Reading Roulette

Stories to Flex Your Brain Muscles

This week: magic mushrooms, ‘impossible’ puzzles, and sure bets

Human Parts
Human Parts
Published in
2 min readApr 3, 2020

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A photo of multi-colored floating brains.
Photo: PM Images/Getty Images

At Human Parts, we spend our days scouring the Medium platform for essays and perspectives we think our audience would love. Along the way, we stumble upon countless stories that surprise us — proof of the internet’s enduring ability to deliver what we didn’t know we needed. Each week, we’ll share a few of our favorites in a roundup we call ‘Reading Roulette.’ If you come across anything we missed, let us know in the responses!

We’re hardwired to prefer the devil we know to the one we don’t; rarely do we question whether it’s helpful — or realistic — to frame such choices as binary. In “The Story of Psilocybin: Western Society’s Struggle with the Unknown,” Kyle Giffin explores how uncritical acceptance of the familiar created persisting controversy around psychedelics, and invites us to reexamine our fears about the unknown.

In need of a win? A party trick for your next Zoom sesh? Both? Matthew Cannalte offers a…

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Human Parts
Human Parts

Recommended reading from the editors of Human Parts, a Medium publication about humanity.