by Dana Mackenzie | October 20, 2019 | Book of Why, Books, Events, Mathematics | 0 Comments

I'd like to announce the newest addition to the Mackenzie book collection! What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences (WHIMS) is an ongoing series published by the American Mathematical Society, about... well, just what the title says: current and recent events in...

by Dana Mackenzie | May 15, 2019 | Book of Why, Books | 0 Comments

Although I recently had a small reminder of the value of humility, today I’m going to soldier on in my immodest way and celebrate the first anniversary of one of the most exciting days of my life, the publication day of The Book of Why. Being a writer, especially of...

by Dana Mackenzie | April 11, 2019 | Book of Why, Books, Causation | 0 Comments

Last week I got a package in the mail from England: ten copies of the paperback edition of The Book of Why! The occasion brought to mind that goofy old Beatles song, Paperback Writer. In fact, I've been waiting quite a long time to be a "paperback writer." My first...

by Dana Mackenzie | January 9, 2019 | Articles, Book of Why, Books, Causation | 1 Comment

Yesterday Judea Pearl, my co-author, sent me a link to a fascinating article that I consider to be even better than a book review. It is something that every author dreams of -- positive evidence that our book is making a difference in the real world. In the article,...

by Dana Mackenzie | December 7, 2018 | Book of Why, Books, Causation | 0 Comments

This morning, my co-author Judea Pearl sent me an e-mail: "Did you know about this?" Well, no, I didn't. Here's what "this" means: http://s3.amazonaws.com/scifri-segments/scifri201812076.mp3 Science Friday, probably the nation's most-listened-to radio show for science...

by Dana Mackenzie | October 24, 2018 | Books, Mathematics | 0 Comments

Once upon a time, I wrote a book. Interestingly, the idea for the book was not mine. A book packager named Elwin Street Productions, in London, came to me with a proposal for a history of the greatest equations in mathematics. The book came out in 2012 as The Universe...

by Dana Mackenzie | August 30, 2018 | Book of Why, Books, Causation, Events, Santa Cruz | 0 Comments

Today Jen Golbeck's interview with Judea and me for the Science (magazine) Podcast went up, and you can listen to it here. (Alternatively, for the next 7 days, you can also go to the main Science magazine website at www.sciencemag.org and scroll down to the podcast.)...

by Dana Mackenzie | August 17, 2018 | Book of Why, Events | 0 Comments

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, publishers of Science magazine, also have a weekly podcast, called (of course) the Science Podcast. I'm pleased to announce that The Book of Why will be the featured book two weeks from now, in the last week of...

by Dana Mackenzie | July 21, 2018 | Book of Why, Books, Causation, Events | 0 Comments

Earlier this week I gave a presentation based on The Book of Why at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley, where I have been a journalist in residence for the last eight weeks. It was very similar to my presentation at the Aptos Library in...

by Dana Mackenzie | June 16, 2018 | Book of Why, Books | 0 Comments

Some of my very well-meaning friends are saying that I "wrote a New York Times bestseller." I'm very flattered, but er, um, that's not quite true. Here's a post from my chess blog that explains why "reviewed in the New York Times" is different from "New York Times...