Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

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Abstract digital art with vertical lines and dark shapes, text overlay saying “why did you write it” in the centre.

videoInformation and communication

AI isn’t merely bad at writing. It does not and cannot write

40 minutes

Photo of a child in a colourful winter jacket and knitted hat, in a snowy forest, with a thoughtful expression.

videoNature and landscape

A father and son’s search for the line where the snow starts

12 minutes

Black and white photo of a street scene with a heated discussion involving a traffic officer and men near cars.

essayPolitical philosophy

Guarding the guardians

Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?

Julien Lie-Panis

Two figures in flowing robes standing amidst partially submerged bodies in a dark, eerie landscape.

essayStories and literature

Subverting hell

In their visions of the underworld Dante and Milton were truly subversive, incorporating predecessors into their own repudiation

Charlie Ericson

Felt art of a man in a red turban with sheep on a hillside under a stylised sun.

videoAnimals and humans

A musical ode to Indian wool and life on the Deccan Plateau

8 minutes

Painting of a vibrant futuristic city with lush greenery, people and colourful signs, featuring advanced architecture and technology.

essayArchitecture

Compost modernity!

The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms

Yogi Hale Hendlin

Video of orcas swimming underwater displaying distinctive black-and-white patterns in a serene blue ocean environment.

essayBiology

Orcas and ourselves

Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them

Jason Colby

Photo of a truck on a narrow bridge with people balancing and pushing it under a clear sky.

essayHuman evolution

How selfish are we?

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition

Jonathan R Goodman

Rock painting of animals in red pigment on a rough stone surface, depicting various quadrupeds across the rocky wall.

videoArchaeology

What the ‘Louvre of the desert’ reveals about the human story

15 minutes

Two children on a bike passing a group of people standing outside a large metal gate with buildings in the background.

essayWork

Victims and villains

In Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, workers are being enslaved but the boundary between victim and perpetrator is blurred

Ivan Franceschini & Ling Li

Illustration of a person framing their face with their fingers wearing an orange shirt against a grey background.

videoConsciousness and altered states

The elaborate places one’s mind wanders in solitary confinement

15 minutes

Two boys in colourful clothes standing beside a large painting of an elderly woman in a gold frame.

essayEconomics

Is inherited wealth bad?

Despite associations with the idle rich, the fact that inheritances are rising is a sign of a healthy, growing economy

Daniel Waldenström

Engraving showing a view of the Portuguese town of Cacheo with a fort, trees and sailing ships on a river.

essayGlobal history

A lesson in coexistence

The 17th-century town Cacheu was a hub of West African and European cultures, languages and beliefs (and run by women)

Toby Green

Aerial photo of an industrial conveyor unloading material into a turquoise water body, surrounded by carved sand dunes.

videoProgress and modernity

From Michigan to Singapore, a meditation on dreams built on sand

17 minutes

Three people draped in German flags standing in a town square during a gathering, with a rainbow in the cloudy sky.

essayAnthropology

Dreams of the far Right

Young Europeans join far-Right movements less out of grievance than out of a profound yearning to believe and belong

Agnieszka Pasieka

Photo of a snow leopard looking up with a mountainous background and some foliage in the foreground.

videoAnimals and humans

There’s a gentle artistry to a museum taxidermist’s craft

8 minutes

Sepia-toned photo of a man addressing a crowd of strikers outside a brick building wearing early 20th-century attire.

essayPolitics and government

Our unfinished republics

Economic republicanism shows us how to achieve authentic freedom: citizens require economic as well as political power

Sean Irving

essayHistory of ideas

The shape of time

In the 19th century, the linear idea of time became dominant, forever changing how those in the West experience the world

Emily Thomas

Painting of industrial workers and scientists performing tasks; includes gears, blueprints and factory elements.

essayPolitical philosophy

Landholder vs stockholder

In 1752, David Hume discerned that wealth was becoming untethered from land. Here lies the origin of our political divisions

Catherine Nichols

Sepia-toned photo of a person in traditional armour with a spiked helmet holding a weapon in a forest setting.

videoDesign and fashion

How islanders of Oceania built fearsome armour without metal

18 minutes

A humanoid robot holding a water bottle in front of parked cars under a partly cloudy sky.

essayAutomation and robotics

The synthetic self

In order to better understand our human nature, we must attempt to build a robot capable of robust subjective experiences

Tony J Prescott

A vibrant street scene with decorated vehicles, colourful flags and banners in front of a large urban building.

essayThinkers and theories

The tragedy of Trần Đức Thảo

How the persecuted Vietnamese philosopher became one of the first theorists of the divide between colonised and coloniser

Rory O’Sullivan

A person playing a stringed instrument with focus on the tuning pegs and the blurred player in the background.

videoMusic

Why millennia of history echo in each strum of a Persian tar

4 minutes

Art deco painting of two women, one nude holding a rose, surrounded by birds and a person playing a lyre in red and black.

essayThe ancient world

The erotic poems of Bilitis

A lush translation of this late-discovered lesbian poet added to the legacy of Sappho, but there was a trickster at work

Cat Lambert