essay
Ethics
Main character syndrome
Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love
Anna Gotlib
essay
History of ideas
Philosophy of the people
How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest
Joseph M Keegin
essay
Complexity
Problem-solving matter
Life is starting to look a lot less like an outcome of chemistry and physics, and more like a computational process
David C Krakauer & Chris Kempes
essay
Sleep and dreams
Spinning the night self
After years of insomnia, I threw off the effort to sleep and embraced the peculiar openness I found in the darkest hours
Annabel Abbs
essay
Anthropology
Witches around the world
The belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies. What does it reveal about our deepest fears?
Gregory Forth
video
Meaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes
essay
Subcultures
An undulating thrill
Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?
Douglas Small
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?
12 minutes
video
Art
A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size
5 minutes
essay
Virtues and vices
Against humility
Intellectual humility has recently been hailed as the key to thinking well. The story of Barbara McClintock proves otherwise
Rachel Fraser
video
History
There are fragments of Romani Gypsy history all over the UK – if one knows where to look
3 minutes
essay
Values and beliefs
My leap across the chasm
After years of debate and contemplation, I’ve come to think a heretical form of Christianity might be true. Here’s why
Philip Goff
video
Biology
Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings
3 minutes
essay
History of science
Clock time contra lived time
Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein fundamentally disagreed about the nature of time and how it can be measured. Who was right?
Evan Thompson
essay
Ethics
Main character syndrome
Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love
Anna Gotlib
video
Anthropology
Does Mogi’s future lie with her horses on the Mongolian steppe, or in the city?
16 minutes
essay
Physics
Chasing ghost particles
Without the neutrino, the Universe might be an empty void. But this inscrutable particle isn’t giving up its secrets easily
Corey S Powell
video
Genetics
Why it took a century to work out that humans interbred with Neanderthals
22 minutes
essay
Food and drink
The joy of foraging
Offering an escape from industrial foods, foraging nourishes the soul and body, but it needs democratic access to the land
Nikita Sud
video
Art
The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles
7 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
When luxury is good
The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care
Roger Tredre
essay
Race and ethnicity
The forging of countries
Two distinct and conflicting forms of nationalism – civic and ethnic – helped create the nation-states of Europe
Luka Ivan Jukić
video
Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
The value of our values
When Nietzsche used the tools of philology to explore the nature of morality, he became a ‘philosopher of the future’
Alexander Prescott-Couch
video
Human rights and justice
An unarmed Indigenous group aims to protect their native lands in this stirring portrait
15 minutes
essay
Complexity
Problem-solving matter
Life is starting to look a lot less like an outcome of chemistry and physics, and more like a computational process
David C Krakauer & Chris Kempes
video
Art
In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved
9 minutes
essay
Rituals and celebrations
Tender, yet creepy
Dolls help children create wonderfully vivid and imaginative worlds, while also serving as unsettling reminders of the abyss
Tishani Doshi