In pursuit of the hole
Dig into the voids, pin-pricks and cut-outs of art and history, and those absences speak volumes about what’s been missed
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History
How disruptions happen
Major disruptions in world history follow a clear pattern. What can upheavals of the past tell us about our own future?
David Potter
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Global history
What Big History misses
Sweeping the human story into a cosmic tale is a thrill but we should be wary about what is overlooked in the grandeur
Ian Hesketh
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Travel
The end of travel
Driven by the need for a storied life, I relished the opportunity for endless travel. Is that a moment in time, now over?
Henry Wismayer
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Philosophy of religion
How to pray to a dead God
The modern world is disenchanted. God remains dead. But our need for transcendence lives on. How should we fulfil it?
Ed Simon
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Animals and humans
Becoming a centaur
The horse is a prey animal, the human a predator. Our shared trust and athleticism is a neurobiological miracle
Janet Jones
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History of technology
Reading the strings and knots that keep the secrets of the Inka Empire
9 minutes
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Economics
The worldly turn
After generations of ‘blackboard economics’, Berkeley and MIT are leading a return to economics that studies the real world
Tom Bergin
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Demography and migration
Tension, bureaucracy and deep humanity define life aboard a refugee rescue ship
27 minutes
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Logic and probability
This paradoxical life
When logic fails to make sense of a world noisy with inconsistency, paraconsistent logics hold out (im)possible solutions
Zach Weber
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Dance and theatre
Absorb the infectious rhythms of Setapa – a joyous dance from southern Africa
7 minutes
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The ancient world
Uncovering Sparta
Mythological home of Helen, war-making polis of Leonidas and now a modest municipality: the city is a palimpsest
Daphne D. Martin
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Nature and landscape
Honouring the caribou, in dreams and memories from an Innu singer-songwriter
5 minutes
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Mood and emotion
The meaning of anger
Is anger like energy, forever changing form but never dissipating, or part of our repertoire of desires, the cry of a need unmet?
Josh Cohen
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Cosmology
Revisiting ‘Powers of Ten’ – what we’ve learned about the Universe since 1977
7 minutes
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Design and fashion
The Waste Age
Recognising that waste is central, not peripheral, to everything we design, make and do is key to transforming the future
Justin McGuirk
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Travel
The end of travel
Driven by the need for a storied life, I relished the opportunity for endless travel. Is that a moment in time, now over?
Henry Wismayer
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Biology
It’s a massive, winged Cretaceous beast – could a human ride one?
9 minutes
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History
How disruptions happen
Major disruptions in world history follow a clear pattern. What can upheavals of the past tell us about our own future?
David Potter
video
Dance and theatre
Technology, philosophy, randomness – how Merce Cunningham pushed dance to its limits
7 minutes
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Ethics
Stoics as activists
You might think of it as a philosophy for turning away from the world, but ancient Stoics took a stand against tyranny
Massimo Pigliucci
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History of technology
Behold as a mechanical foghorn in Shetland awakes from its year-long slumber
2 minutes
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Information and communication
Trolls be gone
Anonymous users generate most toxic abuse and conspiracy theories online. The right to be anonymous should be curtailed
Stephen Kinsella
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Philosophy of religion
How to pray to a dead God
The modern world is disenchanted. God remains dead. But our need for transcendence lives on. How should we fulfil it?
Ed Simon
video
Philosophy of mind
Embodied cognition seems intuitive, but philosophy can push it to some strange places
14 minutes
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Global history
What Big History misses
Sweeping the human story into a cosmic tale is a thrill but we should be wary about what is overlooked in the grandeur
Ian Hesketh
video
Animals and humans
An unflinching look at a provocative public dissection of a ‘surplus’ zoo lion
13 minutes
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Stories and literature
The art of the plot twist
Some twists infuriate; others are brilliant. But they both use the surprise story as a self-exploding confidence game
Vera Tobin
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Physics
Models capture the world-warping physics of what happens when stars meet black holes
2 minutes