The French liar
René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?
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Technology and the self
The unseen
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being
Allison J Pugh
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Animals and humans
Animals taught us culture
Prehistoric humans didn’t create art and architecture out of nothing. They took inspiration from the nonhuman world
Sarah Newman
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Gender
Taliban bride
Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter
Zala & Asad Nariman
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Evolution
Empire of flight
They have big brains, long childhoods and sociable, curious minds. So why haven’t birds developed complex culture?
Antone Martinho-Truswell
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Architecture
The replica and the original
Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?
Elizabeth Kostina
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Consciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
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The future
Homo crustaceous
‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology
Michael Garfield
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Anthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
29 minutes
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Demography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
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History of ideas
From scattered traces
How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought
Luka Boršić
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Ageing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes
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Neurodiversity
Rethinking adult ADHD
The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed
Margaret Sibley
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History of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
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Design and fashion
Walk in these
Shoes are deeply personal, literally moulded to our lives. But they create our social lives as much as express them
Matthew McCormack
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Music
The beat of goombay
Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music
Salwa Halloway
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
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Virtues and vices
Awkward silences
What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other
Rebecca Roache
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Knowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
10 minutes
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Gender
Taliban bride
Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter
Zala & Asad Nariman
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Architecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
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History of science
Injury and inhibition
The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors
Ben Platts-Mills
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Stories and literature
Merveilleux-scientifique
With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago
Fleur Hopkins-Loféron
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Home
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
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Technology and the self
The unseen
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being
Allison J Pugh
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Family life
A mother and child bond in an unusual prison visitation space in this poignant portrait
11 minutes
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Evolution
Empire of flight
They have big brains, long childhoods and sociable, curious minds. So why haven’t birds developed complex culture?
Antone Martinho-Truswell
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Archaeology
At a prehistoric pigment mine, researchers glimpse our earliest moments in the Americas
25 minutes
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Political philosophy
The allure of autarky
Liberal thinkers are shocked that nations are once again isolating from the world. The real surprise would be if they didn’t
Ben Chu