Popular Culture

Why attractive things work better and other crucial insights into human-centered design....

Businesspeople and visitors who don't know Ireland will find this book an invaluable introduction to the people, the country, and the economic opportunities it offers....

In a world where we are having to work harder than ever before, where talk of ‘burnout’ is everywhere and where pressures increase in many areas of our lives, some of us are turning to endurance sport and extreme challenges.

Away from the gaze of mainstream urban media, across India's dusty, sleepy towns, a brand of popular culture is quietly seizing the imagination of millions, on the internet and off it.

Dan Ariely exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives....

Alexander (better known as “Sasha”) and Ann Shulgin’s PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story has become a foundational work in the genre and was the first book to fully impart the how-to chemistry, and convey the effects, of many of the entheogenic drugs....

Millions of people go to enormous lengths to achieve fame. Mining decades of experience, writer, director, producer, and actress Justine Bateman writes a visceral, intimate look at the experience of Fame....

Two world wars, the Civil Rights movement, and a Jheri curl later, Blacks in America continue to have a complex and convoluted relationship with their hair....

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system–a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded....

From the author of Future Shock comes a striking way out of today's despair...a bracing, optimistic look at our new potentials....

A series of closely interrelated essays on game theory, this book deals with an area in which progress has been least satisfactory - the situations where there is a common interest as well as conflict....

Because Internet is for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language and why that's a good thing....

Bounce shows how competition provides a master key with which to unlock the mysteries of the world....

Batman is one of the most compelling characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased since his first appearance in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us?

Hannah McGregor explores everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free.

Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels....

For the past one hundred years, Emily Post has been the definitive source for how to navigate—and enhance—every social interaction....

"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another, this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat....

In an age of us vs them, tribal loyalties and bitter divisions, the ability to change our minds may be the most important power we have. In this intimate, personal new book, James' focus shifts from talking to other people to how you talk to yourself about what you really think....

From the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Midnight Library Matt Haig comes a new uplifting book, for anyone in search of hope, looking for a path to a more meaningful life, or in need of a little encouragement....

A secret history of the industrial wars behind the rise and fall of the twentieth century's great information empires....

All three series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy about love, marriage and despair, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as Start/Stop....

Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Listen to find out more....

Originally published in 1966, Susan Sontag's first collection of essays is a modern classic and includes the famous essays "Notes on Camp" and "Against Interpretation", as well as, her impassioned discussions....

For many outsiders, Thailand still conjures up images of the East at its most mysterious and enchanting. Never conquered by foreigners, this proud and ancient land has been shaped by Buddhism, the monarchy, and the military....