-joanna-weiss

Rest was not a concept I was raised with, writes Neema Avashia. In the past year, that changed. It had to.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/08/19/teaching-rest-and-wintering-neema-avashia

Indigenous people have lost far too much on Earth, and we need to prevent that from happening in space, writes Joelle Renstrom.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/10/11/nicole-mann-space-webb-telescope-joelle-renstrom

The author Anita Diamant moved to Boston in 1975, just after college. She fell in love with the architecture, the history, and all the bookstores, but the Charles River is what clinched it: "a ri...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/10/04/boston-life-immigrant-cognoscenti-10-anita-diamant

September is upon us and the fall field crickets are calling time, writes Anita Diamant. As usual, they’ve triggered the onset of my annual autumnal melancholy: Winter is coming. Woe is me.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/09/09/crickets-end-of-summer-anita-diamant

Something profound happens here at the public pool, with all its vivid life on display, writes Alysia Abbott. It's a richness that makes space for all sorts of differences, including my son's.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/08/12/hot-summer-boston-city-pool-alysia-abbott

Grace Segran has been writing about her terminal cancer diagnosis for Cognoscenti since the end of 2021. In this piece, produced for the radio, Grace shares how she's choosing to spend the time s...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/08/12/terminal-cancer-hospice-care-grace-segran

When COVID-19 caught up to Cloe Axelson’s family in the final weeks of school -- with second grade field day at stake -- one of her twin daughters reminded her how, even after the past two year...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/06/22/coronavirus-kids-and-resilience-cloe-axelson

During the first pandemic winter, Miles Howard did a lot of walking around Boston. The experience inspired him to plot a 25-mile urban trail -- the Walking City Trail -- that connects many of the...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/06/16/walking-city-trail-urban-hike-boston-miles-howard

A vegan diet seemed difficult and potentially expensive, but writer Barbara Moran wanted to try it out for herself as part of a quest to eat more sustainably.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/04/28/meatless-diet-climate-change-cooked-the-search-for-sustainable-eats-barbara-moran

This year marks 50 years of women "officially" running the Boston Marathon. But by 1972, Berman was a seasoned pro — having won the race three times already.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/04/15/50th-anniversary-of-women-running-the-boston-marathon-sara-mae-berman

The Green Line's imminent expansion was the perfect time for my train-enthusiast family to come together, writes Sharon Brody. The line shaped the lives of her sons, and her relationship with the...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/03/20/family-green-line-mbta-extension-boston

Two years into the pandemic, exhaustion, cognitive overload and perceived injustice have combined to make people very, very angry. Dr. Molly Colvin explains what’s happening in our brains.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/02/18/pandemic-fatigue-anger-anxiety-molly-colvin

To take on Tom Brady as your own, as New Englanders did, writes Joanna Weiss, was to watch someone pass through your living room wearing a suit full of glitter, dropping a few sparkles along the ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/02/02/tom-brady-retires-from-the-nfl-joanna-weiss

Anil Shukla is the chief of emergency medicine at St. Luke's, a community hospital in New Bedford. It isn't only the pandemic we need to be talking about, he writes, it's what happens after this ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/01/26/covid-19-omicron-surge-hospitals-overwhelmed-anil-shukla

I naively believed my decision to stop coloring my hair was personal, writes Assistant Speaker of the U.S. House Katherine Clark. But as an elected official, it quickly became political.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/01/13/why-i-stopped-coloring-my-hair-rep-katherine-clark

As long as infection rates rage on in unvaccinated parts of the world, mutations will keep a cruel cycle of illness, death and economic suffering on repeat, writes Abby Maxman.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/12/10/covid-19-vaccines-global-pandemic-abby-maxman

I will forever run with Ahmaud Arbery, just as I walk in a world not designed for me, writes Jeff Davis, who founded the Boston chapter of Black Men Run.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/12/03/black-men-run-ahmaud-arbery-jeff-davis

Didion's work goes zing -- straight to the heart -- no throat-clearing, no platitudes. We need more of that to help make sense of this nonsensical time, writes Cloe Axelson. 

