Culture
essay
Childhood and adolescence
The play deficit
Children today are cossetted and pressured in equal measure. Without the freedom to play they will never grow up
Peter Gray
idea
Sports and games
Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism
Kate Raworth
video
Beauty and aesthetics
This is the final resting place of your cast-off clothing
14 minutes
idea
Cosmology
Our Universe is too vast for even the most imaginative sci-fi
Michael Strauss
essay
Fairness and equality
Poor teeth
If you have a mouthful of teeth shaped by a childhood in poverty, don’t go knocking on the door of American privilege
Sarah Smarsh
essay
Illness and disease
The case against sugar
A potent toxin that alters hormones and metabolism, sugar sets the stage for epidemic levels of obesity and diabetes
Gary Taubes
idea
Love and friendship
A temporary marriage makes more sense than marriage for life
Vicki Larson
idea
Anthropology
It’s not that your teeth are too big: your jaw is too small
Peter Ungar
essay
Philosophy of mind
I am not a story
Some find it comforting to think of life as a story. Others find that absurd. So are you a Narrative or a non-Narrative?
Galen Strawson
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
4 minutes
essay
Film and visual culture
The reality show
Schizophrenics used to see demons and spirits. Now they talk about actors and hidden cameras – and make a lot of sense
Mike Jay
essay
Sleep and dreams
Broken sleep
People once woke up halfway through the night to think, write or make love. What have we lost by sleeping straight through?
Karen Emslie
essay
Food and drink
One week, no food
Intrigued by the buzz around medical fasting, I tried it. A rollercoaster of boredom and energy ensued
S Abbas Raza
essay
Cognition and intelligence
One more time
Why do we listen to our favourite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
idea
Politics and government
Change the world, not yourself, or how Arendt called out Thoreau
Katie Fitzpatrick
idea
Knowledge
Say goodbye to the information age: it’s all about reputation now
Gloria Origgi
essay
Beauty and aesthetics
The great swindle
From pickled sharks to compositions in silence, fake ideas and fake emotions have elbowed out truth and beauty
Roger Scruton
essay
Childhood and adolescence
The great forgetting
Our first three years are usually a blur and we don’t remember much before age seven. What are we hiding from ourselves?
Kristin Ohlson
idea
Social psychology
Want to feel unique? Believe in the reptile people
Roland Imhoff
idea
Design and fashion
How beards put a brave face on threatened masculinity
Christopher R Oldstone-Moore
essay
Subcultures
Utopia Inc
Most utopian communities are, like most start-ups, short-lived. What makes the difference between failure and success?
Alexa Clay
idea
History
Drunk on genocide: how the Nazis celebrated murdering Jews
Edward B Westermann
essay
Mood and emotion
The hunger mood
Hunger isn’t in your stomach or your blood-sugar levels. It’s in your mind – and that’s where we need to shape up
Michael Graziano
essay
Ethics
History and guilt
Can America face up to the terrible reality of slavery in the way that Germany has faced up to the Holocaust?
Susan Neiman