video
Music
‘Dun dun dun duuun!’ Why Beethoven’s Fifth sticks in the head and stirs the heart
5 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Citizens
Devon, 1970s: I’m a rector’s son, hanging out with Boz the biker. My life is about to open up – what does it promise for him?
Tim Pears
essay
Anthropology
A glimpse of the world’s heart
I wanted to visit Colombia’s sacred mountains. But there are some places we cannot go – and some things we cannot know
Nick Hunt
video
Art
The irreverent duo who thumbed their noses at the Soviet Union and the US art world
11 minutes
video
Future of technology
Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system
6 minutes
video
Stories and literature
A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life
6 minutes
video
Food and drink
Is a ‘gastronomic society’ dinner the height of decadence, or an act of artistry?
11 minutes
essay
Values and beliefs
How traditions progress
The colourful Swiss sport of stone putting illuminates Aristotle’s insights into the shortcomings of conservative thought
Daniel Kranzelbinder
essay
Love and friendship
Loved, yet lonely
You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?
Kaitlyn Creasy
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf
8 minutes
video
Mood and emotion
An Oceanic lullaby, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and more elucidate how music taps into our emotions
58 minutes
essay
Film and visual culture
The truth of photographs
It’s often said that a successful picture ‘captures the essence’ of a subject. But a great photograph does so much more
Daniel Star
video
Art
Why a forcefully phallic portrait of Henry VIII is a masterful work of propaganda
6 minutes
essay
Nature and landscape
The mystic art of gardening
In an era of 20th-century suburban sprawl, the great designer Russell Page infused soulful philosophy into his gardens
Caleb Smith
video
Sports and games
A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual
7 minutes
video
Mood and emotion
Moments of poetry pierce through the mundane at a small-town grocery
13 minutes
video
Design and fashion
From spark of inspiration to final press – how William Blake built a book of poetry
8 minutes
essay
Space exploration
Uncertain contact
The detection of alien life won’t be obvious. It’ll be partial and inconclusive: a perfect task for the scientific method
Jaime Green
video
Personality
Why one man spent 15 years in ‘self-imposed’ island exile
7 minutes
essay
Biography and memoir
Flat places
Whenever I stand in a flat landscape, I feel myself becoming weightless, taken out of my childhood full of painful nothing
Noreen Masud
video
Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
essay
Music
To the tune of dystonia
One day, my hand stopped speaking to my brain. As a doctor and flute player, I had to understand this strange affliction
Lynn Hallarman
video
Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
video
Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes