Menu
Donate
SIGN IN
The return of silvopasture | Aeon
i

The return of silvopasture

This ancient practice, nurturing animals and trees in an ecological system, fights climate change and restores the land

Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone

Make a donation

Get Aeon straight to your inbox

Join our newsletter
The sage and his foibles | Aeon
Save

essay

Thinkers and theories

The sage and his foibles

Scholars cannot agree whether the letters of Plato are fake or genuine. Is this just a symptom of misplaced reverence?

James Romm

Carl Sagan on Eratosthenes | Aeon
Save

video

History of science

How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan

7 minutes

Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist | Aeon
Save

essay

Human rights and justice

Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist

Taking up arms against slavery, the famous novelist foreshadowed the vexed role of the white woman activist today

Lydia Moland

Nalujuk Night | Aeon
Save

video

Rituals and celebrations

Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition

13 minutes

Everything is a remix: AI and image generation | Aeon
Save

video

Future of technology

Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us

23 minutes

Are coincidences real? | Aeon
Save

essay

Metaphysics

Are coincidences real?

I am an unequivocal rationalist and yet I still want to see something strange and wonderful in life’s weird coincidences

Paul Broks

Making a moon jar | Aeon
Save

video

Design and fashion

Refined towards imperfection – a ceramic artist recreates a rare Korean treasure

15 minutes

Unschooling | Aeon
Save

essay

Education

Unschooling

It takes nerve to go against the grain and take your child out of school. But, for some, that’s when learning really starts

Naomi Fisher & Heidi Steel

Jelena’s song | Aeon
Save

video

Wellbeing

Through a poetic account of childhood trauma, one woman reclaims her past

28 minutes

The scar of identity | Aeon
Save

essay

Thinkers and theories

The scar of identity

Alexandre Kojève was an immense influence on many French thinkers. What was so compelling about his lectures on Hegel?

Samantha Rose Hill

Party poster | Aeon
Save

video

Politics and government

‘Without a poster, you don’t exist!’ – on the curious political banners of Mumbai

20 minutes

Stuck with the soul | Aeon
Save

essay

Consciousness and altered states

Stuck with the soul

The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep hooks in the human psyche

David P Barash

Milk, pity and power | Aeon
Save

essay

Art

Milk, pity and power

Since antiquity, artists have depicted a perverse scene of a daughter breastfeeding her aged father. What does it mean?

Margie Orford

The Hereford map | Aeon
Save

video

Global history

The famed medieval map that stretched beyond Earth to heaven, history and myth

5 minutes

The problem with English | Aeon
Save

essay

Language and linguistics

The problem with English

Is Earth’s most-spoken language a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’? Both views distract us from the real dilemma

Mario Saraceni

Namesake | Aeon
Save

video

Earth science and climate

A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse

6 minutes

A manly divorce | Aeon
Save

essay

Gender and identity

A manly divorce

Straight men rarely write about the end of their marriages. Our enduring ideas about gender explain this silence

Joshua Coleman

Grands canons | Aeon
Save

video

Design and fashion

Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’

11 minutes

At the Kremlin in 1943 | Aeon
Save

essay

Religion

At the Kremlin in 1943

Stalin presented Orthodox leaders with a proposal: the Soviet state that had destroyed their Church would bring it back

Kathryn David

Cosmic vision | Aeon
Save

essay

Space exploration

Cosmic vision

By showing us a new cosmos, the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope will ripple through our moral universe

Claire Isabel Webb

Dan Tepfer: TriadSculpture | Aeon
Save

video

Music

As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time

5 minutes

Where went the wolf? | Aeon
Save

essay

Animals and humans

Where went the wolf?

The very attributes that make small dogs cute and popular are slowly strangling their ability to function as real animals

Jessica Pierce

Accounts of a nuclear whistleblower | Aeon
Save

video

Human rights and justice

Meet the man who uncovered the scandal of nuclear testing in South Australia

13 minutes

After the mother tongues | Aeon
Save

essay

Global history

After the mother tongues

Cultural exchange between Iran and India led to the creation of literary histories that inspired modern nationalism

Alexander Jabbari

More