essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
The therapist who hated me
Going to a child psychoanalyst four times a week for three years was bad enough. Reading what she wrote about me was worse
Michael Bacon
essay
History of technology
Why America fell for guns
The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history
Megan Kang
essay
Thinkers and theories
Philosophy is an art
For Margaret Macdonald, philosophical theories are akin to stories, meant to enlarge certain aspects of human life
Peter West
essay
Home
Return of the descendants
I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging
Jessica Buchleitner
essay
Politics and government
India and indigeneity
In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati
video
Anthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes
essay
Astronomy
Alien life is no joke
Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific
Adam Frank
video
Subcultures
Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community
5 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A deepfake porn victim confronts the pain of having her likeness stolen and vandalised
19 minutes
essay
History of ideas
Reimagining balance
In the Middle Ages, a new sense of balance fundamentally altered our understanding of nature and society
Joel Kaye
essay
History
What would Thucydides say?
In constantly reaching for past parallels to explain our peculiar times we miss the real lessons of the master historian
Mark Fisher
video
Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
essay
The environment
Emergency action
Could civil disobedience be morally obligatory in a society on a collision course with climate catastrophe?
Rupert Read
video
Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
essay
Home
Return of the descendants
I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging
Jessica Buchleitner
video
Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
essay
Economic history
Credit card nation
Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?
Sean H Vanatta
essay
Metaphysics
The enchanted vision
Love is much more than a mere emotion or moral ideal. It imbues the world itself and we should learn to move with its power
Mark Vernon
video
Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
essay
Knowledge
What is ‘lived experience’?
The term is ubiquitous and double-edged. It is both a key source of authentic knowledge and a danger to true solidarity
Patrick J Casey
video
Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
My elusive pain
The lives of North Africans in France are shaped by a harrowing struggle to belong, marked by postcolonial trauma
Farah Abdessamad
video
Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Philosophy is an art
For Margaret Macdonald, philosophical theories are akin to stories, meant to enlarge certain aspects of human life
Peter West
essay
Neuroscience
How to make a map of smell
We can split light by a prism, sounds by tones, but surely the world of odour is too complex and personal? Strangely, no
Jason Castro
video
Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
essay
Religion
Conscientious unbelievers
How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment
Felicity Loughlin
video
Politics and government
How it looked to Afghan women to see the Taliban return to power
33 minutes