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/11/19/another-pandemic-winter-cloe-axelson

I don't feel any anger towards my unvaccinated patients, writes Dorothy Novick, only concern and a desire to build trust.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/10/20/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-pandemic-dorothy-novick

Tatyana McFadden is a 20-time Paralympic medalist and a 23-time major marathon winner. She's the only elite female athlete attempting to podium in five major marathons this fall, including Boston...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/10/08/tatyana-mcfadden-125th-boston-marathon-frannie-carr-toth-cloe-axelson

I could fill an ocean with all I still can’t control, but after keeping my daughter so close, it’s wonderful to see her paddle away from me, writes Sara Shukla.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/09/24/pandemic-parenting-surfing-sara-shukla

Writer Adam Stumacher describes how a chance encounter with a former student gave him hope.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/08/30/back-to-school-covid-teaching-zoom-lockdown-pandemic-uncertainty-adam-stumacher

Sophia and Lindsay Cook were too young when their father died to have many memories of him. Now, 20 years after 9/11, they’re still trying to understand who he was, and which parts of him live ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/09/10/dennis-sophia-lindsay-cook-20th-anniversary-of-september-11th-cloe-axelson-frannie-carr-toth

If the chaos and tragedy of Sept. 11 gave me a voice, it also gave Afghan women the opportunity to be seen and heard, writes Susan Retik. Now that the U.S. is gone, their voices may be softer, an...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/09/08/september-11-20th-anniversary-afghanistan-widow-susan-retik

An inevitable part of life is the end of it. No one cheats death, of course. But most of us don’t know exactly when our time will be up. Longtime Boston Globe reporter Jack Thomas is an except...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/08/13/contemplating-the-end-of-life-jack-thomas

I am constantly reminding myself that I don't have anything to prove, writes Theresa Okokon. Neither do you. And neither does Simone.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/07/30/simone-biles-tokyo-olympics-gymnastics-mental-health-theresa-okokon

What keeps me up at night isn’t an externally generated noise, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. It’s hyper-vigilance, a condition generated by Twitter and Trump and made worse by the pandemic.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/07/16/tinnitus-long-haul-covid-julie-wittes-schlack

The fiasco that ensnared Hannah-Jones is "old and ongoing," writes Kellie Carter Jackson. The number of Black women in tenured positions remains disproportionately low. 

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/07/09/nikole-hannah-jones-unc-howard-black-women-in-academia-kellie-carter-jackson

Now that things have improved, it’s tempting to push forward and forget about the past, writes Megan Devine. Grief has receded, but it hasn’t left our lives.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/06/24/confronting-covid-19-pandemic-related-grief-megan-devine

Mama didn’t know how many months it had been since I’d seen her, writes Julia Claiborne Johnson. Even so, half of every phone call consisted of her asking me when I’d visit, and me answerin...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/06/10/alzheimers-fda-approval-covid-19-pandemic-julia-claiborne-johnson

This house is the thread that holds me to my father, whom we buried with a seashell in his casket, writes Barbara Moran.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/05/28/climate-change-family-summer-house-breezy-point-ocean-barbara-moran

Sara Shukla and her husband spent many hours watching TV during the pandemic. Their nightly routine became a balm, something they could share that wasn't just trauma.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/05/27/covid-pandemic-binge-television-sara-shukla

When my teenage daughter struggled, she didn’t blame the isolation, or the extraordinary times we’re all still muddling through, writes Alysia Abbott. She blamed herself.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/05/21/teen-mental-health-depression-covid-19-alysia-abbott

A year ago, we were handed an unexpected experiment in crisis-era education, writes Joanna Weiss. Will we have learned anything from it, in the end?

