The honesty of pornography
Often vilified as a weapon of male supremacy, pornography in fact has much to tell us about ourselves and our culture
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Mental health
The helpful delusion
Evidence is growing that mental illness is more than dysfunction, with enormous implications for treatment
Justin Garson
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Beauty and aesthetics
Attuned to the aesthetic
The ultimate value of the world can be discovered if you are sensitive to what is beautiful
Tom Cochrane
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Cosmology
Cogitating black holes
The Universe cannot always be understood through observation. Instead, physicists explore by devising thought experiments
Michael Dine
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The ancient world
Wanderlust of the ancients
The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity
Fabio Fernandes
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Ethics
Moral mathematics
Subjecting the problems of ethics to the cool quantifications of logic and probability can help us to be better people
Elad Uzan
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The ancient world
What did the Rosetta Stone’s inscription actually communicate?
17 minutes
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Metaphysics
We are interwoven beings
A dragon needs the clouds and the wind in order to fly. What happens when we too relinquish individualistic reasoning?
Mercedes Valmisa
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Evolution
Why making if-then connections might be the key to consciousness
5 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Bernard Williams on Descartes’s audacious endeavour to prove knowledge is possible
43 minutes
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The ancient world
Wanderlust of the ancients
The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity
Fabio Fernandes
video
Subcultures
The cast of ‘misfit toys’ who keep life on an idyllic tourist island afloat
7 minutes
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Stories and literature
Was Colin Wilson a fascist?
For thousands of fans, he made philosophy thrillingly relevant. Yet there is a deep unsavoury undercurrent to his worldview
Jules Evans
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Ageing and death
When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice
19 minutes
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Earth science and climate
Our Earth, shaped by life
Darwin was the first to see that all lifeforms, from worms to corals, transform the planet. What does that mean for us?
Olivia Judson
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Biography and memoir
What Akiko saw at the centre of the Hiroshima blast, and the indelible mark it left
7 minutes
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Metaphysics
This essay isn’t true
Alethic nihilism is the theory that nothing is true. There is much to gain by taking this radical idea seriously
David Liggins
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Biology
To understand the limits of human senses, look to the wild world of animal cognition
45 minutes
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Cosmology
Cogitating black holes
The Universe cannot always be understood through observation. Instead, physicists explore by devising thought experiments
Michael Dine
video
Design and fashion
From sheep to sea – an ode to the iconic sweater that warms Cornish sailors
4 minutes
essay
Mental health
The helpful delusion
Evidence is growing that mental illness is more than dysfunction, with enormous implications for treatment
Justin Garson
essay
War and peace
Trenches in Chernobyl
Disturbing and inhaling radioactive dust, in their haste Russian soldiers unburied the wrecked, undead Earth itself
Michael Marder
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Art
The revolutionary artist who propelled the Black Panther movement with imagery
8 minutes
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Anthropology
Keeping the score
The gifts we exchange are both generous and yet fraught with social rules and obligations. Marcel Mauss explained why
Gili Kliger
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Knowledge
Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?
6 minutes
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History of ideas
The invention of free love
Percy Shelley thought romantic love freed men and women from the strictures of monogamy, but did it free them equally?
Neil McArthur
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Technology and the self
One woman prepares for the risky solitude of Georgia O’Keeffe’s American West
8 minutes
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Economic history
Jesuits in the boardroom
As corporations struggle to survive in a more uncertain world, they should look to the success of the Society of Jesus
Paolo Quattrone
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History of science
How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos
6 minutes