A quarter century ago, neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote of a young patient whose brain tumor appeared to have cost him his memory—until the music of his favorite group, the Grateful Dead, brought him back to reality. Today, scholars in the field of neuromusicology suggest that music can be a tool to improve our brains—helping children develop faster, improving the performance …

Native American artists have long used explorations of the future as a way to reflect on the present. Contemporary Native artists, from the Mohawk sci-fi multimedia artist Skawennati to the Navajo photographer Will Wilson, are using innovative techniques to create visual art, literature, comics, and installations to build on that tradition and reframe it in a modern context. Often described as “Indigenous …

Even in a city where people dare to be different, Zev Yaroslavsky stands out. Zev, now director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, has packed several lives into one lifetime, reshaping himself along with his fast-changing city. The child of immigrants from what is now Ukraine, Zev first drew …

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since the current administration took office. Majorities of Americans, across all demographics, say race relations have worsened in the last two years, and reports of hate crimes are soaring. Are these trends merely temporary, the short-term product of an angry era, …

In 2016, Californians voted to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. But three years later, the very basics of regulating legal weed are still uncertain, and the new markets for marijuana have become another confounding California mess. It’s unclear how much marijuana can be consumed before police can make an arrest for driving under the influence, or whether the state …