Young children often write as they speak. But the way we speak and the way we write isn’t quite the same. When we speak, we often use many...

Imagine you have to say an unfamiliar name and are afraid to say it wrong. What do you do? Do you try to pronounce it even at the risk of getting it wrong or do you avoid the name (and perhaps the person) altogether? 

Depending on your culture, you are probably used to greeting someone with a handshake, hug or nose bump. Well, not any more.

There’s been a lot of talk lately. In briefings, speeches and video meetings. With the holidays coming, there will be celebrations and toasts given. These are opportunities to attend to talk. In talk, it’s not just words that create meaning.

Marcus Aurelius was no stranger to pandemics. For 16 years of his reign as Roman Emperor (161-180 CE), the empire was ravaged by the Antonine plague, which took five million lives. It was during this period that the philosopher king penned a series of “notes to himself”.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, politicians, medical experts and epidemiologists have taught us about flattening curves, contact tracing, R₀ and growth factors. At the same time, we are facing an “infodemic” – an overload of information, in which fact is hard to separate from fiction.

Across Canada, COVID-19 infection rates are climbing amid the coronavirus’s second wave. Since a short flattening of the curve in the summer, transmission has continued to rise, particularly among young people

After a fairly relaxed summer, more and more places are bringing back tighter restrictions in response to rising COVID-19 cases, with some even returning to full or near-full lockdowns.

Anyone who tried to get their head around the financial crisis of 2008 soon found themselves drowning in an alphabet soup of BEITs, CDOs, CDCs, ETFs and MBS.

You wear your mask, keep six feet between yourself and others and are committed to safety. But the measures that help minimize your risk of COVID-19 can also have an impact on your interactions with others.

Men have long been recognised as being most at risk of suicide, but the Office for National Statistics recently reported the highest annual rate of female suicides in the UK since 2004.

A white man shares publicly that a group of Black Harvard graduates “look like gang members to me” and claims he would have said the same of white people dressed similarly.

There is strong scientific evidence that wearing a mask reduces the risk of transmitting the coronavirus and cuts down the risk of infection to the wearer by as much as 65%. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend wearing them.

There’s a good chance that you when you leave the house today you’ll put on a face mask that obscures your mouth.

With COVID-19, a news story that may be 100% accurate can still unintentionally mislead readers about the greatest threats of the pandemic.

Multiple studies have shown that masks reduce the transmission of virus-loaded droplets from people with COVID-19. However, according to a Gallup poll, almost a third of Americans say they rarely or never wear a mask in public.

Human faces are arguably the most important things we see. We are quick to detect them in any scene, and they command our attention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned an infodemic, a vast and complicated mix of information, misinformation and disinformation.

Why do we hold back from telling our loved ones that we love them? Why do we procrastinate, waiting for the "right" time ... later ... when it may be too late? But life goes by in a heartbeat and, before we know it, the ones we love are gone, and we may be left with the regret that we never spoke our deepest truth.

As people navigate a masked world, they’ll need to focus more on the eyes and voice to connect with those around them, a psychologist argues.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram started out as a way to connect with friends, family and people of interest. But anyone on social media these days knows it’s increasingly a divisive landscape.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way many of us work. With the switch to working from home, in particular, a fundamental workplace behaviour has gone by the wayside.

Have you ever forgotten something – a name, a place, an event – and struggled to remember, finally giving up, only to have an "ah ah" moment some time later, suddenly recalling what evaded your recollection, maybe in the shower, or driving, or daydreaming by the window, watching the rain?