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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
Making a Go board | Aeon
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video

Making

From log to Go board – the world’s oldest game, made the old-fashioned way

20 minutes

Elephant food is for the strongest teeth | Aeon
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Sports and games

The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’

15 minutes

How to get better at video games (according to babies) | Aeon
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Computing and artificial intelligence

Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination

5 minutes

60 cycles | Aeon
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Sports and games

Bodies, bikes and groovy music propel this stylish classic film from 1965

17 minutes

Welcome to the pros | Aeon
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Personality

Why a journeyman boxer finds contentment in the art of losing

6 minutes

Connected | Aeon
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Love and friendship

Skiing blind is a challenge – but it helps to have a loved one to guide you

20 minutes

The middle of the world | Aeon
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Consciousness and altered states

You need to make friends with pain to run through the Grand Canyon and back

5 minutes

Becoming a centaur | Aeon
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Animals and humans

Becoming a centaur

The horse is a prey animal, the human a predator. Our shared trust and athleticism is a neurobiological miracle

Janet Jones

How to breathe in Kern County | Aeon
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Sports and games

After a day’s toil in California’s fields, labourers let loose in street races

9 minutes

The queen of basketball | Aeon
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Sports and games

You’ve likely never heard of the only woman drafted into the NBA – and that’s fine by her

22 minutes

All stars | Aeon
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Complexity

All stars

Is a great team more than the sum of its players? Complexity science reveals the role of strategy, synergy, swarming and more

Jessica Flack & Cade Massey

The swimmer | Aeon
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Consciousness and altered states

‘It makes sense of everything I am.’ The transcendence of the long-distance swimmer

12 minutes

Love is a hold’em game | Aeon
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Sports and games

Love is a hold’em game

While some keep their cards close to their chest, others try raising the stakes. What can poker teach us about dating?

Suki Finn

Stay close | Aeon
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Biography and memoir

‘I feel the weight of everyone’: Keeth Smart foiled death to make it to the Olympics

19 minutes

Forms (process) | Aeon
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Film and visual culture

Behold the invisible swoosh and swirl of athletic movement in digital art

2 minutes

Ice birds | Aeon
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Nature and landscape

Experience the thrills – and major chills – of scaling a frozen waterfall

16 minutes

Invisible tattoos | Aeon
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essay

Sports and games

Invisible tattoos

Many athletes are propelled by childhood trauma to succeed, but it’s a toxic myth that healing the wounds blunts the edge

William D Parham

Vive le tour: refuelling | Aeon
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Sports and games

Grab bags, café raids and booze – how Tour de France cyclists refuelled in the 1960s

3 minutes

Concentrate! | Aeon
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Cognition and intelligence

Concentrate!

The challenge of chess – learning how to hold complexity in mind and still make good decisions – is also the challenge of life

Jonathan Rowson

Tops | Aeon
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video

Sports and games

Watch Charles and Ray Eames put their 1969 spin on one of the world’s oldest toys

8 minutes

Outside in Beijing | Aeon
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Sports and games

Human capital: art, exercise and industry in the streets of Beijing

16 minutes

One breath around the world | Aeon
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Sports and games

Dances with whales: the ethereal underwater vistas of an elite freediving team

13 minutes

Operation Jane Walk | Aeon
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Sports and games

Skip the bus: this post-apocalyptic jaunt is the only New York tour you’ll ever need

16 minutes

Black 14 | Aeon
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Race and ethnicity

In 1969, black football players stood against racism in one of the whitest states in the US

15 minutes