Spare Change News

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Extreme Weather: Expect More of It

    Laura Kiesel Spare Change News On July 17th, the town of Arlington was besieged by a series of intense thunderstorms. That day, I was alone in my apartment in East Arlington when suddenly the wind picked up outside and began blowing hard through my cracked living room windows. A wall of water blasted against the…

  • Testing, Testing…HIV: Taking the Stigma Out of AIDS Testing

    Noelle Swan Spare Change News “College-educated black women who live in the suburbs and date lawyers don’t get HIV and AIDS. This just doesn’t apply to you,” Kimberly Wilson remembers her doctor saying back in 2004. That was the first time she asked her physician for an HIV-test. Four years, seven bouts of shingles and…

  • Editorial: Get Smart On Crime

    “Tough on crime” talk might sounds good to legislators who like surefire-sounding answers that sell well to a crime-weary public. Three strikes and you’re out. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key. Build more jails. But even some of the nation’s more conservative states are learning that being “smart on crime” means more than…

  • Photo Essay: Homeless in Heaven and Hell

    Photos and words by Chris Swan. Homeless in Heaven and HellAlmost invisible, we people the city Living in the shadows we shine out, Moving, breathing heart of life. We may be forgotten, ignored, But we stand in your midst, Questions to be answered, Lives to be affirmed. Spare Change News decided to search out the…

  • Nobel Prize Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz Discusses The Price of Inequality

    Mike Reilly INSP The work of Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and former Chief Economist for the World Bank, is recognized worldwide. He has written a long string of books, numerous papers and a wide variety of essays and articles, many focusing on equilibrium in the world. In 2001, he…

  • Special Report: Changing Face of Homelessness

    Danielle Batist INSP Street papers on all continents have seen the changing face of homelessness in recent years. A recent survey, released this month by the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) reveals the scale of the problem. A total of 89 INSP street papers worldwide participated in this survey (published July 2012), mainly in…

  • It's a Mad Man's Man's Man's World

    Patty Tomsky Spare Change News The 2012 Emmy nominations were announced and for the first year ever, not one of the networks received a nod for Best Drama. The field belonged to the pay-for-it crew. No wonder the stupid satellite company has me by the balls! Of course, Mad Men led with 17 nominations. It’s…

  • The Poetry of Molly Lynn Watt

    Bio: Molly Lynn Watt is the author of Shadow People, On the Wings of Song, (manuscript) set in Civil Rights Movement, Consider This, commissioned for “Across the Ages” dance concert May 2011 which deals with incest, and Civil Rights Update, paired with Dr. King’s Dream speech, required in Dallas Schools. She co-created and performs with…

  • The Spiritual Life: An Alternative Way of Healing Mind, Body, Spirit Part II

    Jacques Fleury Spare Change News Read Part I You are your only master, who else? Subdue yourself, and discover your master. The Buddha So far, I have discussed how I came to Reiki, my initial skepticism nagging curiosity about the practice, the disputed founder Dr. Mikao Usui and his Reiki principles of “do not worry,…

  • Boston: Human Rights City

    Beatrice Bell Spare Change News Dottie Stevens and Debbie-Ann Meskimen Ferretti, along with several others joined together in February 2010 to discuss how to have Boston become a Human Rights City. With the work from this union and several events during 2010 and 2011, Boston became a part of the Human Rights City Project on…

Got any book recommendations?

Get In Touch