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The Sun Interview

    The Sun Interview

    Separate And Unequal

    Chuck Collins On How Wealth Divides Us

    As we divide into affluent and poor enclaves, people’s sense that they share a common destiny withers, replaced by fear, misunderstanding, and class and racial antagonisms.

    By Megan WildhoodFebruary 2018
    Separate And Unequal
    The Sun Interview

    Leaving The Faith

    Ali A. Rizvi On Being An Atheist Muslim

    “You can’t have freedom of religion without free speech. You have to protect all of it: the Bible and the Quran and my right to say, ‘These books are full of fairy tales.’ ”

    By Caleb PowellDecember 2017
    Leaving The Faith
    The Sun Interview

    From Here To Eternity

    William Richards On The Transformative Potential Of Psychedelics

    I was outside of time. Awe, glory, and gratitude are the only words for what I experienced.

    By Mark LevitonNovember 2017
    From Here To Eternity
    The Sun Interview

    Jailhouse Blues

    Henry Robinett On Teaching Inmates To Play The Guitar

    These guys are allowed almost no dignity. As far as I’m concerned, their sentence is their punishment. They aren’t supposed to be treated cruelly on top of that.

    By Aaron CarnesOctober 2017
    Jailhouse Blues
    The Sun Interview

    Love Thy Neighbor

    Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove On Race, Faith, And Resistance

    Most black evangelicals didn’t vote for him. Most Latino evangelicals didn’t vote for him. But 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump.

    By Amanda AbramsSeptember 2017
    Love Thy Neighbor
    The Sun Interview

    The Whole Truth

    Richard A. Leo On Why Innocent People Confess To Crimes

    Once the police come to the conclusion that someone committed the crime, they are trained to interrogate. At that point their goal isn’t to gather information; it’s to build a case against the person they’ve already decided is guilty. They want to get a confession.

    By Mark LevitonJuly 2017
    The Whole Truth
    The Sun Interview

    Hooked

    Maia Szalavitz Debunks Myths About Addiction

    As I said, maintenance treatment cuts the death rate for opioid addiction in half, which is better than any other method that’s been studied. If you went to a cancer center and weren’t even offered the treatment that reduced your risk of death the most, you would have grounds for a malpractice case. Yet most residential addiction-treatment centers do not offer maintenance treatment and, in fact, oppose it, saying it’s not “real” recovery.

    By Arnie CooperJune 2017
    Hooked
    The Sun Interview

    A Walk On The Wild Side

    Joe Hutto’s Life With Animals

    I’m no expert on consciousness, but I’ve observed consciousness in other creatures my entire life. If we describe it as a state of being awake, being aware, then when you look at an animal, you see true wakefulness. Humans have created a sophisticated culture that serves as an insulating bubble, separating and protecting us from the environment, allowing us to relax such that we don’t have to be totally conscious. Most animals have to be at the helm of their ship all the time, or they die. They have multiple opportunities to die every day. Because humans don’t have that tension, our senses have become dull. Probably the only time that a human being experiences an animal level of awareness is in combat, where every second you might be in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle.

    By Al KesselheimMay 2017
    A Walk On The Wild Side
    The Sun Interview

    An Open Mind

    Sera Davidow Questions What We Think We Know About Mental Illness

    I’ll tell you what we don’t do: we don’t call the person’s doctor, or dial 911, or drive people to the emergency room. We ask what’s going on for them — not what’s “wrong” with them or if they have been given a diagnosis. If they do mention a diagnosis, we ask what it means to them. If they talk about voices, visions, suicidal thoughts, or injuring themselves, we meet this with calm curiosity. We’ve found that what helps people move through such feelings is being able to talk openly about them. Unfortunately many people don’t talk openly in clinical environments for fear that alarms will be sounded.

    By Tracy FrischApril 2017
    An Open Mind
    The Sun Interview

    Misdiagnosed And Misunderstood

    Steve Silberman On The Mysteries Of Autism

    People often ask if I believe autism is overdiagnosed, if we’re just slapping a label on geeky kids who in previous generations would have been considered merely eccentric. I reply that I believe autism is still underdiagnosed in two groups: women and people of color. The cultural and class bias built into the diagnostic process was so pervasive in the 1980s that psychologist Victor Sanua claimed that autism is rare among families of color. The reality was that people of color often didn’t get decent healthcare.

    By Mark LevitonMarch 2017
    Misdiagnosed And Misunderstood

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