Despite all the excitement of SXSW, we still had time to read this week. Remembering our personal history through recipes, the search for the origins of consciousness and a quick tour of some of the oldest living things on the planet make up this week’s offering.

from the Julian Jaynes Society - Marcel Kuijsten

Back in 1976, The Origin of Consciousness in the Break-Down of the Bicameral Mind was the book to be seen reading if you were interested in big ideas. So how does it hold up today?

La Llareta in the Atacama Desert, Chile - Rachel Sussman

Rachel Sussman takes us on a tour of some of the oldest living things on our planet. Unbelievably, the oldest has been around for at least 400,000 years!

photo - Edra Ziesk

“What I’m looking for when I hunt through my recipe collection isn’t really Hot Milk Sponge Cake. It’s a connection to my personal history, a road map of where I’ve been and who I’ve known.”

This is yet another in a series of posts about what we’re reading at Whole Earth: stories about the environment, ecology, travel, outdoor living, ideas, art, writing, history, science, and creativity, and the people who make it happen. Have a suggestion? Please leave us a comment so we can add it to our reading list.