Essays
essay
Stories and literature
Literary prostitutes
I self-published erotica to make ends meet. Could I follow in Anaïs Nin’s footsteps or was I doomed to churn out filth?
Sam Mills
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Neurodiversity
After neurodiversity
We live in a world that must move beyond identity politics and embrace new models of the mind. Enter psydiversity
Bonnie Evans
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Bioethics
Don’t farm bugs
Insect farming bakes, boils and shreds animals by the trillion. It’s immoral, risky and won’t resolve the climate crisis
Jeff Sebo & Jason Schukraft
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Language and linguistics
Typos, tricks and misprints
Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology
Arika Okrent
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Ethics
Forget morality
Moral philosophy is bogus, a mere substitute for God that licenses ugly emotions. Here are five reasons to reject it
Ronnie de Sousa
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Childhood and adolescence
We’re all teenagers now
Adolescence isn’t a time of life so much as a frame of mind. Liberating yet damaging, it’s transformed the US and the world
Paul Howe
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Stories and literature
The divine Dante
At 700, Dante’s Divine Comedy is as modern as ever – a lesson in spiritual intelligence that makes us better at being alive
Mark Vernon
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Cosmology
A non-Standard model
Most cosmologists say dark matter must exist. So far, it’s nowhere to be found. A widely scorned rival theory explains why
David Merritt
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Childhood and adolescence
Attached
From cradle to grave, we are soothed and rocked by attachments – our source of joy and pain, and the essence of who we are
Mostafa El-Kalliny & Zoe R Donaldson
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Nations and empires
Vast early America
There is no American history without the histories of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. And this past has consequences today
Karin Wulf
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Global history
Plagues and empires
What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West?
John Rapley
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Social psychology
A good scrap
Disagreements can be unpleasant, even offensive, but they are vital to human reason. Without them we remain in the dark
Ian Leslie