Donate

Childhood

How AI is helping to recreate childhood memories

Arts, Culture & Media

What do you do with a cherished memory that has no record — not even a photo or a video?  This Spanish company, Domestic Data Streamers, might help. They’ve harnessed artificial intelligence to turn fading recollections into visual or “synthetic” memories. The end product isn’t quite a photo — or art. But it’s helping people reconnect with their pasts.

A woman in a coffee shop

Reactions after US tries to weaken UN breastfeeding measure: Breastfeeding is already ‘pretty damned hard’

Health

Disney & Death

Arts, Culture & Media

Your Brain on Video Games

Arts, Culture & Media

What Would Homer Do?

Arts, Culture & Media

Disney & Death

Arts, Culture & Media

For many children, Disney movies are their first introduction to death, from Bambi’s mother to Old Yeller. Jake Warga remembers the shots heard throughout his childhood and how Disney taught him that dealing with death is part of being an adult.

Spark: More Stories About Childhood

Arts, Culture & Media

Listen to full interviews with Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra. This week, Kurt talks with Julie Burstein, the show’s long-time executive producer, about a subject that’s meat and potatoes in the interview biz: childhood. We hear about Chuck Close painting from a nude model at age eight, ‘which made me the […]

Imaginary Friends Forever

Arts, Culture & Media

Children with imaginary friends can be more empathetic and social, but does that mean they’re more creative than other kids?

Mai, Tot and Ngoc Bich Ha, Cecilia Tran's mother, stand in front of an Vietnamese airplane.

A Facebook friend request brought my mom back to Vietnam after 35 years

Culture

President Barack Obama will touch down in Hanoi on Sunday. He’s just the third US president to visit since the end of the Vietnam War. This woman escaped that war — and found out that it’s never too late to heal.

Danielle Meitiv waits with her son Rafi, 10, for Danielle's six-year-old daughter, Dvora, to be dropped off at the neighborhood school bus stop in Silver Spring, Maryland.

How a two-and-a-half block walk threatens to tear a family apart

Lifestyle

Danielle and Alexander Meitive of Silver Spring, Maryland, think their kids should be allowed to play in their neighborhood without being constantly watched. But the state of Maryland disagrees, and has threatened to take their children away — a threat that may be far more damaging than just the risks of playing alone.