Essays

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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

Black and white photo of a diverse group of people standing arm in arm in front of a columned building, showing solidarity.

essayEthics

Going-against-the-grainers

If our ethical beliefs come from our social environment, how do some people find the moral courage to defy convention?

Dane Leigh Gogoshin

A modern library with tall bookshelves and people reading or using devices in a cosy, well-lit atmosphere.

essayTechnology and the self

Books and screens

Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time

Carlo Iacono

A person in white carrying a load on their head, walking past a dark tent with dramatic light and shadows.

essayComparative philosophy

Mexistentialism

The Mexican embrace of uncertainty, forged in the crucible of history, captures the true vulnerability of our existence

Carlos Alberto Sánchez

Image of a digitally rendered icy Earth-like planet in space with shadowed left side and visible landmasses.

essayEarth science and climate

The snowball effect

Our planet was once a harsh, alien, icy world. Yet this deep freeze may have shaped you, me and all life on Earth

Graham Shields

Black and white photo of a street scene with a heated discussion involving a traffic officer and men near cars.

essayPolitical philosophy

Guarding the guardians

Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?

Julien Lie-Panis

Two figures in flowing robes standing amidst partially submerged bodies in a dark, eerie landscape.

essayStories and literature

Subverting hell

In their visions of the underworld Dante and Milton were truly subversive, incorporating predecessors into their own repudiation

Charlie Ericson

Painting of a vibrant futuristic city with lush greenery, people and colourful signs, featuring advanced architecture and technology.

essayArchitecture

Compost modernity!

The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms

Yogi Hale Hendlin

Video of orcas swimming underwater displaying distinctive black-and-white patterns in a serene blue ocean environment.

essayBiology

Orcas and ourselves

Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them

Jason Colby

Photo of a truck on a narrow bridge with people balancing and pushing it under a clear sky.

essayHuman evolution

How selfish are we?

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition

Jonathan R Goodman

A person in a garden facing a traditional Japanese building with a curved roof across a pond, surrounded by trees and bushes.

essayComparative philosophy

Between being and emptiness

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature

Takeshi Morisato

essayNeuroscience

Can you rewire your brain?

The metaphor of rewiring offers an ideal of engineered precision. But the brain is more like a forest than a circuit board

Peter Lukacs

Two children on a bike passing a group of people standing outside a large metal gate with buildings in the background.

essayWork

Victims and villains

In Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, workers are being enslaved but the boundary between victim and perpetrator is blurred

Ivan Franceschini & Ling Li