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A weary looking medical staff member in scrubs and face mask sits at a desk in a hospital room surrounded by medical paraphernalia
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It’s dirty work

In caring for and bearing with human suffering, hospital staff perform extreme emotional labour. Is there a better way?

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Social psychology

The magic of the mundane

Pioneering sociologist Erving Goffman realised that every action is deeply revealing of the social norms by which we live

Lucy McDonald

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Earth science and climate

The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact

22 minutes

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Stories and literature

The real Miss Julie

Victoria Benedictsson assumed a male identity, achieved literary stardom, and took her own life. Then Strindberg stole it

Elisabeth Åsbrink

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Cosmology

The Indian astronomer whose innovative work on black holes was mocked at Cambridge

13 minutes

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Art

‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism

17 minutes

A doorway within a metallic-like surface surrounded by hazard tape leads to a low-lit tunnel
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The future

Prehistory in the atomic age

To understand the terrifying futures unleashed by nuclear weapons, we urgently need to return to the deep past

Maria Stavrinaki

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The ancient world

An ancient Roman’s hilarious (and perhaps relatable) response to a social snub

2 minutes

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Economics

Who bears the risk?

Under the guise of empowerment and freedom, politicians and business are offloading lifethreatening risk to individuals

Suzanne Schneider

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Political philosophy

The battles over beginnings

Niccolò Machiavelli’s profound insights about the violent origins of political societies help us understand the world today

David Polansky

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Ethics

For Iris Murdoch, selfishness is a fault that can be solved by reframing the world

6 minutes

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Death

A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal

6 minutes

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Anthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

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Love and friendship

After his son’s terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing – and his granddaughter

25 minutes

A black and white photograph shows a woman on the edge of a sand dune overlooking the sea leaning back into a strong wind
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Language and linguistics

Cathedrals of convention

Humans have a strong impulse to see things that are arbitrary or conventional as natural and essential – especially language

Reuben Cohn-Gordon

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Neuroscience

Rethinking the homunculus

When we discovered that the brain contained a map of the body it revolutionised neuroscience. But it’s time for an update

Moheb Costandi

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Astronomy

Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?

59 minutes

A group of girls walk past the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC
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Gender and identity

Silencing of the girls

Girls are still in a bad bargain with patriarchy: the price of relationship is keeping their true thoughts to themselves

Carol Gilligan

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Physics

Is it possible to design a shape to roll along any fixed path?

4 minutes

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Religion

Inventing Hindu supremacy

Vinayak Savarkar ridiculed Gandhi, preaching that anti-Muslim violence was the only means to unite India into a nation

Mihir Dalal

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Art

More than breathtaking, ‘The Birth of Venus’ signalled an aesthetic revolution

19 minutes

A colourful book illustration of a weary traveller in a forest being awoken by a peacock tugging at his sleeve
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Comparative philosophy

Folklore is philosophy

Both folktales and formal philosophy unsettle us into thinking anew about our cherished values and views of the world

Abigail Tulenko

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Evolution

Kinship

Science must become attuned to the subtle conversations that pervade all life, from the primordial to the present

David Waltner-Toews

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Biotechnology

The two women behind a world-changing scientific discovery

14 minutes

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History of technology

Indexing the information age

Over a weekend in 1995, a small group gathered in Ohio to unleash the power of the internet by making it navigable

Monica Westin