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/04/29/pandemic-education-remote-learning-joanna-weiss

Theresa Okokon watched every minute of the Chauvin trial. Our relief in the verdict is temporary, she writes, but I don't really want to think about that right now.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/04/21/derek-chauvin-guilty-george-floyd-minneapolis-theresa-okokon

Dr. Michael P.H. Stanley called the wife of his cancer patient every day with updates. Then he missed a day.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/03/31/covid-doctor-hope-patients-cancer-burnout-michael-p-h-stanley

With infection rates falling and vaccination rates rising, imagining post-pandemic life feels less like tempting fate. So, why are we still feeling anxious? Dr. Molly Colvin explains what's happe...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/03/09/covid-19-pandemic-psychological-recovery-molly-colvin

Nobody knows exactly what the world will look like after COVID. Uncertainty continues to reign. But for the first time in a long time, it feels like we can reasonably contemplate the future.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/03/17/imagining-life-after-the-covid-19-pandemic

One in three people who contract COVID still experience symptoms after nine months. Jodie Noel Vinson and her husband fell ill last March -- 365 days later, she writes, it’s still with us.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/03/10/long-haul-coronavirus-jodie-noel-vinson

About 50% of medical professionals were dealing with burnout before COVID-19, writes Dr. Jessi Gold. The pandemic has made it exponentially worse.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/03/04/physician-burnout-covid-19-pandemic-jessi-gold

On my worst day, writes Jane Swift, I embraced my own experience and did something I wouldn’t have done 20 years -- or maybe even 20 days -- ago.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/02/17/working-women-leaving-jobs-covid-child-care-economy-jane-swift

Salman Wasti was an immigrant, a professor, a lover of plants and a collector of things. He’s also one of nearly 500,000 Americans who’ve died from COVID-19. Here, his daughter Noreen remembe...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/02/19/faces-of-covid-noreen-salman-wasti-frannie-carr-toth-cloe-axelson

Joni Mitchell’s songs remain my lifelong companion, my provocations, my speed bumps, my streetlights, writes Julie Wittes Schlack, in this essay about the artist's 1971 classic, "A Case of You....

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/02/12/joni-mitchell-blue-julie-wittes-schlack

It has been easy to look on fashion cynically, writes Joanna Weiss. But sometimes you want that attention -- and if you’re blessed with political talent, you know how to use it.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/01/20/vice-president-harris-style-vogue-inauguration-joanna-weiss

In the final hours of the legislative session, hundreds of people came together to help writer Peter DeMarco lobby for "Laura's Law," which will make emergency room entrances easier to find. Laur...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/01/14/laura-levis-asthma-emergency-room-lauras-law-peter-demarco

America can still demonstrate that an inclusive democracy based on civic ideals is possible, writes former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. But it won't happen without accountability for Trump a...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/01/12/trump-insurrection-impeachment-democratic-reforms-deval-patrick

Karen Nascembeni and her husband, Steven T. Richard, contracted the coronavirus last March. When Karen woke up after 31 days in a medically induced coma, Steven was gone. Here, she remembers her ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/12/22/faces-of-covid-karen-nascembeni-frannie-carr-toth-cloe-axelson

The experts agree: to be “all in this thing together,” we must stay apart. So how are you planning to navigate the holiday season this year? We asked. You answered.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/11/20/your-stories-a-very-covid-thanksgiving-and-christmas-cloe-axelson-frannie-carr-toth

A raging pandemic, a devastating recession, a reckoning on race: Is it too much to ask Americans to also think about climate change? I don’t think so, writes Gina McCarthy.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/10/29/climate-change-election-2020-gina-mccarthy

Whether a constitutional crisis emerges in the days after the election will depend on the counting of every single vote, writes MIT political science Prof. Charles Stewart III. Focus on that proc...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/10/20/2020-election-integrity-vote-count-charles-stewart-iii

Sometimes when I think about the “before times” I can’t believe it, writes Cloe Axelson in this meditation on seven wholly surreal months.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/10/02/postcard-from-the-pandemic-6-months-in-cloe-axelson

I pray that as we protest we show the strength of controlled resolve, and channel our rage into the ballot box, writes former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick. And that America stops kicking down our doo...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/09/26/breonna-taylor-deval-patrick

What Ginsburg embodied every day of her life was a steadfast and electrifying refusal to accept the unacceptable, writes Jaclyn Friedman.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/09/21/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court-sex-discrimination-jaclyn-friedman

