Cognoscenti

Cognoscenti Ideas and opinions presented by WBUR, Boston’s NPR® News Station. We want to foster robust conversations about issues that matter, and we want you to take part.

Here you will find world-renowned experts in their respective fields, great writers and deep thinkers, as well as fresh new voices — young emerging talent that will provoke, delight and surprise you. You will find commentary on everything from global politics to personal musings, from innovations in technology to the latest trends in child-rearing. So join the discussion. Weigh in. Tell us what you think. Engage our commentators and each other. But remember, please be civil.

"I do know that numbness, whether caused by compassion fatigue or a sense that our efforts are futile, is of no use to a...
25/06/2025

"I do know that numbness, whether caused by compassion fatigue or a sense that our efforts are futile, is of no use to anyone. As new horrors take over the headlines and competing tragedies mount, we must ward against the danger of letting ourselves go numb," writes Leah Hager Cohen.

'What good will it do?' is the question people ask upon learning I’m participating in a 40-day solidarity Fast for Gaza, writes Leah Hager Cohen. For most of us, it's a bitter truth that there is little we can do in the face of great suffering. This doesn't mean we should give over to feelings of ...

"Stopping the fight against drug resistant TB today, even temporarily, will have irreversible, catastrophic effects in t...
24/06/2025

"Stopping the fight against drug resistant TB today, even temporarily, will have irreversible, catastrophic effects in the long run — for generations to come," write KJ Seung and K***a Kwabisha Mikanda.

Tuberculosis kills 1.3 million people each year, making it the deadliest infectious disease in the world, write KJ Seung and K***a Kwabisha Mikanda. Eliminating U.S. funding to combat it around the globe puts us all at risk.

To savor New England's sweet few temperate months, I created a summer checklist, writes Alysia Abbott. On her list? Wand...
22/06/2025

To savor New England's sweet few temperate months, I created a summer checklist, writes Alysia Abbott. On her list? Wandering a yard sale, procuring the perfect farm stand tomato and riding a ferry -- any ferry!

To savor our region’s sweet few temperate months, I created a summer checklist that I endeavor to make my way through once summer begins, writes Alysia Abbott. Soaking up the season is my way of actively living.

"I doubt I’ll ever see my fellow jurors again. But it was a privilege serving with people who took their civic duty seri...
21/06/2025

"I doubt I’ll ever see my fellow jurors again. But it was a privilege serving with people who took their civic duty seriously. Sparing two days to fulfill an essential role in our free society felt a small price to pay as a bulwark of small-d democracy."

Sparing two days to fulfill an essential role felt a small price to pay as a bulwark of small-d democracy, writes Rich Barlow.

"I, like so many people who have lost loved ones, notice their presence not because I’m still grieving their deaths, but...
20/06/2025

"I, like so many people who have lost loved ones, notice their presence not because I’m still grieving their deaths, but because I’m still grateful for their lives," writes Julie Wittes Schlack.

Connecting with the dead doesn’t require Ouija boards or mediums, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. It can be a form of companionship, an act of gratitude, a private tribute that enriches the giver.

"To me, HBCUs are a proof point for what can happen when Black people have equal access to resources and education," Nad...
20/06/2025

"To me, HBCUs are a proof point for what can happen when Black people have equal access to resources and education," Nadia Harden told Cog in a 2023 conversation.

At Spelman, Blackness wasn't the first thing everybody saw, because it was something we all had in common, writes Nadia Harden. I didn't have to spend those formative four years of my life trying to assimilate and silence myself.

"Taking rest is an act of protest. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. I think about that a lot. The fact that we are ...
19/06/2025

"Taking rest is an act of protest. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. I think about that a lot. The fact that we are allowed to rest is radical."

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, say Dawn Meredith Simmons and Maurice Emmanuel Parent who are co-founders and co-artistic producers of Th...

At a "No Kings" rally in Gloucester, Anita Diamant felt a sense of relief. "It was good to be together," she writes. "It...
17/06/2025

At a "No Kings" rally in Gloucester, Anita Diamant felt a sense of relief. "It was good to be together," she writes. "It was joyful. It felt as though something had shifted in the body politic. A return of hope. Of agency. Of energy."

At a "No Kings" rally in Gloucester, Mass., Anita Diamant felt a sense of relief. It was good to be together, she writes. It was joyful. It felt as though something had shifted in the body politic. A return of hope. Of agency. Of energy.

When Cog editor Cloe Axelson’s parents sold her childhood home, she was eager to take a piece of the house with her. The...
17/06/2025

When Cog editor Cloe Axelson’s parents sold her childhood home, she was eager to take a piece of the house with her. Then, a friend, who is a perennial evangelist of sorts, suggested she transplant her mom’s garden. Without quite comprehending what that entailed, she said: “OK, yes, cool, let’s do it.”

In the span of not-quite four weeks, I’ve transplanted dozens — maybe hundreds — of plants from my parents’ yard to my own. What is happening to me? asks Cog editor Cloe Axelson.

"The best thing about friendship, and somehow the part that keeps surprising me, is the reassurance of time — that we ca...
14/06/2025

"The best thing about friendship, and somehow the part that keeps surprising me, is the reassurance of time — that we can come back to each other," writes Sara Shukla, in Cog's weekly newsletter. "How that shared history doesn’t evaporate; it lives inside us."

The best thing about friendship — and somehow the part that keeps surprising me — is the reassurance of time, that we can come back to each other again and again, writes Cog editor Sara Shukla. That shared history doesn’t evaporate; it lives inside us.

Becoming a grandfather has – in a single stroke – renewed my license to be silly, writes Bob Brody. All the humor, all t...
14/06/2025

Becoming a grandfather has – in a single stroke – renewed my license to be silly, writes Bob Brody. All the humor, all the nonsense that I kept bottled up in order to function as a responsible adult, I now unleash in the service of this cause.

Becoming a grandfather has – in a single stroke – renewed my license to be silly, writes Bob Brody. All the humor, all the nonsense that I kept bottled up in order to function as a responsible adult, I now unleash in the service of this cause.

After contriving a national energy crisis, President Trump is using emergency provisions to circumvent regulations and s...
13/06/2025

After contriving a national energy crisis, President Trump is using emergency provisions to circumvent regulations and subvert checks on executive power, writes Frederick Hewett.

​​Trump arrived back in office primed to deliver on his mutually beneficial relationship with the fossil fuel industry, writes Frederick Hewett. After contriving a national energy crisis, he is using emergency provisions to circumvent regulations and subvert checks on executive power.

Address

890 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston
02215

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cognoscenti posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Address
  • Alerts
  • Contact The Business
  • Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Share