Contributing writer
Heidi Lai
Latest Content
The Surprising Origins of Emotion
The brain is “making thousands of guesses at the same time,” Barrett tells us, and she argues that emotions are guesses too. When you feel something in your body — a racing heart, sweaty palms — your brain has to predict its cause: Is it love at first sight, or test anxiety?
Crisis Mode
In lockdown, I felt like I was better able to see some things for how they were, but I was not always happy with the realities I had to confront.
Like a Man at a Museum
I could get lost in the jungle, so lost that no one would find me, and months later there would be some notice for a foreigner’s body found in the brush but it would just be a paper notice, stuck on a wooden wall in the village’s main hall, for a foreigner’s body found in the brush of the middle of nowhere. In a way, I feel more myself than I have ever felt before.
The New Kid in Chinatown
After decades of activism, the Chinatown Library finally has a place to call its own.
15 Texts You Tried to Send At The Harvard-Yale Game
1:43 p.m: Made it to the game!!! r u even getting these
Harvard's Insta-Famous
“I’m not trying to be an ‘Instagram influencer.' I probably need a day job.”
Hey Professor: Science Fictional Future
We need ways to imagine a future that is different from the present, because the present isn't really working out all that well and because we would like the future to be different.
7,000 Under 30
“Do you have a LinkedIn?” one concert-goer yells at a girl. She nods. Both whip out their smartphones and add each other.