February 2026

This essay was written by Porter Kindall, a BYU Humanities Center student fellow.   “I want so badly to believe that there is truth, that love is real” – Ben Gibbard  In the landscape of indie rock, few albums have achieved the cult status of The Postal Service’s Give Up. Released in 2003, the album charts the …

This essay was written by Brian Croxall, a BYU Humanities Center faculty fellow. As someone who has been—by one measure or another—very online for about 35 years, it’s fascinating to see technologies come and, sometimes, go. Back in February 2021, the venerable art auction house Christie’s sold its first ever “purely digital work of art.” …

This post was written by Brooke Farnsworth, a BYU Humanities Center student fellow. In first grade, my over-active imagination convinced me that I could control water. The idea made sense—the ocean always seems to listen to my beckoning, churning and whirling in an attempt to follow my demands, and the rain would gradually increase if …

This post was written by Sawyer Wood, BYU Humanities Center Intern and student fellow. I’ve recently been learning more about the idea of flow. As outlined by psychologist Mihalyln Csikszentmihalyi in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, flow is described as a state in which someone is completely focused or engaged in a task or …