Image of Luquillo Forest: Wikipedia

• We need to listen to the earth. Literally. The emerging field of bioacoustics is helping researchers to understand ecosystems.

• Disney is too big. It’s time to break it up.

• Play matters. Of course it does. But it’s under threat from a clutch of converging trends.

• Comics might improve public engagement. Even for complex subjects like economics or sustainability. The storyboards still need some work.

• S+B picks its business books of 2019. The ‘top shelf’ list is here. The short essays that introduce each of the categories are always worth reading.

• Head, heart, hands, feet. Designing an economy on Quaker principles.

• The grim history of the black Atlantic. Artist Kara Walker turns the conventions of the memorial sculpture upside down. (Video, 6’00“”)

Housekeeping: The ‘vaportecture’ article went out last week with the wrong link. This is the right one.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)