Washington State Magazine

“Play and depression may be opposite sides of a coin,” says Dr. Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist and the Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being at Washington State University. He explains how “real play” is essential to a child's development. He also describes his serendipitous discovery of rat laughter. Read about Panksepp’s work in “The Animal Mindreader.”...
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An excerpt from Micronesian Blues: The Adventures of an American Cop in Paradise by Bryan Vila, a criminal justice and criminology professor at WSU Spokane. You can read more about Vila in "Training the Island Police."Read the excerpt (table of contents, preface, and first chapter). PDF, requires Adobe Reader or other ...
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WSU executive chef Greg Blanchard reflects on his career and what it takes to be a chef. Read more about Blanchard in "On timing and taste."...
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The 1969 Bell Hop The 1956 Bellman of the Year By turning the women’s gym into a nightclub for an annual dance, the students in Washington State’s Sigma Iota hospitality club drew attention to the hotel and restaurant program and raised money for their seniors to travel and tour some of the finest hotels in the country. The Bell Hop was a longstanding fundraiser that started in the 1940s and lasted ...
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A history of Alderbrook resort. Coming soon....
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Peter Chilson, a Washington State University professor of English, estimates he has spent six years of his life in Mali and the Sahel region of Africa. He was there at the time of last spring’s coup. Read an excerpt from his ebook, We Never Knew Exactly Where: Dispatches from the Lost Country of Mali (Foreign Policy and Pulitzer Center, 2012). Watch a video of him discussing the current situation in Mali and his experience there:...
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This PBS documentary examines the evolution of guns in America, their frequent link to violence, and the clash of cultures that reflect competing visions of our national identity, including the insights of WSU emeritus professor Joan Burbick, author Gun Show Nation. Read an interview with Burbick....
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A look at the intramural Battleship game in Gibb Pool at WSU, courtesy of University Recreation....
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Here’s a small selection of suggested authors and works in a variety of genres provided by Paul Brians, professor emeritus, and clinical faculty member and writer Buddy Levy, who last spring taught advanced creative writing to undergraduates. Brians has several areas of expertise, including post-holocaust science fiction, and as a comparative literature professor and avid reader, he has sampled a wide selection of literature. Levy writes nonfiction accounts of historical figures and througho...
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The trouble with going through the Icons of Science Fiction at Seattle’s Experience Music Project without WSU professor emeritus Paul Brians is that you might miss some tantalizing stories behind each display. Image from Star Trek: The Original Series episode, “The Trouble With Tribbles” ©1967 Paramount PicturesBrians, who volunteers at the museum exhibit twice a month, is happy to dip into his science fiction expertise to enrich your time there among items like Neo’s Jesuit-style rob...
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