The chocolate route
The humble cocoa bean’s journey from its Amerindian origins to worldwide dominance is a lesson in the power of trade
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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
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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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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Art
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
Kim Beil
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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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Values and beliefs
A funeral director takes in bodies that social stigma leaves unclaimed
11 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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Philosophy of religion
What Zen Buddhist riddles reveal about knowledge and the unknowable
5 minutes
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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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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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Art
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
Kim Beil
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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
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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