Essays
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Teaching and learning
Learning styles don’t exist
A teaching approach that is based on students’ preferences sounds laudable. But this misunderstands how learning happens
Carl Hendrick
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Animals and humans
Goodbye Pixel
Although it felt more like bereavement for a person than the loss of a thing, the death of a pet isn’t exactly like either
Julian Baggini
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Gender and identity
Disarming transphobia
‘Rapid-onset gender dysphoria’ is a popular weapon in the anti-trans arsenal. It is nothing but unscientific bunk
Quinnehtukqut McLamore
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The ancient world
The other Cleopatra
Daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, she became the influential queen of a mysterious, abundant North African kingdom
Jane Draycott
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Thinkers and theories
Forgotten existentialist
Sartre gets much of the credit for existentialism. Karl Jaspers not only preceded him, but offered a way out of despair
Deborah Casewell
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Personality
Born that way
Confident or shy, our temperament is mostly baked-in from birth. But how that influences our lives is up for grabs
Gina Mireault
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Space exploration
There’s no planet B
The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why
Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood
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Global history
It never existed
The idea of a ‘precolonial’ Africa is theoretically vacuous, racist and plain wrong about the continent’s actual history
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
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Music
Enter the conductrice
Will a new generation of women on the podium perpetuate the tyrannical charisma of their male predecessors or overturn it?
Xenia Hanusiak
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Economic history
The golden fuel
Asia’s rise to economic power and food security has been powered not by rice but by American maize, the ultimate flex-crop
Peter A Coclanis
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Life stages
Family passages
Each new generation learns from its elders. But familial voices now compete for influence with a chorus of urgent others
Elizabeth Svoboda
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Philosophy of mind
Philosophy’s blindspot
Education has long been ignored by contemporary philosophers. That is a myopic view that must change
David Bakhurst