video
Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Vergil’s secret message
Long derided as mere coincidences, acrostics in ancient poetry are finally being taken seriously – with astonishing results
Julia Hejduk
video
Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
essay
Illness and disease
More than pink
The culture around breast cancer is full of positivity and femininity. But it comes at the expense of the marginalised
Philippa Hetherington
essay
Film and visual culture
Fighting kung fu
From chopsocky films to disco earworms, Asian caricatures have proliferated since the 1970s. Can Hollywood kick the habit?
Stephanie Wong
essay
Philosophy of language
Quantum poetics
How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality
William Egginton
video
Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Beyond obscenity
A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst
Brett Gary
essay
Archaeology
The secret life of Druids
The Greeks and Romans portrayed these elusive priests as bogeymen who bathed in their victims’ blood. Who were they really?
Miranda Aldhouse-Green
video
Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes
video
Art
Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form
14 minutes
essay
Film and visual culture
Exposed
Slum photography was at the heart of progressive campaigns against urban poverty. And it was a weapon against poor people
Sadie Levy Gale
video
Physics
A dreamy tribute to the music of Brian Eno, rendered in paint, soap and water
2 minutes
video
Stories and literature
Myths from Earth’s edge – what the Icelandic sagas reveal about Norse morality
57 minutes
video
Art
Why European artists shifted their focus from power to peasants in the 16th century
5 minutes
video
Anthropology
A riveting collage portrays a century of Inuit history, and envisions a vibrant future
14 minutes
essay
War and peace
Chorus of testimony
Anne Frank’s diary is one of thousands of desperate, secret and vivid journals each bearing witness to the reality of war
Nina Siegal
essay
Stories and literature
Poet of impermanence
Enheduana is the first known named author. Her poems of strife and upheaval resonate in our own unstable times
Sophus Helle
video
Home
Whether above a pub or in a castle, our childhood homes leave an indelible mark
15 minutes
video
Physics
Why does the Sun occasionally flash green as it eclipses the horizon?
7 minutes
essay
Art
Negative capability
When it comes to our complicated, undecipherable feelings, art prompts a self-understanding far beyond the wellness industry
Aparna Chivukula
video
The environment
Tree-sit with activists as they fight industrial logging from 100 feet above the ground
25 minutes
essay
Religion
Miracles not magic
It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals
Martha Rampton
video
Biography and memoir
The busboy who comforted Robert F Kennedy as he lay dying shares his story
3 minutes