Audio
essay
Childhood and adolescence
Attached
From cradle to grave, we are soothed and rocked by attachments – our source of joy and pain, and the essence of who we are
Mostafa El-Kalliny & Zoe R Donaldson
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Global history
Plagues and empires
What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West?
John Rapley
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Social psychology
A good scrap
Disagreements can be unpleasant, even offensive, but they are vital to human reason. Without them we remain in the dark
Ian Leslie
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Thinkers and theories
A just and loving gaze
Simone Weil: mystic, philosopher, activist. Her ethics demand that we look beyond the personal and find the universal
Deborah Casewell
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Death
Is grandad on the moon?
We no longer have a clear sense of how to introduce our children to death. But their questions can help us face up to it
Pragya Agarwal
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Mental health
World wide open
Deep brain stimulation not only treats psychiatric disease – it changes the whole person, boosting confidence and openness
Julian Kiverstein, Erik Rietveld & Damiaan Denys
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Virtues and vices
Lies and honest mistakes
Our crisis of public knowledge is an ethical crisis. Rewarding ‘truthfulness’ above ‘truth’ is a step towards a solution
Richard V Reeves
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Economics
Stock-picking for humanity
Everyone on the planet has a stake in making investment more ethical. What’s new is that they have the power to do so too
Ellen Quigley
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History of ideas
Ideas that work
Truth, knowledge, justice – to understand how our loftiest abstractions earn their keep, trace them to their practical origins
Matthieu Queloz
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Gender
Against carceral feminism
Feminists who see police and prisons as their natural allies are entrenching the sexism and racism they claim to oppose
Aya Gruber
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Astronomy
Contact
An alien-made artefact or just interstellar debris? What ʻOumuamua says about how science works when data is scarce
Matthew Bothwell
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Mood and emotion
Radical acceptance
The painful feelings you avoid grow twisted in the dark. By facing your sorrows and struggles you can take back your life
Joshua Coleman