Articles
Salon
December 24, 2018
Serendipity is credited with some of our most important discoveries, from penicillin to super glue. But what is it?
The Atlantic
December 23, 2018
The Los Angeles Times
December 19, 2018
The State of Politics Today Should Scare Us into Our Wits
Lit Hub
December 18, 2018
Making Dad Jokes Is, in fact, A Neurological Condition
The Wall Street Journal
November 16, 2018
Five Best: James Geary on Works of Inspired Wit
Nieman Reports
October 31, 2018
Why Journalists Need To Be Witty
Journalistic wit means spotting the connections others don’t see—or don’t want us to see
The Wall Street Journal
September 21, 2018
So a Computer Walks Into a Bar…
The future of artificial intelligence depends on teaching machines to talk like human beings - complete with irony, sarcasm and puns
Edge
2018
What is the last question?
Why is the phenomenon too familiar to investigate the hardest thing to completely understand?
This question appears in The Last Unknowns in the U.S. and U.K.
2017
What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?
Bisociation
This article appears in This Idea Is Brilliant in the U.S. and the U.K.
2009
What will change everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?
The Brain-Machine Interface
This article appears in This Will Change Everything in the U.S. and U.K.
2008
What have you changed your mind about? Why?
Neuroeconomics really explains human economic behavior
2007
What are you optimistic about?
'Personal carbon trading' will allow people to take individual action to tackle a global problem
This article appears in What Are You Optimistic About? in the U.S. and U.K.
Nieman Storyboard
April 19, 2017
One Great Sentence: Félix Fénéon
Slate
December 16, 2012
Lexicon Valley - Good Is Up
In this podcast, Mike Vuolo & co. explore how Lakoff and Johnson’s theories illuminate the persistence of the “fiscal cliff” metaphor, with contributions from yours truly
The Independent
October 14, 2012
The wit of the wise
Where would we be without aphorisms?
Nieman Reports
Fall 2012
Waving, Not Drowning
Thoughts on The Future of The Magazine
The Guardian
June 30, 2011
Worn-out words
Expressions that have become such cliches that they have lost all meaning — including the use of 'literally' to mean 'metaphorically'
SETI Institute
May 23, 2011
Metaphor and Science
From string theory to the greenhouse effect — how metaphor sheds light on science. Discover why your brain is like a rain forest (that's a simile!)
Macmillan Dictionary
April 11, 2011
Metaphors in mind
Schott’s Vocab
February 8, 2011
Metaphor, A Taxonomy
The Observer
February 6, 2011
Ideas for modern living: metaphor
Life constantly shows us ways to use metaphor literally
The Takeaway
January 12, 2011
The Misinterpretation of Metaphors
The impact of metaphors in political rhetoric and imagery
Electrum
December 16, 2010
Soft Countries Make Soft Men
Q&A with Mike Newell, director of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
The Takeaway
March 2, 2010
Telling a Story Through Numbers
Are telling the numbers the best way to tell a news story?
Forbes.com
August 2009
Sudden Wisdom
Aphorisms are literature's hand luggage—no other type of writing does so much with so little
The Takeaway
October 8, 2008
Political campaigns and the war of witty words
The Takeaway talks with James Geary about political aphorisms
The Observer
July 13, 2008
I, Robot
Although we've always been a bionic species, says James Geary, we're now blurring the line between man and machine like never before
Time Out - London
March 12–18, 2008
Slogan’s Run
Those pithy little sayings that capture universal truths in a nutshell
BBC Radio 4
October 21, 2007
Broadcasting House
A modest proposal for funding the BBC...
The Huffington Post
October 2, 2007
There Is an Aphorism for Everything
The Huffington Post
September 29, 2007
If It’s Good Enough for Gordon, It’s Good Enough for Me
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown can choose his moment for the next election; oh why, oh why can't I...?
Salon
July 2, 2007
Bomb plot tests British again
New Prime Minister Gordon Brown edges away from Tony Blair and the Iraq war as the U.K. braces against the rising terror threat
Salon
June 29, 2007
Tony Blair’s toodle-oo
If the British people really do want less spin and more substance from their prime minister, then Gordon Brown could be the man to deliver it
The Huffington Post
June 2007
The RoboCup 2007 robotic soccer championship
Dylan Evans' utopia experiment in Scotland
BBC Radio 4
April 15, 2007
Broadcasting House
More on Britain’s relationship to the tabloid press...
BBC Radio 4
December 3, 2006
Broadcasting House
On the tabloid press and British impertinence toward authority...
The British Journalism Review
Vol. 17, No. 1, 2006, pages 41-44
In praise of the tabs (sort of) — Why I (kind of) like the British tabloid press...
James Joyce Quarterly
Fall 1999 / Winter 2000, Vol. 37, No. 1 / 2, pp. 287–290
Review - De Invloed van Joyce op Sterne, by Peter de Voogd
James Joyce Quarterly
Summer 1999, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 1014–1017
Review - Fighting the Waves: The Music of George Antheil, Ensemble Modern
James Joyce Quarterly
Fall 1996 / Winter 1997, Vol. 34, No. 1 / 2, pp. 201–206
Review - Ulysses, by James Joyce, translated into Flemish by Paul Claes and Mon Nys
James Joyce Quarterly
Winter 1996, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 305–310
Review - The Verbal Empires of Simon Vestdijk and James Joyce, by E.M. Beekman
New Scientist
13 April 1996
Saving the Sounds of Silence
James Geary rants and raves about peace and quiet
Erewhon
Vol II No 2 1995
My translation from the Dutch of Rabbit, Run by Jan Stavinoha, pp. 25-28
My translation from the Dutch of Family Secret by Stephan Sanders, pp. 33-35
Het Parool
1993
My translation from the Dutch of 221b Bakerstreet, a poster by Waldo Bien
Helix
1992
An interview with Sir John Maddox (1925–2009)
Here's a review of Helix, from Nature Vol 365 7 Oct 1993 pp. 570-571