essay
Stories and literature
The real Miss Julie
Victoria Benedictsson assumed a male identity, achieved literary stardom, and took her own life. Then Strindberg stole it
Elisabeth Åsbrink
video
Art
‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism
17 minutes
video
Death
A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal
6 minutes
video
Art
More than breathtaking, ‘The Birth of Venus’ signalled an aesthetic revolution
19 minutes
essay
Comparative philosophy
Folklore is philosophy
Both folktales and formal philosophy unsettle us into thinking anew about our cherished values and views of the world
Abigail Tulenko
video
Childhood and adolescence
Striking shadow puppetry illuminates a skater kid’s memories of Boy Scout camp
12 minutes
essay
Sports and games
The moral risks of fandom
Players, coaches and team owners sometimes do terrible things. What, if anything, should their fans do about that?
Jake Wojtowicz & Alfred Archer
video
Rituals and celebrations
Meet the entrepreneur whose business is crafting perfect peak experiences
12 minutes
essay
Religion
There was no Jesus
How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?
Gavin Evans
essay
Stories and literature
The best stories smell
When scents are used to intensify a narrative, they heighten young readers’ emotions and enrich their memory banks
Natalia Kucirkova
video
Technology and the self
A ‘virtual outing’ on Google Maps reveals a treasured image from Diego’s past
6 minutes
video
Architecture
‘I listen to the land’ – poetry and greenery intertwine in Emilio Ambasz’s architecture
9 minutes
video
Design and fashion
The ornate, the aromatic, the cruel – Valentine’s cards before the age of Hallmark
16 minutes
essay
Mental health
The right to bathe
Water is a great healer. Can New York’s public pools and ‘blue spaces’ be engineered for collective hydrotherapy?
Rebecca Hayes Jacobs
video
Nature and landscape
What it’s like to care for Yellowstone during its quietest – and coldest – months
13 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
On knowing who he was
Alan Watts, for all his faults, was a wildly imaginative and provocative thinker who reimagined religion in a secular age
Christopher Harding
video
Rituals and celebrations
The spectacular Mardi Gras artworks born of a unique New Orleans tradition
16 minutes
essay
Architecture
The new architecture wars
Traditionalist and modernist architecture are both mass-produced, industrial and international. Is there an alternative?
Owen Hatherley
video
Biography and memoir
As her world unravels, Pilar wonders at the ‘sacred geometry’ that gives it structure
20 minutes
video
Technology and the self
An artist swaps her head with everyday objects in a musing on consumerism
4 minutes
video
Art
The overlooked polymath whose theatrical oeuvre made all of Rome a stage
30 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Dancing and time
For Rachel Bespaloff, philosophy was a sensual activity shaped by the rhythm of history, embodied in an instant of freedom
Isabel Jacobs
video
Film and visual culture
An augmented-reality filter reveals the hidden movements all around us
7 minutes
essay
Architecture
The subtle art of elevation
Architectural drawing speaks of mathematical precision, but its roots lie in the theological exegesis of a prophetic book
Karl Kinsella