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Essays

Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture
Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

essay

Biology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

An elderly person lying in a hospital bed in a bright room with a walker and a window nearby.

essay

Death

Freedom over death

Death is a certainty. But choosing how and when we depart is a modest opportunity for freedom – and dignity

Michael Cholbi

Painting of blind men with sticks leading one another, one has fallen, landscape and church in the background.

essay

Thinkers and theories

The French liar

René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?

Sandrine Parageau

A large white cathedral with golden domes near a river, surrounded by trees with autumn colours.

essay

Architecture

The replica and the original

Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?

Elizabeth Kostina

Illustration of a crab using a laptop, captioned “Homo-crustaceous digitalis” on a textured background.

essay

The future

Homo crustaceous

‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology

Michael Garfield

Photo of a rustic stone house with a shaded garden path lined with lush greenery and flowering plants under a clear blue sky.

essay

History of ideas

From scattered traces

How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought

Luka Boršić

Photo of a busy street corner with people gathering outside a cafe named Dante in a city setting on a cloudy day.

essay

Neurodiversity

Rethinking adult ADHD

The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed

Margaret Sibley

Photo of ornate 18th-century women’s shoes with floral embroidery and green trim on a neutral background.

essay

Design and fashion

Walk in these

Shoes are deeply personal, literally moulded to our lives. But they create our social lives as much as express them

Matthew McCormack

Black and white photo of a group of men playing musical instruments and sitting in a wooden room.

essay

Music

The beat of goombay

Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music

Salwa Halloway

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting at a kitchen table appearing deep in thought or conversation.

essay

Virtues and vices

Awkward silences

What is it about lulls in conversation that make them so very uncomfortable? It has to do with how we connect with each other

Rebecca Roache

Cropped illustration of a person in a pink robe with orange patterns walking beside a horse, surrounded by grass and flowers.

essay

Gender

Taliban bride

Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter

Zala & Asad Nariman

Daguerreotype of a man in a Victorian-era suit holding a rod with one eye closed, framed by an ornate gold border.

essay

History of science

Injury and inhibition

The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors

Ben Platts-Mills