Culture
essay
Art
All those naked Greeks…
Men in ancient Greek art exercise, fight battles, pursue lovers and mourn lost friends, all without their pants on. Why?
Sarah Murray
video
Stories and literature
What makes John Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ so enduringly powerful?
10 minutes
video
Dance and theatre
How a Noh mask-maker summons a lifelike face from a single block of wood
16 minutes
essay
Art
The art of rules
Conceptual art often confounds. The key is to understand the rules of the artwork and the aesthetic experiences they yield
Sherri Irvin
essay
Thinkers and theories
A philosophy of secrets
Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves
Peter Salmon
video
The ancient world
What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia
16 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The sonnet machine
A sonnet contains an emotional drama of illusion and deception, crisis and resolution, crafted to make us think and feel
Timothy Hampton
video
Art
David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white
15 minutes
essay
Anthropology
How to mourn a forest
The Marind people of West Papua deploy mourning not only to grieve their animal and plant kin but as political resistance
Sophie Chao
video
Love and friendship
When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love
7 minutes
video
Biology
A dazzling slice-by-slice exploration of wood exposes hidden patterns and hues
2 minutes
video
Family life
In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy
21 minutes
video
Dance and theatre
Leaf through Shakespeare’s First Folio for a riveting journey into theatre history
13 minutes
video
Architecture
Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world
8 minutes
essay
History of ideas
Disorient yourself
Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation
Javier Moscoso
video
Philosophy of mind
An enigmatic ‘story of consciousness’ told through 19th-century engravings
7 minutes
video
History of technology
Who owns history? How remarkable historical footage is hidden and monetised
18 minutes
video
Language and linguistics
A master palindromist spells out his 40-year ‘love affair with reversibility’
6 minutes
video
Art
Tracing Goya’s ‘dark’ journey from Spanish court painter to macabre visionary
51 minutes
essay
Knowledge
Meaning beyond definition
In science our concepts have neat, hard edges. In poetry our concepts stretch and expand. Both are necessary for knowledge
James Camien McGuiggan
essay
Family life
Honey, I sold the kids
We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who monetise their lives online?
Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
video
Rituals and celebrations
Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition
13 minutes
video
Future of technology
Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us
23 minutes
video
Design and fashion
Refined towards imperfection – a ceramic artist recreates a rare Korean treasure
15 minutes