My mother "wielded her hunter green Lord & Taylor credit card like a scythe," writes Judy Bolton-Fasman. The store announced last week that it is closing.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/09/01/lord-and-taylor-closing-mother-shopping-judy-bolton-fasman

While the oldest among us may get the sickest, it’s our kids who will experience the ripple effects of these generational traumas for far longer, writes Ellen H. O'Donnell.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/09/14/resilience-pandemic-covid-19-summer-ellen-odonnell

As we head into another season of changing days and unpredictable weeks, writes KJ Dell'Antonia, what do we do to hang in there until the cavalry arrives?

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/08/31/imperfect-back-to-school-kj-dell-antonia

We wanted to cover the conversation about back-to-school, but so much was in flux. Then we realized -- the uncertainty is the point. These are your stories.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/08/20/everything-is-up-for-grabs-welcome-to-the-covid-year-in-education

Desmond Hall has personally experienced police brutality. He’s been recalling the anger and shame he felt during those incidents as his teenage daughter joined the protests against police viole...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/07/16/police-brutality-protest-black-parent-desmond-hall

Congressman Lewis showed us how to push America closer to her ideals, writes Governor Deval Patrick. As a fellow civil rights warrior, as a Black man, and as an American, I feel enormously gratef...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/07/20/john-lewis-tribute-deval-patrick

State and local leaders need to start thinking of Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, as a product they need to sell, not only a location they need to govern, writes Ian Campbell.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/07/07/if-remote-work-is-our-new-reality-is-boston-still-worth-the-trouble

Independence Day this year comes against the backdrop of a pandemic, an economic depression, a reckoning on racism and the most divisive election in modern history. We wanted to try to capture th...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/07/02/fourth-of-july-frannie-carr-toth-cloe-axelson

To protect my son and other Black children, we must do the work of stamping out white supremacy where it lives: in our systems, and in ourselves, writes Calvin Hennick.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/06/22/protests-george-floyd-racism-haiti-children-calvin-hennick

Frequent subtle and less-subtle messages betray the assumption that I’m lacking in smarts, untrustworthy or even a threat, writes Tafadzwa Muguwe.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/06/18/racism-doctor-harvard-medicine-training-tafadzwa-muguwe

I have no words of comfort today, because they would be inauthentic. They would absolve so many from coming to terms with their own silent complicity in the world in which we live, writes Lee Pel...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/06/01/george-floyd-systemic-racism-boston-lee-pelton

Clayton Dalton's patients are facing death alone, without the comfort of friends and family. Maybe we'll realize that physical proximity and connection are essential, he writes, and finally see w...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/05/14/aloneness-coronavirus-pandemic-clayton-dalton

Many people who work in emergency medicine say this is the most challenging moment in their professional lives. Today, in our ongoing series of dispatches from the front lines, we hear from Ted F...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/05/07/paramedic-firefighter-covid-19-ted-flanagan

Our brains are adapting to acute stress, writes developmental neuropsychologist Molly Colvin. Time warps so that the present moment is elongated. Complex thinking skills, like decision-making or ...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/04/22/cognitive-change-stress-coronavirus-molly-colvin

Our kids are learning more important lessons than academics this spring, writes KJ Dell'Antonia.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/04/27/home-school-coronavirus-kj-dell-antonia

Sometimes you just need to say, "this is awful" before it's possible to gather yourself up and march on, writes Cloe Axelson. Maybe we all need to fall apart before we can be put back together.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/04/24/seven-weeks-in-coronavirus-quarantine-cloe-axelson

Alex Ashlock has covered the race every Patriot's Day since 1998. It was even one of the reasons he moved to Boston. In this piece, he reflects on what it means to mark this marathon-less Maratho...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/04/20/boston-marathon-2020-alex-ashlock

The empty streets on this Patriots’ Day are exactly what we need, but it’s sad and disappointing, writes Des Linden. Keep your heads up. Lend a hand to the people around you. If we act like c...

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/04/20/boston-marathon-coronavirus-des-linden