The Big Picture Third Year Topics: Summary and Review 2023-2024
Links to all parts of the essay series I’ve posted during the past year, by topic.
I posted my first essay on the Big Picture Substack about three years ago, on September 13, 2021. On this third anniversary, I thought it would be helpful to put up a post listing all the topics I’ve covered in the last year, along with links to all the essays on a particular topic or in a particular series. So I’m doing that here. If you like these materials, and if you’d like me to keep producing them, please spread the word on social media, recommend this Substack to others (especially students in school who might benefit from being exposed to another perspective), and (if you feel generous) become a paying subscriber so I can keep these pieces coming. Many thanks to all my readers, and especially to those among you I’ve gotten to know a bit better over the past year! And if you’d like a link to the summary of the previous two years of Big Picture entries, they are available here (2021-2022) and here (2022-2023).
Below is the complete list of all the topics and essay series (with links) that I’ve covered in the third year of The Big Picture.
The Big Picture Third Year Topic Summary and Review (2023-2024)
Biology
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current – Part 1
Our ion channel protein batteries.
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current – Part 2
How our protein battery ion channels work, and the fascinating example of the electric eel.
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current – Part 3
The heart, and our senses.
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current – Part 4
The human brain.
Our Bodies’ Amazing Electric Current – Part 5
The role electricity plays in differentiating our cells, and regeneration.
The Human Immune System
The Human Immune System – Part 1
The astonishing complex hidden defense mechanism we inherited from evolution.
The Human Immune System – Part 2
Our skin.
The Human Immune System – Part 3
What happens when pathogens get past your skin defenses?
The Human Immune System – Part 4
How does the immune system tell parts of “you” from parts that “aren’t you”?
The Human Immune System – Part 5
How your immune system catalogues a library of antigens, and how T Cells work.
The Human Immune System – Part 6
The unique threat posed to us by viruses.
The Human Immune System – Part 7
The Hygiene Hypothesis.
Quantum Biology
Quantum leaps in evolution.
The Evolution of Agency
The Evolution of Human Agency – Part 1
The evolution of human agency.
The Evolution of Agency – Part 2
Mammalian executive function.
The Evolution of Agency – Part 3
Sociality led to the highest forms of agency.
The Evolution of Agency – Part 4
The social guardrails that formed the track to human agency.
The Evolution of Agency – Part 5
Threats to the evolution of agency.
Physics
The Physical Universe
The Physical Universe – Part 1
Spacetime.
The Physical Universe – Part 2
Space, and time.
The Physical Universe – Part 3
Thermodynamics.
The Physical Universe – Part 4
Quantum mechanics.
The Physical Universe – Part 5
The quest for unification.
The Physical Universe – Part 6
The quest for unification, continued.
Climate Change
Updates on Climate Change Policies
Updates on Climate Change Policies
History
Big Steps in the Story of Big History
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 1
The evolution of everything, told through the most dramatic steps in the story.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 2
The evolution of the elements and planets.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 3
The origins of life.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 4
From algae to everything.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 5
From neurons, to complex animals, to humans.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 6
Fire, and cooking with it, sparked an explosion that blew up the human brain.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 7
The origins of government.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 8
The origins of free economies.
Big Steps in the Story of Big History – Part 9
How Western religion contributed to the rise of mass literacy, monogamy, and, ultimately, individualism.
Data Graphics
Reading Data Graphics is a Moral and Intellectual Act
Reading Data Graphics is a Moral and Intellectual Act – Part 1
The wisdom of Edward Tufte.
Reading Data Graphics is a Moral and Intellectual Act – Part 2
Corruption in the presentation of evidence.
Reading Data Graphics is a Moral and Intellectual Act – Part 3
Power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Psychology
Regaining Focus by Enlarging Context
Regaining Focus by Enlarging Context – Part 1
Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again.
Regaining Focus by Enlarging Context – Part 2
How social media applications are designed to distract.
Regaining Focus by Enlarging Context – Part 3
How modern internet media has affected children, and what might be done about it.
Psychologically Illogical
Psychologically Illogical – Part 1
Unhelpful human psychological tendencies, such as avoiding cognitive dissonance.
Psychologically Illogical – Part 2
Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow
Self-control
The marshmallow test.
What cultural influences encourage the sort of self-control that leads to the rewards of delayed gratification?
Self-esteem is not sound performance.
Immigration
The First Impeachment of a Sitting Cabinet Secretary
What you didn’t read in the media regarding the impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Why did law professors have pretty much uniformly one-sided views on the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas?
Immigration and education.
Immigration and government benefits programs.
Immigration, communication, and community.
Society and Policy
The Two-Parent Privilege
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 1
Introduction to the vast benefits of two parents to children.
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 2
Is more income for single parents the answer, or is there something else special about two-parent families?
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 3
Exploring the many beneficial outcomes for children of two-parent families.
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 4
Exploring the many beneficial outcomes for parents of two-parent families.
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 5
Two-parent families and race.
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 6
Have increased government welfare benefits led to an increase in single-parenthood?
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 7
When increased government benefits pull more men out of the labor market, marriage rates decline.
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 8
Has a Rubicon been crossed regarding marriage?
The Two-Parent Privilege – Part 9
Declining rates of marriage and falling birth rates, and international comparisons.
An Update on Federal Spending and Benefits Programs
An Update on Federal Spending and Benefits Programs – Part 2
An Update on Federal Spending and Benefits Programs – Part 1
“Us” Versus “Them” Doesn’t Follow When the History of Slavery Isn’t “Black and White”
“Us” Versus “Them” Doesn’t Follow When the History of Slavery Isn’t “Black and White.”
Recent Data on the Errors Underlying “Equity”-Based Approaches to Social Policy
Recent Data on the Errors Underlying “Equity”-Based Approaches to Social Policy
Free Speech
Recent Developments in Free Speech and the Socratic Method
Recent Developments in Free Speech and the Socratic Method
Civil Rights
The Supreme Court’s Decision in FAIR v. Harvard
The Supreme Court’s Decision in FAIR v. Harvard – Part 1
The broad implications of its striking down race-based decisions as violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
The Supreme Court’s Decision in FAIR v. Harvard – Part 2
The decision applies to all manner of public and private entities, and their “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) programs, not just colleges.
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From?
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 1
The illogical and politically-motivated process that led to the creation of official U.S. government racial classifications.
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 2
The origins of America’s arbitrary racial classification systems.
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 3
The very, very strange case of the “Hispanics” category.
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 4
White ethnic groups and black immigrants.
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 5
How are children of multi-racial parents classified?
Where Did the Racial Boxes People Check on Forms Come From? – Part 6
When arbitrary racial categories are used in unscientific ways, science suffers.
School Boards and School Policy
Instead of Closing the Knowledge Gap with Learning, Many Educational Bureaucrats Are Lowering Standards
The School of Time Management
The importance of quantifying wasted time during the school day.
Miscellaneous
Birds
The complex life of birds.
Paul, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the time and effort you put into this Substack. I may have learned more from you than from any other source over the last three years, about topics that I did not even know should interest me, or even worse, topics about which I thought I knew but was misinformed.
This is likely a labor of love, but your readers love you for it. Here's to many more years.